NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

       swapon, swapoff - enable/disable devices and files for paging and swapping

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

       /sbin/swapon [-h -V]
       /sbin/swapon -a [-v]
       /sbin/swapon [-v] [-p priority]	specialfile ...
       /sbin/swapon [-s]
       /sbin/swapoff [-h -V]
       /sbin/swapoff -a
       /sbin/swapoff specialfile ...

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

       Swapon is used to specify devices on which paging and swapping  are  to
       take  place.   Calls  to swapon normally occur in the system multi-user
       initialization file /etc/rc making all swap devices available, so  that
       the  paging and swapping activity is interleaved across several devices
       and files.

       Normally, the first form is used:

       -h     Provide help

       -V     Display version

       -s     Display swap usage summary  by  device.	This  option  is  only
	      available  if  /proc/swaps  exists  (probably  not before kernel
	      2.1.25).

       -a     All devices marked as ``sw'' swap devices in /etc/fstab are made
	      available.

       -p priority
	      Specify  priority  for swapon.  This option is only available if
	      swapon was compiled under and is used under  a  1.3.2  or  later
	      kernel.	priority is a value between 0 and 32767. See swapon(2)
	      for a full description of swap priorities. Add pri=value to  the
	      option field of /etc/fstab for use with swapon -a.

       Swapoff disables swapping on the specified devices and files, or on all
       swap entries in /etc/fstab when the -a flag is given.

NOTE    [Toc]    [Back]

       You should not use swapon on a file with holes.	Swap over NFS may  not
       work.

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

       swapon(2), swapoff(2), fstab(5), init(8), mkswap(8), rc(8), mount(8)

FILES    [Toc]    [Back]

       /dev/hd??  standard paging devices
       /dev/sd??  standard (SCSI) paging devices
       /etc/fstab ascii filesystem description table

HISTORY    [Toc]    [Back]

       The swapon command appeared in 4.0BSD.



Linux 1.x		       25 September 1995		     SWAPON(8)