dphys-swapfile - set up, mount/unmount, and delete an swap file
SYNOPSIS
dphys-swapfilesetup|swapon|swapoff|uninstall
DESCRIPTION
dphys-swapfile computes the size for an optimal swap file (and resizes an
existing swap file if necessary), mounts an swap file, unmounts it, and and
delete it if not wanted any more.
OPTIONS
There is only one parameter, an command, which can be either of these:
setup
Tells dphys-swapfile to compute the optimal swap file size and (re-)generate
an fitting swap file. Default it 2 times RAM size. This can be called at boot
time, so the file allways stays the right size for current RAM, or run by hand
whenever RAM size has changed.
swapon
and
swapoff
These run the swapon and swapoff commands on the swapfile. Note
that direct swapon/off from /etc/fstab is not possible, as that is (at
least on Debian) done in the same script that mounts /var (which is where the
swap file most likely resides). And we need to do our setup between those
actions. So pass up /etc/fstab, and do our own swapon/off.
uninstall
Gets rid of an unwanted swap file, reclaiming the disk space.
CONFIG
The config file /etc/dphys-swapfile allows the user to set up the
working environment for dphys-swapfile.
This config file is a sh script fragment full of assignments, which is
sourced. Standard sh syntax rules apply. Assignments are:
CONF_SWAPFILE
Set where the swap file should be placed. Defaults to /var/swap. It is unlikely
that you will need to change this, unless you have very strange partitioning,
and then you will most likely be using an swap partition anyway.
CONF_SWAPSIZE
Force file size to this. Default is 2*RAM size. This is unlikely to be needed,
unless in strange diskspace situations. Note that swap enabled and smaller
than RAM causes kernal-internal VM trouble on random systems.
CONF_SWAPFACTOR
Set the relation between RAM and swap size. Must be an
integer. Defaults to 2 which means swap size = 2 * RAM size
CONF_MAXSWAP
Set maximum size of the swap file in MBytes. Defaults to 2048 which
was the former kernel limit for the swapfile size and is now a limit
to prevent unusual big swap files on systems with a lot of RAM.
FILES
/etc/dphys-swapfile
user config
$CONF_SWAPFILE
the swap file, target of the whole action (defaults to /var/swap)
EXAMPLES
dphys-swapfile is usually run at system startup and shutdown from an
/etc/init.d (or /etc/rc.d) script, such as this (minimal) one:
#!/bin/sh
# /etc/init.d/dphys-swapfile - automatically set up an swapfile
# author franklin, last modification 2004.06.04
# This script is copyright ETH Zuerich Physics Departement,
# use under either modified/non-advertising BSD or GPL license
case "$1" in
start)
/sbin/dphys-swapfile setup
/sbin/dphys-swapfile swapon
;;
stop)
/sbin/dphys-swapfile swapoff
;;
esac
exit 0
If an sysadmin wants to have his swapfile in annother place, say /var/run/swap,
he can use: