[CentOS] why i can not put my swap files in /dev?

Tue Jul 6 15:02:04 UTC 2010
Jerry McAllister <jerrymc at msu.edu>

On Tue, Jul 06, 2010 at 10:14:19AM -0400, John Kennedy wrote:

> On Tue, Jul 6, 2010 at 10:01 AM, <m.roth at 5-cent.us> wrote:
> 
> > Jerry McAllister wrote:
> > > On Tue, Jul 06, 2010 at 06:41:06PM +0800, Tang Jianwei wrote:
> > >
> > >> I tried to create some swap files in /dev directory for my desktop.
> > >> the dd and mkswap were ok. but when I try to swapon it, i get this:
> > >>
> > >> # swapon /dev/myswap
> > >> swapon: /dev/myswap: Invalid argument
> > >>
> > >> but when I mv the file to some other directory like /mnt or /, the
> > >> swapon works.
> > >>
> > >> could sb. tell me why?
> >
> > Well, /dev is *not* a good place for anything but device files.
> > >
> > > /dev is not a real directory for data files.
> > <snip>
> > Um, er, what do you mean about it not being a "real" directory?
> >
> >          mark
> >
> >
> I would say he means "real" as exists on a hard drive like /home of /var as
> opposed to "virtual" as exists in RAM like /proc.
> John

Yup.

////jerry


> -- 
> John Kennedy

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