diff --git a/libtransmission/fdlimit.c b/libtransmission/fdlimit.c
index 021642687..70100a1a6 100644
--- a/libtransmission/fdlimit.c
+++ b/libtransmission/fdlimit.c
@@ -205,6 +205,42 @@ preallocateFileFull( const char * filename, uint64_t length )
     return success;
 }
 
+FILE*
+tr_open_file_for_reading( const char * filename, tr_bool sequential )
+{
+    int fd;
+    int flags;
+
+    /* build the flags */
+    flags = O_RDONLY;
+#ifdef O_SEQUENTIAL
+    if( sequential ) flags |= O_SEQUENTIAL;
+#endif
+#ifdef O_RANDOM
+    if( !sequential ) flags |= O_RANDOM
+#endif
+#ifdef O_BINARY
+    flags |= O_BINARY;
+#endif
+#ifdef O_LARGEFILE
+    flags |= O_LARGEFILE;
+#endif
+
+    /* open the file */
+    fd = open( filename, flags, 0666 );
+    if( fd < 0 )
+        return NULL;
+
+#if defined( SYS_DARWIN )
+    fcntl( fd, F_NOCACHE, 1 );
+    fcntl( fd, F_RDAHEAD, sequential );
+#elif defined( HAVE_POSIX_FADVISE )
+    posix_fadvise( fd, 0, 0, sequential ? POSIX_FADV_SEQUENTIAL : POSIX_FADV_RANDOM );
+#endif
+
+    return fdopen( fd, "r" );
+}
+
 /**
  * returns 0 on success, or an errno value on failure.
  * errno values include ENOENT if the parent folder doesn't exist,
diff --git a/libtransmission/fdlimit.h b/libtransmission/fdlimit.h
index 8a72cfda4..09a1915d6 100644
--- a/libtransmission/fdlimit.h
+++ b/libtransmission/fdlimit.h
@@ -32,6 +32,8 @@
 void tr_fdInit( size_t openFileLimit,
                 size_t globalPeerLimit );
 
+FILE* tr_open_file_for_reading( const char * filename, tr_bool sequential );
+
 /**
  * Returns an fd to the specified filename.
  *
diff --git a/libtransmission/verify.c b/libtransmission/verify.c
index a72ca634c..f0beca003 100644
--- a/libtransmission/verify.c
+++ b/libtransmission/verify.c
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 
 #include "transmission.h"
 #include "completion.h"
+#include "fdlimit.h"
 #include "resume.h" /* tr_torrentSaveResume() */
 #include "inout.h"
 #include "list.h"
@@ -74,11 +75,7 @@ verifyTorrent( tr_torrent * tor, tr_bool * stopFlag )
         if( !filePos && !fp )
         {
             char * filename = tr_buildPath( tor->downloadDir, file->name, NULL );
-            fp = fopen( filename, "rb" );
-#ifdef HAVE_POSIX_FADVISE
-            if( fp != NULL )
-                posix_fadvise( fileno( fp ), 0, 0, POSIX_FADV_SEQUENTIAL );
-#endif
+            fp = tr_open_file_for_reading( filename, TRUE );
             /* fprintf( stderr, "opening file #%d (%s) -- %p\n", fileIndex, filename, fp ); */
             tr_free( filename );
         }