swap file vs swap partition

[Scott Long]

Aloha Guy wrote:
> Thanks for the input.  You do have good points.  The only issue with 
> swap partitions is that it seems like you need to increase it everytime 
> you increase the physical memory.  Is there a swap partition size limit 
> that pretty much will handle anything and setting a number larger than 
> that will really not offer anything?
>  
> John


Processors and memory have vastly outpaced the speed of disks; any
amount of swapping is going to be percieved as being very slow and
something that should be avoided.  Since RAM is also very cheap now,
most people just load enough RAM into their system to handle their load,
and then configure enough swap to hold a crashdump of that RAM.  You
always want swap so that you can handle unexpected spikes in load
without crashing, but it's less of an integral piece of normal system
operation these days.

Scott