{"slug": "swapspace", "name": "swapspace", "category": "os", "category_name": "Operating systems and desktop", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 4, "warners": 0, "score": 3.624, "rising": 1.35, "first": "2026-01-01", "latest": "2026-09-11", "why": "swapspace (https://github.com/Tookmund/Swapspace) does this.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 0, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "swapspace (https://github.com/Tookmund/Swapspace) does this.", "kind": "", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": "github.com/tookmund/swapspace", "official_url": "https://github.com/Tookmund/Swapspace", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["swapspace", "Swapspace"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 756586080, "item_id": 47286630, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47286630", "by": "dsr_", "date": "2026-03-07", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "swapspace (https://github.com/Tookmund/Swapspace) does this.", "excerpt": "swapspace (https://github.com/Tookmund/Swapspace) does this. Available in Debian stable.", "context": "", "use_case": "Automatic swap file management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Modernizing swapping: virtual swap spaces"}, {"id": 743348993, "item_id": 46459312, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46459312", "by": "rick_dalton", "date": "2026-01-01", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "my workaround is the swapspace package which adds swap files under high load, works so far.", "excerpt": "This is really annoying me as well. I use a program for work that can occasionally use a lot of ram, while saving or interpolating for example. On my little MacBook Air with just 8GB of ram everything works fine, it just swaps a whole lot more for a short period. On my desktop with 16GB ram and Ubuntu oom just kills it, my workaround is the swapspace package which adds swap files under high load, works so far.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["dynamic swap file management", "automatic swap file management"], "compared": [], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49618087", "title": "Stop making swap partitions\u2014use swap files instead", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47265580", "title": "Modernizing swapping: virtual swap spaces", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46457770", "title": "Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-10": {}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 794656336, "item_id": 49666021, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49666021", "by": "simoncion", "date": "2026-09-11", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "", "excerpt": "> Windows also does a neat trick Linux lacks: automatically adding more swap, up to a limit. Given that one can have swap files, and can also use LVM LVs for swap, and given that userspace OOM killers that work way better than the built in one -for some workloads- exist, I see no reason why you couldn't have this on Linux. This comment [0] mentions a project that claims to do just that -and seems to use swapfiles to ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Stop making swap partitions\u2014use swap files instead"}, {"id": 794498064, "item_id": 49656129, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49656129", "by": "kaelwd", "date": "2026-09-11", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "", "excerpt": "https://github.com/Tookmund/Swapspace", "context": "", "use_case": "dynamic swap file management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Stop making swap partitions\u2014use swap files instead"}, {"id": 756586080, "item_id": 47286630, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47286630", "by": "dsr_", "date": "2026-03-07", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "swapspace (https://github.com/Tookmund/Swapspace) does this.", "excerpt": "swapspace (https://github.com/Tookmund/Swapspace) does this. Available in Debian stable.", "context": "", "use_case": "Automatic swap file management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Modernizing swapping: virtual swap spaces"}, {"id": 743348993, "item_id": 46459312, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46459312", "by": "rick_dalton", "date": "2026-01-01", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "my workaround is the swapspace package which adds swap files under high load, works so far.", "excerpt": "This is really annoying me as well. I use a program for work that can occasionally use a lot of ram, while saving or interpolating for example. On my little MacBook Air with just 8GB of ram everything works fine, it just swaps a whole lot more for a short period. On my desktop with 16GB ram and Ubuntu oom just kills it, my workaround is the swapspace package which adds swap files under high load, works so far.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it"}]}