Can you explain what is meant by 'swap' in the Linux operating system and how it works?

In Linux, the term "swap" refers to a disk area allocated for expanding RAM (Random Access Memory). When physical memory is full, the system can move inactive memory pages from RAM to swap, freeing up space for active processes. This allows more programs to run than the physically available RAM, but access to swap is slower since it is on a disk.

Swap can be implemented as a separate disk partition or as a swap file. Key points:

• Swap is used to store temporary data that does not fit into RAM.
• When swap is actively used, system performance decreases due to slow access.
• Configuring swap is important for system stability, especially with limited memory.

Example of checking swap in Linux:

swapon --show
free -h

Thus, swap is a virtual memory mechanism that extends available memory by using disk space.