page swapping

page swapping

[Michael Slater]

Hi,

  I am relatively new to linux memory management and i would like to have some pointers regarding swapping out pages.
  I was looking at the try_to_swap_out code and i have a few questions.
  1) If a page is swapped out does it go to the swap--cache as well as to the swap space in disk? 
     Also a comment says "If the page is in swap-cache we can just drop reference to it as it is up-to date in disk". Does it means that the page is just discarded and the page tables updated.

  2) What happens when a page is in swap-cache and is dirtied.Do
we update the page in swap-cache before freeing it? Can we have a dirty page in swap-cache?

  3) What will be the page-count of a page when it is being swapped out . Is it 1 (as reference to the page in page-cache also counts i guess..)? If a page is only in swap-cache what is its count? Can a page be in swap/page cache at the same time.What will be its count then?

  Last but not the least: Where can i get a detailed notes on linux memory mgmt? Does paul-wilson have an updated version of his notes.

 Pl cc to me as i am not part of linux-mm gp. 

 Thanks in advance
mike

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