Unexpected additonal swapfiles in 10.3.2

J

JeffCGD

Registered
I'm running a clean install of OSX 10.3.2 Panther, and recently I noticed I get additional swap files generated after about an hour of operation after a reboot. They are all in the default VM folder on the boot volume.

swapfile0 64Mb (Original, about what you'd expect for the std swapfile)
swapfile1 64Mb (created about an hour later)
swapfile2 128Mb (created about an hour after the second one)

I've even had a 256Mb one show up one time (and yes, it was names swapfile3).

Has anyone got any ideas?


Possibly of note: I am running Unsanity's Shapeshifter theme manager. I have no reason to implicate this as a factor, other than it uses the APE Application Enhancer, which is technically a hack. (Please don't flame me with this as the cause unless you can document this as a factor for this specific issue).
 
What you see with swapfiles is just OS X working normally, providing you with a functional system, and swapping out files to the hard drive from time to time as it needs to. If you still have 384 MB of RAM (by your signature) then adding more RAM would probably allow to system to operate with much fewer swapouts, and give you a smoother experience with Panther, too. If you want to watch some fun, try opening EVERY available app that you have on your system, watch all the bouncing of the dock icons (I cmd-select all apps in the Applications folder, then do Cmd-O, so all open at the same time - takes a huge amount of time, but all open eventually and the system settles into a usable state.) Close them all, and look at you swap files, you'll see a new record!
 
Thank you for your contribution Delta, although it should be noted that OSX normally uses only a single swapfile (normally called swapfile0) that grows and shirks with use. This was not the case with my issue.

I usually have no swaping to disc with my amount of RAM unless working on larger files in Photoshop, although I do plan to get some more at some stage. RAM was not an issue, as my explanation below details.

Much to my annoyance, I found that the new release of Unsanity's Shapeshifter theme manager cleared up my problem after a restart, and it has yet to reappear. It seems it was an undocumented bug of some kind. At least it is resolved.
 
The previous version must have had a memory leak, causing it to use up all available memory and start paging out.
 
JeffCGD,

In regards to OS X only using one swap file, that isn't true. The OS always has/creates one swap file whether it needs it or not. It makes these swap files in 64mb chunks as it needs them. If another one is needed the OS goes out and grabs another chunk of "memory" from the hard drive, it doesn't grow and shrink just one file.

My desktop currently has two 64mb swap files, and on my laptop I've had as many as 8 before, and both of my machines have the maximum amount of ram they can hold. (2 gig for the desktop, and 1 gig for the laptop)

The thing that I do find unusual is that you say you had a swap file with a size of 128mb. I've never seen that before, and from everything I've read nothing has ever mentioned swap files being bigger/smaller than 64mb....
 
I have 768 megs and 3 swapfiles with 10.3.2. Two are 64 megs and one is 128 megs. Go figure.

Doug
 
Well maybe they changed something in 10.3 vs the older versions...I haven't had more than 2 swap files since I've been in 10.3, so it very well could have changed.
 
Swapfiles prior to 10.3 were only one size, (74 MB ?)
Since Panther, swapfiles are multiples of 64 MB, I have seen 256 MB swapfiles on my system, when I was trying to create as many as possible by overloading the system with multiple apps. (Folks, don't try this at home. :) )
 
I guess I have some reading up to do on 10.3.....

I can't remember the size of the swap files before 10.3, but 64 or 74 sounds about right...???
 
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