How To Add Swap on FreeBSD Unix Systems

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Adding swap on a FreeBSD Unix system is a straightforward process that can be done using the following steps:

  1. Create a swap file:
sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=1M count=1024

This creates a file called “/swapfile” with a size of 1024 MB. You can adjust the size of the file as needed by changing the value of the “count” parameter.

  1. Change the permissions of the file to 600 to secure it:
sudo chmod 600 /swapfile
  1. Format the file as a swap file:
sudo sysctl vm.swapencrypt=1
sudo sysctl vm.swapencrypt_keygen=1
sudo sysctl vm.swapencrypt_key=1
sudo swapoff /swapfile
sudo swapon /swapfile
  1. Enable the swap file at boot:
echo 'swapon /swapfile' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

After performing these steps, the newly created swap file should be available for use. You can verify this by using the following command:

sudo swapinfo

This will display information about the system’s swap usage and available space, including the newly added swap file.

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