btrfs-progs: docs: how to use swapfile from fstab

This was asked on reddit, how to automatically mount a swapfile from
fstab. As this is not completely obvious, document it with an example.

Signed-off-by: David Sterba <dsterba@suse.com>
This commit is contained in:
David Sterba 2021-04-22 23:00:58 +02:00
parent c266dd462b
commit 47fdb7f5da
1 changed files with 30 additions and 6 deletions

View File

@ -657,33 +657,35 @@ SWAPFILE SUPPORT
The swapfile is supported since kernel 5.0. Use `swapon`(8) to activate the
swapfile. There are some limitations of the implementation in btrfs and linux
swap subsystem:
* filesystem - must be only single device
* filesystem - must have only 'single' data profile
* swapfile - the containing subvolume cannot be snapshotted
* swapfile - must be preallocated
* swapfile - must be nodatacow (ie. also nodatasum)
* swapfile - must not be compressed
The limitations come namely from the COW-based design and mapping layer of
blocks that allows the advanced features like relocation and multi-device
filesystems. However, the swap subsystem expects simpler mapping and no
background changes of the file blocks once they've been attached to swap.
With active swapfiles, the following whole-filesystem operations will skip
swapfile extents or may fail:
* balance - block groups with swapfile extents are skipped and reported, the rest will be processed normally
* resize grow - unaffected
* resize shrink - works as long as the extents are outside of the shrunk range
* device add - a new device does not interfere with existing swapfile and this operation will work, though no new swapfile can be activated afterwards
* device delete - if the device has been added as above, it can be also deleted
* device replace - ditto
When there are no active swapfiles and a whole-filesystem exclusive operation
is running (ie. balance, device delete, shrink), the swapfiles cannot be
temporarily activated. The operation must finish first.
To create and activate a swapfile run the following commands:
--------------------
# truncate -s 0 swapfile
# chattr +C swapfile
@ -693,6 +695,28 @@ temporarily activated. The operation must finish first.
# swapon swapfile
--------------------
Please note that the UUID returned by the 'mkswap' utility identifies the swap
"filesystem" and because it's stored in a file, it's not generally visible and
usable as an identifier unlike if it was on a block device.
The file will appear in '/proc/swaps':
--------------------
# cat /proc/swaps
Filename Type Size Used Priority
/path/swapfile file 2097152 0 -2
--------------------
The swapfile can be created as one-time operation or, once properly created,
activated on each boot by the 'swapon -a' command (usually started by the
service manager). Add the following entry to '/etc/fstab', assuming the
filesystem that provides the '/path' has been already mounted at this point.
Additional mount options relevant for the swapfile can be set too (like
priority, not the btrfs mount options).
--------------------
/path/swapfile none swap defaults 0 0
--------------------
CHECKSUM ALGORITHMS
-------------------