diff --git a/nixos/modules/installer/tools/nixos-generate-config.pl b/nixos/modules/installer/tools/nixos-generate-config.pl
index 0ccdac30d91..9a1157d9501 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/installer/tools/nixos-generate-config.pl
+++ b/nixos/modules/installer/tools/nixos-generate-config.pl
@@ -324,10 +324,19 @@ my @swapDevices;
 if (@swaps) {
     shift @swaps;
     foreach my $swap (@swaps) {
-        $swap =~ /^(\S+)\s/;
-        next unless -e $1;
-        my $dev = findStableDevPath $1;
-        push @swapDevices, "{ device = \"$dev\"; }";
+        my @fields = split ' ', $swap;
+        my $swapFilename = $fields[0];
+        my $swapType = $fields[1];
+        next unless -e $swapFilename;
+        my $dev = findStableDevPath $swapFilename;
+        if ($swapType =~ "partition") {
+            push @swapDevices, "{ device = \"$dev\"; }";
+        } elsif ($swapType =~ "file") {
+            # swap *files* are more likely specified in configuration.nix, so
+            # ignore them here.
+        } else {
+            die "Unsupported swap type: $swapType\n";
+        }
     }
 }