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Date:      Sat, 06 Jul 2002 15:43:00 -0700
From:      Darren Pilgrim <dmp@pantherdragon.org>
To:        ticso@cicely.de
Cc:        freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: How does swap work address spacewise?
Message-ID:  <3D277274.B5F3CE58@pantherdragon.org>
References:  <20020705113532.GA11273@atrbg11.informatik.tu-muenchen.de> <20020705133515.GA295@HAL9000.wox.org> <20020705133837.GA513@HAL9000.wox.org> <20020705234126.GA12183@atrbg11.informatik.tu-muenchen.de> <3D2640A7.3EA2236B@pantherdragon.org> <20020706020656.GL48977@cicely5.cicely.de> <3D2762FE.9D9E0378@pantherdragon.org> <20020706220720.GG23704@cicely5.cicely.de>

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Bernd Walter wrote:
> On Sat, Jul 06, 2002 at 02:37:02PM -0700, Darren Pilgrim wrote:
> > Bernd Walter wrote:
> > > On Fri, Jul 05, 2002 at 05:58:15PM -0700, Darren Pilgrim wrote:
> > > > If RAM + swap can be more than 4GB, how does FreeBSD address swap on a
> > > > 32-bit machine?  Does the kernel internally use a wider address space
> > >
> > > The same way it does on every partitition: using block numbers.
> > > That way you can address 1TByte.
> >
> > I thought the limit for filesystems was 2TB?
> 
> The Blocknumber is signed that gives:
> 2^31 * 512Bytes

Why sign the blocknumber?  LBA uses an unsigned 32-bit integer,
allowing 2TB, and IIRC SCSI uses an unsigned integer as well (though I
can't remember if that one is 32 or 48 bits, or if they've gotten to
64 bits by now).

> > > And you can have more than a single swap partition.
> >
> > Up to four, so then the theoretical limit for swap is 8TB?
> 
> 4 is just a default.
> The limit here is the maximum number of harddisks, which is IIRC 512
> per driver.
> This cames from the available minor bits in the device node.

That makes sense, how do you get past the default of four?  Is there a
tweak to be made, or do you just swapon as usual?

> > > In reality managementstructures which have to be in kernel addressspace
> > > is limiting swap before.
> >
> > Do these management structures grow as swap grows, or do they only
> > change as the utilization increases?
> 
> AFAIK there is a static part.
> Possible not memory but only KVM addressspace.
> Also AFAIK it makes a difference if you allocate the same space
> using a single partition or in more than one.

Understandable, with more than one, the kernel then has to do what
amounts to software RAID on the swap partitions.

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