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1 | :orphan: |
2 | ||
3 | =========================== | |
4 | Documentation for /proc/sys | |
5 | =========================== | |
6 | ||
7 | Copyright (c) 1998, 1999, Rik van Riel <riel@nl.linux.org> | |
8 | ||
9 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | |
1da177e4 LT |
10 | |
11 | 'Why', I hear you ask, 'would anyone even _want_ documentation | |
12 | for them sysctl files? If anybody really needs it, it's all in | |
13 | the source...' | |
14 | ||
15 | Well, this documentation is written because some people either | |
16 | don't know they need to tweak something, or because they don't | |
17 | have the time or knowledge to read the source code. | |
18 | ||
19 | Furthermore, the programmers who built sysctl have built it to | |
20 | be actually used, not just for the fun of programming it :-) | |
21 | ||
53b95375 | 22 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
1da177e4 LT |
23 | |
24 | Legal blurb: | |
25 | ||
26 | As usual, there are two main things to consider: | |
53b95375 | 27 | |
1da177e4 LT |
28 | 1. you get what you pay for |
29 | 2. it's free | |
30 | ||
31 | The consequences are that I won't guarantee the correctness of | |
32 | this document, and if you come to me complaining about how you | |
33 | screwed up your system because of wrong documentation, I won't | |
34 | feel sorry for you. I might even laugh at you... | |
35 | ||
36 | But of course, if you _do_ manage to screw up your system using | |
37 | only the sysctl options used in this file, I'd like to hear of | |
38 | it. Not only to have a great laugh, but also to make sure that | |
39 | you're the last RTFMing person to screw up. | |
40 | ||
41 | In short, e-mail your suggestions, corrections and / or horror | |
42 | stories to: <riel@nl.linux.org> | |
43 | ||
44 | Rik van Riel. | |
45 | ||
53b95375 | 46 | -------------------------------------------------------------- |
1da177e4 | 47 | |
53b95375 MCC |
48 | Introduction |
49 | ============ | |
1da177e4 LT |
50 | |
51 | Sysctl is a means of configuring certain aspects of the kernel | |
52 | at run-time, and the /proc/sys/ directory is there so that you | |
53 | don't even need special tools to do it! | |
54 | In fact, there are only four things needed to use these config | |
55 | facilities: | |
53b95375 | 56 | |
1da177e4 LT |
57 | - a running Linux system |
58 | - root access | |
59 | - common sense (this is especially hard to come by these days) | |
60 | - knowledge of what all those values mean | |
61 | ||
62 | As a quick 'ls /proc/sys' will show, the directory consists of | |
63 | several (arch-dependent?) subdirs. Each subdir is mainly about | |
64 | one part of the kernel, so you can do configuration on a piece | |
65 | by piece basis, or just some 'thematic frobbing'. | |
66 | ||
53b95375 MCC |
67 | This documentation is about: |
68 | ||
69 | =============== =============================================================== | |
1da177e4 LT |
70 | abi/ execution domains & personalities |
71 | debug/ <empty> | |
72 | dev/ device specific information (eg dev/cdrom/info) | |
73 | fs/ specific filesystems | |
74 | filehandle, inode, dentry and quota tuning | |
852f1a21 | 75 | binfmt_misc <Documentation/admin-guide/binfmt-misc.rst> |
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76 | kernel/ global kernel info / tuning |
77 | miscellaneous stuff | |
78 | net/ networking stuff, for documentation look in: | |
79 | <Documentation/networking/> | |
80 | proc/ <empty> | |
81 | sunrpc/ SUN Remote Procedure Call (NFS) | |
82 | vm/ memory management tuning | |
83 | buffer and cache management | |
9c722e40 | 84 | user/ Per user per user namespace limits |
53b95375 | 85 | =============== =============================================================== |
1da177e4 LT |
86 | |
87 | These are the subdirs I have on my system. There might be more | |
88 | or other subdirs in another setup. If you see another dir, I'd | |
89 | really like to hear about it :-) | |
53b95375 MCC |
90 | |
91 | .. toctree:: | |
92 | :maxdepth: 1 | |
93 | ||
94 | abi | |
95 | fs | |
96 | kernel | |
97 | net | |
98 | sunrpc | |
99 | user | |
100 | vm |