swap file vs. swap partition

[akonstam at trinity.edu]

On Sat, Jul 30, 2005 at 07:28:01PM +0300, Dotan Cohen wrote:
> On 7/30/05, Damian Menscher <menscher at uiuc.edu> wrote:
> > On Sat, 30 Jul 2005, Dotan Cohen wrote:
> > 
> > > I'm now prepearing to either create a swap file or a swap partition. I
> > > am interested in knowing if there is any difference in performance.
> > > Anyone have any experience with this? Thanks.
> > 
> > A swap partition would be faster (think about it -- no filesystem
> > overhead).  The only reason for a swap file is if you didn't plan your
> > partitioning scheme properly, and _need_ to add swap at a later date.
> > 
> > Sorry, I don't have specific benchmark numbers for you.  I'm not sure
> > how one would even go about benchmarking such a thing.
> > 
> > Oh, you can also have multiple swap partitions, on different drives.
> > If you set them to the same priority, it will use all at the same time.
> > Kinda like a raid0 stripe, but without creating the software raid.  If
> > you're concerned about stability, I think you can software raid the
> > drives first, and then create a swap partition on them (haven't actually
> > done this myself, since raid would damage performance).
> > 
> > Damian Menscher
> > --
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> > -=#| The above opinions are not necessarily those of my employers. |#=-
> > 
> 
> Thanks. I don't need banchmarks, I just wanted to know. Setting it up now...
> 
> Dotan

All the above is true but as you have probably figured out, swap
partitions need to be decided at installation. But if you need more
swap space later swap files are an option.
-- 

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Aaron Konstam
Computer Science
Trinity University
telephone: (210)-999-7484