xref: /netbsd-src/sbin/swapctl/swapctl.8 (revision 481fca6e59249d8ffcf24fef7cfbe7b131bfb080)
1.\"	$NetBSD: swapctl.8,v 1.17 2000/03/05 11:35:22 lukem Exp $
2.\"
3.\" Copyright (c) 1997 Matthew R. Green
4.\" All rights reserved.
5.\"
6.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
7.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
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9.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
10.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
11.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
12.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
13.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
14.\" 3. The name of the author may not be used to endorse or promote products
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17.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR
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19.\" OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.
20.\" IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
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22.\" BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
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29.Dd March 5, 2000
30.Dt SWAPCTL 8
31.Os NetBSD
32.Sh NAME
33.Nm swapctl ,
34.Nm swapon
35.Nd system swap management tool
36.Sh SYNOPSIS
37.Nm
38.Fl A
39.Op Fl p Ar priority
40.Op Fl t Ar blk|noblk
41.Nm ""
42.Fl D Ar dumpdev
43.Nm ""
44.Fl U
45.Op Fl t Ar blk|noblk
46.Nm ""
47.Fl a
48.Op Fl p Ar priority
49.Ar path
50.Nm ""
51.Fl c
52.Fl p Ar priority
53.Ar path
54.Nm ""
55.Fl d
56.Ar path
57.Nm ""
58.Fl l | Fl s
59.Op Fl k
60.Nm swapon
61.Fl a | Ar path
62.Nm swapoff
63.Ar path
64.Sh DESCRIPTION
65The
66.Nm
67program adds, removes,
68lists and prioritizes swap devices and files for the system.
69The
70.Nm swapon
71program acts the same as the
72.Nm
73program, as if called with the
74.Fl a
75option, except if
76.Nm swapon
77itself is called with
78.Fl a
79in which case,
80.Nm swapon
81acts as
82.Nm
83with the
84.Fl A
85option.
86.Sh OPTIONS
87The following options are available:
88.Bl -tag -width 123456
89.It Fl A
90This option causes
91.Nm
92to read the
93.Pa /etc/fstab
94file for devices and files with a
95.Dq sw
96and
97.Dq dp
98type, and adds all these entries
99as swap devices, or for a dump device in the case of a
100.Dq dp
101type.  If no swap devices are configured,
102.Nm
103will exit with an error code.
104.It Fl D
105The
106.Fl D
107option requires that a
108.Ar dumpdev
109also be in the argument list.  The kernel dump device is set to
110.Ar dumpdev .
111This changed is made via the
112.Xr swapctl 2
113system call.  The dump device is used when the system crashes
114to write a current snapshot of real memory, to be saved later with
115.Xr savecore 8
116at system reboot, and analyzed to determine the problem.
117.It Fl U
118This option causes
119.Nm
120to read the
121.Pa /etc/fstab
122file for devices and files with a
123.Dq sw
124type, and remove all these entries
125as swap devices.
126If no swap devices are unconfigured,
127.Nm
128will exit with an error code.
129.It Fl a
130The
131.Fl a
132option requires that a
133.Ar path
134also be in the argument list.  The
135.Ar path
136is added to the kernel's list of swap devices using the
137.Xr swapctl 2
138system call.  When using the
139.Nm swapon
140form of this command, the
141.Fl a
142option is treated the same as the
143.Fl A
144option, for backwards compatibility.
145.It Fl c
146The
147.Fl c
148option changes the priority of the listed swap device or file.
149.It Fl d
150The
151.Fl d
152option removes the listed
153.Ar path
154from the kernel's list of swap devices or files.
155.It Fl l
156The
157.Fl l
158option lists the current swap devices and files, and their usage statistics.
159.It Fl s
160The
161.Fl s
162option displays a single line summary of current swap statistics.
163.It Fl p
164The
165.Fl p
166option sets the priority of swap devices or files to the
167.Ar priority
168argument.  This works with the
169.\" .Fl d ,
170.Fl a ,
171.Fl c
172and
173.Fl l
174options.
175.It Fl k
176The
177.Fl k
178option uses 1024 byte blocks instead of the default 512 byte.
179.It Fl t
180This flag modifies the function of the
181.Fl A
182and
183.Fl U
184options.
185The
186.Fl t
187option allows the type of device to add to be specified.  An argument of
188.Ar blk
189causes all block devices in
190.Pa /etc/fstab
191to be added.  An argument of
192.Ar noblk
193causes all non-block devices in
194.Pa /etc/fstab
195to be added.  This option is useful in early system startup, where swapping
196may be needed before all file systems are available, such as during
197disk checks of large file systems.
198.El
199.Sh SWAP OPTIONS
200When parsing the
201.Pa /etc/fstab
202file for swap devices, the following options are recognized:
203.Pp
204.Bl -tag -width nfsmntpt=/path -compact
205.It priority=N
206This option sets the priority of the specified swap device to N.  The
207highest priority is 0, second priority is 1, etc.
208.It nfsmntpt=/path
209This option is useful for swapping to NFS files.  It specifies
210the local mount point to mount an NFS filesystem.  Typically, once
211this mount has succeeded, the file to be used for swapping on will
212be available under this point mount.  For example:
213.Bd -literal
214server:/export/swap/client none swap sw,nfsmntpt=/swap
215.Ed
216.El
217.Sh WARNINGS
218If no swap information is specified in
219.Pa /etc/fstab ,
220the system startup scripts (see
221.Xr rc 8 )
222will configure no swap space and your machine will behave very badly
223if (more likely when) it runs out of real memory.
224.Pp
225Local and remote swap files cannot be configured until after the file
226systems they reside on are mounted read/write.  The system startup
227scripts need to
228.Xr fsck 8
229all local file systems before this can happen. This process requires
230substantial amounts of memory on some systems.  If you configure no
231local block swap devices on a machine that has local file systems to
232check and rely only on swap files, the machine will have no swap space
233at all during system
234.Xr fsck 8
235and may run out of real memory, causing fsck to abnormally exit and
236startup scripts to fail.
237.Sh HISTORY
238The
239.Nm
240program was first made available in
241.Nx 1.3 .
242The original
243.Nm swapon
244program, provided for backwards compatibility, appeared in
245.Bx 4.0 .
246.Sh AUTHOR
247The
248.Nm
249program was written by Matthew R. Green <mrg@eterna.com.au>.
250.Sh SEE ALSO
251.Xr swapctl 2 ,
252.Xr fstab 5 ,
253.Xr mount_nfs 8
254