Re: Creating swap based ramdisks from rc.initdiskless by default

From: Ulrich Spörlein <uspoerlein_at_gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:46:31 +0100
On Thu, 22.01.2009 at 15:42:33 +0000, Igor Mozolevsky wrote:
> 2009/1/22 Attila Nagy <bra_at_fsn.hu>:
> > Igor Mozolevsky wrote:
> >> 2009/1/22 Attila Nagy <bra_at_fsn.hu>:
> >>> So the question is: what is the rationale behind creating malloc backed
> >>> disks by default, instead of swap-backed ones?
> >>
> >> Yes --- booting from DoC/CDROM/PXE with no HDD on the node...
> >
> > Did you read my e-mail?
> 
> Yes, but why would you have swap enabled in the kernel on a system
> that cannot possibly swap?

That's not the point. AFAIK there's a kernel memory pool difference
between malloc(9) and swap-backed memory. You usually want to use the
latter, irregardless of an actual swap device, as the former is a scarce
ressource and shouldn't be used for RAM disks.

Cheers,
Ulrich Spörlein
-- 
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free
-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Received on Thu Jan 22 2009 - 16:46:37 UTC

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