increase swap space

[Boyd Roberts]

In article <133933 at tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>, mueller at daisy.cis.ohio-state.edu (klaus d mueller) writes:
> I'm having problems with my swap space being too small. So I thought about
> creating a big file and using SWAPON <file name> to add this file to my swap 
> space. Will this create a problem when the file is not written in contiguous 
> blocks ?

No, you can't do that.  The `file' argument is _not_ an ordinary file.
It's a block special file refering to (part of) an unused disk partition.
It is just a chunk of disk, there is no file-system structure on it.

You have to create (or find) a spare partition, configure it into the
kernel and then use `swapon' to make it available to the kernel for paging.

To quote from then swapon(8) manual:

    The second form gives individual _block devices_, as listed in
    the system swap configuration table.  The call makes only
    this space available to the system for swap allocation.

                                                  [emphasis added]

Be careful when you configure this.  A mis-configured swap partition is a
sure-fire file-system trasher, faster than you can say `backups?'.


Boyd Roberts			boyd at prl.dec.com

``When the going gets wierd, the weird turn pro...''