swap file vs swap partition

[Seabass]

Defragmentation should be an issue for you on an SSD, even if there is some, right?

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Message: 4
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2020 17:08:03 -0700
From: Matt Graham <mhgraham at crow202.org>
To: <plug-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org>
Subject: Re: swap file vs swap partition
Message-ID: <064f92165a42d6f88a3430b42a5211f6 at crow202.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed

On 2020-10-28 16:24, Steve Litt via PLUG-discuss wrote:
> On Wed, 28 Oct 2020 13:43:22 -0700
> Bob Elzer via PLUG-discuss <plug-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org> wrote:
>> The biggest difference is, files can become fragmented while
>> partitions don't.
> I had no idea there was such a thing as a Linux swap file. I guess
> that's a recent thing.

You could use a file as swap space in the early 2000s. I remember
doing that on a few machines then.

> If my partition file becomes fragmented, is there a way for me
> to defragment it?

Probably not. However, file fragmentation is not generally a problem
on modern machines because disks and CPUs are much faster than they were
in 1998. If you use ext4 and have a disk that's less than 10 years old
and less than 95% full, you will not notice anything. /swapfile on my
laptop has 11 extents and it doesn't seem to have any problems.

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