COPY(2)			   Linux Programmer's Manual		       COPY(2)



NAME
       copy_file_range - Copy a range of data from one file to another

SYNOPSIS
       #include <sys/syscall.h>
       #include <unistd.h>

       ssize_t copy_file_range(int fd_in, loff_t *off_in,
			       int fd_out, loff_t *off_out,
			       size_t len, unsigned int flags);

DESCRIPTION
       The  copy_file_range()  system  call performs an in-kernel copy between
       two file descriptors without the additional cost of  transferring  data
       from the kernel to user space and then back into the kernel.  It copies
       up to len bytes of data from file descriptor fd_in to  file  descriptor
       fd_out,	overwriting any data that exists within the requested range of
       the target file.

       The following semantics apply for off_in, and similar statements	 apply
       to off_out:

       *  If  off_in is NULL, then bytes are read from fd_in starting from the
	  file offset, and the file offset is adjusted by the number of	 bytes
	  copied.

       *  If off_in is not NULL, then off_in must point to a buffer that spec-
	  ifies the starting offset where bytes from fd_in will be read.   The
	  file	offset	of fd_in is not changed, but off_in is adjusted appro-
	  priately.

       The flags argument is provided to allow for future extensions and  cur-
       rently must be to 0.

RETURN VALUE
       Upon successful completion, copy_file_range() will return the number of
       bytes copied between files.  This could be less than the length	origi-
       nally requested.

       On error, copy_file_range() returns -1 and errno is set to indicate the
       error.

ERRORS
       EBADF  One or more file descriptors are not valid; or fd_in is not open
	      for  reading; or fd_out is not open for writing; or the O_APPEND
	      flag is set for the open file description referred to by fd_out.

       EINVAL Requested range extends beyond the end of the  source  file;  or
	      the flags argument is not 0.

       EIO    A low-level I/O error occurred while copying.

       ENOMEM Out of memory.

       ENOSPC There  is	 not enough space on the target filesystem to complete
	      the copy.

       EXDEV  The files referred to by file_in and file_out  are  not  on  the
	      same mounted filesystem.

VERSIONS
       The copy_file_range() system call first appeared in Linux 4.5.

CONFORMING TO
       The copy_file_range() system call is a nonstandard Linux extension.

NOTES
       If  file_in  is	a  sparse  file, then copy_file_range() may expand any
       holes existing in the requested range.  Users may benefit from  calling
       copy_file_range()  in  a	 loop,	and  using  the lseek(2) SEEK_DATA and
       SEEK_HOLE operations to find the locations of data segments.

       copy_file_range() gives filesystems an opportunity to  implement	 "copy
       acceleration"  techniques,  such	 as  the use of reflinks (i.e., two or
       more i-nodes that share pointers to the same copy-on-write disk blocks)
       or server-side-copy (in the case of NFS).

EXAMPLE
       #define _GNU_SOURCE
       #include <fcntl.h>
       #include <stdio.h>
       #include <stdlib.h>
       #include <sys/stat.h>
       #include <sys/syscall.h>
       #include <unistd.h>

       static loff_t
       copy_file_range(int fd_in, loff_t *off_in, int fd_out,
		       loff_t *off_out, size_t len, unsigned int flags)
       {
	   return syscall(__NR_copy_file_range, fd_in, off_in, fd_out,
			  off_out, len, flags);
       }

       int
       main(int argc, char **argv)
       {
	   int fd_in, fd_out;
	   struct stat stat;
	   loff_t len, ret;

	   if (argc != 3) {
	       fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s <source> <destination>\n", argv[0]);
	       exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
	   }

	   fd_in = open(argv[1], O_RDONLY);
	   if (fd_in == -1) {
	       perror("open (argv[1])");
	       exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
	   }

	   if (fstat(fd_in, &stat) == -1) {
	       perror("fstat");
	       exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
	   }

	   len = stat.st_size;

	   fd_out = open(argv[2], O_CREAT | O_WRONLY | O_TRUNC, 0644);
	   if (fd_out == -1) {
	       perror("open (argv[2])");
	       exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
	   }

	   do {
	       ret = copy_file_range(fd_in, NULL, fd_out, NULL, len, 0);
	       if (ret == -1) {
		   perror("copy_file_range");
		   exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
	       }

	       len -= ret;
	   } while (len > 0);

	   close(fd_in);
	   close(fd_out);
	   exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
       }

SEE ALSO
       lseek(2), sendfile(2), splice(2)

COLOPHON
       This  page  is  part of release 4.10 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
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



Linux				  2016-03-15			       COPY(2)