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SWAPON(8) System Manager's Manual SWAPON(8)

swapon — specify additional device for paging and swapping

swapon -a

swapon special_file ...

Swapon is used to specify additional devices on which paging and swapping are to take place. The system begins by swapping and paging on only a single device so that only one disk is required at bootstrap time. 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.

Normally, the first form is used:

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

The second form gives individual block devices as given in the system swap configuration table. The call makes only this space available to the system for swap allocation.

swapon(2), fstab(8) init(8) rc(8)

/dev/[ru][pk]?b
standard paging devices
/etc/fstab
ascii filesystem description table

There is no way to stop paging and swapping on a device. It is therefore not possible to make use of devices which may be dismounted during system operation.

The swapon command appeared in 4.0BSD.

BSD 4 June 5, 1993 SWAPON(8)