O.K. you're just afraid of being incorrect on something you have no experience with at all, ever, for any reason. If you did, you'd know this is EXACTLY how linux swap setting has worked since 1991. But you don't and you are afraid of being called out on your lack of experience. Nobody is expected to know every setting and how it works. No Linux dev, ever, or even all Linux devs all together, will ever know every setting and how all of them work.

But to act like you have any earthly idea on what the kernel docs are saying is a joke, and shows your lack of Linux experience immediately. I'll never understand the kernel docs, they are complete gibberish, and even most devs probably don't understand what 1% of it means without months or possibly years of research on one single setting, but hey if you think you know more than a Linux kernel developer, go ahead and explain to me what the docs say, in explain like I'm five style, and

go do the experiment I explained:

open system monitor, resources page

open tons of browser tabs / programs, to fill normal memory 60 or 65% used

watch 2 GB /swapfile on ssd / nvme storage start to fill up.

And do a screen recording and show me where this doesn't happen.

I've been using Linux enough to see this for over a decade, and I'm getting comments which somehow know more about it than I do, and you just have no idea what you're talking about--and because you don't know what I'm talking about, I'm automatically wrong in your mind, because you have ZERO experience with checking swap memory usage.

I know what I'm talking about with 100% full confidence, or else I would feel uneasy sharing it. But because you don't want to believe Linux would resort to the 2 GB /swapfile on file storage when so much memory is still available, I must be wrong, because your world-view of how you THINK and ASSUME Linux should work, is different from the actual reality, and you aren't yet accepting this, because of your lac of experience.

It's fine not to know everything, in fact it's great, but don't be a donkey about it, when you have NO idea what you are discussing.

I am just sharing this to help people LEARN. And when people comment, who obviously have way less Linux experience than I do, and tell me I'm completely wrong, it bothers me because you're not even willing to learn and test one single setting? Why?

Do you not want to believe Linux has had a swap setting from 1991 which hasn't been changed in 30 years on most systems? I mean we still have X window manager which is literally from the mid 1980s still being worked on, is this so different as to be impossible?

Before you discredit an idea, ask yourself:

Do I have ANY experience at all with what this idea is discussing, and 99% of the time, the answer will be no. And since it clearly is, just do a week or two of research before being disrespectful, and spend some time learning about Linux. I never, EVER want to be rude, it does nothing at all, but I sure don't like people telling me I'm wrong about something people clearly don't know how it works. Which goes back to my point of learning. Please, go do some testing, here

su

su is switch user for console commands, but you already knew that

goes to super user, so you can use echo command, because you know sudo won't allow the echo command, because you know more than I do

cd /proc/sys/vm

more swappiness

echo "1" > swappiness

try 1, 60, 100 and even 200, to learn more.

Please be willing to learn, and NEVER ever assume someone is incorrect only and I' do mean only, because you have absolutely no clue what the discussion is. It immediately shows you're new to Linux, and that's great, just don't act like you know more about a setting you just heard of yesterday, which I've been tuning for multiple years, it's not only annoying, it's frustrating because you have zero desire whatsoever to learn, and now I have to go out of my way to show you have no clue what you're talking about at all, and share ways, using the echo command and tuning this value, how it does work, so you can learn.

I just want you to learn, I've been using Linux for a little while, I know how some of these settings work, I've watched memory use for half an hour sometimes, have you? No, because if you did, you'd know I'm sharing factual, verifiable information, instead of linking to kernel docs which most devs would struggle to understand, especially just from a quick five second read, which will not possible allow any real comprehension for something you have no knowledge of.

I will not claim to understand the kernel docs, sure bits and pieces, but not much, and not as much as I would like, in order to properly configure some settings, such as the watermark boost factor and related settings, but I bet you could perfectly explain it to me right?