bsd man page for swapon

SWAPON(8)						      System Manager's Manual							 SWAPON(8)

NAME
       swapon - specify additional device for paging and swapping

SYNOPSIS
       swapon -a
       swapon name ...

DESCRIPTION
       Swapon  is  used to specify additional devices on which paging and swapping are to take place.  The system begins by swapping and paging on
       only a single device so that only one disk is required at bootstrap time.  Calls to swapon normally occur in the system multi-user initial-
       ization file /etc/rc making all swap devices available, so that the paging and swapping activity is interleaved across several devices.

       Normally, the -a argument is given, causing all devices marked as ``sw'' swap devices in /etc/fstab to be made available.

       The  second  form gives individual block devices as given in the system swap configuration table.  The call makes only this space available
       to the system for swap allocation.

SEE ALSO
       swapon(2), init(8)

FILES
       /dev/[ru][pk]?b	   normal paging devices

BUGS
       There is no way to stop paging and swapping on a device.  It is therefore not possible to make use of devices which may be dismounted  dur-
       ing system operation.

       swapon is not implemented in 2.11BSD.

4th Berkeley Distribution					 November 17, 1996							 SWAPON(8)