1MKSWAP(8) System Administration MKSWAP(8)
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6 mkswap - set up a Linux swap area
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9 mkswap [options] device [size]
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12 mkswap sets up a Linux swap area on a device or in a file.
13 The device argument will usually be a disk partition (something like
15 /dev/sdb7) but can also be a file. The Linux kernel does not look at
16 partition IDs, but many installation scripts will assume that
17 partitions of hex type 82 (LINUX_SWAP) are meant to be swap partitions.
18 (Warning: Solaris also uses this type. Be careful not to kill your
19 Solaris partitions.)
20 The size parameter is superfluous but retained for backwards
22 compatibility. (It specifies the desired size of the swap area in
23 1024-byte blocks. mkswap will use the entire partition or file if it is
24 omitted. Specifying it is unwise - a typo may destroy your disk.)
25 After creating the swap area, you need the swapon(8) command to start
27 using it. Usually swap areas are listed in /etc/fstab so that they can
28 be taken into use at boot time by a swapon -a command in some boot
29 script.
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32 The swap header does not touch the first block. A boot loader or disk
33 label can be there, but it is not a recommended setup. The recommended
34 setup is to use a separate partition for a Linux swap area.
35 mkswap, like many others mkfs-like utils, erases the first partition
37 block to make any previous filesystem invisible.
38 However, mkswap refuses to erase the first block on a device with a
40 disk label (SUN, BSD, ...).
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43 -c, --check
44 Check the device (if it is a block device) for bad blocks before
45 creating the swap area. If any bad blocks are found, the count is
46 printed.
47 -f, --force
49 Go ahead even if the command is stupid. This allows the creation of
50 a swap area larger than the file or partition it resides on.
51 Also, without this option, mkswap will refuse to erase the first
53 block on a device with a partition table.
54 -q, --quiet
56 Suppress output and warning messages.
57 -L, --label label
59 Specify a label for the device, to allow swapon(8) by label.
60 --lock[=mode]
62 Use exclusive BSD lock for device or file it operates. The optional
63 argument mode can be yes, no (or 1 and 0) or nonblock. If the mode
64 argument is omitted, it defaults to yes. This option overwrites
65 environment variable $LOCK_BLOCK_DEVICE. The default is not to use
66 any lock at all, but it’s recommended to avoid collisions with
67 systemd-udevd(8) or other tools.
68 -p, --pagesize size
70 Specify the page size (in bytes) to use. This option is usually
71 unnecessary; mkswap reads the size from the kernel.
72 -U, --uuid UUID
74 Specify the UUID to use. The default is to generate a UUID. The
75 format of the UUID is a series of hex digits separated by hyphens,
76 like this: "c1b9d5a2-f162-11cf-9ece-0020afc76f16". The UUID
77 parameter may also be one of the following:
78 clear
80 clear the filesystem UUID
81 random
83 generate a new randomly-generated UUID
84 time
86 generate a new time-based UUID
87 -e, --endianness ENDIANNESS
89 Specify the ENDIANNESS to use, valid arguments are native, little
90 or big. The default is native.
91 -v, --swapversion 1
93 Specify the swap-space version. (This option is currently
94 pointless, as the old -v 0 option has become obsolete and now only
95 -v 1 is supported. The kernel has not supported v0 swap-space
96 format since 2.5.22 (June 2002). The new version v1 is supported
97 since 2.1.117 (August 1998).)
98 --verbose
100 Verbose execution. With this option mkswap will output more details
101 about detected problems during swap area set up.
102 -h, --help
104 Display help text and exit.
105 -V, --version
107 Print version and exit.
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110 LIBBLKID_DEBUG=all
111 enables libblkid debug output.
112 LOCK_BLOCK_DEVICE=<mode>
114 use exclusive BSD lock. The mode is "1" or "0". See --lock for more
115 details.
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118 The maximum useful size of a swap area depends on the architecture and
119 the kernel version.
120 The maximum number of the pages that is possible to address by swap
122 area header is 4294967295 (32-bit unsigned int). The remaining space on
123 the swap device is ignored.
124 Presently, Linux allows 32 swap areas. The areas in use can be seen in
126 the file /proc/swaps.
127 mkswap refuses areas smaller than 10 pages.
129 If you don’t know the page size that your machine uses, you can look it
131 up with getconf PAGESIZE.
132 To set up a swap file, it is necessary to create that file before
134 initializing it with mkswap, e.g. using a command like
135 # dd if=/dev/zero of=swapfile bs=1MiB count=$((8*1024))
137 to create 8GiB swapfile.
139 Please read notes from swapon(8) about the swap file use restrictions
141 (holes, preallocation and copy-on-write issues).
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144 fdisk(8), swapon(8)
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147 For bug reports, use the issue tracker at
148 https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues.
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151 The mkswap command is part of the util-linux package which can be
152 downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive
153 <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.
154util-linux 2.39.2 2023-08-17 MKSWAP(8)