Swap

[psytree]

Hi there.
I got a question.
I notice that my swap space never change.
If I do 'free' the use it's allways at 0 ! I try this with many programs and stuff on for see what he do, but it's allways 0.
There is something about swapon , but how do I check if it on ?

Peace

[U-Turn]

Swap only gets used if you run out of ram. Unless you're doing something that demands tons of memory. Something like cga, video processing or the like.
If swap is listed in /etc/fstab, it will always be mounted and turned on at boot time.

[stathisx]

about fstab (to check about swap check this out):
http://tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/fstab.html
and remember that swap is generally 1,5-2 *RAM of your system..

[U-Turn]

The 1.5-2xRAM guideline came from a time when 4-16MB was common for RAM. With current systems having anywhere from 128MB to "the sky's the limit", that guideline simply doesn't apply anymore.
With 256MB of RAM, I almost never see any swap activity on my system. In fact, the only time I've ever seen swap activity was the last time I compiled a kernel. Keep in mind that I was running gDesklets and watching a DVD on Xine at the time. Still, swap usage stayed under 10 percent of the 512MB I have available.

[stathisx]

i agree,swap is useful if you do many jobs at the same time ..like watching a dvd and compiling or installing a program..although it's good to be 500 mb at least i think.everyone today has a hard disk of 40gb and above..so 500mb won't be problem..

[psytree]

Ha ok I see it.
Thanks for the replys : )

Peace

[stathisx]

you're welcome