POSIX_FALLOCATE(3P)

PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.

NAME
posix_fallocate — file space control (ADVANCED REALTIME)

SYNOPSIS

#include <fcntl.h>

int posix_fallocate(int fd, off_t offset, off_t len);

DESCRIPTION
The posix_fallocate() function shall ensure that any required storage for regular file data starting at offset and continuing for len bytes is allocated on the file system storage media. If posix_fallocate() returns successfully, subsequent writes to the specified file data shall not fail due to the lack of free space on the file system storage media.

If the offset+ len is beyond the current file size, then posix_fallocate() shall adjust the file size to offset+ len. Otherwise, the file size shall not be changed.

It is implementation-defined whether a previous posix_fadvise() call influences allocation strategy.

Space allocated via posix_fallocate() shall be freed by a successful call to creat() or open() that truncates the size of the file. Space allocated via posix_fallocate() may be freed by a successful call to ftruncate() that reduces the file size to a size smaller than offset+ len.

RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, posix_fallocate() shall return zero; otherwise, an error number shall be returned to indicate the error.

ERRORS
The posix_fallocate() function shall fail if:

EBADF
    The fd argument is not a valid file descriptor.

EBADF
    The fd argument references a file that was opened without write permission.

EFBIG
    The value of offset+ len is greater than the maximum file size.

EINTR
    A signal was caught during execution.

EINVAL
    The len argument is less than zero, or the offset argument is less than zero, or the underlying file system does not support this operation.

EIO An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to a file system.

ENODEV
    The fd argument does not refer to a regular file.

ENOSPC
    There is insufficient free space remaining on the file system storage media.

ESPIPE
    The fd argument is associated with a pipe or FIFO.

The posix_fallocate() function may fail if:

EINVAL
    The len argument is zero.

The following sections are informative.

EXAMPLES
None.

APPLICATION USAGE
The posix_fallocate() function is part of the Advisory Information option and need not be provided on all implementations.

RATIONALE
None.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.

SEE ALSO
creat(), ftruncate(), open(), unlink()

The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2017, <fcntl.h>

COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .