diff --git a/util/env_posix.cc b/util/env_posix.cc
index fcfea28ab4..ef7655e608 100644
--- a/util/env_posix.cc
+++ b/util/env_posix.cc
@@ -678,10 +678,19 @@ class PosixWritableFile : public WritableFile {
     Status s;
     s = Flush(); // flush cache to OS
     if (!s.ok()) {
+      return s;
     }
 
     TEST_KILL_RANDOM(rocksdb_kill_odds);
 
+    size_t block_size;
+    size_t last_allocated_block;
+    GetPreallocationStatus(&block_size, &last_allocated_block);
+    if (last_allocated_block > 0) {
+      // trim the extra space preallocated at the end of the file
+      ftruncate(fd_, filesize_);  // ignore errors
+    }
+
     if (close(fd_) < 0) {
       if (s.ok()) {
         s = IOError(filename_, errno);
diff --git a/util/env_test.cc b/util/env_test.cc
index eb28293037..a442e3a5cd 100644
--- a/util/env_test.cc
+++ b/util/env_test.cc
@@ -12,6 +12,11 @@
 #include <iostream>
 #include <unordered_set>
 
+#ifdef OS_LINUX
+#include <sys/stat.h>
+#include <unistd.h>
+#endif
+
 #include "rocksdb/env.h"
 #include "port/port.h"
 #include "util/coding.h"
@@ -258,6 +263,41 @@ TEST(EnvPosixTest, RandomAccessUniqueID) {
   env_->DeleteFile(fname);
 }
 
+// only works in linux platforms
+#ifdef ROCKSDB_FALLOCATE_PRESENT
+TEST(EnvPosixTest, AllocateTest) {
+  std::string fname = GetOnDiskTestDir() + "/preallocate_testfile";
+  EnvOptions soptions;
+  soptions.use_mmap_writes = false;
+  unique_ptr<WritableFile> wfile;
+  ASSERT_OK(env_->NewWritableFile(fname, &wfile, soptions));
+
+  // allocate 100 MB
+  size_t kPreallocateSize = 100 * 1024 * 1024;
+  size_t kBlockSize = 512;
+  size_t kPageSize = 4096;
+  std::string data = "test";
+  wfile->SetPreallocationBlockSize(kPreallocateSize);
+  ASSERT_OK(wfile->Append(Slice(data)));
+  ASSERT_OK(wfile->Flush());
+
+  struct stat f_stat;
+  stat(fname.c_str(), &f_stat);
+  ASSERT_EQ(data.size(), f_stat.st_size);
+  // verify that blocks are preallocated
+  ASSERT_EQ(kPreallocateSize / kBlockSize, f_stat.st_blocks);
+
+  // close the file, should deallocate the blocks
+  wfile.reset();
+
+  stat(fname.c_str(), &f_stat);
+  ASSERT_EQ(data.size(), f_stat.st_size);
+  // verify that preallocated blocks were deallocated on file close
+  size_t data_blocks_pages = ((data.size() + kPageSize - 1) / kPageSize);
+  ASSERT_EQ(data_blocks_pages * kPageSize / kBlockSize, f_stat.st_blocks);
+}
+#endif
+
 // Returns true if any of the strings in ss are the prefix of another string.
 bool HasPrefix(const std::unordered_set<std::string>& ss) {
   for (const std::string& s: ss) {