ALTMEM(4)

📦 version 11.0, in nixpkgs unstable

🌸 ALTMEM(4) — the altmem page, bestie edition 🌸

okay so real talk, this is the manual page for altmem, section 4 of the kernel interfaces manual, and it's honestly such a slay little driver. let me walk you through it 💅

✨ NAME ✨

altmem — the Alternative memory disk driver. that's it, that's the name, she's iconic and she knows it 🎀

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

altmem* at altmemdev?

like, that's the whole config line. no cap, that's it. altmem* attaches at altmemdev? and honestly the way that syntax just works? obsessed 💖

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

okay so here's the tea ☕ — the altmem driver lets you use physical memory that your machine-dependent pmap(9) would normally not be able to access, and turns that into a swap device. literally taking the memory your pmap said "nope, not touching that" and going "actually, we're using it" 😭🔥

and bestie, when an alternative memory disk device is present? she's generally preferred over hard disk-based swap space. like obviously, hard disk swap is giving 2009, altmem is giving main character energy 👑

want to know how to assign priorities to your swap devices? the swapctl(8) and fstab(5) man pages have you covered, go read them fr fr 🫶

🎀 FILES 🎀

  • /dev/altmem?? — block mode alternative memory disk devices. the block girlies 💖
  • /dev/raltmem?? — raw mode alternative memory disk devices. the raw girlies 🌈

🌟 SEE ALSO 🌟

go read all three, iykyk 💅✨

⭐ HISTORY ⭐

the altmem device driver appeared in NetBSD 6.0. a whole era, honestly 🕰️💫

👑 AUTHORS 👑

Jared D. McNeill <jmcneill@NetBSD.org> — thank you for this gift, we are forever grateful 🙏💐

aaaand that's the page!! 🧚‍♀️ this particular rendering is from the Debian folks, dated March 11, 2009, so like… vintage but still valid bestie, don't come for her 💀💖 mwah, go configure your swap 🌸🦋💜

📦 where this page comes from