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If Linux has no swap, it doesn't quickly and efficiently kill processes when memory is exhausted. Instead it first removes executable code from RAM and reads it
by mixedbit 10y ago
If Linux has no swap, it doesn't quickly and efficiently kill processes when memory is exhausted. Instead it first removes executable code from RAM and reads it back from disk when needed. This is because without swap executable code is the only thing in RAM that is duplicated on disk and can be removed. This makes the system completely frozen and unusable.
- rcxdude 10y agoThis is my experience too. I used to run my desktop without swap, but found that the experience when running out of memory was even worse than with swap. Also there appears to be enough memory which isn't actually used frequently that it gives a bit more memory headroom (I will still manage to use up 32GB of RAM).