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Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 11:15:27 +0930
From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
To: amora@zoom.es
Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: Memory and swap size.
References: <199710131430.QAA15481@silvester.zoom.es>
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In-Reply-To: <199710131430.QAA15481@silvester.zoom.es>; from Jesus A. Mora Marin on Sun, Oct 12, 1997 at 09:06:01PM +0000
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On Sun, Oct 12, 1997 at 09:06:01PM +0000, Jesus A. Mora Marin wrote:
> Hi!
>
> I have recently increased the RAM of my system from 16 to 32MB. The
> only swap partition in my FreeBSD slice is 48 MB.
>
> It's a generally accepted rule of thumb that the swap size should be
> at least twice the memory size, so this is not my case now.
>
> The questions are:
> a) What are the possible negative consequences of not fulfilling this
>    recommendation?

You might run out of swap.  If you haven't changed your habits, it's
not very likely.

> b) I have automated the dumping of the system in case of panic, using
>    the swap partition as the dumpdev. Luckily, I haven't seen this
>    yet for almost two years, after fixing some problem with an CD-ROM
>    drive. Then, performing an postmortem debugging proved to be
>    helpful, so I don't want to disable this feature. Can I get into
>    trouble if a panic happens now?

No.  You need at least as much swap as memory in order to dump.  Even
if you don't have enough swap space, the system doesn't dump.

Greg