Create a swap file on Linux

The simple following steps will create a swap file. Swap files are used when the operating system need more memory. It uses the swap space as memory. Its usage shall be limited, since a swap space is less efficient than memory. It will save you a memory upgrade if it is need seldomly.

• swapon --show
  • Display the current status of the swap spaces
• sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=1024 count=8388608
  • Create a swap file of 8 GB (8388608 / 1024 / 1024)
• sudo mkswap /swapfile
  • Prepare the file to be used as a swap file
• sudo chown root:root /swapfile
  • Set the owner of the swap file
• sudo chmod 600 /swapfile
  • Set the permissions of the swap file
• sudo swapon /swapfile
  • Enable the swap file. Reboot is not required.
• swapon --show
  • Display the status of the new swap space