Credit to @ryanc@infosec.exchange
I just did the graphic
this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2026
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People still use swap partitions instead of swap files?
This. Swap files on LUKS encrypted partition. Also, the swapspace daemon!
I've seen so many setups where people encrypt their data but forget to encrypt their swap.
what's the problem? it's not like you dump the entire contents of your system's ram to disk any time use hibernate /s
Even without hibernation, data in apps you have open will end up in the swap if your system is ever RAM-constrained.
Generally it only happens to programs you keep running in the background and might not use for a long time that also don't have much background activity. For example password managers.
It depends on what you set your swappiness to, too. I think Linux distros still have pretty aggressive defaults that swap more than they probably need to.
I have taken a couple classes in Linux centric forensics and one of the things I often wandered about is if there is an easy way to add jitter or shift individual file blocks by a word (64 bits) or even half the size of a data block. Say every two hours shift up or down so attempts to read a mechanical hard drive would be chaotic.
Don't you need swap partitions to be able to use hibernation?
Been using a swap file in a luks partition for years. I hibernate very regularly.
Nah, you can use
resume_offsetinstead.Here's an example: https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/how-to-hibernate-with-btrfs-swapfile-luks2-systemd-boot-dracut/55620/2
I don't think it's needed anymore, afaik filesystem drivers are supposed to tell the kernel automagically
Nope, I hibernate with a swap file and it's in a LUKS partition. Although IIRC that whole setup requires me to use systemd boot.
I do the same and use ugrd. I think dracut would also work.
You just set the resume kernel parameter to the decrypted memory device with the swapfile offset.
As long as the initrd attempts a resume after it decrypted all volumes it'll work, and the initrd doesn't even need to understand why and what was resumed from
It's doable with a swap file instead. But some filesystems are more supportive than others.
For example BTRFS doesn't support swapfiles over multiple devices (so my raid1c3 spanning 3 differently sized disks for example) and also swapfiles must be completely pre-allocated.
And no matter the filesystem you need to manually tell the kernel device and physical offset for the file via kernel parameters. Which can again be easier on some than on others (also causing the no-multiple-device filesystem problem mentioned above.
btrfs's handling makes sense. The kernel talks to the disk directly, the file is just a pointer for what range it uses, and a placeholder for the filesystem. Something like raid, balancing, cow, all won't work because the kernel doesn't even go through btrfs to change the swap"file".
If you want a proper file as swapfile, with the corresponding overhead, you can make a regular file and mount it via loopback then use it as a swap device.
I don't use hibernation so I'm not sure.
So you shut your pc down like a caveman when you do hardware upgrades or repairs or move apartments?
Yeah I shut down every day. It boots up fast enough that it's really not an issue.
that's what trixie's netinst defaults to when i set up new desktops using encrypted lvm.. root and swap volumes inside that, unlocking together at boot. my use doesn't hit swap much, so it's nbd. i just leave it like it is. only where an installer doesn't support encrypted swap partitions do i use a file or ram-based swap instead.
It's not as bad with LVM since LVM is more flexible. A swap file does still make it easier to change the size as needed though. If you need more swap, you can spin up a new swap file pretty much instantly while the system is running, without having to repartition. You can have both a swap partition and a swap file active at the same time though.
On systems where the data is encrypted, also encrypting the swap makes sense so I'm glad Debian does that.