Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)

FreeBSD Manual Pages

  
 
  

home | help
SWAPON(8)		FreeBSD	System Manager's Manual		     SWAPON(8)

NAME
     swapon, swapoff, swapctl -- specify devices for paging and	swapping

SYNOPSIS
     swapon [-F	fstab] -aLq | file ...
     swapoff [-F fstab]	-aLq | file ...
     swapctl [-AghklmsU] [-a file ... |	-d file	...]

DESCRIPTION
     The swapon, swapoff and swapctl utilities are used	to control swap
     devices in	the system.  At	boot time all swap entries in /etc/fstab are
     added automatically when the system goes multi-user.  Swap	devices	use a
     fixed interleave; the maximum number of devices is	unlimited.  There is
     no	priority mechanism.

     The swapon	utility	adds the specified swap	devices	to the system.	If the
     -a	option is used,	all swap devices in /etc/fstab will be added, unless
     their ``noauto'' or ``late'' option is also set.  If the -L option	is
     specified,	swap devices with the ``late'' option will be added as well as
     ones with no option.  If the -q option is used, informational messages
     will not be written to standard output when a swap	device is added.

     The swapoff utility removes the specified swap devices from the system.
     If	the -a option is used, all swap	devices	in /etc/fstab will be removed,
     unless their ``noauto'' option is also set.  If the -L option is speci-
     fied, only	swap devices with the ``late'' option will be removed.	If the
     -q	option is used,	informational messages will not	be written to standard
     output when a swap	device is removed.  Note that swapoff will fail	and
     refuse to remove a	swap device if there is	insufficient VM	(memory	+
     remaining swap devices) to	run the	system.	 The swapoff utility must move
     swapped pages out of the device being removed which could lead to high
     system loads for a	period of time,	depending on how much data has been
     swapped out to that device.

     Other options supported by	both swapon and	swapoff	are as follows:

     -F	fstab
	     Specify the fstab file to use.

     The swapctl utility exists	primarily for those familiar with other	BSDs
     and may be	used to	add, remove, or	list swap devices.  Note that the -a
     option is used differently	in swapctl and indicates that a	specific list
     of	devices	should be added.  The -d option	indicates that a specific list
     should be removed.	 The -A	and -U options to swapctl operate on all swap
     entries in	/etc/fstab which do not	have their ``noauto'' option set.

     Swap information can be generated using the swapinfo(8) utility, pstat
     -s, or swapctl -l.	 The swapctl utility has the following options for
     listing swap:

     -h	     Output values in human-readable form.

     -g	     Output values in gigabytes.

     -k	     Output values in kilobytes.

     -m	     Output values in megabytes.

     -l	     List the devices making up	system swap.

     -s	     Print a summary line for system swap.

	     The BLOCKSIZE environment variable	is used	if not specifically
	     overridden.  512 byte blocks are used by default.

FILES
     /dev/{ada,da}?s?b	standard paging	devices
     /dev/md?		memory disk devices
     /etc/fstab		ASCII file system description table

DIAGNOSTICS
     These utilities may fail for the reasons described	in swapon(2).

SEE ALSO
     swapon(2),	fstab(5), init(8), mdconfig(8),	pstat(8), rc(8)

HISTORY
     The swapon	utility	appeared in 4.0BSD.  The swapoff and swapctl utilities
     appeared in FreeBSD 5.1.

FreeBSD	11.1		       October 21, 2016			  FreeBSD 11.1

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | FILES | DIAGNOSTICS | SEE ALSO | HISTORY

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=swapctl&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+11.1-RELEASE+and+Ports>

home | help