Wednesday, 8 February 2012

Difference between swap partition and swap file

Difference between swap partition and swap file


Linux has two forms of swap space:

1. The swap partition
2. The swap file
Difference between swap partition and swap file
Difference between swap partition and swap file
Swap Partition:

The swap partition is an independent section of the hard disk used solely forswapping; no other files can reside there. 

When the system requires more memory than is physically available, the kernel swaps out less used pages and gives memory to the current process that needs the memory immediately.

Swap File:

The swap file is a special file in the file system that resides amongst your system and data files.

You can create, prepare, and mount a swap file in a fashion similar to that of a swap partition. The advantage of swap files is that you don't need to find an empty partition or repartition a disk to add additional swap space. 

Advantage of Swap file is if you need to increase the swap space of the systemimmediately we can do it.

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