What is a "swapfile"?

A

About2SwitchOvr

macrumors regular

Original poster

• May 23, 2004

• #1

I was looking through the Hard Drive.. and saw 4 of these files..
I added the pdf to this.. anyone offer any insight?

 

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rainman::|:|

macrumors 603

• May 23, 2004

• #2

the short answer is that swapfiles are the place where virtual memory is stored, it's referenced in pageins/pageouts. In general, the system takes care of virtual memory, although it's a bit complicated you can move the file to another disk, for instance.

paul

 

A

About2SwitchOvr

macrumors regular

Original poster

• May 23, 2004

• #3

paulwhannel said:

the short answer is that swapfiles are the place where virtual memory is stored, it's referenced in pageins/pageouts. In general, the system takes care of virtual memory, although it's a bit complicated you can move the file to another disk, for instance.

paul

Click to expand...

I can move it... but I can't/shouldn't delete it.. correct? I saw about 4... which seems to get bigger and bigger...

 

K

kenkooler

macrumors regular

• May 23, 2004

• #4

About2SwitchOvr said:

I can move it... but I can't/shouldn't delete it.. correct? I saw about 4... which seems to get bigger and bigger...

Click to expand...

Correct, those files will be erased after a restart or when the memory is freed.

 

A

About2SwitchOvr

macrumors regular

Original poster

• May 24, 2004

• #5

Ok great!

kenkooler said:

Correct, those files will be erased after a restart or when the memory is freed.

Click to expand...

Thanks Kenkooler, for your input. Greatly appreciated...
While on the topic of memory..
Even if I had... say.. 1 gig, compared to the 768 I have now...The amount of memory (percentage) that I have... should be the same in either situations.. if I'm running the same programs.. no?

Currently. I run mainly Excel, Adium, have iTunes in the background, Safari, and watch EyeTv at the same time and that always leaves about 10-12 mbs free... Even if I had a gig, it would still end up somewhere near there because the longer the programs are up and running, it's consuming memory..

Is this assumption a correct/accurate one?

 

IJ Reilly

macrumors P6

• May 24, 2004

• #6

kenkooler said:

Correct, those files will be erased after a restart or when the memory is freed.

Click to expand...

Some will be deleted after logging out, but all will only be deleted after a restart. They don't go away (unfortunately) just because they aren't needed.

 

Spock

Contributor

• May 24, 2004

• #7

You can slso put Your swap file on a partition but I forgot how. I heard it is better that way.