kernel.txt 30 KB

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  1. Documentation for /proc/sys/kernel/* kernel version 2.2.10
  2. (c) 1998, 1999, Rik van Riel <riel@nl.linux.org>
  3. (c) 2009, Shen Feng<shen@cn.fujitsu.com>
  4. For general info and legal blurb, please look in README.
  5. ==============================================================
  6. This file contains documentation for the sysctl files in
  7. /proc/sys/kernel/ and is valid for Linux kernel version 2.2.
  8. The files in this directory can be used to tune and monitor
  9. miscellaneous and general things in the operation of the Linux
  10. kernel. Since some of the files _can_ be used to screw up your
  11. system, it is advisable to read both documentation and source
  12. before actually making adjustments.
  13. Currently, these files might (depending on your configuration)
  14. show up in /proc/sys/kernel:
  15. - acct
  16. - acpi_video_flags
  17. - auto_msgmni
  18. - bootloader_type [ X86 only ]
  19. - bootloader_version [ X86 only ]
  20. - callhome [ S390 only ]
  21. - cap_last_cap
  22. - core_pattern
  23. - core_pipe_limit
  24. - core_uses_pid
  25. - ctrl-alt-del
  26. - dmesg_restrict
  27. - domainname
  28. - hostname
  29. - hotplug
  30. - hung_task_panic
  31. - hung_task_check_count
  32. - hung_task_timeout_secs
  33. - hung_task_warnings
  34. - kexec_load_disabled
  35. - kptr_restrict
  36. - kstack_depth_to_print [ X86 only ]
  37. - l2cr [ PPC only ]
  38. - modprobe ==> Documentation/debugging-modules.txt
  39. - modules_disabled
  40. - msg_next_id [ sysv ipc ]
  41. - msgmax
  42. - msgmnb
  43. - msgmni
  44. - nmi_watchdog
  45. - osrelease
  46. - ostype
  47. - overflowgid
  48. - overflowuid
  49. - panic
  50. - panic_on_oops
  51. - panic_on_unrecovered_nmi
  52. - panic_on_stackoverflow
  53. - pid_max
  54. - powersave-nap [ PPC only ]
  55. - printk
  56. - printk_delay
  57. - printk_ratelimit
  58. - printk_ratelimit_burst
  59. - randomize_va_space
  60. - real-root-dev ==> Documentation/initrd.txt
  61. - reboot-cmd [ SPARC only ]
  62. - rtsig-max
  63. - rtsig-nr
  64. - sem
  65. - sem_next_id [ sysv ipc ]
  66. - sg-big-buff [ generic SCSI device (sg) ]
  67. - shm_next_id [ sysv ipc ]
  68. - shm_rmid_forced
  69. - shmall
  70. - shmmax [ sysv ipc ]
  71. - shmmni
  72. - softlockup_all_cpu_backtrace
  73. - stop-a [ SPARC only ]
  74. - sysrq ==> Documentation/sysrq.txt
  75. - sysctl_writes_strict
  76. - tainted
  77. - threads-max
  78. - unknown_nmi_panic
  79. - watchdog_thresh
  80. - version
  81. ==============================================================
  82. acct:
  83. highwater lowwater frequency
  84. If BSD-style process accounting is enabled these values control
  85. its behaviour. If free space on filesystem where the log lives
  86. goes below <lowwater>% accounting suspends. If free space gets
  87. above <highwater>% accounting resumes. <Frequency> determines
  88. how often do we check the amount of free space (value is in
  89. seconds). Default:
  90. 4 2 30
  91. That is, suspend accounting if there left <= 2% free; resume it
  92. if we got >=4%; consider information about amount of free space
  93. valid for 30 seconds.
  94. ==============================================================
  95. acpi_video_flags:
  96. flags
  97. See Doc*/kernel/power/video.txt, it allows mode of video boot to be
  98. set during run time.
  99. ==============================================================
  100. auto_msgmni:
  101. Enables/Disables automatic recomputing of msgmni upon memory add/remove
  102. or upon ipc namespace creation/removal (see the msgmni description
  103. above). Echoing "1" into this file enables msgmni automatic recomputing.
  104. Echoing "0" turns it off. auto_msgmni default value is 1.
  105. ==============================================================
  106. bootloader_type:
  107. x86 bootloader identification
  108. This gives the bootloader type number as indicated by the bootloader,
  109. shifted left by 4, and OR'd with the low four bits of the bootloader
  110. version. The reason for this encoding is that this used to match the
  111. type_of_loader field in the kernel header; the encoding is kept for
  112. backwards compatibility. That is, if the full bootloader type number
  113. is 0x15 and the full version number is 0x234, this file will contain
  114. the value 340 = 0x154.
  115. See the type_of_loader and ext_loader_type fields in
  116. Documentation/x86/boot.txt for additional information.
  117. ==============================================================
  118. bootloader_version:
  119. x86 bootloader version
  120. The complete bootloader version number. In the example above, this
  121. file will contain the value 564 = 0x234.
  122. See the type_of_loader and ext_loader_ver fields in
  123. Documentation/x86/boot.txt for additional information.
  124. ==============================================================
  125. callhome:
  126. Controls the kernel's callhome behavior in case of a kernel panic.
  127. The s390 hardware allows an operating system to send a notification
  128. to a service organization (callhome) in case of an operating system panic.
  129. When the value in this file is 0 (which is the default behavior)
  130. nothing happens in case of a kernel panic. If this value is set to "1"
  131. the complete kernel oops message is send to the IBM customer service
  132. organization in case the mainframe the Linux operating system is running
  133. on has a service contract with IBM.
  134. ==============================================================
  135. cap_last_cap
  136. Highest valid capability of the running kernel. Exports
  137. CAP_LAST_CAP from the kernel.
  138. ==============================================================
  139. core_pattern:
  140. core_pattern is used to specify a core dumpfile pattern name.
  141. . max length 128 characters; default value is "core"
  142. . core_pattern is used as a pattern template for the output filename;
  143. certain string patterns (beginning with '%') are substituted with
  144. their actual values.
  145. . backward compatibility with core_uses_pid:
  146. If core_pattern does not include "%p" (default does not)
  147. and core_uses_pid is set, then .PID will be appended to
  148. the filename.
  149. . corename format specifiers:
  150. %<NUL> '%' is dropped
  151. %% output one '%'
  152. %p pid
  153. %P global pid (init PID namespace)
  154. %i tid
  155. %I global tid (init PID namespace)
  156. %u uid
  157. %g gid
  158. %d dump mode, matches PR_SET_DUMPABLE and
  159. /proc/sys/fs/suid_dumpable
  160. %s signal number
  161. %t UNIX time of dump
  162. %h hostname
  163. %e executable filename (may be shortened)
  164. %E executable path
  165. %<OTHER> both are dropped
  166. . If the first character of the pattern is a '|', the kernel will treat
  167. the rest of the pattern as a command to run. The core dump will be
  168. written to the standard input of that program instead of to a file.
  169. ==============================================================
  170. core_pipe_limit:
  171. This sysctl is only applicable when core_pattern is configured to pipe
  172. core files to a user space helper (when the first character of
  173. core_pattern is a '|', see above). When collecting cores via a pipe
  174. to an application, it is occasionally useful for the collecting
  175. application to gather data about the crashing process from its
  176. /proc/pid directory. In order to do this safely, the kernel must wait
  177. for the collecting process to exit, so as not to remove the crashing
  178. processes proc files prematurely. This in turn creates the
  179. possibility that a misbehaving userspace collecting process can block
  180. the reaping of a crashed process simply by never exiting. This sysctl
  181. defends against that. It defines how many concurrent crashing
  182. processes may be piped to user space applications in parallel. If
  183. this value is exceeded, then those crashing processes above that value
  184. are noted via the kernel log and their cores are skipped. 0 is a
  185. special value, indicating that unlimited processes may be captured in
  186. parallel, but that no waiting will take place (i.e. the collecting
  187. process is not guaranteed access to /proc/<crashing pid>/). This
  188. value defaults to 0.
  189. ==============================================================
  190. core_uses_pid:
  191. The default coredump filename is "core". By setting
  192. core_uses_pid to 1, the coredump filename becomes core.PID.
  193. If core_pattern does not include "%p" (default does not)
  194. and core_uses_pid is set, then .PID will be appended to
  195. the filename.
  196. ==============================================================
  197. ctrl-alt-del:
  198. When the value in this file is 0, ctrl-alt-del is trapped and
  199. sent to the init(1) program to handle a graceful restart.
  200. When, however, the value is > 0, Linux's reaction to a Vulcan
  201. Nerve Pinch (tm) will be an immediate reboot, without even
  202. syncing its dirty buffers.
  203. Note: when a program (like dosemu) has the keyboard in 'raw'
  204. mode, the ctrl-alt-del is intercepted by the program before it
  205. ever reaches the kernel tty layer, and it's up to the program
  206. to decide what to do with it.
  207. ==============================================================
  208. dmesg_restrict:
  209. This toggle indicates whether unprivileged users are prevented
  210. from using dmesg(8) to view messages from the kernel's log buffer.
  211. When dmesg_restrict is set to (0) there are no restrictions. When
  212. dmesg_restrict is set set to (1), users must have CAP_SYSLOG to use
  213. dmesg(8).
  214. The kernel config option CONFIG_SECURITY_DMESG_RESTRICT sets the
  215. default value of dmesg_restrict.
  216. ==============================================================
  217. domainname & hostname:
  218. These files can be used to set the NIS/YP domainname and the
  219. hostname of your box in exactly the same way as the commands
  220. domainname and hostname, i.e.:
  221. # echo "darkstar" > /proc/sys/kernel/hostname
  222. # echo "mydomain" > /proc/sys/kernel/domainname
  223. has the same effect as
  224. # hostname "darkstar"
  225. # domainname "mydomain"
  226. Note, however, that the classic darkstar.frop.org has the
  227. hostname "darkstar" and DNS (Internet Domain Name Server)
  228. domainname "frop.org", not to be confused with the NIS (Network
  229. Information Service) or YP (Yellow Pages) domainname. These two
  230. domain names are in general different. For a detailed discussion
  231. see the hostname(1) man page.
  232. ==============================================================
  233. hotplug:
  234. Path for the hotplug policy agent.
  235. Default value is "/sbin/hotplug".
  236. ==============================================================
  237. hung_task_panic:
  238. Controls the kernel's behavior when a hung task is detected.
  239. This file shows up if CONFIG_DETECT_HUNG_TASK is enabled.
  240. 0: continue operation. This is the default behavior.
  241. 1: panic immediately.
  242. ==============================================================
  243. hung_task_check_count:
  244. The upper bound on the number of tasks that are checked.
  245. This file shows up if CONFIG_DETECT_HUNG_TASK is enabled.
  246. ==============================================================
  247. hung_task_timeout_secs:
  248. Check interval. When a task in D state did not get scheduled
  249. for more than this value report a warning.
  250. This file shows up if CONFIG_DETECT_HUNG_TASK is enabled.
  251. 0: means infinite timeout - no checking done.
  252. Possible values to set are in range {0..LONG_MAX/HZ}.
  253. ==============================================================
  254. hung_task_warnings:
  255. The maximum number of warnings to report. During a check interval
  256. if a hung task is detected, this value is decreased by 1.
  257. When this value reaches 0, no more warnings will be reported.
  258. This file shows up if CONFIG_DETECT_HUNG_TASK is enabled.
  259. -1: report an infinite number of warnings.
  260. ==============================================================
  261. kexec_load_disabled:
  262. A toggle indicating if the kexec_load syscall has been disabled. This
  263. value defaults to 0 (false: kexec_load enabled), but can be set to 1
  264. (true: kexec_load disabled). Once true, kexec can no longer be used, and
  265. the toggle cannot be set back to false. This allows a kexec image to be
  266. loaded before disabling the syscall, allowing a system to set up (and
  267. later use) an image without it being altered. Generally used together
  268. with the "modules_disabled" sysctl.
  269. ==============================================================
  270. kptr_restrict:
  271. This toggle indicates whether restrictions are placed on
  272. exposing kernel addresses via /proc and other interfaces.
  273. When kptr_restrict is set to (0), the default, there are no restrictions.
  274. When kptr_restrict is set to (1), kernel pointers printed using the %pK
  275. format specifier will be replaced with 0's unless the user has CAP_SYSLOG
  276. and effective user and group ids are equal to the real ids. This is
  277. because %pK checks are done at read() time rather than open() time, so
  278. if permissions are elevated between the open() and the read() (e.g via
  279. a setuid binary) then %pK will not leak kernel pointers to unprivileged
  280. users. Note, this is a temporary solution only. The correct long-term
  281. solution is to do the permission checks at open() time. Consider removing
  282. world read permissions from files that use %pK, and using dmesg_restrict
  283. to protect against uses of %pK in dmesg(8) if leaking kernel pointer
  284. values to unprivileged users is a concern.
  285. When kptr_restrict is set to (2), kernel pointers printed using
  286. %pK will be replaced with 0's regardless of privileges.
  287. ==============================================================
  288. kstack_depth_to_print: (X86 only)
  289. Controls the number of words to print when dumping the raw
  290. kernel stack.
  291. ==============================================================
  292. l2cr: (PPC only)
  293. This flag controls the L2 cache of G3 processor boards. If
  294. 0, the cache is disabled. Enabled if nonzero.
  295. ==============================================================
  296. modules_disabled:
  297. A toggle value indicating if modules are allowed to be loaded
  298. in an otherwise modular kernel. This toggle defaults to off
  299. (0), but can be set true (1). Once true, modules can be
  300. neither loaded nor unloaded, and the toggle cannot be set back
  301. to false. Generally used with the "kexec_load_disabled" toggle.
  302. ==============================================================
  303. msg_next_id, sem_next_id, and shm_next_id:
  304. These three toggles allows to specify desired id for next allocated IPC
  305. object: message, semaphore or shared memory respectively.
  306. By default they are equal to -1, which means generic allocation logic.
  307. Possible values to set are in range {0..INT_MAX}.
  308. Notes:
  309. 1) kernel doesn't guarantee, that new object will have desired id. So,
  310. it's up to userspace, how to handle an object with "wrong" id.
  311. 2) Toggle with non-default value will be set back to -1 by kernel after
  312. successful IPC object allocation.
  313. ==============================================================
  314. nmi_watchdog:
  315. Enables/Disables the NMI watchdog on x86 systems. When the value is
  316. non-zero the NMI watchdog is enabled and will continuously test all
  317. online cpus to determine whether or not they are still functioning
  318. properly. Currently, passing "nmi_watchdog=" parameter at boot time is
  319. required for this function to work.
  320. If LAPIC NMI watchdog method is in use (nmi_watchdog=2 kernel
  321. parameter), the NMI watchdog shares registers with oprofile. By
  322. disabling the NMI watchdog, oprofile may have more registers to
  323. utilize.
  324. ==============================================================
  325. numa_balancing
  326. Enables/disables automatic page fault based NUMA memory
  327. balancing. Memory is moved automatically to nodes
  328. that access it often.
  329. Enables/disables automatic NUMA memory balancing. On NUMA machines, there
  330. is a performance penalty if remote memory is accessed by a CPU. When this
  331. feature is enabled the kernel samples what task thread is accessing memory
  332. by periodically unmapping pages and later trapping a page fault. At the
  333. time of the page fault, it is determined if the data being accessed should
  334. be migrated to a local memory node.
  335. The unmapping of pages and trapping faults incur additional overhead that
  336. ideally is offset by improved memory locality but there is no universal
  337. guarantee. If the target workload is already bound to NUMA nodes then this
  338. feature should be disabled. Otherwise, if the system overhead from the
  339. feature is too high then the rate the kernel samples for NUMA hinting
  340. faults may be controlled by the numa_balancing_scan_period_min_ms,
  341. numa_balancing_scan_delay_ms, numa_balancing_scan_period_max_ms,
  342. numa_balancing_scan_size_mb, and numa_balancing_settle_count sysctls.
  343. ==============================================================
  344. numa_balancing_scan_period_min_ms, numa_balancing_scan_delay_ms,
  345. numa_balancing_scan_period_max_ms, numa_balancing_scan_size_mb
  346. Automatic NUMA balancing scans tasks address space and unmaps pages to
  347. detect if pages are properly placed or if the data should be migrated to a
  348. memory node local to where the task is running. Every "scan delay" the task
  349. scans the next "scan size" number of pages in its address space. When the
  350. end of the address space is reached the scanner restarts from the beginning.
  351. In combination, the "scan delay" and "scan size" determine the scan rate.
  352. When "scan delay" decreases, the scan rate increases. The scan delay and
  353. hence the scan rate of every task is adaptive and depends on historical
  354. behaviour. If pages are properly placed then the scan delay increases,
  355. otherwise the scan delay decreases. The "scan size" is not adaptive but
  356. the higher the "scan size", the higher the scan rate.
  357. Higher scan rates incur higher system overhead as page faults must be
  358. trapped and potentially data must be migrated. However, the higher the scan
  359. rate, the more quickly a tasks memory is migrated to a local node if the
  360. workload pattern changes and minimises performance impact due to remote
  361. memory accesses. These sysctls control the thresholds for scan delays and
  362. the number of pages scanned.
  363. numa_balancing_scan_period_min_ms is the minimum time in milliseconds to
  364. scan a tasks virtual memory. It effectively controls the maximum scanning
  365. rate for each task.
  366. numa_balancing_scan_delay_ms is the starting "scan delay" used for a task
  367. when it initially forks.
  368. numa_balancing_scan_period_max_ms is the maximum time in milliseconds to
  369. scan a tasks virtual memory. It effectively controls the minimum scanning
  370. rate for each task.
  371. numa_balancing_scan_size_mb is how many megabytes worth of pages are
  372. scanned for a given scan.
  373. ==============================================================
  374. osrelease, ostype & version:
  375. # cat osrelease
  376. 2.1.88
  377. # cat ostype
  378. Linux
  379. # cat version
  380. #5 Wed Feb 25 21:49:24 MET 1998
  381. The files osrelease and ostype should be clear enough. Version
  382. needs a little more clarification however. The '#5' means that
  383. this is the fifth kernel built from this source base and the
  384. date behind it indicates the time the kernel was built.
  385. The only way to tune these values is to rebuild the kernel :-)
  386. ==============================================================
  387. overflowgid & overflowuid:
  388. if your architecture did not always support 32-bit UIDs (i.e. arm,
  389. i386, m68k, sh, and sparc32), a fixed UID and GID will be returned to
  390. applications that use the old 16-bit UID/GID system calls, if the
  391. actual UID or GID would exceed 65535.
  392. These sysctls allow you to change the value of the fixed UID and GID.
  393. The default is 65534.
  394. ==============================================================
  395. panic:
  396. The value in this file represents the number of seconds the kernel
  397. waits before rebooting on a panic. When you use the software watchdog,
  398. the recommended setting is 60.
  399. ==============================================================
  400. panic_on_unrecovered_nmi:
  401. The default Linux behaviour on an NMI of either memory or unknown is
  402. to continue operation. For many environments such as scientific
  403. computing it is preferable that the box is taken out and the error
  404. dealt with than an uncorrected parity/ECC error get propagated.
  405. A small number of systems do generate NMI's for bizarre random reasons
  406. such as power management so the default is off. That sysctl works like
  407. the existing panic controls already in that directory.
  408. ==============================================================
  409. panic_on_oops:
  410. Controls the kernel's behaviour when an oops or BUG is encountered.
  411. 0: try to continue operation
  412. 1: panic immediately. If the `panic' sysctl is also non-zero then the
  413. machine will be rebooted.
  414. ==============================================================
  415. panic_on_stackoverflow:
  416. Controls the kernel's behavior when detecting the overflows of
  417. kernel, IRQ and exception stacks except a user stack.
  418. This file shows up if CONFIG_DEBUG_STACKOVERFLOW is enabled.
  419. 0: try to continue operation.
  420. 1: panic immediately.
  421. ==============================================================
  422. perf_cpu_time_max_percent:
  423. Hints to the kernel how much CPU time it should be allowed to
  424. use to handle perf sampling events. If the perf subsystem
  425. is informed that its samples are exceeding this limit, it
  426. will drop its sampling frequency to attempt to reduce its CPU
  427. usage.
  428. Some perf sampling happens in NMIs. If these samples
  429. unexpectedly take too long to execute, the NMIs can become
  430. stacked up next to each other so much that nothing else is
  431. allowed to execute.
  432. 0: disable the mechanism. Do not monitor or correct perf's
  433. sampling rate no matter how CPU time it takes.
  434. 1-100: attempt to throttle perf's sample rate to this
  435. percentage of CPU. Note: the kernel calculates an
  436. "expected" length of each sample event. 100 here means
  437. 100% of that expected length. Even if this is set to
  438. 100, you may still see sample throttling if this
  439. length is exceeded. Set to 0 if you truly do not care
  440. how much CPU is consumed.
  441. ==============================================================
  442. pid_max:
  443. PID allocation wrap value. When the kernel's next PID value
  444. reaches this value, it wraps back to a minimum PID value.
  445. PIDs of value pid_max or larger are not allocated.
  446. ==============================================================
  447. ns_last_pid:
  448. The last pid allocated in the current (the one task using this sysctl
  449. lives in) pid namespace. When selecting a pid for a next task on fork
  450. kernel tries to allocate a number starting from this one.
  451. ==============================================================
  452. powersave-nap: (PPC only)
  453. If set, Linux-PPC will use the 'nap' mode of powersaving,
  454. otherwise the 'doze' mode will be used.
  455. ==============================================================
  456. printk:
  457. The four values in printk denote: console_loglevel,
  458. default_message_loglevel, minimum_console_loglevel and
  459. default_console_loglevel respectively.
  460. These values influence printk() behavior when printing or
  461. logging error messages. See 'man 2 syslog' for more info on
  462. the different loglevels.
  463. - console_loglevel: messages with a higher priority than
  464. this will be printed to the console
  465. - default_message_loglevel: messages without an explicit priority
  466. will be printed with this priority
  467. - minimum_console_loglevel: minimum (highest) value to which
  468. console_loglevel can be set
  469. - default_console_loglevel: default value for console_loglevel
  470. ==============================================================
  471. printk_delay:
  472. Delay each printk message in printk_delay milliseconds
  473. Value from 0 - 10000 is allowed.
  474. ==============================================================
  475. printk_ratelimit:
  476. Some warning messages are rate limited. printk_ratelimit specifies
  477. the minimum length of time between these messages (in jiffies), by
  478. default we allow one every 5 seconds.
  479. A value of 0 will disable rate limiting.
  480. ==============================================================
  481. printk_ratelimit_burst:
  482. While long term we enforce one message per printk_ratelimit
  483. seconds, we do allow a burst of messages to pass through.
  484. printk_ratelimit_burst specifies the number of messages we can
  485. send before ratelimiting kicks in.
  486. ==============================================================
  487. randomize_va_space:
  488. This option can be used to select the type of process address
  489. space randomization that is used in the system, for architectures
  490. that support this feature.
  491. 0 - Turn the process address space randomization off. This is the
  492. default for architectures that do not support this feature anyways,
  493. and kernels that are booted with the "norandmaps" parameter.
  494. 1 - Make the addresses of mmap base, stack and VDSO page randomized.
  495. This, among other things, implies that shared libraries will be
  496. loaded to random addresses. Also for PIE-linked binaries, the
  497. location of code start is randomized. This is the default if the
  498. CONFIG_COMPAT_BRK option is enabled.
  499. 2 - Additionally enable heap randomization. This is the default if
  500. CONFIG_COMPAT_BRK is disabled.
  501. There are a few legacy applications out there (such as some ancient
  502. versions of libc.so.5 from 1996) that assume that brk area starts
  503. just after the end of the code+bss. These applications break when
  504. start of the brk area is randomized. There are however no known
  505. non-legacy applications that would be broken this way, so for most
  506. systems it is safe to choose full randomization.
  507. Systems with ancient and/or broken binaries should be configured
  508. with CONFIG_COMPAT_BRK enabled, which excludes the heap from process
  509. address space randomization.
  510. ==============================================================
  511. reboot-cmd: (Sparc only)
  512. ??? This seems to be a way to give an argument to the Sparc
  513. ROM/Flash boot loader. Maybe to tell it what to do after
  514. rebooting. ???
  515. ==============================================================
  516. rtsig-max & rtsig-nr:
  517. The file rtsig-max can be used to tune the maximum number
  518. of POSIX realtime (queued) signals that can be outstanding
  519. in the system.
  520. rtsig-nr shows the number of RT signals currently queued.
  521. ==============================================================
  522. sg-big-buff:
  523. This file shows the size of the generic SCSI (sg) buffer.
  524. You can't tune it just yet, but you could change it on
  525. compile time by editing include/scsi/sg.h and changing
  526. the value of SG_BIG_BUFF.
  527. There shouldn't be any reason to change this value. If
  528. you can come up with one, you probably know what you
  529. are doing anyway :)
  530. ==============================================================
  531. shmall:
  532. This parameter sets the total amount of shared memory pages that
  533. can be used system wide. Hence, SHMALL should always be at least
  534. ceil(shmmax/PAGE_SIZE).
  535. If you are not sure what the default PAGE_SIZE is on your Linux
  536. system, you can run the following command:
  537. # getconf PAGE_SIZE
  538. ==============================================================
  539. shmmax:
  540. This value can be used to query and set the run time limit
  541. on the maximum shared memory segment size that can be created.
  542. Shared memory segments up to 1Gb are now supported in the
  543. kernel. This value defaults to SHMMAX.
  544. ==============================================================
  545. shm_rmid_forced:
  546. Linux lets you set resource limits, including how much memory one
  547. process can consume, via setrlimit(2). Unfortunately, shared memory
  548. segments are allowed to exist without association with any process, and
  549. thus might not be counted against any resource limits. If enabled,
  550. shared memory segments are automatically destroyed when their attach
  551. count becomes zero after a detach or a process termination. It will
  552. also destroy segments that were created, but never attached to, on exit
  553. from the process. The only use left for IPC_RMID is to immediately
  554. destroy an unattached segment. Of course, this breaks the way things are
  555. defined, so some applications might stop working. Note that this
  556. feature will do you no good unless you also configure your resource
  557. limits (in particular, RLIMIT_AS and RLIMIT_NPROC). Most systems don't
  558. need this.
  559. Note that if you change this from 0 to 1, already created segments
  560. without users and with a dead originative process will be destroyed.
  561. ==============================================================
  562. sysctl_writes_strict:
  563. Control how file position affects the behavior of updating sysctl values
  564. via the /proc/sys interface:
  565. -1 - Legacy per-write sysctl value handling, with no printk warnings.
  566. Each write syscall must fully contain the sysctl value to be
  567. written, and multiple writes on the same sysctl file descriptor
  568. will rewrite the sysctl value, regardless of file position.
  569. 0 - (default) Same behavior as above, but warn about processes that
  570. perform writes to a sysctl file descriptor when the file position
  571. is not 0.
  572. 1 - Respect file position when writing sysctl strings. Multiple writes
  573. will append to the sysctl value buffer. Anything past the max length
  574. of the sysctl value buffer will be ignored. Writes to numeric sysctl
  575. entries must always be at file position 0 and the value must be
  576. fully contained in the buffer sent in the write syscall.
  577. ==============================================================
  578. softlockup_all_cpu_backtrace:
  579. This value controls the soft lockup detector thread's behavior
  580. when a soft lockup condition is detected as to whether or not
  581. to gather further debug information. If enabled, each cpu will
  582. be issued an NMI and instructed to capture stack trace.
  583. This feature is only applicable for architectures which support
  584. NMI.
  585. 0: do nothing. This is the default behavior.
  586. 1: on detection capture more debug information.
  587. ==============================================================
  588. tainted:
  589. Non-zero if the kernel has been tainted. Numeric values, which
  590. can be ORed together:
  591. 1 - A module with a non-GPL license has been loaded, this
  592. includes modules with no license.
  593. Set by modutils >= 2.4.9 and module-init-tools.
  594. 2 - A module was force loaded by insmod -f.
  595. Set by modutils >= 2.4.9 and module-init-tools.
  596. 4 - Unsafe SMP processors: SMP with CPUs not designed for SMP.
  597. 8 - A module was forcibly unloaded from the system by rmmod -f.
  598. 16 - A hardware machine check error occurred on the system.
  599. 32 - A bad page was discovered on the system.
  600. 64 - The user has asked that the system be marked "tainted". This
  601. could be because they are running software that directly modifies
  602. the hardware, or for other reasons.
  603. 128 - The system has died.
  604. 256 - The ACPI DSDT has been overridden with one supplied by the user
  605. instead of using the one provided by the hardware.
  606. 512 - A kernel warning has occurred.
  607. 1024 - A module from drivers/staging was loaded.
  608. 2048 - The system is working around a severe firmware bug.
  609. 4096 - An out-of-tree module has been loaded.
  610. 8192 - An unsigned module has been loaded in a kernel supporting module
  611. signature.
  612. 16384 - A soft lockup has previously occurred on the system.
  613. ==============================================================
  614. unknown_nmi_panic:
  615. The value in this file affects behavior of handling NMI. When the
  616. value is non-zero, unknown NMI is trapped and then panic occurs. At
  617. that time, kernel debugging information is displayed on console.
  618. NMI switch that most IA32 servers have fires unknown NMI up, for
  619. example. If a system hangs up, try pressing the NMI switch.
  620. ==============================================================
  621. watchdog_thresh:
  622. This value can be used to control the frequency of hrtimer and NMI
  623. events and the soft and hard lockup thresholds. The default threshold
  624. is 10 seconds.
  625. The softlockup threshold is (2 * watchdog_thresh). Setting this
  626. tunable to zero will disable lockup detection altogether.
  627. ==============================================================