You are trying to write "vm.swappiness=10" directly to the swappiness 
settings.
If that is what you are trying to do, do it like this:

echo 10 >/proc/sys/vm/swappiness

I suspect that what you really want to do is write it to a config file 
so that it is automatically set every time you boot.  In that case do:

echo vm.swappiness=10 >/etc/sysctl.d/99-swappiness.conf
sysctl -p /etc/sysctl.d/99-swappiness.conf

The last line just loads the settings, you could also just reboot.

Brian Cluff

On 01/05/2016 11:26 AM, Michael Havens wrote:
> I have a small copy n paste txt file for when my hard drive fails 
> (hopefully in the distant future) so I can get my new hard drive up 
> and running again as closely similar to the previous drive as possible.
> I made the one command up myself and just discovered it does not work. 
> That command is:
>   # Reduce the swap tendency
>   cat >> /proc/sys/vm/swappiness <<eof
>   > vm.swappiness=10
>   eof
>
> with the error of:
>
>    cat: write error: Invalid argument
>
> I have a similar
>
>   sudo cat >> /etc/fstab << eof
>   /media/bmike1/entertainment/Pictures /home/bmike1/Pictures none bind 
> 0 0
>   eof
>
> which I do not believe was implemented  correctly as when I inspect 
> 'mount' there does not appear to be the entertainment directory or 
> pictures directories listed anywhere. So I suppose it is wrong then....
>
>
> -- 
> :-)~MIKE~(-:
>
>
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