Functions of Asynchronous I/O

This overview describes some of the basic concepts and functions of asynchronous I/O.

Large File-Enabled Asynchronous I/O
The fundamental data structure associated with all AIO operations is struct aiocb. Within this structure is the aio_offset field, which is used to specify the offset for an I/O operation.
Nonblocking I/O
After issuing an I/O request, the user application can proceed without being blocked while the I/O operation is in progress. The I/O operation occurs while the application is running.
Notification of I/O Completion
After issuing an AIO request, the user application can determine when and how the I/O operation finishes.
Cancellation of I/O Requests
Some I/O requests can be canceled. Cancellation is not guaranteed and might succeed or not depending upon the state of the individual request.

Parent topic: Asynchronous I/O Subsystem