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phoenix |
Documentation for /proc/sys/ kernel version 2.2.10
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(c) 1998, 1999, Rik van Riel
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'Why', I hear you ask, 'would anyone even _want_ documentation
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for them sysctl files? If anybody really needs it, it's all in
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the source...'
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Well, this documentation is written because some people either
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don't know they need to tweak something, or because they don't
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have the time or knowledge to read the source code.
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Furthermore, the programmers who built sysctl have built it to
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be actually used, not just for the fun of programming it :-)
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==============================================================
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Legal blurb:
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As usual, there are two main things to consider:
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1. you get what you pay for
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2. it's free
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The consequences are that I won't guarantee the correctness of
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this document, and if you come to me complaining about how you
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screwed up your system because of wrong documentation, I won't
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feel sorry for you. I might even laugh at you...
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But of course, if you _do_ manage to screw up your system using
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only the sysctl options used in this file, I'd like to hear of
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it. Not only to have a great laugh, but also to make sure that
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you're the last RTFMing person to screw up.
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In short, e-mail your suggestions, corrections and / or horror
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stories to:
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Rik van Riel.
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==============================================================
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Introduction:
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Sysctl is a means of configuring certain aspects of the kernel
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at run-time, and the /proc/sys/ directory is there so that you
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don't even need special tools to do it!
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In fact, there are only four things needed to use these config
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facilities:
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- a running Linux system
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- root access
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- common sense (this is especially hard to come by these days)
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- knowledge of what all those values mean
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As a quick 'ls /proc/sys' will show, the directory consists of
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several (arch-dependent?) subdirs. Each subdir is mainly about
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one part of the kernel, so you can do configuration on a piece
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by piece basis, or just some 'thematic frobbing'.
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The subdirs are about:
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debug/
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dev/ device specific information (eg dev/cdrom/info)
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fs/ specific filesystems
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filehandle, inode, dentry and quota tuning
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binfmt_misc
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kernel/ global kernel info / tuning
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miscellaneous stuff
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net/ networking stuff, for documentation look in:
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proc/
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sunrpc/ SUN Remote Procedure Call (NFS)
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vm/ memory management tuning
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buffer and cache management
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These are the subdirs I have on my system. There might be more
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or other subdirs in another setup. If you see another dir, I'd
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really like to hear about it :-)
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