On Sep 20, 2006, at 6:44 PM, Reinoud Zandijk wrote:

> Dear folks,
>
> attached is a patch that implements the lseek() extension for sparse  
> files
> as can be found in Solaris 10. Linux aparently has already
> adopted/implented it also.
>
> It adds the SEEK_DATA and SEEK_HOLE `whence' arguments to lseek().  
> For a
> more detailed look see the solaris 10 man page :
>
> http://tinyurl.com/fk6we


So, it looks like these new whence arguments are essentially designed  
to enumerate the holes or filled regions of the file.

I don't see anything particularly wrong with having it (note I have  
not yet reviewed the actual patch), but what's the application usage?

-- thorpej