linux/Documentation/sysctl
Linus Torvalds e16b396ce3 Merge branch 'for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jikos/trivial
* 'for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jikos/trivial: (47 commits)
  doc: CONFIG_UNEVICTABLE_LRU doesn't exist anymore
  Update cpuset info & webiste for cgroups
  dcdbas: force SMI to happen when expected
  arch/arm/Kconfig: remove one to many l's in the word.
  asm-generic/user.h: Fix spelling in comment
  drm: fix printk typo 'sracth'
  Remove one to many n's in a word
  Documentation/filesystems/romfs.txt: fixing link to genromfs
  drivers:scsi Change printk typo initate -> initiate
  serial, pch uart: Remove duplicate inclusion of linux/pci.h header
  fs/eventpoll.c: fix spelling
  mm: Fix out-of-date comments which refers non-existent functions
  drm: Fix printk typo 'failled'
  coh901318.c: Change initate to initiate.
  mbox-db5500.c Change initate to initiate.
  edac: correct i82975x error-info reported
  edac: correct i82975x mci initialisation
  edac: correct commented info
  fs: update comments to point correct document
  target: remove duplicate include of target/target_core_device.h from drivers/target/target_core_hba.c
  ...

Trivial conflict in fs/eventpoll.c (spelling vs addition)
2011-03-18 10:37:40 -07:00
..
00-INDEX sysctl: remove obsolete comments 2011-01-13 08:03:18 -08:00
abi.txt
fs.txt Documentation: file handles are now freed 2011-03-16 10:47:03 -07:00
kernel.txt Documentation: default_message_level is a typo 2011-02-11 15:14:10 +01:00
net.txt
README
sunrpc.txt
vm.txt doc: clarify the behaviour of dirty_ratio/dirty_bytes 2010-10-27 18:03:08 -07:00

Documentation for /proc/sys/		kernel version 2.2.10
	(c) 1998, 1999,  Rik van Riel <riel@nl.linux.org>

'Why', I hear you ask, 'would anyone even _want_ documentation
for them sysctl files? If anybody really needs it, it's all in
the source...'

Well, this documentation is written because some people either
don't know they need to tweak something, or because they don't
have the time or knowledge to read the source code.

Furthermore, the programmers who built sysctl have built it to
be actually used, not just for the fun of programming it :-)

==============================================================

Legal blurb:

As usual, there are two main things to consider:
1. you get what you pay for
2. it's free

The consequences are that I won't guarantee the correctness of
this document, and if you come to me complaining about how you
screwed up your system because of wrong documentation, I won't
feel sorry for you. I might even laugh at you...

But of course, if you _do_ manage to screw up your system using
only the sysctl options used in this file, I'd like to hear of
it. Not only to have a great laugh, but also to make sure that
you're the last RTFMing person to screw up.

In short, e-mail your suggestions, corrections and / or horror
stories to: <riel@nl.linux.org>

Rik van Riel.

==============================================================

Introduction:

Sysctl is a means of configuring certain aspects of the kernel
at run-time, and the /proc/sys/ directory is there so that you
don't even need special tools to do it!
In fact, there are only four things needed to use these config
facilities:
- a running Linux system
- root access
- common sense (this is especially hard to come by these days)
- knowledge of what all those values mean

As a quick 'ls /proc/sys' will show, the directory consists of
several (arch-dependent?) subdirs. Each subdir is mainly about
one part of the kernel, so you can do configuration on a piece
by piece basis, or just some 'thematic frobbing'.

The subdirs are about:
abi/		execution domains & personalities
debug/		<empty>
dev/		device specific information (eg dev/cdrom/info)
fs/		specific filesystems
		filehandle, inode, dentry and quota tuning
		binfmt_misc <Documentation/binfmt_misc.txt>
kernel/		global kernel info / tuning
		miscellaneous stuff
net/		networking stuff, for documentation look in:
		<Documentation/networking/>
proc/		<empty>
sunrpc/		SUN Remote Procedure Call (NFS)
vm/		memory management tuning
		buffer and cache management

These are the subdirs I have on my system. There might be more
or other subdirs in another setup. If you see another dir, I'd
really like to hear about it :-)