---
name: "readahead"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "readahead-fedora"
version: "2:1.5.6-5.2"
release: "Debian 8 (Jessie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/readahead"
---

# readahead(8)

file preloader for boot process optimization

## NAME

readahead - file preloader for boot process optimization

## SYNOPSIS

readahead \[options\] \<file-list\> \[another-file-list \[...\]\]

## DESCRIPTION

**readahead** is a files preloader designed to optimize the disk I/O during the boot process.

## OPTIONS

- **-b, --build**

  build optimised files list only, without sorting.

- **-s, --sort**

  build and sort list of files only (implies -b).

- **-o, --output \<file\>**

  write sorted list of files to *file*.

- **-d, --dont-sort**

  preload files described by an already sorted files list.

- **-h, --help**

  print the usage information.

- **-v, --verbose**

  enable the verbose mode.

- **-t, --timing**

  report time spent on each operation.

- **-m, --maxsize \<max size\>**

  maximum size in KiB a file can be in order to be preloaded, default is *10240*.

- **\<file-list\> \[another-file-list \[...\]\]**

  One or more files containing the list of files to be preloaded or sorted. The files list can be generated by [readahead-collector(8)](/readahead-collector/8.md).

## FILES

- */etc/default/readahead-fedora*

  ## SEE ALSO

[**readahead-collector**(8)](/readahead-collector/8.md), [**readahead**(2)](/readahead/2.md),

## AUTHORS

- Arjan van de Ven \<arjan@infradead.org\>,

  Ziga Mahkovec \<ziga.mahkovec@klika.si\>, Karel Zak \<kzak@redhat.com\>,

This manual page was written by Raphael Geissert \<geissert@debian.org\>