Arch Linux

pogeymanz

Member

Registered: 2008-03-11

Posts: 1,020

What is the default swapiness of Arch? And how can I change it?

Actually, i'm only assuming my swap is even working, because it never seems to use it, except when I hibernate/suspend.

Does Arch use a "swapiness" value like Ubuntu does? What is it by default? I think Ubuntu's was either 60 or 80.

jbromley

Member

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2007-02-04

Posts: 268

Re: What is the default swapiness of Arch? And how can I change it?

I'm not sure what the default swappiness is, since I've modified mine. If you've got a system installed and haven't touched anything you can find the default swappiness by doing

cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

as root. To adjust the swappiness, put

vm.swappiness = N

in the file /etc/sysctl.conf where N is between 1 and 100 (I believe.) Lower swappiness means that Linux will require higher memory pressure before it starts swapping things out.

Regards,
j

pogeymanz

Member

Registered: 2008-03-11

Posts: 1,020

Re: What is the default swapiness of Arch? And how can I change it?

So would you recommend a lower swapiness for a computer with a slower CPU, so that it doesn't have to write to the swap all the time? Assuming, of course, that it has a good enough amount of RAM.

I'm just asking to see if I understand.

iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: What is the default swapiness of Arch? And how can I change it?

Actually, i'm only assuming my swap is even working, because it never seems to use it, except when I hibernate/suspend.

Does Arch use a "swapiness" value like Ubuntu does? What is it by default? I think Ubuntu's was either 60 or 80.

Every kernel has a swappiness value. But generally you don't need to tweak with it.

If you're not using swap and not having memory issues, that's a good thing and you dont need to mess with it.