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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/sysctl/README')
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diff --git a/Documentation/sysctl/README b/Documentation/sysctl/README new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..8c3306e01d5 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/sysctl/README @@ -0,0 +1,75 @@ +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 :-) |