linux/Documentation/sysctl
Linus Torvalds bdc6b758e4 Merge branch 'perf-urgent-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip
Pull perf updates from Ingo Molnar:
 "Mostly tooling and PMU driver fixes, but also a number of late updates
  such as the reworking of the call-chain size limiting logic to make
  call-graph recording more robust, plus tooling side changes for the
  new 'backwards ring-buffer' extension to the perf ring-buffer"

* 'perf-urgent-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip: (34 commits)
  perf record: Read from backward ring buffer
  perf record: Rename variable to make code clear
  perf record: Prevent reading invalid data in record__mmap_read
  perf evlist: Add API to pause/resume
  perf trace: Use the ptr->name beautifier as default for "filename" args
  perf trace: Use the fd->name beautifier as default for "fd" args
  perf report: Add srcline_from/to branch sort keys
  perf evsel: Record fd into perf_mmap
  perf evsel: Add overwrite attribute and check write_backward
  perf tools: Set buildid dir under symfs when --symfs is provided
  perf trace: Only auto set call-graph to "dwarf" when syscalls are being traced
  perf annotate: Sort list of recognised instructions
  perf annotate: Fix identification of ARM blt and bls instructions
  perf tools: Fix usage of max_stack sysctl
  perf callchain: Stop validating callchains by the max_stack sysctl
  perf trace: Fix exit_group() formatting
  perf top: Use machine->kptr_restrict_warned
  perf trace: Warn when trying to resolve kernel addresses with kptr_restrict=1
  perf machine: Do not bail out if not managing to read ref reloc symbol
  perf/x86/intel/p4: Trival indentation fix, remove space
  ...
2016-05-25 17:05:40 -07:00
..
00-INDEX sysctl: remove obsolete comments 2011-01-13 08:03:18 -08:00
README
abi.txt
fs.txt pipe: limit the per-user amount of pages allocated in pipes 2016-01-19 19:25:21 -05:00
kernel.txt perf core: Separate accounting of contexts and real addresses in a stack trace 2016-05-16 23:11:53 -03:00
net.txt bpf: add generic constant blinding for use in jits 2016-05-16 13:49:32 -04:00
sunrpc.txt
vm.txt mm: /proc/sys/vm/stat_refresh to force vmstat update 2016-05-19 19:12:14 -07:00

README

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 :-)