Swap file

[g.ivannov]

Hi,
is it possible to use a swap file instead of a swap partition? How can I do it with Ubuntu?
thanks in advance

[oz]

I don't think so, but maybe someone else knows differently. Of course, if you have enough RAM, you don't need any SWAP at all.

[bigtomrodney]

It's a long time since Linux used a swapfile rather than a partition. It was once possible but I don't think it is anymore with the current kernels.

The real question is - Why? The partition will perform better than a file on top of a filesystem and the swap file would take up just as much space.

[g.ivannov]

It's a long time since Linux used a swapfile rather than a partition. It was once possible but I don't think it is anymore with the current kernels.

The real question is - Why? The partition will perform better than a file on top of a filesystem and the swap file would take up just as much space.

I would like to use the swap partition for /tmp. I have four primary partitions:

/, /home, swap and a partition for testing distros. My problem is that I hate logical partitions.
Since Freespire did it (the swap file is in the /boot) is technically feasible.

Of course the easy solution is to buy more ram.

[rcgreen]

Assuming you want to put it in “/”, Create an empty 500MB file
$ sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/swap.img bs=1024k count=512

Format it as a swap file
$ sudo mkswap /swap.img

Add it to your running Linux system
$ sudo swapon /swap.img

Optionally you can add /swap.img to fstab for automatic swap activation.

$ sudo gedit /etc/fstab

Add this line at the end of the file
/swap.img none swap sw 0 0

Run “free -m” command to verify that you’ve added the newly created swap to your Linux based operating system.

Hope that helps!

How to add Linux Swap file if you don’t have Swap Partition : mypapit gnu/linux blog

[g.ivannov]

How to add Linux Swap file if you don’t have Swap Partition : mypapit gnu/linux blog

That's a great hint, thank you. Just done it and works well.