swapping and paging

Forum: DSL Ideas and Suggestions
Topic: swapping and paging
started by: l0st

Posted by l0st on Mar. 26 2005,05:05

< Swapping and Paging >
Here's a little tidbit I snatched from slashdot. Here's the scooop:
It says a paging file whips things out 4k apiece, while the swap file drags out an entire process from memory.
Now I'm not a programmer of any sort but it seems pretty clear to me the paging file way of handling things sounds a whole lot better; a system like DSL could do with that tidbit of memory muscle.. I don't recall Linux using paging, and Google didn't turn up anything useless, so I'm asking here.
Is a paging file really better than the swapping system? If so, is it implemented already/possible to implement it?

Posted by mikshaw on Mar. 26 2005,06:12

I'm no expert on the subject...always thought the two were the same thing...but one thing that should be mentioned is that he is talking about the Windows operating systems only. I wouldn't be surprised if linux swap and windows swap were entirely different beings. We already know that the Linux file system is very different, and arguably much more efficient...could it not also handle swap differently, and maybe more efficiently?

Considering that my swap hardly ever gets touched in linux, where it was constantly being used in windows, I'd have to say that there is a difference, and linux still comes out on top.

Posted by l0st on Mar. 26 2005,14:05

Well I don't pretend to be an expert, but as a community member the least I can do is dish out ideas for the improvement of DSL.