Why This Matters
A practical argument that Linux installers' default push toward dedicated swap partitions is outdated, since swap files have matched partition performance for over two decades. For sysadmins and desktop users alike, swap files are far easier to resize, add, or remove after install, which matters for flexible storage planning.
Key Takeaways
- Swap files have offered equivalent performance to swap partitions for 20+ years, yet distro installers still favor partitions.
- Swap files can be added, removed, resized, or extended post-install without repartitioning.
- Setup is a few commands: fallocate (or dd), chmod 0600, mkswap, swapon, plus an fstab entry for persistence.
Stop making swap partitions—use swap files instead!
Swap files have had the same performance characteristics as swap partitions for more than 20 years and yet, linux distributions continue to encourage the use of swap partitions during install.
Swap files are easier to use/add/remove/modify/extend after installation. They're better in every way––use swap files!
Create a swap file.
💡 You can use dd for this too but if your filesystem supports it, fallocate is faster.
fallocate -l 4G /swapfile
Only root should be able to write to the swap file.
chmod 0600 /swapfile
Format the swap file.
mkswap /swapfile
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