Swap space is a virtual memory of RAM. It is used when the amount of RAM is full. Swap space can be a dedicated swap partition, a swap file, or a combination of swap partitions and swap files.
51
votes
11answers
39k views
Should I keep my swap file on an SSD drive?
I'm considering getting an SSD drive to run as the primary OS partition. As I understand, this should provide a substantial improvement in performance. My question is this: Should I leave the swap ...
37
votes
4answers
16k views
How to disable Mac OS X from using swap when there still is “Inactive” memory?
A common phenomena in my day to day usage (and several other's according to various posts throughout the internet) of OS X, the system seems to become slow whenever there is no more "Free" memory ...
22
votes
8answers
19k views
Moving the swapfiles to a dedicated partition in Snow Leopard
I have been able to move Apple's virtual memory swapfiles to a dedicated partition on my hard drive up until now. The technique I have been using is described in a thread on forums.macosxhints.com.
...
20
votes
6answers
35k views
Swap partition size for 4GB RAM
I'm planning to install Ubuntu 9.04 version. How much space should I dedicate for swap partition. I remember setting it to double the RAM size when I installed long back. At that time my RAM was 256 ...
17
votes
2answers
737 views
Linux Mint doesn't boot after creating a swap partition
When I was creating my Linux hard drive, I skipped creating a swap partition, thinking that 4GB would be enough RAM. Now, I think I do need a swap partition. I asked some people on IRC how to do this, ...
15
votes
3answers
7k views
Why OS X use swap when there is lots of “inactive memory”?
I am using OS X from few months (Lion and now Mountain Lion). I have 8 GB on my mini and almost daily now it get close to that. On Windows 7 machine with 8 GB I never had that kind of problem. Anyway, ...
14
votes
10answers
31k views
Windows Swap (Page File): Enable or Disable?
From my personal experience I've noticed that disabling the page file in Windows XP has given me, in general, the most speed gain out of any other software change I can make. Obviously this has to be ...
14
votes
4answers
17k views
Can I hibernate Linux without a swap partition?
I hadn't set up a swap partition on my PC, because a) I have plenty of RAM (8 GB) and b) I have large harddrives that I didn't want to chop into tiny pieces, so my smallest partitions are 50 GiB, and ...
14
votes
3answers
11k views
How can I make my computer use more RAM?
I'm running Windows 7 64-bit with 8GB of RAM. The problem is, I very rarely use all of it.
I do some video editing from time to time and it definitely comes in handy then, but for everyday use, I'm ...
12
votes
4answers
10k views
How to control RAM / swap usage
Is there a way (application) to control RAM / swap usage policy at application level.
I have some applications that I use all the time and I want them to stay in RAM all the time and there are also ...
11
votes
1answer
600 views
Using a SSD as my only drive on a laptop
My conventional hard drive is clicking (second time this year I've killed the drive), so I just bought a SSD to benefit from the lack of moving parts. However, I am deathly afraid of using this as the ...
10
votes
1answer
4k views
Swap Control and Caps Lock on Windows 7
How can I swap my Control and Caps Lock keys on Windows 7? I've found several options online but all are for previous versions of Windows.
10
votes
1answer
2k views
Where does VIM (gvim/macvim) keep swap files for unsaved/unnamed buffers?
Where does VIM (gvim/macvim) keep swap files for unsaved/unnamed buffers? (If it does so at all).
Background:
Throughout a semi intense seminar I was taking notes in an unnamed/unsaved MacVim buffer ...
10
votes
4answers
2k views
How much swap is a given Mac application using?
Is there any way to tell whether a particular application running on Mac OSX (10.2+) has some of its memory swapped out (i.e., to one of the /private/var/vm/swapfile* files)? And how much?
Bounty ...
9
votes
4answers
4k views
Windows 7 100% Memory Usage (without any process listed as using that much memory)
When I plug my external USB 2TB hard drive into my windows 7 box, my RAM usage climbs up to all 4 Gigs (but in task manager it shows that all process are small) and the hard drive is churning like ...
9
votes
4answers
8k views
What's Wrong with Disabling the Page File?
I watch my mouth whenever I say this, but (...gulp...) my Windows 7 is set to run without a page file.
People seem to say that you always need a page file, and that it will increase performance. I ...
9
votes
3answers
166 views
Swapfile on different drive
Is it worth to spend money on a small capacity HDD (~5-20 GB, very cheap though) to use it as swapping area for the OS?
I do believe it will increase the OS performance , or maybe SSD (still ~5-20 ...
8
votes
4answers
5k views
Releasing swap space
At times the kernel seems to be intent on keeping e.g. firefox in swap, even though there is enough physical memory available and I'm using firefox:
robert@rm:~> free -m
total ...
8
votes
1answer
304 views
Can two Linux partitions use the same swap space?
I have Ubuntu 10.04 and Windows 7 installed on my machine, due to some reasons I need to install one more copy of Ubuntu.. Is it possible that the new Ubuntu uses the same swap space used by previous ...
7
votes
5answers
1k views
Disadvantages of not having a swap partition
I recently installed Ubuntu 10.04 on my laptop. Due to space constraint of the SSD, I did not set a swap partition for the OS, and I have 1.5GB of RAM.
There's a warning during installation, but I ...
7
votes
2answers
13k views
How can I swap colors with GIMP?
I have made an image with three colors: RGB
I want to swap each channel to a specific color. Is there a way to do that efficiently with GIMP?
Example:
I would like:
Blue: #434343
Red: #EEEEEE
...
6
votes
4answers
2k views
What file system is swap on Linux
In Linux you can choose things like ext3 and reiserfs for partitions. For the swap partition, you just choose "swap." What file system is this, actually? Can you just create an ext3 partition and make ...
6
votes
2answers
3k views
Tuning Windows 7 for use in a VM
I'm running Windows 7 in a VirtualBox Virtual Machine, and would like to make it run in a more streamlined fashion. I'll be using the install primarily for testing web apps, and have no need for it ...
6
votes
3answers
960 views
How do I quickly stop a process that is causing thrashing (due to excess memory allocation)?
We've all experienced it--some program is asked to do something that requires a huge amount of memory. It dutifully tries to allocate all this memory, and the system immediately begins thrashing, ...
6
votes
2answers
4k views
What's using my swap (Ubuntu)?
I have an Ubuntu 8.04 server which is running a database and a bunch of Java application servers. Its memory configuration and usage is:
total used free shared buffers ...
6
votes
3answers
2k views
Why should the size of the swap partition be double of the RAM size?
Why is it recommended that the swap partition size be double that of the RAM size?
Specifically, why would I need to store data stored in the RAM twice??
6
votes
1answer
3k views
Reduce “Metafile” memory usage?
My work computer (Windows 7 64-bit) spends a lot of time swapping memory when I switch between programs. This surprises me since I have 4 GB of RAM, and the programs I use aren't particularly RAM ...
5
votes
1answer
876 views
Confused about Windows 7 64-bit page file with SSD
I followed this advice to get Windows to use more RAM and less paging. To be honest, I'm a total noob to all this page file stuff. I've always just assumed that Windows was using the 8 GB of ram I ...
5
votes
4answers
2k views
How can I use the keyboard to switch the mouse between left-handed and right-handed?
We have both left-handed and right-handed users in our house. It would be handy to be able to change this setting from the keyboard rather than using the Mouse control panel. Is there a way to ...
5
votes
2answers
197 views
How to “swap in” again memory from page file to physical memory in Windows at once (like linux swap-off)
Is there a way to swap back in (to put back all the memory data that was put into the page file (or swap, whatever you prefer)) memory on a windows PC?
On linux, one can easily do this with the ...
5
votes
1answer
133 views
Prevent important OS X process being swapped out, without code change?
I want hotkey-based utilities like Quicksilver or Zooom to respond immediately. But if they have been idle for a while, they (I guess) get swapped out, and respond slowly, sometimes not even ...
5
votes
1answer
68 views
Do locked pages get shredded from disk after resuming from suspend-to-disk?
Locked pages are sometimes used to store crypto keys like for Luks or for encfs and other sensitive things.
But when doing hibernate (without swap drive encryption) they get stored to disk ...
5
votes
1answer
730 views
Disadvantages of using a swap file/partition on an SSD, even when swappiness is set to 0 [closed]
What are the disadvantages of using a swap file/partition on an SSD, even when swappiness is set to 0
I'm particularly interested in the /proc/sys/vm/swappiness=0 case. How much writes are still ...
4
votes
2answers
399 views
Does the 4 GB RAM limit on 32-bit systems also affect the swap space?
It is well known that 32-bit systems can only handle 4 GB as maximum amount of RAM.
Under Linux, does this limit also apply to swap partitions? If my RAM + swap exceeds 4 GB, will it be fully used?
...
4
votes
3answers
476 views
What happens when linux OS out of RAM and no swap
What happens when linux OS is out of RAM and no swap is available?
4
votes
2answers
4k views
Linux disk access slows down system
My system slows down even when the CPU load is less than 100%, and I think it's doing this because it's writing to the swap partition. Yes, my swap partition is on a different disk than my OS. I ...
4
votes
4answers
3k views
Why do we need to set swap space as twice big as our physical memory?
When we want to setup a linux system, there is a common a suggestion to set the swap space twice as big as your physical memory. I want to know why do we need this, and how it is this suggestion come ...
4
votes
4answers
1k views
'cache swap' filesystem for SSD/HDD combo?
As we all know, Solid State Drives (SSD) are expensive ($/Gb) but they are quick to access. I'm wondering if there exists a sort of software-kernel-level 'cache swap' filesystem technology; the idea ...
4
votes
3answers
2k views
Reserve RAM for cache and buffer
I usually run many programs and virtual machines on my desktop. The CPU isn't the bottleneck but the memory. (Buying more memory isn't a solution because it's not my own computer.)
I started ...
4
votes
2answers
770 views
how to configure Linux to call oom_kill on its own
I do not want my computer to swap data to disk. I have no swap partition:
$ free
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 3841912 3670012 171900 ...
4
votes
1answer
251 views
Is there a way to exclude a specific drive vdi from “snapshots” in VirtualBox?
...or is there another space-efficient way of dealing with the page/swap file of the Guest O/S?
I've realised that its quite possible/likely that one of the things which "bloats" the snapshot/diff ...
4
votes
1answer
75 views
What happens when you try to hibernate but there is not enough swap available?
I have a Linux box with a swap partition of size RAM + x. Suppose more than x of the swap is already in use. Now I try to hibernate. Will the kernel
randomly kill sleeping and/or not sleeping ...
4
votes
2answers
140 views
swap rule 1.5 *memory= swap still valid [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Why should the size of the swap partition be double of the RAM size?
Does the rule of 1.5 *memory= swap still apply in these days where systems can have32 GB of memory. ...
3
votes
2answers
577 views
Page Faults without Swap-File?
I've found the obvious question and also it's bigger brother over at ServerFault.
But my question is quiet different: If Page Faults are the moments in which the OS needs to load something from the ...
3
votes
2answers
4k views
Clean up swap memory
I am using ubuntu 10.10. My RAM is 3GB and swap memory is 2GB. After using my system for several hours, all of my swap memory is used up. Is there any way so I can clean up swap memory?
3
votes
3answers
1k views
How to interpret Windows XP's Virtual Memory Info - the 10 numbers and 1 graph
How are the numbers in the Windows XP Virtual Memory info to be interpreted? I am actually just interested in:
1) What is the total size that is free as in "untouched" physical RAM, so that the ...
3
votes
1answer
2k views
Disable Mac's dynamic_pager?
I read this blog post about the memory management in Mac OS X: http://workstuff.tumblr.com/post/20464780085/something-is-deeply-broken-in-os-x-memory-management
I would like your opinion on the ...
3
votes
2answers
369 views
Windows registry entry for swapping tilde/backtick and escape keys?
I have always swapped CapsLock and L-Ctrl. I'd like to now swap Esc with the Tilde/Backtick keys.
What Windows (XP) registry setting do I use for scancode to ensure both of those keys are ...
3
votes
1answer
59 views
Where is terminal scroll back information stored (how does tmpfs work)?
While trying to test something unconnected, I launched an infinite loop on my terminator terminal emulator which printed a lot of data to STDOUT. After running it for a few minutes, I noticed that my ...
3
votes
1answer
113 views
How can I use a remote machine for swap space?
I have two Linux boxes, one of which doesn't have much RAM or disk space. How would I go about setting up a swap file on the second machine for the first to use?
