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Manual Reference Pages  - SYSCTL (8)

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NAME

sysctl - configure kernel parameters at runtime

CONTENTS

Synopsis
Description
Parameters
Examples
Deprecated Parameters
Files
See Also
Author

SYNOPSIS

sysctl [options] [variable[=value]] [...] sysctl -p [file or regexp] [...]

DESCRIPTION

sysctl is used to modify kernel parameters at runtime. The parameters available are those listed under /proc/sys/. Procfs is required for sysctl support in Linux. You can use sysctl to both read and write sysctl data.

PARAMETERS

variable
	The name of a key to read from. An example is kernel.ostype. The ’/’ separator is also accepted in place of a ’.’.
variable=value
	To set a key, use the form variable=value where variable is the key and value is the value to set it to. If the value contains quotes or characters which are parsed by the shell, you may need to enclose the value in double quotes. This requires the -w parameter to use.
-n, --values
	Use this option to disable printing of the key name when printing values.
-e, --ignore
	Use this option to ignore errors about unknown keys.
-N, --names
	Use this option to only print the names. It may be useful with shells that have programmable completion.
-q, --quiet
	Use this option to not display the values set to stdout.
-w, --write
	Use this option when you want to change a sysctl setting.
-p[FILE], --load[=FILE]
	Load in sysctl settings from the file specified or /etc/sysctl.conf if none given. Specifying - as filename means reading data from standard input. Using this option will mean arguments to sysctl are files, which are read in order they are specified. The file argument can may be specified as reqular expression.
-a, --all	Display all values currently available.
--deprecated
	Include deprecated parameters to --all values listing.
-b, --binary
	Print value without new line.
--system
	Load settings from all system configuration files. /run/sysctl.d/*.conf /etc/sysctl.d/*.conf /usr/local/lib/sysctl.d/*.conf /usr/lib/sysctl.d/*.conf /lib/sysctl.d/*.conf /etc/sysctl.conf
--pattern pattern
	Only apply settings that match pattern. The pattern uses extended regular expression syntax.
-A	Alias of -a
-d	Alias of -h
-f	Alias of -p
-X	Alias of -a
-o	Does nothing in favour of BSD compatibility.
-x	Does nothing in favour of BSD compatibility.
-h, --help	Display help text and exit.
-V, --version
	Display version information and exit.

EXAMPLES

/sbin/sysctl -a
/sbin/sysctl -n kernel.hostname
/sbin/sysctl -w kernel.domainname="example.com"
/sbin/sysctl -p/etc/sysctl.conf
/sbin/sysctl -a --pattern forward
/sbin/sysctl -a --pattern forward$
/sbin/sysctl -a --pattern ’net.ipv4.conf.(eth|wlan)0.arp’
/sbin/sysctl --system --pattern ’^net.ipv6’

DEPRECATED PARAMETERS

The base_reachable_time and retrans_time are deprecated. The sysctl command does not allow changing values of there parameters. Users who insist to use deprecated kernel interfaces should values to /proc file system by other means. For example:

echo 256 > /proc/sys/net/ipv6/neigh/eth0/base_reachable_time

FILES

/proc/sys
/etc/sysctl.conf

SEE ALSO

sysctl.conf(5) regex(7)

AUTHOR

George Staikos

REPORTING BUGS

Please send bug reports to

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procps-ng

SYSCTL (8)

Jan 2012

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