diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 212953304..133fd8bdd 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -93,6 +93,7 @@
 	* only keeps one outstanding duplicate request per peer
 	  reduces waste download, specifically when streaming
 	* added support for storing per-peer rate limits across reconnects
+	* improved fallocate support
 
 	* disabled feature to drop requests after having been skipped too many times
 	* fixed range request bug for files larger than 2 GB in web seeds
diff --git a/src/file.cpp b/src/file.cpp
index ed5533bc3..795bb23cd 100644
--- a/src/file.cpp
+++ b/src/file.cpp
@@ -76,6 +76,15 @@ POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
 #include <linux/fiemap.h>
 #endif
 
+#include <linux/falloc.h>
+#include <asm/unistd_64.h> // For __NR_fallocate
+
+// circumvent the lack of support in glibc
+static int fallocate(int fd, int mode, loff_t offset, loff_t len)
+{
+	return syscall(__NR_fallocate, fd, mode, offset, len);
+}
+
 #elif defined __APPLE__ && defined __MACH__
 // mac specifics
 
@@ -1439,6 +1448,13 @@ namespace libtorrent
 				ec.assign(errno, get_posix_category());
 				return false;
 			}
+#elif defined TORRENT_LINUX
+			int ret = fallocate(m_fd, FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE, 0, s);
+			if (ret != 0 && ret != EOPNOTSUPP && errno != ENOSYS)
+			{
+				ec.assign(ret, get_posix_category());
+				return false;
+			}
 #elif TORRENT_HAS_FALLOCATE
 			int ret = posix_fallocate(m_fd, 0, s);
 			if (ret != 0)