xref: /openbsd-src/lib/libc/sys/madvise.2 (revision d13be5d47e4149db2549a9828e244d59dbc43f15)
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31.\"	@(#)madvise.2	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/9/93
32.\"
33.Dd $Mdocdate: May 19 2010 $
34.Dt MADVISE 2
35.Os
36.Sh NAME
37.Nm madvise ,
38.Nm posix_madvise
39.Nd give advice about use of memory
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.Fd #include <sys/mman.h>
42.Ft int
43.Fn madvise "void *addr" "size_t len" "int behav"
44.Ft int
45.Fn posix_madvise "void *addr" "size_t len" "int behav"
46.Sh DESCRIPTION
47The
48.Fn madvise
49system call
50allows a process that has knowledge of its memory behavior
51to describe it to the system.
52The
53.Fn posix_madvise
54interface is identical and is provided for standards conformance.
55.Pp
56The possible behaviors are:
57.Bl -tag -width MADV_SEQUENTIAL
58.It Dv MADV_NORMAL
59No further special treatment needed.
60.It Dv MADV_RANDOM
61Expect random page access patterns.
62.It Dv MADV_SEQUENTIAL
63Expect sequential page references.
64.It Dv MADV_WILLNEED
65The pages will be referenced soon.
66.It Dv MADV_DONTNEED
67The pages will not be referenced soon.
68.It Dv MADV_SPACEAVAIL
69Ensure that resources are reserved.
70.It Dv MADV_FREE
71The pages don't contain any useful data and can be recycled.
72.El
73.Pp
74Portable programs that call the
75.Fn posix_madvise
76interface should use the aliases
77.Dv POSIX_MADV_NORMAL , POSIX_MADV_RANDOM ,
78.Dv POSIX_MADV_SEQUENTIAL , POSIX_MADV_WILLNEED ,
79and
80.Dv POSIX_MADV_DONTNEED
81rather than the flags described above.
82.Sh RETURN VALUES
83Upon successful completion,
84a value of 0 is returned.
85Otherwise, a value of \-1 is returned and
86.Va errno
87is set to indicate the error.
88.Sh SEE ALSO
89.Xr mincore 2 ,
90.Xr minherit 2 ,
91.Xr mprotect 2 ,
92.Xr msync 2 ,
93.Xr munmap 2
94.Sh STANDARDS
95The
96.Fn posix_madvise
97system call is expected to conform to the
98.St -p1003.1-2001
99standard.
100.Sh HISTORY
101The
102.Nm madvise
103function first appeared in
104.Bx 4.4 .
105The
106.Nm posix_madvise
107function first appeared in
108.Ox 4.8 .
109