Linux RAM Disk: Creating A Filesystem In RAM

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In Linux, you can create a RAM disk, also known as a RAM filesystem or a tmpfs, which is a portion of your system’s memory that is used as a virtual disk. This can be useful for storing temporary files, speeding up disk-intensive operations, and reducing wear on physical disks.

Here’s how to create a RAM disk and a filesystem on it:

  1. Open a terminal and run the following command to create a mount point for the RAM disk:
    sudo mkdir /mnt/ramdisk
  2. Run the following command to create the RAM disk:
    sudo mount -t tmpfs -o size=1G tmpfs /mnt/ramdisk

    This command creates a RAM disk with a size of 1 GB and mounts it at /mnt/ramdisk. You can adjust the size as needed, depending on how much memory you want to allocate to the RAM disk.

  3. Run the following command to create a filesystem on the RAM disk:
    sudo mkfs -t ext4 /mnt/ramdisk

    This command creates an ext4 filesystem on the RAM disk. You can use a different filesystem type if you prefer.

  4. Finally, run the following command to add an entry to the system’s /etc/fstab file so that the RAM disk is automatically mounted at boot:
    echo "tmpfs /mnt/ramdisk tmpfs defaults,size=1G 0 0" | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

    This command adds the line tmpfs /mnt/ramdisk tmpfs defaults,size=1G 0 0 to the end of the /etc/fstab file, which tells the system to mount the RAM disk at /mnt/ramdisk with the specified options.

That’s it! You now have a RAM disk with a filesystem on it that you can use to store files. Note that the contents of the RAM disk will be lost when the system is shut down or restarted, so be sure to back up any important files.

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