patch-2.1.89 linux/Documentation/sysctl/README

• Lines: 75
• Date: Thu Feb 26 11:10:37 1998
• Orig file: v2.1.88/linux/Documentation/sysctl/README
• Orig date: Wed Dec 31 16:00:00 1969

diff -u --recursive --new-file v2.1.88/linux/Documentation/sysctl/README linux/Documentation/sysctl/README
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+
+Documentation for /proc/sys/*/*		version 0.1
+	(c) 1998, Rik van Riel <H.H.vanRiel@fys.ruu.nl>
+
+'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: <H.H.vanRiel@fys.ruu.nl>
+
+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:
+debug/		<empty>
+dev/		device specific information (eg dev/cdrom/info)
+fs/		specific filesystems
+		binfmt_misc <linux/Documentation/binfmt_misc.txt>
+kernel/		global kernel info / tuning
+		open file / inode tuning
+		miscellaneous stuff
+net/		networking stuff, for documentation look in:
+		<linux/Documentation/networking/>
+proc/		<empty>
+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 :-)