What happened to swap files in Big Sur?

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KS_on_AS Author

Level 1

8 points

What happened to swap files in Big Sur?

Before Big Sur, swap files used to be in /private/var/vm/swapfile*

With Big Sur they appear to be in /System/Volumes/VM

>>> pwd

/System/Volumes/VM

>>> ls -l

total 6275344

-rw------- 1 root wheel 1048576 May 26 11:09 kernelcore

-rw------T 1 root wheel 2147483648 Mar 12 2019 sleepimage

-rw------- 1 root wheel 536870912 May 26 12:24 swapfile0

>>> file *

kernelcore: data

sleepimage: sticky data

swapfile0: data

Why the change?

Is there now always just a single swap file?

Does the size of the swapfile increase when demand for memory increases?

Thanks.

Posted on May 30, 2021 3:12 AM

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Answer 1

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,186 points

May 31, 2021 4:05 PM in response to KS_on_AS

Sorry but I'm still unclear. The swapfile (swapfile0) appears to be at /System/Volumes/VM now, as shown above.

They likely changed that with Big Sur. I think it was mounted to /private/var/vm/ in Catalina.

Mounting it to /System/Volumes parallels the rest of the volumes in Big Sur.

What is that?

No idea.

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Answer 2

KS_on_AS Author

Level 1

8 points

May 31, 2021 2:29 PM in response to KS_on_AS

Sorry but I'm still unclear. The swapfile (swapfile0) appears to be at /System/Volumes/VM now, as shown above.

The only file in /private/var/vm now is another "sleepimage" file.:

>>> pwd

/private/var/vm

>>> ls -l * # List all files

-rw------T 1 root wheel 2147483648 May 26 11:09 sleepimage

>>> file *

sleepimage: sticky data

What is that?

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Answer 3

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,186 points

May 31, 2021 1:58 AM in response to KS_on_AS

The VM used to be in a folder at /private/var/vm

Now, it is a Volume mounted at the same location.

I don’t know it was a single file or many.

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What happened to swap files in Big Sur?

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