1
linux/Documentation/sysctl
Linus Torvalds 255442c938 Documentation updates for 4.16. New stuff includes refcount_t
documentation, errseq documentation, kernel-doc support for nested
 structure definitions, the removal of lots of crufty kernel-doc support for
 unused formats, SPDX tag documentation, the beginnings of a manual for
 subsystem maintainers, and lots of fixes and updates.
 
 As usual, some of the changesets reach outside of Documentation/ to effect
 kerneldoc comment fixes.  It also adds the new LICENSES directory, of which
 Thomas promises I do not need to be the maintainer.
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Merge tag 'docs-4.16' of git://git.lwn.net/linux

Pull documentation updates from Jonathan Corbet:
 "Documentation updates for 4.16.

  New stuff includes refcount_t documentation, errseq documentation,
  kernel-doc support for nested structure definitions, the removal of
  lots of crufty kernel-doc support for unused formats, SPDX tag
  documentation, the beginnings of a manual for subsystem maintainers,
  and lots of fixes and updates.

  As usual, some of the changesets reach outside of Documentation/ to
  effect kerneldoc comment fixes. It also adds the new LICENSES
  directory, of which Thomas promises I do not need to be the
  maintainer"

* tag 'docs-4.16' of git://git.lwn.net/linux: (65 commits)
  linux-next: docs-rst: Fix typos in kfigure.py
  linux-next: DOC: HWPOISON: Fix path to debugfs in hwpoison.txt
  Documentation: Fix misconversion of #if
  docs: add index entry for networking/msg_zerocopy
  Documentation: security/credentials.rst: explain need to sort group_list
  LICENSES: Add MPL-1.1 license
  LICENSES: Add the GPL 1.0 license
  LICENSES: Add Linux syscall note exception
  LICENSES: Add the MIT license
  LICENSES: Add the BSD-3-clause "Clear" license
  LICENSES: Add the BSD 3-clause "New" or "Revised" License
  LICENSES: Add the BSD 2-clause "Simplified" license
  LICENSES: Add the LGPL-2.1 license
  LICENSES: Add the LGPL 2.0 license
  LICENSES: Add the GPL 2.0 license
  Documentation: Add license-rules.rst to describe how to properly identify file licenses
  scripts: kernel_doc: better handle show warnings logic
  fs/*/Kconfig: drop links to 404-compliant http://acl.bestbits.at
  doc: md: Fix a file name to md-fault.c in fault-injection.txt
  errseq: Add to documentation tree
  ...
2018-01-31 19:25:25 -08:00
..
00-INDEX
abi.txt
fs.txt docs: Update binfmt_misc links 2017-10-03 15:23:38 -06:00
kernel.txt doc: update kptr_restrict documentation 2017-12-21 13:39:27 -07:00
net.txt net: Clarify dev_weight documentation for LRO and GRO_HW. 2017-12-20 13:04:01 -05:00
README docs: Update binfmt_misc links 2017-10-03 15:23:38 -06:00
sunrpc.txt
user.txt userns; Document per user per user namespace limits. 2016-09-22 12:52:03 -05:00
vm.txt mm, hugetlb: remove hugepages_treat_as_movable sysctl 2018-01-31 17:18:37 -08:00

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/admin-guide/binfmt-misc.rst>
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
user/		Per user per user namespace limits

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 :-)