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2 <!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
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4 <!-- SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later -->
6 <refentry id="systemd.swap" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
8 <title>systemd.swap</title>
9 <productname>systemd</productname>
13 <refentrytitle>systemd.swap</refentrytitle>
14 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
18 <refname>systemd.swap</refname>
19 <refpurpose>Swap unit configuration</refpurpose>
23 <para><filename><replaceable>swap</replaceable>.swap</filename></para>
27 <title>Description</title>
29 <para>A unit configuration file whose name ends in
30 <literal>.swap</literal> encodes information about a swap device
31 or file for memory paging controlled and supervised by
34 <para>This man page lists the configuration options specific to
36 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
37 for the common options of all unit configuration files. The common
38 configuration items are configured in the generic [Unit] and
39 [Install] sections. The swap specific configuration options are
40 configured in the [Swap] section.</para>
42 <para>Additional options are listed in
43 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
44 which define the execution environment the <citerefentry
45 project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>swapon</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
46 program is executed in, in
47 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
48 which define the way these processes are
50 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
51 which configure resource control settings for these processes of the
54 <para>Swap units must be named after the devices or files they control. Example: the swap device <filename
55 index="false">/dev/sda5</filename> must be configured in a unit file <filename>dev-sda5.swap</filename>. For
56 details about the escaping logic used to convert a file system path to a unit name, see
57 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>. Note that swap
58 units cannot be templated, nor is possible to add multiple names to a swap unit by creating additional symlinks to
61 <para>Note that swap support on Linux is privileged, swap units are hence only available in the system
62 service manager (and root's user service manager), but not in unprivileged user's service manager.</para>
66 <title>Automatic Dependencies</title>
69 <title>Implicit Dependencies</title>
71 <para>The following dependencies are implicitly added:</para>
74 <listitem><para>All swap units automatically get the
75 <varname>BindsTo=</varname> and <varname>After=</varname>
76 dependencies on the device units or the mount units of the files
77 they are activated from.</para></listitem>
80 <para>Additional implicit dependencies may be added as result of
81 execution and resource control parameters as documented in
82 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
84 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para>
88 <title>Default Dependencies</title>
90 <para>The following dependencies are added unless <varname>DefaultDependencies=no</varname> is set:</para>
93 <listitem><para>Swap units automatically acquire a <varname>Conflicts=</varname> and a
94 <varname>Before=</varname> dependency on <filename>umount.target</filename> so that they are deactivated at
95 shutdown as well as a <varname>Before=swap.target</varname> dependency.</para></listitem>
101 <title><filename>fstab</filename></title>
103 <para>Swap units may either be configured via unit files, or via
104 <filename>/etc/fstab</filename> (see
105 <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>fstab</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
106 for details). Swaps listed in <filename>/etc/fstab</filename> will
107 be converted into native units dynamically at boot and when the
108 configuration of the system manager is reloaded. See
109 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-fstab-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
110 for details about the conversion.</para>
112 <para>If a swap device or file is configured in both
113 <filename>/etc/fstab</filename> and a unit file, the configuration
114 in the latter takes precedence.</para>
116 <para>When reading <filename>/etc/fstab</filename>, a few special
117 options are understood by systemd which influence how dependencies
118 are created for swap units.</para>
120 <variablelist class='fstab-options'>
122 <term><option>noauto</option></term>
123 <term><option>auto</option></term>
125 <listitem><para>With <option>noauto</option>, the swap unit
126 will not be added as a dependency for
127 <filename>swap.target</filename>. This means that it will not
128 be activated automatically during boot, unless it is pulled in
129 by some other unit. The <option>auto</option> option has the
130 opposite meaning and is the default.</para>
132 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v218"/>
137 <term><option>nofail</option></term>
139 <listitem><para>With <option>nofail</option>, the swap unit
140 will be only wanted, not required by
141 <filename>swap.target</filename>. This means that the boot
142 will continue even if this swap device is not activated
145 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v218"/>
149 <xi:include href="systemd.mount.xml" xpointer="device-timeout" />
152 <term><option>x-systemd.makefs</option></term>
154 <listitem><para>The swap structure will be initialized on the device. If the device is not
155 "empty", i.e. it contains any signature, the operation will be skipped. It is hence expected
156 that this option remains set even after the device has been initialized.</para>
158 <para>Note that this option can only be used in <filename>/etc/fstab</filename>, and will be
159 ignored when part of the <varname>Options=</varname> setting in a unit file.</para>
162 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-mkswap@.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
163 and the discussion of
164 <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>wipefs</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
165 in <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.mount</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
168 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v240"/></listitem>
174 <title>Options</title>
176 <para>Swap unit files may include [Unit] and [Install] sections, which are described in
177 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
180 <para>Swap unit files must include a [Swap] section, which carries
181 information about the swap device it supervises. A number of
182 options that may be used in this section are shared with other
183 unit types. These options are documented in
184 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
186 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
187 The options specific to the [Swap] section of swap units are the
190 <variablelist class='unit-directives'>
193 <term><varname>What=</varname></term>
194 <listitem><para>Takes an absolute path of a device node or file to use for paging. See <citerefentry
195 project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>swapon</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry> for
196 details. If this refers to a device node, a dependency on the respective device unit is automatically
198 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.device</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
199 for more information.) If this refers to a file, a dependency on the respective mount unit is
200 automatically created. (See
201 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.mount</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> for
202 more information.) This option is mandatory. Note that the usual specifier expansion is applied to
203 this setting, literal percent characters should hence be written as
204 <literal class='specifiers'>%%</literal>.</para></listitem>
208 <term><varname>Priority=</varname></term>
210 <listitem><para>Swap priority to use when activating the swap
211 device or file. This takes an integer. This setting is
212 optional and ignored when the priority is set by <option>pri=</option> in the
213 <varname>Options=</varname> key.</para></listitem>
217 <term><varname>Options=</varname></term>
219 <listitem><para>May contain an option string for the swap device. This may be used for controlling discard
220 options among other functionality, if the swap backing device supports the discard or trim operation. (See
221 <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>swapon</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
222 for more information.) Note that the usual specifier expansion is applied to this setting, literal percent
223 characters should hence be written as <literal>%%</literal>.</para>
225 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v217"/></listitem>
229 <term><varname>TimeoutSec=</varname></term>
230 <listitem><para>Configures the time to wait for the swapon
231 command to finish. If a command does not exit within the
232 configured time, the swap will be considered failed and be
233 shut down again. All commands still running will be terminated
234 forcibly via <constant>SIGTERM</constant>, and after another
235 delay of this time with <constant>SIGKILL</constant>. (See
236 <option>KillMode=</option> in
237 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.)
238 Takes a unit-less value in seconds, or a time span value such
239 as "5min 20s". Pass <literal>0</literal> to disable the
240 timeout logic. Defaults to
241 <varname>DefaultTimeoutStartSec=</varname> from the manager
242 configuration file (see
243 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-system.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
248 <xi:include href="systemd.service.xml" xpointer="shared-unit-options" />
252 <title>See Also</title>
254 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
255 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
256 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-system.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
257 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
258 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
259 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
260 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
261 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.device</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
262 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.mount</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
263 <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>swapon</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
264 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-fstab-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
265 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.directives</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>