mkswap

mkswap sets up a Linux swap area on a device or in a file.

Documentation

• man 8 'mkswap' [EN]

Syntax

mkswap [PARAMETER ...] [DEVICE]

Parameters

-c

Check the device (if it is a block device) for bad blocks before creating the swap area. If any are found, the count is printed.

-f

Force - go ahead even if the command is stupid. This allows the creation of a swap area larger than the file or partition it resides on.

-L LABEL

Specify a LABEL, to allow swapon by label.

-p SIZE

Specify the page SIZE to use.

-v0, -v1

Specify the swap space version. This option is deprecated and -v1 is supported only.

The kernel has not supported v0 swap space format since 2.5.22. The new version v1 is supported since 2.1.117.

Examples

Create a SWAP partition on /dev/hda3

mkswap -c '/dev/hda3'