Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!think!ames!dftsrv!mimsy!chris
From: chris@mimsy.umd.edu (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: SunOS 4.0.3 swapping across multiple drives........
Message-ID: <20942@mimsy.umd.edu>
Date: 27 Nov 89 18:19:29 GMT
References: <21533@adm.BRL.MIL>
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 38

>>     ... root on xd0a swap on xd0b swap on xd6f 

In article <21533@adm.BRL.MIL> mchinni@pica.army.mil (Michael J. Chinni,
SMCAR-CCS-E) writes:
>First, the kernal line should say:
[kernEl]
>    ... root on xd0a swap on xd0b and on xd6f 
>(notice the 'and' vs. the 'swap').

Right.

Incidentally, the `on' is optional, and there is some clever (if rather
convoluted) code in config that will arrange for `root on XXNa swap on
XXNb dumps on XXNb args on XXNb' if you simply say `config foo root
XXN', but I always spell everything out and write, e.g.,

config		vmunix		root on ra0a swap on ra0b and ra1b
				dumps on ra0b args on ra0b

>Second, read the man page for swapon. Those I have seen say that specifying 
>"/etc/swapon name" (like swapon /dev/xd6f) makes ONLY THIS SPACE available to
>the system for swaping.

Although many things have certainly changed in SunOS 4.0.x, this at least is
unlikely to be one of those:  `swapon device' *adds* that device, and does
not remove any current swap device.  It is hard to remove an active swap
area, since arbitrarily many processes might be using it.

>to: "swapon -a". The "-a" option says start swaping on any partitions defined
>as swapable in /etc/fstab.

More precisely, `swapon -a' means `add everything listed as a swap partition',
as if by

	swapon `awk '{if ($3 == "sw") print $1}' /etc/fstab`
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris@cs.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris