xref: /freebsd/sbin/swapon/swapon.8 (revision 242b24828472137ec4411826b86e753d49bd2c39)
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28.\"     @(#)swapon.8	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/5/93
29.\" $FreeBSD$
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31.Dd October 2, 2016
32.Dt SWAPON 8
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm swapon , swapoff , swapctl
36.Nd "specify devices for paging and swapping"
37.Sh SYNOPSIS
38.Nm swapon
39.Oo Fl F Ar fstab
40.Oc
41.Fl aLq | Ar
42.Nm swapoff
43.Oo Fl F Ar fstab
44.Oc
45.Fl aLq | Ar
46.Nm swapctl
47.Op Fl AghklmsU
48.Oo
49.Fl a Ar
50|
51.Fl d Ar
52.Oc
53.Sh DESCRIPTION
54The
55.Nm swapon , swapoff
56and
57.Nm swapctl
58utilities are used to control swap devices in the system.
59At boot time all swap entries in
60.Pa /etc/fstab
61are added automatically when the system goes multi-user.
62Swap devices use a fixed interleave; the maximum number of devices
63is unlimited.
64There is no priority mechanism.
65.Pp
66The
67.Nm swapon
68utility adds the specified swap devices to the system.
69If the
70.Fl a
71option is used, all swap devices in
72.Pa /etc/fstab
73will be added, unless their
74.Dq noauto
75or
76.Dq late
77option is also set.
78If the
79.Fl L
80option is specified,
81swap devices with the
82.Dq late
83option will be added as well as ones with no option.
84If the
85.Fl q
86option is used,
87informational messages will not be
88written to standard output when a swap device is added.
89.Pp
90The
91.Nm swapoff
92utility removes the specified swap devices from the system.
93If the
94.Fl a
95option is used, all swap devices in
96.Pa /etc/fstab
97will be removed, unless their
98.Dq noauto
99option is also set.
100If the
101.Fl q
102option is used,
103informational messages will not be
104written to standard output when a swap device is removed.
105Note that
106.Nm swapoff
107will fail and refuse to remove a swap device if there is insufficient
108VM (memory + remaining swap devices) to run the system.
109The
110.Nm swapoff
111utility
112must move swapped pages out of the device being removed which could
113lead to high system loads for a period of time, depending on how
114much data has been swapped out to that device.
115.Pp
116Other options supported by both
117.Nm swapon
118and
119.Nm swapoff
120are as follows:
121.Bl -tag -width indent
122.It Fl F Ar fstab
123Specify the
124.Pa fstab
125file to use.
126.El
127.Pp
128The
129.Nm swapctl
130utility exists primarily for those familiar with other
131.Bx Ns s
132and may be
133used to add, remove, or list swap devices.
134Note that the
135.Fl a
136option is used differently in
137.Nm swapctl
138and indicates that a specific list of devices should be added.
139The
140.Fl d
141option indicates that a specific list should be removed.
142The
143.Fl A
144and
145.Fl U
146options to
147.Nm swapctl
148operate on all swap entries in
149.Pa /etc/fstab
150which do not have their
151.Dq noauto
152option set.
153.Pp
154Swap information can be generated using the
155.Xr swapinfo 8
156utility,
157.Nm pstat
158.Fl s ,
159or
160.Nm swapctl
161.Fl l .
162The
163.Nm swapctl
164utility has the following options for listing swap:
165.Bl -tag -width indent
166.It Fl h
167Output values in human-readable form.
168.It Fl g
169Output values in gigabytes.
170.It Fl k
171Output values in kilobytes.
172.It Fl m
173Output values in megabytes.
174.It Fl l
175List the devices making up system swap.
176.It Fl s
177Print a summary line for system swap.
178.Pp
179The
180.Ev BLOCKSIZE
181environment variable is used if not specifically
182overridden.
183512 byte blocks are used by default.
184.El
185.Sh FILES
186.Bl -tag -width ".Pa /dev/{ada,da}?s?b" -compact
187.It Pa /dev/{ada,da}?s?b
188standard paging devices
189.It Pa /dev/md?
190memory disk devices
191.It Pa /etc/fstab
192.Tn ASCII
193file system description table
194.El
195.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
196These utilities may fail for the reasons described in
197.Xr swapon 2 .
198.Sh SEE ALSO
199.Xr swapon 2 ,
200.Xr fstab 5 ,
201.Xr init 8 ,
202.Xr mdconfig 8 ,
203.Xr pstat 8 ,
204.Xr rc 8
205.Sh HISTORY
206The
207.Nm swapon
208utility appeared in
209.Bx 4.0 .
210The
211.Nm swapoff
212and
213.Nm swapctl
214utilities appeared in
215.Fx 5.1 .
216