Klaus Knopper answers your Linux

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Klaus Knopper is the creator of Knoppix and co-founder of LinuxTag expo. He currently works as a teacher, programmer, and consultant. If you have a configuration problem, or if you just want to learn more about how Linux works, send your questions to: klaus@linux-magazine.com

Swap

Hello, Klaus: My question is about processes that are occupying swap. When a Linux system has occupied swap, I haven’t found any way to discover what process is causing it.

I’ve been looking for but have not found any solution that works correctly. Some people say that the value for the process occupying swap can be found in /proc/<num_proc>/status (the VmSwap line), but the VmSwap line does not exist in this file.