In Defense of Swap - The ever present debate

[eznix]

Since the topic of swap came up in the “show your desktop” thread, here is some information regarding the nature of swap and its purpose.

In defence of swap: common misconceptions

Please read the article before chiming in with less-informed pronouncements.

[thefrog]

@eznix

Please read the article before chiming in with less-informed pronouncements.

Where is you sense of Adventure
They started a thread for that actually JICYDK

Zram vs swap partition vs swapfile

To end the discussion in the “show your desktop” about swap partition yes/no. I want to hear your thoughts about swap and why you use it or not. Personally i have a system up and running with btrfs and 32GB of ram WITHOUT swap enabled. System runs very smooth compared to my Pop! OS install on the same notebook. I do notice improvements with Endeavour OS (like moving a window). So i really wonder what benefits a swap partition would have. Pop OS uses zram + a swap partition. From my reading onl…

[cactux]

This article was posted in that recent thread about swap as well:

Zram vs swap partition vs swapfile

I’m no expert, and i have no real set convictions about swap, but when i read [1], i decided to always have some swap. I believe the author knows what they talk about, and they seem to debunk some myths that are common place. So far, using swap has not had any negative effects on my systems. [1]

On the whole it is a technically advanced written article that may be difficult to understand for less technical, average users. However I guess you get the general idea about the points being forwarded in that article about the benefits of having swap for a well functioning system.

With that said, the misconceptions, misinformation, misunderstandings and “myths”, if you so will, about the swap is quite deeply ingrained. Therefore I don’t think the “less informed pronouncement” are meant to be assertions about one or other thing being actually the case about swap

It is better to air all these misconceptions and misunderstandings for them to be corrected by facts of the matter from more knowledgeable and technically advanced users.

I had personally misconceived the idea of a write-back device for zram even though I had carefully read the zram article in Archwiki and the manual page for zram-generator.conf.

I made a “less-informed pronouncement” about the subject and got an insightful and informative response from a more advanced user for which I am grateful.

Not everybody can fully understand all the technicalities of articles writen in Archwiki or the one here referenced. Therefore, I think even the in-chimed “less-informed pronouncement” should have a place in a discussion as long as the “pronouncer” won’t be insisting upon that their pronouncement is about what is being actually and really the case and nothing else.

[eznix]

Yeah, I just saw that thread. Thanks.

[eznix]

@cactux

With that said, the misconceptions, misinformation, misunderstandings and “myths”, if you so will, about the swap is quite deeply ingrained. Therefore I don’t think the “less informed pronouncement” are meant to be assertions about one or other thing being actually the case about swap

I do realize this, the point is not lost on me. As you are probably aware, many people who post do so with sometimes misplaced zealotry. I have been guilty of such actions. Thank you for the words of wisdom.

[ulefr01]

Please note when you want to use hibernation then you need a swap because hibernation saves the state of your system to your swap !