From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Sep 9 10:57:34 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DC853106568B for ; Wed, 9 Sep 2009 10:57:33 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from danielby@slightlystrange.org) Received: from mtaout02-winn.ispmail.ntl.com (mtaout02-winn.ispmail.ntl.com [81.103.221.48]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 63D978FC12 for ; Wed, 9 Sep 2009 10:57:32 +0000 (UTC) Received: from aamtaout01-winn.ispmail.ntl.com ([81.103.221.35]) by mtaout02-winn.ispmail.ntl.com (InterMail vM.7.08.04.00 201-2186-134-20080326) with ESMTP id <20090909105717.VUKO6611.mtaout02-winn.ispmail.ntl.com@aamtaout01-winn.ispmail.ntl.com> for ; Wed, 9 Sep 2009 11:57:17 +0100 Received: from catflap.slightlystrange.org ([82.21.101.171]) by aamtaout01-winn.ispmail.ntl.com (InterMail vG.2.02.00.01 201-2161-120-102-20060912) with ESMTP id <20090909105717.ZKZJ13254.aamtaout01-winn.ispmail.ntl.com@catflap.slightlystrange.org> for ; Wed, 9 Sep 2009 11:57:17 +0100 Received: by catflap.slightlystrange.org (Postfix, from userid 106) id 11F9C617B; Wed, 9 Sep 2009 11:57:09 +0100 (BST) Received: from torus.slightlystrange.org (torus.slightlystrange.org [10.1.3.50]) by catflap.slightlystrange.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 5ACE16152 for ; Wed, 9 Sep 2009 11:57:08 +0100 (BST) Received: by torus.slightlystrange.org (sSMTP sendmail emulation); Wed, 9 Sep 2009 11:57:07 +0100 From: "Daniel Bye" Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2009 11:57:07 +0100 To: "'freebsd-questions@freebsd.org'" Message-ID: <20090909105707.GA27941@torus.slightlystrange.org> Mail-Followup-To: "'freebsd-questions@freebsd.org'" References: <7B9397B189EB6E46A5EE7B4C8A4BB7CB3037EBB7@MBX03.exg5.exghost.com> <20090908235259.GB19173@gizmo.acns.msu.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="3V7upXqbjpZ4EhLz" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20090908235259.GB19173@gizmo.acns.msu.edu> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.3i X-PGP-Fingerprint: D349 B109 0EB8 2554 4D75 B79A 8B17 F97C 1622 166A X-Operating-System: FreeBSD 8.0-BETA4 i386 X-Cloudmark-Analysis: v=1.0 c=1 a=ehNlctqhnw0A:10 a=CspJsIRI_-C7ASGyT64A:9 a=v_JfURHijJ5JW0LJEn-3mxcJYX4A:4 a=ClWeB_Km5PYH4RUm7SwA:9 a=xyqU_REo74_bgfD5x8ER10A2TfgA:4 Subject: Re: Using mdconfig for swap space X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: Daniel Bye List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 09 Sep 2009 10:57:34 -0000 --3V7upXqbjpZ4EhLz Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Tue, Sep 08, 2009 at 07:52:59PM -0400, Jerry McAllister wrote: > On Tue, Sep 08, 2009 at 04:51:20PM -0500, Peter Steele wrote: >=20 > > Are there any advantages to using mdconfig and creating a virtual disk = for swap space as opposed to having a designated swap partition? For exampl= e, I could do something like this: >=20 > Unless I am missing something basic here, it seems like a bad idea to=20 > me - to carve out and use up some memory to use as extra storage for=20 > processes that need more memory that you have taken away to give to swap.= =20 > That is self defeating. >=20 > In addition, one use of swap is to write dumps to if there is a crash.=20 > If you put it in memory, it is gone when you reboot. He's talking about using a swap file, rather than a dedicated partition on= =20 the disk, not in RAM! Although it is slightly slower, as Chuck has already= =20 pointed out, it might, in certain circumstances, be a somewhat more=20 convenient solution than repartitioning/reinstalling the whole system. And as RW has said, the facility already exists and can be enabled with a couple of knobs in /etc/rc.conf. Dan --=20 Daniel Bye _ ASCII ribbon campaign ( ) - against HTML, vCards and X - proprietary attachments in e-mail / \ --3V7upXqbjpZ4EhLz Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.13 (FreeBSD) iEYEARECAAYFAkqnigMACgkQixf5fBYiFmonGwCfTsw7EGwXBs8rocUgC4hW5dWk OxwAoIVE0vCsYLGDaNmaxXVS+/QmykDU =zEZw -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --3V7upXqbjpZ4EhLz--