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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2
                       T H E  /proc   F I L E S Y S T E M
3
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4
/proc/sys         Terrehon Bowden         October 7 1999
5
                  Bodo Bauer 
6
 
7
2.4.x update      Jorge Nerin       November 14 2000
8
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9
Version 1.3                                              Kernel version 2.2.12
10
                                              Kernel version 2.4.0-test11-pre4
11
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12
 
13
Table of Contents
14
-----------------
15
 
16
 
17
  0.1   Introduction/Credits
18
  0.2   Legal Stuff
19
 
20
  1     Collecting System Information
21
  1.1   Process-Specific Subdirectories
22
  1.2   Kernel data
23
  1.3   IDE devices in /proc/ide
24
  1.4   Networking info in /proc/net
25
  1.5   SCSI info
26
  1.6   Parallel port info in /proc/parport
27
  1.7   TTY info in /proc/tty
28
 
29
  2     Modifying System Parameters
30
  2.1   /proc/sys/fs - File system data
31
  2.2   /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc - Miscellaneous binary formats
32
  2.3   /proc/sys/kernel - general kernel parameters
33
  2.4   /proc/sys/vm - The virtual memory subsystem
34
  2.5   /proc/sys/dev - Device specific parameters
35
  2.6   /proc/sys/sunrpc - Remote procedure calls
36
  2.7   /proc/sys/net - Networking stuff
37
  2.8   /proc/sys/net/ipv4 - IPV4 settings
38
  2.9   Appletalk
39
  2.10  IPX
40
 
41
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
42
Preface
43
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
44
 
45
0.1 Introduction/Credits
46
------------------------
47
 
48
This documentation is  part of a soon (or  so we hope) to be  released book on
49
the SuSE  Linux distribution. As  there is  no complete documentation  for the
50
/proc file system and we've used  many freely available sources to write these
51
chapters, it  seems only fair  to give the work  back to the  Linux community.
52
This work is  based on the 2.2.*  kernel version and the  upcoming 2.4.*. I'm
53
afraid it's still far from complete, but we  hope it will be useful. As far as
54
we know, it is the first 'all-in-one' document about the /proc file system. It
55
is focused  on the Intel  x86 hardware,  so if you  are looking for  PPC, ARM,
56
SPARC, APX, etc., features, you probably  won't find what you are looking for.
57
It also only covers IPv4 networking, not IPv6 nor other protocols - sorry. But
58
additions and patches  are welcome and will  be added to this  document if you
59
mail them to Bodo.
60
 
61
We'd like  to  thank Alan Cox, Rik van Riel, and Alexey Kuznetsov and a lot of
62
other people for help compiling this documentation. We'd also like to extend a
63
special thank  you to Andi Kleen for documentation, which we relied on heavily
64
to create  this  document,  as well as the additional information he provided.
65
Thanks to  everybody  else  who contributed source or docs to the Linux kernel
66
and helped create a great piece of software... :)
67
 
68
If you  have  any comments, corrections or additions, please don't hesitate to
69
contact Bodo  Bauer  at  bb@ricochet.net.  We'll  be happy to add them to this
70
document.
71
 
72
The   latest   version    of   this   document   is    available   online   at
73
http://skaro.nightcrawler.com/~bb/Docs/Proc as HTML version.
74
 
75
If  the above  direction does  not works  for you,  ypu could  try the  kernel
76
mailing  list  at  linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org  and/or try  to  reach  me  at
77
comandante@zaralinux.com.
78
 
79
0.2 Legal Stuff
80
---------------
81
 
82
We don't  guarantee  the  correctness  of this document, and if you come to us
83
complaining about  how  you  screwed  up  your  system  because  of  incorrect
84
documentation, we won't feel responsible...
85
 
86
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
87
CHAPTER 1: COLLECTING SYSTEM INFORMATION
88
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
89
 
90
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
91
In This Chapter
92
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
93
* Investigating  the  properties  of  the  pseudo  file  system  /proc and its
94
  ability to provide information on the running Linux system
95
* Examining /proc's structure
96
* Uncovering  various  information  about the kernel and the processes running
97
  on the system
98
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
99
 
100
 
101
The proc  file  system acts as an interface to internal data structures in the
102
kernel. It  can  be  used to obtain information about the system and to change
103
certain kernel parameters at runtime (sysctl).
104
 
105
First, we'll  take  a  look  at the read-only parts of /proc. In Chapter 2, we
106
show you how you can use /proc/sys to change settings.
107
 
108
1.1 Process-Specific Subdirectories
109
-----------------------------------
110
 
111
The directory  /proc  contains  (among other things) one subdirectory for each
112
process running on the system, which is named after the process ID (PID).
113
 
114
The link  self  points  to  the  process reading the file system. Each process
115
subdirectory has the entries listed in Table 1-1.
116
 
117
 
118
Table 1-1: Process specific entries in /proc
119
..............................................................................
120
 File    Content
121
 cmdline Command line arguments
122
 cpu     Current and last cpu in wich it was executed           (2.4)(smp)
123
 cwd     Link to the current working directory
124
 environ Values of environment variables
125
 exe     Link to the executable of this process
126
 fd      Directory, which contains all file descriptors
127
 maps    Memory maps to executables and library files           (2.4)
128
 mem     Memory held by this process
129
 root    Link to the root directory of this process
130
 stat    Process status
131
 statm   Process memory status information
132
 status  Process status in human readable form
133
..............................................................................
134
 
135
For example, to get the status information of a process, all you have to do is
136
read the file /proc/PID/status:
137
 
138
  >cat /proc/self/status
139
  Name:   cat
140
  State:  R (running)
141
  Pid:    5452
142
  PPid:   743
143
  TracerPid:      0                                             (2.4)
144
  Uid:    501     501     501     501
145
  Gid:    100     100     100     100
146
  Groups: 100 14 16
147
  VmSize:     1112 kB
148
  VmLck:         0 kB
149
  VmRSS:       348 kB
150
  VmData:       24 kB
151
  VmStk:        12 kB
152
  VmExe:         8 kB
153
  VmLib:      1044 kB
154
  SigPnd: 0000000000000000
155
  SigBlk: 0000000000000000
156
  SigIgn: 0000000000000000
157
  SigCgt: 0000000000000000
158
  CapInh: 00000000fffffeff
159
  CapPrm: 0000000000000000
160
  CapEff: 0000000000000000
161
 
162
 
163
This shows you nearly the same information you would get if you viewed it with
164
the ps  command.  In  fact,  ps  uses  the  proc  file  system  to  obtain its
165
information. The  statm  file  contains  more  detailed  information about the
166
process memory usage. Its seven fields are explained in Table 1-2.
167
 
168
 
169
Table 1-2: Contents of the statm files
170
..............................................................................
171
 File     Content
172
 size     total program size
173
 resident size of memory portions
174
 shared   number of pages that are shared
175
 trs      number of pages that are 'code'
176
 drs      number of pages of data/stack
177
 lrs      number of pages of library
178
 dt       number of dirty pages
179
..............................................................................
180
 
181
1.2 Kernel data
182
---------------
183
 
184
Similar to  the  process entries, the kernel data files give information about
185
the running kernel. The files used to obtain this information are contained in
186
/proc and  are  listed  in Table 1-3. Not all of these will be present in your
187
system. It  depends  on the kernel configuration and the loaded modules, which
188
files are there, and which are missing.
189
 
190
Table 1-3: Kernel info in /proc
191
..............................................................................
192
 File        Content
193
 apm         Advanced power management info
194
 bus         Directory containing bus specific information
195
 cmdline     Kernel command line
196
 cpuinfo     Info about the CPU
197
 devices     Available devices (block and character)
198
 dma         Used DMS channels
199
 filesystems Supported filesystems
200
 driver      Various drivers grouped here, currently rtc        (2.4)
201
 execdomains Execdomains, related to security                   (2.4)
202
 fb          Frame Buffer devices                               (2.4)
203
 fs          File system parameters, currently nfs/exports      (2.4)
204
 ide         Directory containing info about the IDE subsystem
205
 interrupts  Interrupt usage
206
 iomem       Memory map                                         (2.4)
207
 ioports     I/O port usage
208
 irq         Masks for irq to cpu affinity                      (2.4)(smp?)
209
 isapnp      ISA PnP (Plug&Play) Info                           (2.4)
210
 kcore       Kernel core image (can be ELF or A.OUT(deprecated in 2.4))
211
 kmsg        Kernel messages
212
 ksyms       Kernel symbol table
213
 loadavg     Load average of last 1, 5 & 15 minutes
214
 locks       Kernel locks
215
 meminfo     Memory info
216
 misc        Miscellaneous
217
 modules     List of loaded modules
218
 mounts      Mounted filesystems
219
 net         Networking info (see text)
220
 partitions  Table of partitions known to the system
221
 pci         Depreciated info of PCI bus (new way -> /proc/bus/pci/,
222
             decoupled by lspci                                 (2.4)
223
 rtc         Real time clock
224
 scsi        SCSI info (see text)
225
 slabinfo    Slab pool info
226
 stat        Overall statistics
227
 swaps       Swap space utilization
228
 sys         See chapter 2
229
 sysvipc     Info of SysVIPC Resources (msg, sem, shm)          (2.4)
230
 tty         Info of tty drivers
231
 uptime      System uptime
232
 version     Kernel version
233
 video       bttv info of video resources                       (2.4)
234
..............................................................................
235
 
236
You can,  for  example,  check  which interrupts are currently in use and what
237
they are used for by looking in the file /proc/interrupts:
238
 
239
  > cat /proc/interrupts
240
             CPU0
241
    0:    8728810          XT-PIC  timer
242
    1:        895          XT-PIC  keyboard
243
    2:          0          XT-PIC  cascade
244
    3:     531695          XT-PIC  aha152x
245
    4:    2014133          XT-PIC  serial
246
    5:      44401          XT-PIC  pcnet_cs
247
    8:          2          XT-PIC  rtc
248
   11:          8          XT-PIC  i82365
249
   12:     182918          XT-PIC  PS/2 Mouse
250
   13:          1          XT-PIC  fpu
251
   14:    1232265          XT-PIC  ide0
252
   15:          7          XT-PIC  ide1
253
  NMI:          0
254
 
255
In 2.4.* a couple of lines where added to this file LOC & ERR (this time is the
256
output of a SMP machine):
257
 
258
  > cat /proc/interrupts
259
 
260
             CPU0       CPU1
261
    0:    1243498    1214548    IO-APIC-edge  timer
262
    1:       8949       8958    IO-APIC-edge  keyboard
263
    2:          0          0          XT-PIC  cascade
264
    5:      11286      10161    IO-APIC-edge  soundblaster
265
    8:          1          0    IO-APIC-edge  rtc
266
    9:      27422      27407    IO-APIC-edge  3c503
267
   12:     113645     113873    IO-APIC-edge  PS/2 Mouse
268
   13:          0          0          XT-PIC  fpu
269
   14:      22491      24012    IO-APIC-edge  ide0
270
   15:       2183       2415    IO-APIC-edge  ide1
271
   17:      30564      30414   IO-APIC-level  eth0
272
   18:        177        164   IO-APIC-level  bttv
273
  NMI:    2457961    2457959
274
  LOC:    2457882    2457881
275
  ERR:       2155
276
 
277
NMI is incremented in this case because every timer interrupt generates a NMI
278
(Non Maskable Interrupt) which is used by the NMI Watchdog to detect lookups.
279
 
280
LOC is the local interrupt counter of the internal APIC of every CPU.
281
 
282
ERR is incremented in the case of errors in the IO-APIC bus (the bus that
283
connects the CPUs in a SMP system. This means that an error has been detected,
284
the IO-APIC automatically retry the transmission, so it should not be a big
285
problem, but you should read the SMP-FAQ.
286
 
287
In this context it could be interesting to note the new irq directory in 2.4.
288
It could be used to set IRQ to CPU affinity, this means that you can "hook" an
289
IRQ to only one CPU, or to exclude a CPU of handling IRQs. The contents of the
290
irq subdir is one subdir for each IRQ, and one file; prof_cpu_mask
291
 
292
For example
293
  > ls /proc/irq/
294
 
295
  1  11  13  15  17  19  3  5  7  9
296
  > ls /proc/irq/0/
297
  smp_affinity
298
 
299
The contents of the prof_cpu_mask file and each smp_affinity file for each IRQ
300
is the same by default:
301
 
302
  > cat /proc/irq/0/smp_affinity
303
  ffffffff
304
 
305
It's a bitmask, in wich you can specify wich CPUs can handle the IRQ, you can
306
set it by doing:
307
 
308
  > echo 1 > /proc/irq/prof_cpu_mask
309
 
310
This means that only the first CPU will handle the IRQ, but you can also echo 5
311
wich means that only the first and fourth CPU can handle the IRQ.
312
 
313
The way IRQs are routed is handled by the IO-APIC, and it's Round Robin
314
between all the CPUs which are allowed to handle it. As usual the kernel has
315
more info than you and does a better job than you, so the defaults are the
316
best choice for almost everyone.
317
 
318
There are  three  more  important subdirectories in /proc: net, scsi, and sys.
319
The general  rule  is  that  the  contents,  or  even  the  existence of these
320
directories, depend  on your kernel configuration. If SCSI is not enabled, the
321
directory scsi  may  not  exist. The same is true with the net, which is there
322
only when networking support is present in the running kernel.
323
 
324
The slabinfo  file  gives  information  about  memory usage at the slab level.
325
Linux uses  slab  pools for memory management above page level in version 2.2.
326
Commonly used  objects  have  their  own  slab  pool (such as network buffers,
327
directory cache, and so on).
328
 
329
1.3 IDE devices in /proc/ide
330
----------------------------
331
 
332
The subdirectory /proc/ide contains information about all IDE devices of which
333
the kernel  is  aware.  There is one subdirectory for each IDE controller, the
334
file drivers  and a link for each IDE device, pointing to the device directory
335
in the controller specific subtree.
336
 
337
The file  drivers  contains general information about the drivers used for the
338
IDE devices:
339
 
340
  > cat /proc/ide/drivers
341
  ide-cdrom version 4.53
342
  ide-disk version 1.08
343
 
344
 
345
More detailed  information  can  be  found  in  the  controller  specific
346
subdirectories. These  are  named  ide0,  ide1  and  so  on.  Each  of  these
347
directories contains the files shown in table 1-4.
348
 
349
 
350
Table 1-4: IDE controller info in  /proc/ide/ide?
351
..............................................................................
352
 File    Content
353
 channel IDE channel (0 or 1)
354
 config  Configuration (only for PCI/IDE bridge)
355
 mate    Mate name
356
 model   Type/Chipset of IDE controller
357
..............................................................................
358
 
359
Each device  connected  to  a  controller  has  a separate subdirectory in the
360
controllers directory.  The  files  listed in table 1-5 are contained in these
361
directories.
362
 
363
 
364
Table 1-5: IDE device information
365
..............................................................................
366
 File             Content
367
 cache            The cache
368
 capacity         Capacity of the medium (in 512Byte blocks)
369
 driver           driver and version
370
 geometry         physical and logical geometry
371
 identify         device identify block
372
 media            media type
373
 model            device identifier
374
 settings         device setup
375
 smart_thresholds IDE disk management thresholds
376
 smart_values     IDE disk management values
377
..............................................................................
378
 
379
The most  interesting  file is settings. This file contains a nice overview of
380
the drive parameters:
381
 
382
  # cat /proc/ide/ide0/hda/settings
383
  name                    value           min             max             mode
384
  ----                    -----           ---             ---             ----
385
  bios_cyl                526             0               65535           rw
386
  bios_head               255             0               255             rw
387
  bios_sect               63              0               63              rw
388
  breada_readahead        4               0               127             rw
389
  bswap                   0               0               1               r
390
  file_readahead          72              0               2097151         rw
391
  io_32bit                0               0               3               rw
392
  keepsettings            0               0               1               rw
393
  max_kb_per_request      122             1               127             rw
394
  multcount               0               0               8               rw
395
  nice1                   1               0               1               rw
396
  nowerr                  0               0               1               rw
397
  pio_mode                write-only      0               255             w
398
  slow                    0               0               1               rw
399
  unmaskirq               0               0               1               rw
400
  using_dma               0               0               1               rw
401
 
402
 
403
1.4 Networking info in /proc/net
404
--------------------------------
405
 
406
The subdirectory  /proc/net  follows  the  usual  pattern. Table 1-6 shows the
407
additional values  you  get  for  IP  version 6 if you configure the kernel to
408
support this. Table 1-7 lists the files and their meaning.
409
 
410
 
411
Table 1-6: IPv6 info in /proc/net
412
..............................................................................
413
 File       Content
414
 udp6       UDP sockets (IPv6)
415
 tcp6       TCP sockets (IPv6)
416
 raw6       Raw device statistics (IPv6)
417
 igmp6      IP multicast addresses, which this host joined (IPv6)
418
 if_inet6   List of IPv6 interface addresses
419
 ipv6_route Kernel routing table for IPv6
420
 rt6_stats  Global IPv6 routing tables statistics
421
 sockstat6  Socket statistics (IPv6)
422
 snmp6      Snmp data (IPv6)
423
..............................................................................
424
 
425
 
426
Table 1-7: Network info in /proc/net
427
..............................................................................
428
 File          Content
429
 arp           Kernel  ARP table
430
 dev           network devices with statistics
431
 dev_mcast     the Layer2 multicast groups a device is listening too
432
               (interface index, label, number of references, number of bound
433
               addresses).
434
 dev_stat      network device status
435
 ip_fwchains   Firewall chain linkage
436
 ip_fwnames    Firewall chain names
437
 ip_masq       Directory containing the masquerading tables
438
 ip_masquerade Major masquerading table
439
 netstat       Network statistics
440
 raw           raw device statistics
441
 route         Kernel routing table
442
 rpc           Directory containing rpc info
443
 rt_cache      Routing cache
444
 snmp          SNMP data
445
 sockstat      Socket statistics
446
 tcp           TCP  sockets
447
 tr_rif        Token ring RIF routing table
448
 udp           UDP sockets
449
 unix          UNIX domain sockets
450
 wireless      Wireless interface data (Wavelan etc)
451
 igmp          IP multicast addresses, which this host joined
452
 psched        Global packet scheduler parameters.
453
 netlink       List of PF_NETLINK sockets
454
 ip_mr_vifs    List of multicast virtual interfaces
455
 ip_mr_cache   List of multicast routing cache
456
..............................................................................
457
 
458
You can  use  this  information  to see which network devices are available in
459
your system and how much traffic was routed over those devices:
460
 
461
  > cat /proc/net/dev
462
  Inter-|Receive                                                   |[...
463
   face |bytes    packets errs drop fifo frame compressed multicast|[...
464
      lo:  908188   5596     0    0    0     0          0         0 [...
465
    ppp0:15475140  20721   410    0    0   410          0         0 [...
466
    eth0:  614530   7085     0    0    0     0          0         1 [...
467
 
468
  ...] Transmit
469
  ...] bytes    packets errs drop fifo colls carrier compressed
470
  ...]  908188     5596    0    0    0     0       0          0
471
  ...] 1375103    17405    0    0    0     0       0          0
472
  ...] 1703981     5535    0    0    0     3       0          0
473
 
474
In addition, each Channel Bond interface has it's own directory.  For
475
example, the bond0 device will have a directory called /proc/net/bond0/.
476
It will contain information that is specific to that bond, such as the
477
current slaves of the bond, the link status of the slaves, and how
478
many times the slaves link has failed.
479
 
480
1.5 SCSI info
481
-------------
482
 
483
If you  have  a  SCSI  host adapter in your system, you'll find a subdirectory
484
named after  the driver for this adapter in /proc/scsi. You'll also see a list
485
of all recognized SCSI devices in /proc/scsi:
486
 
487
  >cat /proc/scsi/scsi
488
  Attached devices:
489
  Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
490
    Vendor: IBM      Model: DGHS09U          Rev: 03E0
491
    Type:   Direct-Access                    ANSI SCSI revision: 03
492
  Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 06 Lun: 00
493
    Vendor: PIONEER  Model: CD-ROM DR-U06S   Rev: 1.04
494
    Type:   CD-ROM                           ANSI SCSI revision: 02
495
 
496
 
497
The directory  named  after  the driver has one file for each adapter found in
498
the system.  These  files  contain information about the controller, including
499
the used  IRQ  and  the  IO  address range. The amount of information shown is
500
dependent on  the adapter you use. The example shows the output for an Adaptec
501
AHA-2940 SCSI adapter:
502
 
503
  > cat /proc/scsi/aic7xxx/0
504
 
505
  Adaptec AIC7xxx driver version: 5.1.19/3.2.4
506
  Compile Options:
507
    TCQ Enabled By Default : Disabled
508
    AIC7XXX_PROC_STATS     : Disabled
509
    AIC7XXX_RESET_DELAY    : 5
510
  Adapter Configuration:
511
             SCSI Adapter: Adaptec AHA-294X Ultra SCSI host adapter
512
                             Ultra Wide Controller
513
      PCI MMAPed I/O Base: 0xeb001000
514
   Adapter SEEPROM Config: SEEPROM found and used.
515
        Adaptec SCSI BIOS: Enabled
516
                      IRQ: 10
517
                     SCBs: Active 0, Max Active 2,
518
                           Allocated 15, HW 16, Page 255
519
               Interrupts: 160328
520
        BIOS Control Word: 0x18b6
521
     Adapter Control Word: 0x005b
522
     Extended Translation: Enabled
523
  Disconnect Enable Flags: 0xffff
524
       Ultra Enable Flags: 0x0001
525
   Tag Queue Enable Flags: 0x0000
526
  Ordered Queue Tag Flags: 0x0000
527
  Default Tag Queue Depth: 8
528
      Tagged Queue By Device array for aic7xxx host instance 0:
529
        {255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255}
530
      Actual queue depth per device for aic7xxx host instance 0:
531
        {1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1}
532
  Statistics:
533
  (scsi0:0:0:0)
534
    Device using Wide/Sync transfers at 40.0 MByte/sec, offset 8
535
    Transinfo settings: current(12/8/1/0), goal(12/8/1/0), user(12/15/1/0)
536
    Total transfers 160151 (74577 reads and 85574 writes)
537
  (scsi0:0:6:0)
538
    Device using Narrow/Sync transfers at 5.0 MByte/sec, offset 15
539
    Transinfo settings: current(50/15/0/0), goal(50/15/0/0), user(50/15/0/0)
540
    Total transfers 0 (0 reads and 0 writes)
541
 
542
 
543
1.6 Parallel port info in /proc/parport
544
---------------------------------------
545
 
546
The directory  /proc/parport  contains information about the parallel ports of
547
your system.  It  has  one  subdirectory  for  each port, named after the port
548
number (0,1,2,...).
549
 
550
These directories contain the four files shown in Table 1-8.
551
 
552
 
553
Table 1-8: Files in /proc/parport
554
..............................................................................
555
 File      Content
556
 autoprobe Any IEEE-1284 device ID information that has been acquired.
557
 devices   list of the device drivers using that port. A + will appear by the
558
           name of the device currently using the port (it might not appear
559
           against any).
560
 hardware  Parallel port's base address, IRQ line and DMA channel.
561
 irq       IRQ that parport is using for that port. This is in a separate
562
           file to allow you to alter it by writing a new value in (IRQ
563
           number or none).
564
..............................................................................
565
 
566
1.7 TTY info in /proc/tty
567
-------------------------
568
 
569
Information about  the  available  and actually used tty's can be found in the
570
directory /proc/tty.You'll  find  entries  for drivers and line disciplines in
571
this directory, as shown in Table 1-9.
572
 
573
 
574
Table 1-9: Files in /proc/tty
575
..............................................................................
576
 File          Content
577
 drivers       list of drivers and their usage
578
 ldiscs        registered line disciplines
579
 driver/serial usage statistic and status of single tty lines
580
..............................................................................
581
 
582
To see  which  tty's  are  currently in use, you can simply look into the file
583
/proc/tty/drivers:
584
 
585
  > cat /proc/tty/drivers
586
  pty_slave            /dev/pts      136   0-255 pty:slave
587
  pty_master           /dev/ptm      128   0-255 pty:master
588
  pty_slave            /dev/ttyp       3   0-255 pty:slave
589
  pty_master           /dev/pty        2   0-255 pty:master
590
  serial               /dev/cua        5   64-67 serial:callout
591
  serial               /dev/ttyS       4   64-67 serial
592
  /dev/tty0            /dev/tty0       4       0 system:vtmaster
593
  /dev/ptmx            /dev/ptmx       5       2 system
594
  /dev/console         /dev/console    5       1 system:console
595
  /dev/tty             /dev/tty        5       0 system:/dev/tty
596
  unknown              /dev/tty        4    1-63 console
597
 
598
 
599
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
600
Summary
601
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
602
The /proc file system serves information about the running system. It not only
603
allows access to process data but also allows you to request the kernel status
604
by reading files in the hierarchy.
605
 
606
The directory  structure  of /proc reflects the types of information and makes
607
it easy, if not obvious, where to look for specific data.
608
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
609
 
610
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
611
CHAPTER 2: MODIFYING SYSTEM PARAMETERS
612
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
613
 
614
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
615
In This Chapter
616
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
617
* Modifying kernel parameters by writing into files found in /proc/sys
618
* Exploring the files which modify certain parameters
619
* Review of the /proc/sys file tree
620
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
621
 
622
 
623
A very  interesting part of /proc is the directory /proc/sys. This is not only
624
a source  of  information,  it also allows you to change parameters within the
625
kernel. Be  very  careful  when attempting this. You can optimize your system,
626
but you  can  also  cause  it  to  crash.  Never  alter kernel parameters on a
627
production system.  Set  up  a  development machine and test to make sure that
628
everything works  the  way  you want it to. You may have no alternative but to
629
reboot the machine once an error has been made.
630
 
631
To change  a  value,  simply  echo  the new value into the file. An example is
632
given below  in the section on the file system data. You need to be root to do
633
this. You  can  create  your  own  boot script to perform this every time your
634
system boots.
635
 
636
The files  in /proc/sys can be used to fine tune and monitor miscellaneous and
637
general things  in  the operation of the Linux kernel. Since some of the files
638
can inadvertently  disrupt  your  system,  it  is  advisable  to  read  both
639
documentation and  source  before actually making adjustments. In any case, be
640
very careful  when  writing  to  any  of these files. The entries in /proc may
641
change slightly between the 2.1.* and the 2.2 kernel, so if there is any doubt
642
review the kernel documentation in the directory /usr/src/linux/Documentation.
643
This chapter  is  heavily  based  on the documentation included in the pre 2.2
644
kernels, and became part of it in version 2.2.1 of the Linux kernel.
645
 
646
2.1 /proc/sys/fs - File system data
647
-----------------------------------
648
 
649
This subdirectory  contains  specific  file system, file handle, inode, dentry
650
and quota information.
651
 
652
Currently, these files are in /proc/sys/fs:
653
 
654
dentry-state
655
------------
656
 
657
Status of  the  directory  cache.  Since  directory  entries  are  dynamically
658
allocated and  deallocated,  this  file indicates the current status. It holds
659
six values, in which the last two are not used and are always zero. The others
660
are listed in table 2-1.
661
 
662
 
663
Table 2-1: Status files of the directory cache
664
..............................................................................
665
 File       Content
666
 nr_dentry  Almost always zero
667
 nr_unused  Number of unused cache entries
668
 age_limit
669
            in seconds after the entry may be reclaimed, when memory is short
670
 want_pages internally
671
..............................................................................
672
 
673
dquot-nr and dquot-max
674
----------------------
675
 
676
The file dquot-max shows the maximum number of cached disk quota entries.
677
 
678
The file  dquot-nr  shows  the  number of allocated disk quota entries and the
679
number of free disk quota entries.
680
 
681
If the number of available cached disk quotas is very low and you have a large
682
number of simultaneous system users, you might want to raise the limit.
683
 
684
file-nr and file-max
685
--------------------
686
 
687
The kernel  allocates file handles dynamically, but doesn't free them again at
688
this time.
689
 
690
The value  in  file-max  denotes  the  maximum number of file handles that the
691
Linux kernel will allocate. When you get a lot of error messages about running
692
out of  file handles, you might want to raise this limit. The default value is
693
4096. To change it, just write the new number into the file:
694
 
695
  # cat /proc/sys/fs/file-max
696
  4096
697
  # echo 8192 > /proc/sys/fs/file-max
698
  # cat /proc/sys/fs/file-max
699
  8192
700
 
701
 
702
This method  of  revision  is  useful  for  all customizable parameters of the
703
kernel - simply echo the new value to the corresponding file.
704
 
705
The three  values  in file-nr denote the number of allocated file handles, the
706
number of  used file handles, and the maximum number of file handles. When the
707
allocated file  handles  come close to the maximum, but the number of actually
708
used ones  is  far  behind,  you've  encountered  a peak in your usage of file
709
handles and you don't need to increase the maximum.
710
 
711
inode-state and inode-nr
712
------------------------
713
 
714
The file inode-nr contains the first two items from inode-state, so we'll skip
715
to that file...
716
 
717
inode-state contains  two  actual numbers and five dummy values. The numbers
718
are nr_inodes and nr_free_inodes (in order of appearance).
719
 
720
nr_inodes
721
~~~~~~~~~
722
 
723
Denotes the  number  of  inodes the system has allocated. This number will
724
grow and shrink dynamically.
725
 
726
nr_free_inodes
727
--------------
728
 
729
Represents the  number of free inodes. Ie. The number of inuse inodes is
730
(nr_inodes - nr_free_inodes).
731
 
732
super-nr and super-max
733
----------------------
734
 
735
Again, super  block structures are allocated by the kernel, but not freed. The
736
file super-max  contains  the  maximum  number  of super block handlers, where
737
super-nr shows the number of currently allocated ones.
738
 
739
Every mounted file system needs a super block, so if you plan to mount lots of
740
file systems, you may want to increase these numbers.
741
 
742
2.2 /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc - Miscellaneous binary formats
743
-----------------------------------------------------------
744
 
745
Besides these  files, there is the subdirectory /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc. This
746
handles the kernel support for miscellaneous binary formats.
747
 
748
Binfmt_misc provides  the ability to register additional binary formats to the
749
Kernel without  compiling  an additional module/kernel. Therefore, binfmt_misc
750
needs to  know magic numbers at the beginning or the filename extension of the
751
binary.
752
 
753
It works by maintaining a linked list of structs that contain a description of
754
a binary  format,  including  a  magic  with size (or the filename extension),
755
offset and  mask,  and  the  interpreter name. On request it invokes the given
756
interpreter with  the  original  program  as  argument,  as  binfmt_java  and
757
binfmt_em86 and  binfmt_mz  do.  Since binfmt_misc does not define any default
758
binary-formats, you have to register an additional binary-format.
759
 
760
There are two general files in binfmt_misc and one file per registered format.
761
The two general files are register and status.
762
 
763
Registering a new binary format
764
-------------------------------
765
 
766
To register a new binary format you have to issue the command
767
 
768
  echo :name:type:offset:magic:mask:interpreter: > /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/register
769
 
770
 
771
 
772
with appropriate  name (the name for the /proc-dir entry), offset (defaults to
773
0, if  omitted),  magic, mask (which can be omitted, defaults to all 0xff) and
774
last but  not  least,  the  interpreter that is to be invoked (for example and
775
testing /bin/echo).  Type  can be M for usual magic matching or E for filename
776
extension matching (give extension in place of magic).
777
 
778
Check or reset the status of the binary format handler
779
------------------------------------------------------
780
 
781
If you  do a cat on the file /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/status, you will get the
782
current status (enabled/disabled) of binfmt_misc. Change the status by echoing
783
 
784
registered binary  formats)  to status. For example echo 0 > status to disable
785
binfmt_misc (temporarily).
786
 
787
Status of a single handler
788
--------------------------
789
 
790
Each registered  handler has an entry in /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc. These files
791
perform the  same function as status, but their scope is limited to the actual
792
binary format.  By  cating this file, you also receive all related information
793
about the interpreter/magic of the binfmt.
794
 
795
Example usage of binfmt_misc (emulate binfmt_java)
796
--------------------------------------------------
797
 
798
  cd /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc
799
  echo ':Java:M::\xca\xfe\xba\xbe::/usr/local/java/bin/javawrapper:' > register
800
  echo ':HTML:E::html::/usr/local/java/bin/appletviewer:' > register
801
  echo ':Applet:M::