On Sat, 27 Apr 2002 16:58:47 +1000, _nasturtium <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hello, > > I often read about creating a swap partition (for Linux of course) that > is twice as large as your amount of memory, up to 256mb. > > Why do you need a larger swap when you have more memory? If, for > example, i had 64mb memory and a 128mb swap, couldn't i just replace it > with 192mb?
Perhaps with Windows, but not with Linux. Linux uses spare RAM for caching your hard drives. Since hard drives are usually the only mechanical component in a system (save the fan), and hence are very slow, this can improve speed significantly. If you add more RAM to a system, Linux can increase its HDD cache. The VM system often moves unused parts of RAM to the swap, even if there is RAM available, to optimise hard drive speeds. In other words, Linux will try to use your swap even if you upgrade your RAM (unless you upgrade to something huge like 4GB). -- Sridhar Dhanapalan Yeah, yeah, it's 7PM Christmas Eve over there, and you're in the middle of your Christmas dinner. You might feel that it's unreasonable of me to ask you to test out my latest crazy idea. How selfish of you. Get back there in front of the computer NOW. Christmas can wait. Linus "the Grinch" Torvalds
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