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A splice() is a system call mechanism used by the Linux kernel to request the application program to generate service from the operating system in order to transfer information in kernel space without the use of user space and copying. It is seen as a way of improving I/O performance.
Workings
splice() works by using the pipe buffer mechanism to open a file descriptor for a data source and another for a data sink then by using splice() it can join the two together.
Origins
It was originally created by Larry McVoy in 1998 and at time of writing has just been added into 2.6.17 Linux Kernel.
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