proc_sys_kernel(5) — Linux manual page

NAME | DESCRIPTION | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

proc_sys_kernel(5)         File Formats Manual        proc_sys_kernel(5)

NAME         top

       /proc/sys/kernel/ - control a range of kernel parameters

DESCRIPTION         top

       /proc/sys/kernel/
              This directory contains files controlling a range of
              kernel parameters, as described below.

       /proc/sys/kernel/acct
              This file contains three numbers: highwater, lowwater, and
              frequency.  If BSD-style process accounting is enabled,
              these values control its behavior.  If free space on
              filesystem where the log lives goes below lowwater
              percent, accounting suspends.  If free space gets above
              highwater percent, accounting resumes.  frequency
              determines how often the kernel checks the amount of free
              space (value is in seconds).  Default values are 4, 2, and
              30.  That is, suspend accounting if 2% or less space is
              free; resume it if 4% or more space is free; consider
              information about amount of free space valid for 30
              seconds.

       /proc/sys/kernel/auto_msgmni (Linux 2.6.27 to Linux 3.18)
              From Linux 2.6.27 to Linux 3.18, this file was used to
              control recomputing of the value in
              /proc/sys/kernel/msgmni upon the addition or removal of
              memory or upon IPC namespace creation/removal.  Echoing
              "1" into this file enabled msgmni automatic recomputing
              (and triggered a recomputation of msgmni based on the
              current amount of available memory and number of IPC
              namespaces).  Echoing "0" disabled automatic recomputing.
              (Automatic recomputing was also disabled if a value was
              explicitly assigned to /proc/sys/kernel/msgmni.)  The
              default value in auto_msgmni was 1.

              Since Linux 3.19, the content of this file has no effect
              (because msgmni defaults to near the maximum value
              possible), and reads from this file always return the
              value "0".

       /proc/sys/kernel/cap_last_cap (since Linux 3.2)
              See capabilities(7).

       /proc/sys/kernel/cap-bound (from Linux 2.2 to Linux 2.6.24)
              This file holds the value of the kernel capability
              bounding set (expressed as a signed decimal number).  This
              set is ANDed against the capabilities permitted to a
              process during execve(2).  Starting with Linux 2.6.25, the
              system-wide capability bounding set disappeared, and was
              replaced by a per-thread bounding set; see
              capabilities(7).

       /proc/sys/kernel/core_pattern
              See core(5).

       /proc/sys/kernel/core_pipe_limit
              See core(5).

       /proc/sys/kernel/core_uses_pid
              See core(5).

       /proc/sys/kernel/ctrl-alt-del
              This file controls the handling of Ctrl-Alt-Del from the
              keyboard.  When the value in this file is 0, Ctrl-Alt-Del
              is trapped and sent to the init(1) program to handle a
              graceful restart.  When the value is greater than zero,
              Linux's reaction to a Vulcan Nerve Pinch (tm) will be an
              immediate reboot, without even syncing its dirty buffers.
              Note: when a program (like dosemu) has the keyboard in
              "raw" mode, the Ctrl-Alt-Del is intercepted by the program
              before it ever reaches the kernel tty layer, and it's up
              to the program to decide what to do with it.

       /proc/sys/kernel/dmesg_restrict (since Linux 2.6.37)
              The value in this file determines who can see kernel
              syslog contents.  A value of 0 in this file imposes no
              restrictions.  If the value is 1, only privileged users
              can read the kernel syslog.  (See syslog(2) for more
              details.)  Since Linux 3.4, only users with the
              CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability may change the value in this
              file.

       /proc/sys/kernel/domainname and /proc/sys/kernel/hostname
              can be used to set the NIS/YP domainname and the hostname
              of your box in exactly the same way as the commands
              domainname(1) and hostname(1), that is:

                  # echo 'darkstar' > /proc/sys/kernel/hostname
                  # echo 'mydomain' > /proc/sys/kernel/domainname

              has the same effect as

                  # hostname 'darkstar'
                  # domainname 'mydomain'

              Note, however, that the classic darkstar.frop.org has the
              hostname "darkstar" and DNS (Internet Domain Name Server)
              domainname "frop.org", not to be confused with the NIS
              (Network Information Service) or YP (Yellow Pages)
              domainname.  These two domain names are in general
              different.  For a detailed discussion see the hostname(1)
              man page.

       /proc/sys/kernel/hotplug
              This file contains the pathname for the hotplug policy
              agent.  The default value in this file is /sbin/hotplug.

       /proc/sys/kernel/htab-reclaim (before Linux 2.4.9.2)
              (PowerPC only) If this file is set to a nonzero value, the
              PowerPC htab (see kernel file
              Documentation/powerpc/ppc_htab.txt) is pruned each time
              the system hits the idle loop.

       /proc/sys/kernel/keys/
              This directory contains various files that define
              parameters and limits for the key-management facility.
              These files are described in keyrings(7).

       /proc/sys/kernel/kptr_restrict (since Linux 2.6.38)
              The value in this file determines whether kernel addresses
              are exposed via /proc files and other interfaces.  A value
              of 0 in this file imposes no restrictions.  If the value
              is 1, kernel pointers printed using the %pK format
              specifier will be replaced with zeros unless the user has
              the CAP_SYSLOG capability.  If the value is 2, kernel
              pointers printed using the %pK format specifier will be
              replaced with zeros regardless of the user's capabilities.
              The initial default value for this file was 1, but the
              default was changed to 0 in Linux 2.6.39.  Since Linux
              3.4, only users with the CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability can
              change the value in this file.

       /proc/sys/kernel/l2cr
              (PowerPC only) This file contains a flag that controls the
              L2 cache of G3 processor boards.  If 0, the cache is
              disabled.  Enabled if nonzero.

       /proc/sys/kernel/modprobe
              This file contains the pathname for the kernel module
              loader.  The default value is /sbin/modprobe.  The file is
              present only if the kernel is built with the
              CONFIG_MODULES (CONFIG_KMOD in Linux 2.6.26 and earlier)
              option enabled.  It is described by the Linux kernel
              source file Documentation/kmod.txt (present only in Linux
              2.4 and earlier).

       /proc/sys/kernel/modules_disabled (since Linux 2.6.31)
              A toggle value indicating if modules are allowed to be
              loaded in an otherwise modular kernel.  This toggle
              defaults to off (0), but can be set true (1).  Once true,
              modules can be neither loaded nor unloaded, and the toggle
              cannot be set back to false.  The file is present only if
              the kernel is built with the CONFIG_MODULES option
              enabled.

       /proc/sys/kernel/msgmax (since Linux 2.2)
              This file defines a system-wide limit specifying the
              maximum number of bytes in a single message written on a
              System V message queue.

       /proc/sys/kernel/msgmni (since Linux 2.4)
              This file defines the system-wide limit on the number of
              message queue identifiers.  See also
              /proc/sys/kernel/auto_msgmni.

       /proc/sys/kernel/msgmnb (since Linux 2.2)
              This file defines a system-wide parameter used to
              initialize the msg_qbytes setting for subsequently created
              message queues.  The msg_qbytes setting specifies the
              maximum number of bytes that may be written to the message
              queue.

       /proc/sys/kernel/ngroups_max (since Linux 2.6.4)
              This is a read-only file that displays the upper limit on
              the number of a process's group memberships.

       /proc/sys/kernel/ns_last_pid (since Linux 3.3)
              See pid_namespaces(7).

       /proc/sys/kernel/ostype and /proc/sys/kernel/osrelease
              These files give substrings of /proc/version.

       /proc/sys/kernel/overflowgid and /proc/sys/kernel/overflowuid
              These files duplicate the files /proc/sys/fs/overflowgid
              and /proc/sys/fs/overflowuid.

       /proc/sys/kernel/panic
              This file gives read/write access to the kernel variable
              panic_timeout.  If this is zero, the kernel will loop on a
              panic; if nonzero, it indicates that the kernel should
              autoreboot after this number of seconds.  When you use the
              software watchdog device driver, the recommended setting
              is 60.

       /proc/sys/kernel/panic_on_oops (since Linux 2.5.68)
              This file controls the kernel's behavior when an oops or
              BUG is encountered.  If this file contains 0, then the
              system tries to continue operation.  If it contains 1,
              then the system delays a few seconds (to give klogd time
              to record the oops output) and then panics.  If the
              /proc/sys/kernel/panic file is also nonzero, then the
              machine will be rebooted.

       /proc/sys/kernel/pid_max (since Linux 2.5.34)
              This file specifies the value at which PIDs wrap around
              (i.e., the value in this file is one greater than the
              maximum PID).  PIDs greater than this value are not
              allocated; thus, the value in this file also acts as a
              system-wide limit on the total number of processes and
              threads.  The default value for this file, 32768, results
              in the same range of PIDs as on earlier kernels.  On
              32-bit platforms, 32768 is the maximum value for pid_max.
              On 64-bit systems, pid_max can be set to any value up to
              2^22 (PID_MAX_LIMIT, approximately 4 million).

       /proc/sys/kernel/powersave-nap (PowerPC only)
              This file contains a flag.  If set, Linux-PPC will use the
              "nap" mode of powersaving, otherwise the "doze" mode will
              be used.

       /proc/sys/kernel/printk
              See syslog(2).

       /proc/sys/kernel/pty (since Linux 2.6.4)
              This directory contains two files relating to the number
              of UNIX 98 pseudoterminals (see pts(4)) on the system.

       /proc/sys/kernel/pty/max
              This file defines the maximum number of pseudoterminals.

       /proc/sys/kernel/pty/nr
              This read-only file indicates how many pseudoterminals are
              currently in use.

       /proc/sys/kernel/random/
              This directory contains various parameters controlling the
              operation of the file /dev/random.  See random(4) for
              further information.

       /proc/sys/kernel/random/uuid (since Linux 2.4)
              Each read from this read-only file returns a randomly
              generated 128-bit UUID, as a string in the standard UUID
              format.

       /proc/sys/kernel/randomize_va_space (since Linux 2.6.12)
              Select the address space layout randomization (ASLR)
              policy for the system (on architectures that support
              ASLR).  Three values are supported for this file:

              0      Turn ASLR off.  This is the default for
                     architectures that don't support ASLR, and when the
                     kernel is booted with the norandmaps parameter.

              1      Make the addresses of mmap(2) allocations, the
                     stack, and the VDSO page randomized.  Among other
                     things, this means that shared libraries will be
                     loaded at randomized addresses.  The text segment
                     of PIE-linked binaries will also be loaded at a
                     randomized address.  This value is the default if
                     the kernel was configured with CONFIG_COMPAT_BRK.

              2      (Since Linux 2.6.25) Also support heap
                     randomization.  This value is the default if the
                     kernel was not configured with CONFIG_COMPAT_BRK.

       /proc/sys/kernel/real-root-dev
              This file is documented in the Linux kernel source file
              Documentation/admin-guide/initrd.rst (or
              Documentation/initrd.txt before Linux 4.10).

       /proc/sys/kernel/reboot-cmd (Sparc only)
              This file seems to be a way to give an argument to the
              SPARC ROM/Flash boot loader.  Maybe to tell it what to do
              after rebooting?

       /proc/sys/kernel/rtsig-max
              (Up to and including Linux 2.6.7; see setrlimit(2)) This
              file can be used to tune the maximum number of POSIX real-
              time (queued) signals that can be outstanding in the
              system.

       /proc/sys/kernel/rtsig-nr
              (Up to and including Linux 2.6.7.)  This file shows the
              number of POSIX real-time signals currently queued.

       /proc/pid/sched_autogroup_enabled (since Linux 2.6.38)
              See sched(7).

       /proc/sys/kernel/sched_child_runs_first (since Linux 2.6.23)
              If this file contains the value zero, then, after a
              fork(2), the parent is first scheduled on the CPU.  If the
              file contains a nonzero value, then the child is scheduled
              first on the CPU.  (Of course, on a multiprocessor system,
              the parent and the child might both immediately be
              scheduled on a CPU.)

       /proc/sys/kernel/sched_rr_timeslice_ms (since Linux 3.9)
              See sched_rr_get_interval(2).

       /proc/sys/kernel/sched_rt_period_us (since Linux 2.6.25)
              See sched(7).

       /proc/sys/kernel/sched_rt_runtime_us (since Linux 2.6.25)
              See sched(7).

       /proc/sys/kernel/seccomp/ (since Linux 4.14)
              This directory provides additional seccomp information and
              configuration.  See seccomp(2) for further details.

       /proc/sys/kernel/sem (since Linux 2.4)
              This file contains 4 numbers defining limits for System V
              IPC semaphores.  These fields are, in order:

              SEMMSL The maximum semaphores per semaphore set.

              SEMMNS A system-wide limit on the number of semaphores in
                     all semaphore sets.

              SEMOPM The maximum number of operations that may be
                     specified in a semop(2) call.

              SEMMNI A system-wide limit on the maximum number of
                     semaphore identifiers.

       /proc/sys/kernel/sg-big-buff
              This file shows the size of the generic SCSI device (sg)
              buffer.  You can't tune it just yet, but you could change
              it at compile time by editing include/scsi/sg.h and
              changing the value of SG_BIG_BUFF.  However, there
              shouldn't be any reason to change this value.

       /proc/sys/kernel/shm_rmid_forced (since Linux 3.1)
              If this file is set to 1, all System V shared memory
              segments will be marked for destruction as soon as the
              number of attached processes falls to zero; in other
              words, it is no longer possible to create shared memory
              segments that exist independently of any attached process.

              The effect is as though a shmctl(2) IPC_RMID is performed
              on all existing segments as well as all segments created
              in the future (until this file is reset to 0).  Note that
              existing segments that are attached to no process will be
              immediately destroyed when this file is set to 1.  Setting
              this option will also destroy segments that were created,
              but never attached, upon termination of the process that
              created the segment with shmget(2).

              Setting this file to 1 provides a way of ensuring that all
              System V shared memory segments are counted against the
              resource usage and resource limits (see the description of
              RLIMIT_AS in getrlimit(2)) of at least one process.

              Because setting this file to 1 produces behavior that is
              nonstandard and could also break existing applications,
              the default value in this file is 0.  Set this file to 1
              only if you have a good understanding of the semantics of
              the applications using System V shared memory on your
              system.

       /proc/sys/kernel/shmall (since Linux 2.2)
              This file contains the system-wide limit on the total
              number of pages of System V shared memory.

       /proc/sys/kernel/shmmax (since Linux 2.2)
              This file can be used to query and set the run-time limit
              on the maximum (System V IPC) shared memory segment size
              that can be created.  Shared memory segments up to 1 GB
              are now supported in the kernel.  This value defaults to
              SHMMAX.

       /proc/sys/kernel/shmmni (since Linux 2.4)
              This file specifies the system-wide maximum number of
              System V shared memory segments that can be created.

       /proc/sys/kernel/sysctl_writes_strict (since Linux 3.16)
              The value in this file determines how the file offset
              affects the behavior of updating entries in files under
              /proc/sys.  The file has three possible values:

              -1  This provides legacy handling, with no printk
                  warnings.  Each write(2) must fully contain the value
                  to be written, and multiple writes on the same file
                  descriptor will overwrite the entire value, regardless
                  of the file position.

              0   (default) This provides the same behavior as for -1,
                  but printk warnings are written for processes that
                  perform writes when the file offset is not 0.

              1   Respect the file offset when writing strings into
                  /proc/sys files.  Multiple writes will append to the
                  value buffer.  Anything written beyond the maximum
                  length of the value buffer will be ignored.  Writes to
                  numeric /proc/sys entries must always be at file
                  offset 0 and the value must be fully contained in the
                  buffer provided to write(2).

       /proc/sys/kernel/sysrq
              This file controls the functions allowed to be invoked by
              the SysRq key.  By default, the file contains 1 meaning
              that every possible SysRq request is allowed (in older
              kernel versions, SysRq was disabled by default, and you
              were required to specifically enable it at run-time, but
              this is not the case any more).  Possible values in this
              file are:

              0    Disable sysrq completely

              1    Enable all functions of sysrq

              > 1  Bit mask of allowed sysrq functions, as follows:
                     2  Enable control of console logging level
                     4  Enable control of keyboard (SAK, unraw)
                     8  Enable debugging dumps of processes etc.
                    16  Enable sync command
                    32  Enable remount read-only
                    64  Enable signaling of processes (term, kill, oom-
                        kill)
                   128  Allow reboot/poweroff
                   256  Allow nicing of all real-time tasks

              This file is present only if the CONFIG_MAGIC_SYSRQ kernel
              configuration option is enabled.  For further details see
              the Linux kernel source file
              Documentation/admin-guide/sysrq.rst (or
              Documentation/sysrq.txt before Linux 4.10).

       /proc/sys/kernel/version
              This file contains a string such as:

                  #5 Wed Feb 25 21:49:24 MET 1998

              The "#5" means that this is the fifth kernel built from
              this source base and the date following it indicates the
              time the kernel was built.

       /proc/sys/kernel/threads-max (since Linux 2.3.11)
              This file specifies the system-wide limit on the number of
              threads (tasks) that can be created on the system.

              Since Linux 4.1, the value that can be written to
              threads-max is bounded.  The minimum value that can be
              written is 20.  The maximum value that can be written is
              given by the constant FUTEX_TID_MASK (0x3fffffff).  If a
              value outside of this range is written to threads-max, the
              error EINVAL occurs.

              The value written is checked against the available RAM
              pages.  If the thread structures would occupy too much
              (more than 1/8th) of the available RAM pages, threads-max
              is reduced accordingly.

       /proc/sys/kernel/yama/ptrace_scope (since Linux 3.5)
              See ptrace(2).

       /proc/sys/kernel/zero-paged (PowerPC only)
              This file contains a flag.  When enabled (nonzero), Linux-
              PPC will pre-zero pages in the idle loop, possibly
              speeding up get_free_pages.

SEE ALSO         top

       proc(5), proc_sys(5)

COLOPHON         top

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Linux man-pages 6.9.1          2024-05-02             proc_sys_kernel(5)