“The question was asked on the lkml whether or not memory
allocated by kmalloc and vmalloc is swappable. Rik van Reil offered
a clear explanation as to why it is not, ‘unswappable kernel memory
is simpler and faster,’ adding, ‘there really is no good reason for
swapping kernel memory nowadays.’ He went on to explain:“‘Over the last 15 years, the memory requirements of the Linux
kernel have grown maybe a factor 10, while the memory of computers
has grown by a factor of 1000…'”
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Andrea
Arcangeli: Linux 2.4.9aa1 and Linux 2.2.20pre9aa1(Aug 17,
2001)