SWAPON(N)           Linux Programmer's Manual           SWAPON(N)



NAME
       swapon,  swapoff  -  enable/disable  devices and files for
       paging and swapping

SYNOPSIS
       /sbin/swapon [-h -V]
       /sbin/swapon -a [-v]
       /sbin/swapon [-v] [-p priority]  specialfile ...
       /sbin/swapon [-s]
       /sbin/swapoff [-h -V]
       /sbin/swapoff -a
       /sbin/swapoff specialfile ...

DESCRIPTION
       Swapon is used to specify  devices  on  which  paging  and
       swapping  are  to  take  place.   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
       and files.

       Normally, the first form is used:

       -h     Provide help

       -V     Display version

       -s     Display  swap usage summary by device.  This option
              is only available if /proc/swaps  exists  (probably
              not before kernel 2.1.25).

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

       -p priority
              Specify priority for swapon.  This option  is  only
              available  if swapon was compiled under and is used
              under a 1.3.2 or later kernel.  priority is a value
              between  0  and  32767.  See  swapon(n)  for a full
              description of swap priorities.  Add  pri=value  to
              the  option field of /etc/fstab for use with swapon
              -a.

       Swapoff disables swapping on  the  specified  devices  and
       files,  or  on  all swap entries in /etc/fstab when the -a
       flag is given.

NOTE
       You should not use swapon on a file with holes.  Swap over
       NFS may not work.

SEE ALSO
       swapon(n),   swapoff(f),   fstab(b),  init(t),  mkswap(p),
       rc(c), mount(t)

FILES
       /dev/hd??  standard paging devices
       /dev/sd??  standard (SCSI) paging devices
       /etc/fstab ascii filesystem description table

HISTORY
       The swapon command appeared in 4.0BSD.