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From: cpenrose@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Christopher Penrose)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: A few minor prob left...
Message-ID: <13347@sdcc6.ucsd.edu>
Date: 18 Oct 90 16:47:27 GMT
References: <1990Oct15.050058.27579@ccng.waterloo.edu> <53614@brunix.UUCP> <1990Oct18.155648.27681@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
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In article <1990Oct18.155648.27681@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> dorner@pequod.cso.uiuc.edu (Steve Dorner) writes:

>Parititions can be very handy for isolating obnoxious users of disk space.
>With a one-partition system, a single errant process can swallow ALL the
>disk space.

You can limit swap space on a single partition system by including a 
hi-water mark for your swapfile.  I have done this.  I sometimes I have the
need for large amounts of swap space (lisp, soundfile editting); however,
I also need the flexibility of recovering this disk space for other
purposes.  The hi-water mark is an absolute threshold for swap space 
that can be added to the /private/etc/swaptab file.

/private/vm/swapfile	lowat=20971520 hiwat=50000000

Also, if you are thinking of partitioning your drive, you can instead
try this:

/private/vm/swapfile	lowat=50000000 hiwat=50000000

This will create a large static swapfile during boot-up and you can reduce
or increase the size later if needed without repartitioning your drive.  I
think that this almost constitutes a free lunch.


Christopher Penrose
{seismo.css.gov,ucsd.edu}!esosun!jesus!penrose
cpenrose@ucsd.edu