diff --git a/lib/Simba/DA.pm b/lib/Simba/DA.pm
index a390b7e..f608258 100644
--- a/lib/Simba/DA.pm
+++ b/lib/Simba/DA.pm
@@ -12,6 +12,12 @@ use IO::Handle;
 use Simba::Util qw(quote unquote typestr);
 use POSIX qw(strftime);
 use Config::YAML;
+use Fcntl;
+
+sub O_NOATIME() {
+    # XXX - possibly specific to Linux x86/amd64
+    return 01000000;
+}
 
 Readonly my $BUFSIZE => 128 * 1024;
 #my $BUFSIZE = 128 * 1024;
@@ -179,7 +185,7 @@ sub get {
     }
     if (typestr($st->mode) eq 'f') {
         my $fh;
-        unless (open($fh, '<:raw', $fn)) {
+        unless (sysopen($fh, $fn, O_RDONLY | O_NOATIME)) {
             $fh_out->printflush("fail $path ($!)\n");
             return;
         }