VFS_CACHEPRIME(8)

💅 VFS_CACHEPRIME(8) — like, the cacheprime one from the samba(7) suite, bestie

okay so picture this: a samba(7) man page, section 8, system administration tools energy, and its whole personality is priming the kernel file data cache. yes ma'am. let's get into it ✨

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✨ NAME ✨

vfs_cacheprime — prime the kernel file data cache 🧚

(that's it. that's the whole name section. she's concise. we respect her.)

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

vfs objects = cacheprime

literally one line and it's already iconic 💅

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so first things first: this VFS module is part of the samba(7) suite. family reunion, etc etc 🫶

so what does vfs_cacheprime actually do? bestie. it reads chunks of file data near the range requested by clients — like, around the part they asked for — so that the data is already chilling in the kernel file data cache at the exact moment the clients actually request it. it's the "pre-gaming the data" module. main character energy, honestly. 🔥

the size of the disk read operations it performs is decided by the cacheprime:rsize option (more on her in a sec 👀). and here's the cute structural detail: all disk read operations are aligned on boundaries that are a multiple of this size. clean lines. no chaos. we love to see it. 🎀

also! each range of the file data is primed at most once during the time the client has the file open. not twice. not three times. once. she said "i'm not doing extra work for free." 💀

and yes — this module is stackable. pile her on top of your other VFS modules, she's flexible like that. 🌈

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💖 OPTIONS 💖

• cacheprime:rsize = BYTES — the number of bytes with which to prime the kernel data cache. this is the whole size dial, okay? this is the one that matters.

the following suffixes may be applied to BYTES:

• K — BYTES is a number of kilobytes
• M — BYTES is a number of megabytes
• G — BYTES is a number of gigabytes

so like, 1M, 512K, 2G — pick your fighter ⭐

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🍓 EXAMPLES 🍓

okay so hypothetically (and I do mean hypothetically, it's literally in the config block) — imagine a disk array where you absolutely need every single read operation to be 1 megabyte (1048576 bytes), and aligned on 1 megabyte boundaries. the way you'd set that up is:

[hypothetical]
vfs objects = cacheprime
cacheprime:rsize = 1M

ate. no crumbs. 👑

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💀 CAVEATS 💀

real talk time, bestie, because I love you: cacheprime is not a substitute for a general-purpose readahead mechanism. not even close. she is not out here doing general purpose anything. 🙈

she's intended for use only in very specific environments where disk operations must be aligned and sized to known values — "(as much as that is possible)". yeah. that last part. that's the fine print and it's there for a reason, so don't come for her when the disk array has opinions. 😭

no cap: if you're reaching for cacheprime as your general readahead solution, that's not the vibe check you think it is. it's a specialised tool for a specialised setup. periodt. 💅

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🌟 VERSION 🌟

this man page is part of version 4.22.11-git.560.f0322ab554160000.1.1SUSE-oS16.0-ppc64le of the Samba suite. yes that entire string. she's long, she's specific, she's real. 🧚

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

the original Samba software and related utilities were created by Andrew Tridgell. Samba is now developed by the Samba Team as an Open Source project similar to the way the Linux kernel is developed. legends only, fr fr. 🌸

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! 💜 hope you're thriving and your cache is primed. mwah 🫶

Samba 4.22.11-git.560.f0322ab55 · 08/21/2026 · VFS_CACHEPRIME(8) — ok so that's literally the source/version and date from the footer, consider them mentioned with love 😌✨