OpenBSD Handbook

OpenBSD 7.9 release · amd64 · Generated 2026-09-09

buffer-1.17.1p1

buffer sporadic I/O for faster tape and pipe throughput

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Description

Buffer reads from standard input reblocking to the given blocksize and writes each block to standard output. Internally, buffer is a pair of processes communicating via a large circular queue held in shared memory. This means you *must* have a kernel with options SYSVSHM compiled in. The reader process only has to block when the queue is full and the writer process when the queue is empty. Buffer is designed to try and keep the writer side continuously busy so that it can stream when writing to tape drives. When used to write tapes with an intervening network, buffer can result in a considerable increase in throughput. - Christian "naddy" Weisgerber <naddy@unix-ag.uni-kl.de>

Package information

Ports path
misc/buffer
Package architecture
amd64
Maintainer
The OpenBSD ports mailing-list <ports@openbsd.org>
Categories
misc
Available flavors
None listed

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