.help zfaloc May84 "System Interface"
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NAME
zfaloc -- preallocate space for a binary file
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SYNOPSIS
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zfaloc (osfn, nbytes, status)

packed	char osfn[]		# host filename
long	nbytes			# file size in bytes
int	status
.fi
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DESCRIPTION
Create and allocate storage for a file of the indicated size.  The actual amount
of storage allocated will be the requested size rounded up to an integral
number of device blocks.  Contiguous storage will be allocated if possible.
File data is unitialized.
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RETURN VALUE
ERR is returned if the file cannot be created or if the requested amount of
storage cannot be allocated.  OK is returned if there are no errors.
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BUGS
On some systems it is necessary to physically write to a file to allocate
storage; preallocation of file storage is very expensive on such systems and
should be avoided.  On other systems storage will appear to have been
allocated but physical storage will not be allocated until file blocks are
accessed at run time.
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SEE ALSO
A discussion of the static file driver and imagefile access.
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