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+<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
+<!--Converted with LaTeX2HTML 96.1-h (September 30, 1996) by Nikos Drakos (nikos@cbl.leeds.ac.uk), CBLU, University of Leeds -->
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+<TITLE>Creating a swap space</TITLE>
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+ <A NAME="tex2html1082" HREF="node62.html"><IMG WIDTH=37 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="next" SRC="./next_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html1080" HREF="node59.html"><IMG WIDTH=26 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="up" SRC="./up_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html1074" HREF="node60.html"><IMG WIDTH=63 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="previous" SRC="./previous_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html1084" HREF="node1.html"><IMG WIDTH=65 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="contents" SRC="./contents_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html1085" HREF="node114.html"><IMG WIDTH=43 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="index" SRC="./index_motif.gif"></A> <BR>
+<B> Next:</B> <A NAME="tex2html1083" HREF="node62.html">Using a swap space</A>
+<B>Up:</B> <A NAME="tex2html1081" HREF="node59.html">Memory Management</A>
+<B> Previous:</B> <A NAME="tex2html1075" HREF="node60.html">What is virtual memory?</A>
+<BR> <P>
+<H1><A NAME="SECTION00620000000000000000">Creating a swap space</A></H1>
+<P>
+ A swap file is an ordinary file; it is in no way special to
+ the kernel. The only thing that matters to the kernel is that
+ it has no holes, and that it is prepared for use with
+ <tt>mkswap</tt><A NAME="1891">&#160;</A>. It must reside on a local disk, however; it
+ can't reside in a filesystem that has been mounted over NFS
+ due to implementation reasons.
+<P>
+ The bit about holes is important. The swap file
+ reserves the disk space so that the kernel can quickly swap out
+ a page without having to go through all the things
+ that are necessary when allocating a disk sector to a file.
+ The kernel merely uses any sectors that have already been
+ allocated to the file. Because a hole in a file means that
+ there are no disk sectors allocated (for that place in the
+ file), it is not good for the kernel to try to use them.
+<P>
+ One good way to create the swap file without holes is through
+ the following command:
+ <BLOCKQUOTE> <TT>
+<code>$</code> <I>dd if=/dev/zero of=/extra-swap bs=1024 count=1024</I><BR>
+<code>1024+0 records in</code> <BR>
+<code>1024+0 records out</code> <BR>
+<code>$</code>
+ </TT></BLOCKQUOTE>
+ where <tt>/extra-swap</tt><A NAME="1893">&#160;</A> is the name of the swap file and
+ the size of is given after the <tt>count=</tt>. It is best for
+ the size to be a multiple of 4, because the kernel writes out
+ <b>memory pages</b>, which are 4 kilobytes in size. If the
+ size is not a multiple of 4, the last couple of kilobytes may
+ be unused.
+<P>
+ A swap partition is also not special in any way. You create it
+ just like any other partition; the only difference is that it is
+ used as a raw partition, that is, it will not contain any
+ filesystem at all. It is a good idea to mark swap partitions as
+ type 82 (Linux swap); this will the make partition listings
+ clearer, even though it is not strictly necessary to the kernel.
+<P>
+ After you have created a swap file or a swap partition, you
+ need to write a signature to its beginning; this contains some
+ administrative information and is used by the kernel. The
+ command to do this is <tt>mkswap</tt><A NAME="1896">&#160;</A>, used like this:
+ <BLOCKQUOTE> <TT>
+<code>$</code> <I>mkswap /extra-swap 1024</I> <BR>
+<code>Setting up swapspace, size = 1044480 bytes</code> <BR>
+<code>$</code>
+ </TT></BLOCKQUOTE>
+ Note that the swap space is still not in use yet: it
+ exists, but the kernel does not use it to provide virtual
+ memory.
+<P>
+ You should be very careful when using <tt>mkswap</tt><A NAME="1898">&#160;</A>, since it
+ does not check that the file or partition isn't used for anything
+ else. <em>You can easily overwrite important files and
+ partitions with <tt>mkswap</tt><A NAME="1900">&#160;</A>!</em> Fortunately, you should only
+ need to use <tt>mkswap</tt><A NAME="1902">&#160;</A> when you install your system.
+<P>
+ The Linux memory manager limits the size of each swap space to
+ about 127&nbsp;MB (for various technical reasons, the actual limit
+ is <IMG WIDTH=78 HEIGHT=12 ALIGN=MIDDLE ALT="tex2html_wrap_inline4269" SRC="img11.gif"> bytes, or
+ 127.6875 megabytes). You can, however, use up to
+ 16 swap spaces simultaneously, for a total of almost
+ 2&nbsp;GB.<A NAME="tex2html27" HREF="footnode.html#1836"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="gif" SRC="./foot_motif.gif"></A>
+<P>
+<HR><A NAME="tex2html1082" HREF="node62.html"><IMG WIDTH=37 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="next" SRC="./next_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html1080" HREF="node59.html"><IMG WIDTH=26 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="up" SRC="./up_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html1074" HREF="node60.html"><IMG WIDTH=63 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="previous" SRC="./previous_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html1084" HREF="node1.html"><IMG WIDTH=65 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="contents" SRC="./contents_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html1085" HREF="node114.html"><IMG WIDTH=43 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="index" SRC="./index_motif.gif"></A> <BR>
+<B> Next:</B> <A NAME="tex2html1083" HREF="node62.html">Using a swap space</A>
+<B>Up:</B> <A NAME="tex2html1081" HREF="node59.html">Memory Management</A>
+<B> Previous:</B> <A NAME="tex2html1075" HREF="node60.html">What is virtual memory?</A>
+<P><ADDRESS>
+<I>Lars Wirzenius <BR>
+Sat Nov 15 02:32:11 EET 1997</I>
+</ADDRESS>
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