linux/Documentation/sysctl
Linus Torvalds 971eae7c99 Merge branch 'sched-core-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip
Pull scheduler changes from Ingo Molnar:
 "Bigger changes:

   - sched/idle restructuring: they are WIP preparation for deeper
     integration between the scheduler and idle state selection, by
     Nicolas Pitre.

   - add NUMA scheduling pseudo-interleaving, by Rik van Riel.

   - optimize cgroup context switches, by Peter Zijlstra.

   - RT scheduling enhancements, by Thomas Gleixner.

  The rest is smaller changes, non-urgnt fixes and cleanups"

* 'sched-core-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip: (68 commits)
  sched: Clean up the task_hot() function
  sched: Remove double calculation in fix_small_imbalance()
  sched: Fix broken setscheduler()
  sparc64, sched: Remove unused sparc64_multi_core
  sched: Remove unused mc_capable() and smt_capable()
  sched/numa: Move task_numa_free() to __put_task_struct()
  sched/fair: Fix endless loop in idle_balance()
  sched/core: Fix endless loop in pick_next_task()
  sched/fair: Push down check for high priority class task into idle_balance()
  sched/rt: Fix picking RT and DL tasks from empty queue
  trace: Replace hardcoding of 19 with MAX_NICE
  sched: Guarantee task priority in pick_next_task()
  sched/idle: Remove stale old file
  sched: Put rq's sched_avg under CONFIG_FAIR_GROUP_SCHED
  cpuidle/arm64: Remove redundant cpuidle_idle_call()
  cpuidle/powernv: Remove redundant cpuidle_idle_call()
  sched, nohz: Exclude isolated cores from load balancing
  sched: Fix select_task_rq_fair() description comments
  workqueue: Replace hardcoding of -20 and 19 with MIN_NICE and MAX_NICE
  sys: Replace hardcoding of -20 and 19 with MIN_NICE and MAX_NICE
  ...
2014-03-31 11:21:19 -07:00
..
00-INDEX sysctl: remove obsolete comments 2011-01-13 08:03:18 -08:00
abi.txt
fs.txt Merge branch 'for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/viro/vfs 2012-08-01 10:26:23 -07:00
kernel.txt Merge branch 'sched-core-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip 2014-03-31 11:21:19 -07:00
net.txt qdisc: allow setting default queuing discipline 2013-08-31 00:32:32 -04:00
README
sunrpc.txt
vm.txt mm: document improved handling of swappiness==0 2014-01-29 16:22:39 -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/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 :-)