[Leaplist] Creation of Swap

[William Warren]

David Simmons wrote:
>   
>> Another way of looking at the swap partition is as a fuse or
>> idiot light -- if you swap often, you need more RAM.
>>     
>
> Actually....that's not always correct.  Linux is not like
> Windows...grin.  The Linux kernel will put things into swap that it
> doesn't need much - like a storage.  That can make the system run
> better as it uses the memory for what/when it really needs it.
>
> You are correct that if your daily, day-to-day stuff is always swapping
> - then, yes, you need more ram.  But if your kernel puts some stuff
> info swap because you don't need it - then swap is a good thing!?
>
> Guess the real question is how much swappiness you have going on. 
> Yes, swappiness is a correct phrase....read about it here:
>
> http://kerneltrap.org/node/3000
>
> I love this comment:
>
>
> I don't know. What if you have some huge application that only
> runs once per day for 10 minutes? Do you want it to be consuming
> 100MB of your memory for the other 23 hours and 50 minutes for
> no
> good reason?
>
>
> Just some thoughts - Dave
>
>
>
>   
this is why i run my system with swappiness zero.  For me if the system 
is touching swap I need more ram.

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