Is there a consensus on the question, swap, no swap, or swap so file? Is it as simple as personal preference? Is it more a question of one’s RAM size or hardware configuration? I’ve seen so many opinions on this, I’m curious as to what EndeavourOS users here think.

I think if memory is adequate for the tasks asked, then swap is non-essential and maybe even non-useful.

That was my initial thought. Seems like if you have 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB of RAM, it may not be all that useful.

I think it depends very much on the use case. For example I have 32GB RAM on my system and have never used any swap on it, and have been using it to everything for years. All this without problems. But if a user runs several apps each consuming lots of RAM, I think some form of swap may be necess…

I always have a swap file of 8 GB on a 16 GB of RAM. Usually, between 0.1 and 1.2 GB is swapped out. As you already mentioned, there’s a lot of information here on the forum. For me and my decision, the article by baeldung was the most influential. https://www.baeldung.com/linux/zram-zswap-zcache-…

[image] UncleSpellbinder: Is there a consensus on the question, swap, no swap, or swap so file? No, like many other things Linux :wink: However, one thing is certain, though I am not certain that other thinks the same about its certainty, that some amount of a swap device is good to have for…

Since swapfiles became a thing, I have always preferred them over a more traditional swap partition. Easy to configure and adjust according to need. I do use a swapfile on one of my test laptops because RAM is only 8GB. Mind you, I am not a heavy user and have rarely seen swap being used anyway.

This topic has already been discussed here: [image] Zram vs swap partition vs swapfile Newbie 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 …

[image] rubi1200: I do use a swapfile on one of my test laptops because RAM is only 8GB. Having a swap file or swap partition on a laptop is a good thing if you want to do hibernation. Hibernation simply does not work without physical swap space.

Thanks, @mbod . I don’t know how I missed that thread.

I have 64GB of DDR5. I still have a swap file. From what I understand, some programs still expect a swap file to exist, even if they don’t actively use it, and tend to behave weirdly if it isn’t there. Looking at my current swap, there’s still a tiny amount of usage, which indicates it’s needed in s…

Swap, No Swap, or Swap To File?

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mbod May 9, 2026, 1:58pm 8

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