swap Command

Purpose

Provides a paging space administrative interface.

Syntax

swap [ -a device ] | [ -d device ] | [ -s ] | [ -l ]

Description

The functions provided by the swap command are display of characteristics, addition of paging space and removal of paging space.

Flags

Item Description
-a device Activates the paging space. Performs the same function the swapon command.
-d device Deactivates the paging space. Performs the same function as the swapoff command.
-l Lists the status of paging space areas in a list form. The output has 4 columns, containing the following information:
device
Path name of the page space.
maj/min
The major/minor device number for the device.
total
Total size in megabytes for the area.
free
Amount of available space.
-s Prints summary information about total paging space usage and availability. The following information is displayed in the output (amounts of paging space are listed in 4K byte blocks).
allocated
Total amount of paging space area currently allocated.
used
Total amount of paging space area currently being used.
available
Total amount of free paging space.
These numbers include paging spaces from all configured areas as listed by the -l option on active paging space.
Note: There is a paging space limit of 64 GB per device.

Exit Status

0
The command completed successfully.
>0
An error occurred.

Security

Attention RBAC users and Trusted AIX users: This command can perform privileged operations. Only privileged users can run privileged operations. For more information about authorizations and privileges, see Privileged Command Database in Security. For a list of privileges and the authorizations associated with this command, see the lssecattr command or the getcmdattr subcommand.

Examples

  1. To print summary information on total paging space, enter: 
    swap -s
  2. To list the status of the paging space areas in a list form, enter: 
    swap -l
  3. To activate a particular paging space device paging01, enter: 
    swap -a /dev/paging01

Files

Item Description
/usr/sbin/swap Contains the System V swap command.