download-ram/download-ram.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash

download_ram() {

  local requested_size="$1"

  echo "Downloading $requested_size GiB of RAM"

  local total_needed=$(( requested_size + 4 ))

  if check_root_space "$total_needed"; then
    echo ""
  else
    exit 1
  fi

  if actually_download_the_ram "$requested_size"; then
    echo "Done, run (sudo) swapon --show to see your new RAM"
  else
    echo "Failed"
    exit 1
  fi
}

actually_download_the_ram() {

  local size_gb="$1"
  local dir="/var/swap"

  # Create directory to save swapfiles
  mkdir -p "$dir" || {
    echo "Failed to create $dir" >&2; return 1;
  }

  # Find the next available swapfile name
  local i=0
  local swapfile
  while :; do
    swapfile="$dir/swapfile$i"
    [ -e "$swapfile" ] || break
    i=$((i + 1))
  done

  echo "Downloading $swapfile (${size_gb}G) of RAM"

  # Use fallocate (or dd in case no fallocate is installed) to create swapfile
  if ! fallocate -l "${size_gb}G" "$swapfile" 2>/dev/null; then
    echo "fallocate failed, falling back to dd (this may take a while)..."
    if ! dd if=/dev/zero of="$swapfile" bs=1G count="$size_gb" status=progress; then
      echo "fallocate/dd failed in creating swapfile" >&2
      rm -f "$swapfile"
      return 1
    fi
  fi

  # Set file to read and write
  chmod 600 "$swapfile" || {
    echo "chmod failed" >&2;
    rm -f "$swapfile"; return 1;
  }

  # Turn the file to swap type
  if ! mkswap "$swapfile"; then
    echo "mkswap failed" >&2
    rm -f "$swapfile"
    return 1
  fi

  # Run swapon to enable swap
  if ! swapon "$swapfile"; then
    echo "swapon failed" >&2
    return 1
  fi

  # Check if swap is running and write into fstab file
  if swapon --show | awk 'NR>1 {print $1}' | grep -qx "$swapfile"; then
    echo "Successfully 'downloaded' ${size_gb}G of RAM into: $swapfile"
    if ! grep -q -E "^[[:space:]]*${swapfile}[[:space:]]" /etc/fstab; then
      printf "%s\n" "${swapfile} none swap defaults 0 0" >> /etc/fstab
    else
      echo "Entry for $swapfile already exists in /etc/fstab, not adding duplicate"
    fi
    return 0
  else
    echo "Swapfile created but not active. Check 'swapon --show'" >&2
    return 1
  fi

}

check_root_space() {

  local need_gib=$1
  local free_gib

  free_gib=$(df -B1G --output=avail / | tail -n1 | tr -d ' ')

  if (( free_gib >= need_gib )); then
    return 0
  else
    echo "Your system does not have enough space to download the RAM"
    echo "Need at least ${need_gib}GiB free, but only ${free_gib}GiB is available." >&2
    return 1
  fi

}

# -- Start of Script --

# Check if ran as sudo
if [[ "$EUID" -ne 0 ]]; then
    echo "This script must be run as root (try: sudo $0)" >&2
    exit 1
fi

# Check if system is mounted on a ext4 filesystem
fs_type=$(findmnt -no FSTYPE / 2>/dev/null)
if [[ "$fs_type" != "ext4" ]]; then
    echo "Error: /var is on '$fs_type'. This script only supports systems mounted on ext4." >&2
    exit 1
fi

# Message + handle input
echo "Please select how much RAM you want to download:"
echo "1) 4GiB of RAM"
echo "2) 8GiB of RAM"
echo "3) 16GiB of RAM"
echo "4) Custom amount"
echo "Plese note you need at least the chosen amount of space on your drive + 4GiB"
echo ""

read -r -p "Enter your choice (1-4): " choice

case "$choice" in
  1)
    value=4
    ;;
  2)
    value=8
    ;;
  3)
    value=16
    ;;
  4)
    read -r -p "Enter a custom amount in GiB (1-16): " custom
    if [[ ! "$custom" =~ ^[0-9]+$ ]] || (( custom < 1 || custom > 16 )); then
      echo "Invalid amount. Please enter a whole number between 1 and 16."
      exit 1
    fi
    value=$custom
    ;;
  *)
    echo "Invalid choice."
    exit 1
    ;;
esac

download_ram "$value"