On Thu, 2006-12-14 at 13:29 +0000, Alan wrote: > On Thu, 14 Dec 2006 7:26:26 -0500 > Tom Horsley <tomhorsley@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > Are there nice simple foolproof instructions somewhere that would let me add > > more swap space to my system by using an ordinary file as swap (I don't want to > > repartition the disk). Seems like the device mapper voodoo might work for > > this, but my brain is too tiny to figure out how on my own :-). > > dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=1M count=whatever > > [Make a file that size, you don't have to make it with dd, thats just the > quick but arcane command old Unix heads tend to use for it] Well, yeah, but you do want the swapfile to be contiguous and NOT a sparse file so you must fill it with _something_. /dev/zero is a nice source of zero bytes and dd will write a contiguous, non-sparse file. So, to create a 1GB swap file: dd if=/dev/zero of=/path/to/swap/file bs=1M count=1000 And Bob's your uncle! > mkswap /swapfile > > [Mark it as a swap file and set it up] > > Then add /swapfile (or whever you put it) to /etc/fstab > > swapon -a > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- - Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer rstevens@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx - - VitalStream, Inc. http://www.vitalstream.com - - - - Brain: The organ with which we think that we think. - ----------------------------------------------------------------------
