.\" /usr/share/man/man8/dphys-swapfile.8(.gz)
.\" author Neil Franklin, last modification 2006.12.22
.\" copyright ETH Zuerich Physics Departement
.\"   use under either modified/non-advertising BSD or GPL license

.TH DPHYS-SWAPFILE 8 "2006.12.22" "D-PHYS Swapfile Tools"

.SH NAME

dphys-swapfile \- set up, mount/unmount, and delete an swap file

.SH SYNOPSIS

.B dphys-swapfile
\fBsetup\fP|\fBswapon\fP|\fBswapoff\fP|\fBuninstall\fP

.SH DESCRIPTION

dphys-swapfile computes the size for an optimal swap file (and resizes an
existing swap file if neccessary), mounts an swap file, unmounts it, and and
delete it if not wanted any more.

.SH OPTIONS

There is only one parameter, an command, which can be either of these:
.TP
.B setup
Tells dphys-swapfile to compute the optimal swap file size and (re-)generate
an fitting swap file. Default it 2 times RAM size. This can be called at boot
time, so the file allways stays the right size for current RAM, or run by hand
whenever RAM size has changed.
.TP
.B swapon
and
.B swapoff
These run the \fIswapon \fPand \fIswapoff\fP commands on the swapfile. Note
that direct swapon/off from \fI/etc/fstab\fP is not possible, as that is (at
least on Debian) done in the same script that mounts /var (which is where the
swap file most likely resides). And we need to do our setup between those
actions. So pass up \fI/etc/fstab\fP, and do our own swapon/off.
.TP
.B uninstall
Gets rid of an unwanted swap file, reclaiming the disk space.

.SH CONFIG

The config file \fI/etc/dphys-swapfile\fP allows the user to set up the
working environment for dphys-swapfile.
.PP
This config file is a sh script fragment full of assignments, which is
sourced. Standard sh syntax rules apply. Assignments are:
.TP
.B CONF_SWAPFILE
Set where the swap file should be placed. Defaults to /var/swap. It is unlikely
that you will need to change this, unless you have very strange partitioning,
and then you will most likely be using an swap partition anyway.
.TP
.B CONF_SWAPSIZE
Force file size to this. Default is 2*RAM size. This is unlikely to be needed,
unless in strange diskspace situations. Note that swap enabled and smaller
than RAM causes kernal-internal VM trouble on random systems.

.SH FILES

.TP
.B /etc/dphys-swapfile
user config
.TP
.B $CONF_SWAPFILE
the swap file, target of the whole action (defaults to \fI/var/swap\fP)

.SH EXAMPLES

dphys-swapfile is usually run at system startup and shutdown from an
/etc/init.d (or /etc/rc.d) script, such as this (minimal) one:
.PP
.nf
#!/bin/sh\!
# /etc/init.d/dphys-swapfile \- automatically set up an swapfile\!
# author franklin, last modification 2004.06.04\!
# This script is copyright ETH Zuerich Physics Departement,\!
#   use under either modified/non-advertising BSD or GPL license\!
case "$1" in\!
  start)\!
    /sbin/dphys-swapfile setup\!
    /sbin/dphys-swapfile swapon\!
    ;;\!
  stop)\!
    /sbin/dphys-swapfile swapoff\!
    ;;\!
esac\!
exit 0\!
.fi
.PP
If an sysadmin wants to have his swapfile in annother place, say /var/run/swap,
he can use:
.PP
In \fI/etc/dphys-swapfile\fP:
.PP
CONF_SWAPFILE=/var/run/swap


.SH AUTHOR

neil@franklin.ch, http://neil.franklin.ch/