Swap partition vs swap file

Mike Richards
2005-06-29T01:04:48Z

Is there any significant difference these days between a swap
partition and a swap file?

An exhaustive Google search turns up several conflicting answers. The
consensus seems to be that a swap partition is more efficient than a
swap file, but whether or not the difference is noteworthy is never
definitively answered.

For the sake of argument, let's assume you've got modern hardware with
ample RAM and a recent kernel (a late 2.4.x or 2.6.x), and that under
normal conditions you never seeing more than 50-100MB of swap used.

Given this situation, is there any significant performance or
stability advantage to using a swap partition instead of a swap file?