From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([69.77.167.62] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1LQpLC-0002pl-Q6 for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Sat, 24 Jan 2009 20:42:55 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 89DC0E0361; Sat, 24 Jan 2009 20:42:53 +0000 (UTC) Received: from smtp.gentoo.org (smtp.gentoo.org [140.211.166.183]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5DEF0E0361 for ; Sat, 24 Jan 2009 20:42:53 +0000 (UTC) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by smtp.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B609264539 for ; Sat, 24 Jan 2009 20:42:52 +0000 (UTC) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at gentoo.org X-Spam-Score: -3.318 X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.318 required=5.5 tests=[AWL=0.125, BAYES_00=-2.599, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_LOW=-1, SUBJECT_FUZZY_TION=0.156] Received: from smtp.gentoo.org ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (smtp.gentoo.org [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id AO9RtVg+S1II for ; Sat, 24 Jan 2009 20:42:46 +0000 (UTC) Received: from ciao.gmane.org (main.gmane.org [80.91.229.2]) (using TLSv1 with cipher AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E67E86484F for ; Sat, 24 Jan 2009 20:42:44 +0000 (UTC) Received: from list by ciao.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.43) id 1LQpKx-0008Rh-Dc for gentoo-user@gentoo.org; Sat, 24 Jan 2009 20:42:39 +0000 Received: from 67-220-10-117.usiwireless.com ([67.220.10.117]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Sat, 24 Jan 2009 20:42:39 +0000 Received: from grante by 67-220-10-117.usiwireless.com with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Sat, 24 Jan 2009 20:42:39 +0000 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org From: Grant Edwards Subject: [gentoo-user] Re: Howto share Linux swap partition with Windows XP Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2009 20:42:31 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: References: <200901241044.09521.peter@humphrey.ukfsn.org> <200901241552.28443.peter@humphrey.ukfsn.org> X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: 67-220-10-117.usiwireless.com User-Agent: slrn/0.9.8.1pl1 (Linux) Sender: news Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org X-Archives-Salt: 2cbb5e24-0752-4fe7-9cd1-f1875976136a X-Archives-Hash: 0b2cc540ab1d9d65bd593b1a0d9d2d19 On 2009-01-24, ABCD wrote: > There actually is a good reason (oddly enough) for Windows > using a file on the filesystem for its swap space. Because it > is a simple file on disk, if Windows realizes that the swap > file is almost full, it can expand your swap without having to > do things like repartition. This makes the "swap is full - > out of memory"-type problems less likely to occur While that's a valid point in theory, I've never had a "swap is full - out of memory" problem in all the years I've been running Unixes that swapped to dedicated partitions. In my experience the system usually slows to a standstill and requires drastic action long before swap fills up. > (unless it is "filesystem is full" as well :) ). That, on the other hand, I do run into quite regularly. So it seems to me that using a swap file rather than a paritition is increasing the liklehood of problems rather than decreasing it while at the same time adding both system overhead and instability. Surely it's easier to corrupt a swapfile that's in a normal, heavily-used filesystem than it is to corrupt a dedicated swap partition? The code that prevents one partition from "spilling over" into another is much, much simpler and more bullet-proof than the code that manages blocks/clusters within a filesystems. If I were to guess why Windows doesn't use a swap partition, it would be because floppy disks didn't have partitions. -- Grant