need for swap partition?
 

what is the need of swap partition in linux.as far as i know every os uses the hard disk for swapping pages then why do i require a separate swap partition for linux.

A partition is on the hard disk, it's just a compartiment or logical drive, which would get a drive letter of it's own under windows ... so for all practical purposes it is a hard drive.

As I understand it the swap partition gives a performance advantage over having a swap file on a normal partition as you don't have the extra file system layer that need processing between read/writes. The swap partition is the filesystem if you see what I mean.

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cheers

Jamie...

Sorry for the interruption but I have a simple question regarding swap partition, too. If I am to install 2 distros on the same machine, is one swap partition enough for me or do I have to make 2 of them?

They can share the swap partition without any problem.

cheers

Jamie...

the swap file is used as "ram" once your ram is full
on most newer systems this isnt an issue with linux
its more of an issue with windows due too the poor memory management
the swap file came in handy back in the day when ram was really expensive
debian for example will allow you to procede with the install without a swap
the distro i use i set my swap so small its really of no use
but at a gig of ram ill never fill it up

Thanks :)

I only have 512 mb and I never used more then 300.