Procswaps

Procswaps is a term used in computing to describe techniques for swapping or migrating processes in order to optimize resource usage. It is not a single standardized feature, and different systems may use the term to describe distinct operations, ranging from runtime process migration to memory-management actions that involve a process’s state.

In operating systems, procswaps commonly refer to moving a running or ready process between CPUs or NUMA nodes to balance load and improve cache locality. Migration can involve pausing threads, transferring process state, adjusting memory mappings, and updating page tables and Translation Lookaside Buffers. Such migrations may be performed online with minimal disruption or offline during scheduled maintenance, and they require coordination with the scheduler, memory manager, and I/O subsystem to maintain correctness.

In memory management, procswaps can denote swapping a process’s memory image to secondary storage to reclaim physical RAM. This form of swap is controlled by the OS’s paging subsystem and may be influenced by swappiness settings, working-set analysis, and I/O bandwidth considerations. The goal is to free memory for active workloads while preserving the ability to resume the process with minimal overhead.

In distributed or cloud environments, procswaps may describe moving workloads between hosts, containers, or virtual machines to meet policy constraints, handle failures, or respond to changing load. Such migrations can improve fault tolerance and overall utilization but introduce challenges related to state transfer, data consistency, and service continuity.

Overall, procswaps encompass process-level mobility and memory-management strategies aimed at efficiency, with varying implementations and trade-offs. See also process migration, CPU scheduling, and memory paging.