NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #19/NN_1992_19.iso/spool/comp/os/linux/9746

Internet Message Format | 1992-09-03 | 1.1 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!news.funet.fi!hydra!klaava!wirzeniu
From: [e-mail] (Lars Wirzenius)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: Swap files versus swap partitions
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 3 Sep 92 13:03:35 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki
Lines: 14

What reasons are there to prefer swap partitions instead of swap files?
I have the impression that a partition may be a bit faster, but how much
is this?  5% or 50%?  As far as I have been able to figure out, there is
no other advantage, and the flexibility of swap files (_much_ easier to
change the size if you have to) means that perhaps it would be better to
use swap files by default, especially at the beginning and until one has
some experience of how much swap space one actually needs.  After that,
if the speed difference is big enough, one can change the partitioning
and create a swap partition that is big enough and not overly big (does
anybody really need 12 MB swap space on a 4 MB machine, or is it that
big just to be certain?).

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