Creating Swap Areas

[Tim Chase]

Mr. Boyer,

(I CC'd you in, as I've had trouble getting my account to
successfully post to the blinux list and this may not go
through...if it doesn't show up there, and you think it would be
helpful, you're welcome to repost it to the list)

There's a good tutorial on swap partitions and swap files found
on RedHat's site at:

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-8.0-Manual/custom-guide/s1-swap-adding.html

It's supposedly for RH 8.0 which is a bit old, but the same
method should work in other distros as well.  It's got two
sections...one entitled "To add a swap partition", and a second
entitled "To add a swap file".

A swap partition is always the better (read "faster") option if
you have the opportunity, as it doesn't require going through a
file-system.  However, if you just want to create one on the fly,
make use of it for some intensive task, and then remove it, using
a simple swap file is easy way to go.  Partitions, on the other
hand, require you to plan ahead sufficiently to have such a
partition available (or risk monkeying with
partition-editing/resizing tools).

And just to cover my own tail, beware of editing/resizing
partition tables...you can hose your whole box with very little
effort (grins).  Take care and hope it gets you put on the right
path to swapping nirvana.

-tim