NAME

       posix_fallocate - allocate file space

SYNOPSIS

       #include <fcntl.h>

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

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

       posix_fallocate():
           _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 600 || _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L

DESCRIPTION

       The  function posix_fallocate() ensures that disk space is allocated for the file referred
       to by the descriptor fd for the bytes in the range starting at offset and  continuing  for
       len  bytes.   After  a successful call to posix_fallocate(), subsequent writes to bytes in
       the specified range are guaranteed not to fail because of lack of disk space.

       If the size of the file is less than offset+len, then the file is increased to this  size;
       otherwise the file size is left unchanged.

RETURN VALUE

       posix_fallocate() returns zero on success, or an error number on failure.  Note that errno
       is not set.

ERRORS

       EBADF  fd is not a valid file descriptor, or is not opened for writing.

       EFBIG  offset+len exceeds the maximum file size.

       EINVAL offset was less than 0, or len was less than or  equal  to  0,  or  the  underlying
              filesystem does not support the operation.

       ENODEV fd does not refer to a regular file.

       ENOSPC There is not enough space left on the device containing the file referred to by fd.

       ESPIPE fd refers to a pipe.

VERSIONS

       posix_fallocate() is available since glibc 2.1.94.

ATTRIBUTES

       For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).

       ┌──────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────────────────────┐
       │Interface         │ Attribute     │ Value                   │
       ├──────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
       │posix_fallocate() │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe (but see NOTES) │
       └──────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────────────────────┘

CONFORMING TO

       POSIX.1-2001.

       POSIX.1-2008  says  that  an  implementation  shall give the EINVAL error if len was 0, or
       offset was less than 0.  POSIX.1-2001 says that an implementation shall  give  the  EINVAL
       error  if  len  is  less  than 0, or offset was less than 0, and may give the error if len
       equals zero.

NOTES

       In the glibc implementation,  posix_fallocate()  is  implemented  using  the  fallocate(2)
       system   call,   which  is  MT-safe.   If  the  underlying  filesystem  does  not  support
       fallocate(2), then the operation is emulated with the following caveats:

       * The emulation is inefficient.

       * There is a race condition where concurrent writes from another thread or  process  could
         be overwritten with null bytes.

       * There  is  a  race  condition  where concurrent file size increases by another thread or
         process could result in a file whose size is smaller than expected.

       * If fd has been opened with the O_APPEND or O_WRONLY flags, the function will  fail  with
         the error EBADF.

       In  general, the emulation is not MT-safe.  On Linux, applications may use fallocate(2) if
       they cannot tolerate the emulation caveats.  In general, this is only recommended  if  the
       application  plans  to  terminate  the  operation if EOPNOTSUPP is returned, otherwise the
       application itself will need to implement a fallback with all the  same  problems  as  the
       emulation provided by glibc.

SEE ALSO

       fallocate(1), fallocate(2), lseek(2), posix_fadvise(2)

COLOPHON

       This  page  is  part of release 4.04 of the Linux man-pages project.  A description of the
       project, information about reporting bugs, and the latest version of  this  page,  can  be
       found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.