Provided by: procps_3.2.7-3ubuntu5_i386 bug

NAME

        sysctl - configure kernel parameters at runtime

SYNOPSIS

        sysctl [-n] [-e] variable ...
        sysctl [-n] [-e] [-q] -w variable=value ...
        sysctl [-n] [-e] [-q] -p [filename]
        sysctl [-n] [-e] -a
        sysctl [-n] [-e] -A

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     Use  this option to disable printing of the key name when print‐
               ing values.
 
        -e     Use this option to ignore errors about unknown keys.
 
        -N     Use this option to only print the names. It may be  useful  with
               shells that have programmable completion.
 
        -q     Use this option to not display the values set to stdout.
 
        -w     Use this option when you want to change a sysctl setting.
 
        -p     Load   in   sysctl   settings   from   the   file  specified  or
               /etc/sysctl.conf if none given.  Specifying - as filename  means
               reading data from standard input.
 
        -a     Display all values currently available.
 
        -A     Display all values currently available in table form.

EXAMPLES

        /sbin/sysctl -a
        /sbin/sysctl -n kernel.hostname
        /sbin/sysctl -w kernel.domainname="example.com"
        /sbin/sysctl -p /etc/sysctl.conf

FILES

        /proc/sys
        /etc/sysctl.conf
        sysctl.conf(5)

BUGS

        The -A parameter behaves just as -a does.

AUTHOR

        George Staikos, <staikos@0wned.org>
 
                                   21 Sep 1999                        SYSCTL(8)