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🟢 Introduction

In Linux systems, swap space is an essential component for memory management.
When your physical RAM becomes full, swap provides additional virtual memory by temporarily storing inactive data. This helps maintain system stability and prevents crashes or performance drops.

🟢 Functions of Swap Space

1 — Memory Overflow Handling

If your RAM is fully used, swap takes over and stores inactive process data.
This prevents system instability and memory-related errors.

2 — Swap File Flexibility

A swap file is created inside the existing filesystem and acts as swap space.
It is flexible and allows the swap size to be easily increased or decreased.

🟢 Recommended Swap Size

Swap size depends on system usage and installed RAM:

• 4 GB RAM or less: 2× RAM
• 4–8 GB RAM: 1.5× RAM
• 8–16 GB RAM: Equal to RAM
• 16 GB RAM and above: Adjust as needed, usually half of RAM is enough

If the system uses hibernation, swap should be at least equal to the amount of RAM.

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🟢 View Active Swap

swapon --show

🟢 Add Swap Space (Example: 2 GB Swap File)

sudo fallocate -l 2G /swapfile

sudo chmod 600 /swapfile

sudo mkswap /swapfile

sudo swapon /swapfile

🟢 Make Swap Permanent

echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

🟢 Disable All Swap

sudo swapoff -a

🟢 View Swap Usage

htop

free -m

sudo swapon -s