Home Forums Mac Software Mac Operating Systems I thought I understood swap files (some)...

...but this doesn't ring any bells with me. (Early 2009 White MacBook/2.0GHz Core 2 Duo/4Gb RAM/OS X 10.6.5 (Build 10H574))

I went to sleep last night with Mail, Excel, Safari, iTunes, MemoryStick, VLC (streaming opera), and AudioHijack Pro (hijacking and recording) all running and hidden, and one swap file/-0- pageouts.

When I awoke, I had a 1.3Gb (and growing) .m4a file on my Desktop, 700Mb of free RAM (The screenshot was taken after I'd trashed and deleted the .m4a.) and this.

What's mystifying me is why the second swap file was created despite all that free RAM and still -0- pageouts?

Clarification will be much appreciated.

Well, it's 2 years and 2Gb of RAM later, and even with 6Gb of RAM I'm still seeing swap files when cloning with CCC or editing audio files with Fission despite the fact that I've got immense amounts of free RAM. (The screenshot was taken while I was cloning to my external HD via FW400.)

I though I'd never see another swap file after I upped my RAM, and I'd love to now why that is not the case.

Thanks.

Edit: I never see more than 3 swap files, no matter what, or how much of it, I'm doing.