From 760df93ecdd59fc1c213a491b5adee79f53606da Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Shen Feng Date: Thu, 2 Apr 2009 16:57:20 -0700 Subject: documentation: update Documentation/filesystem/proc.txt and Documentation/sysctls Now /proc/sys is described in many places and much information is redundant. This patch updates the proc.txt and move the /proc/sys desciption out to the files in Documentation/sysctls. Details are: merge - 2.1 /proc/sys/fs - File system data - 2.11 /proc/sys/fs/mqueue - POSIX message queues filesystem - 2.17 /proc/sys/fs/epoll - Configuration options for the epoll interface with Documentation/sysctls/fs.txt. remove - 2.2 /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc - Miscellaneous binary formats since it's not better then the Documentation/binfmt_misc.txt. merge - 2.3 /proc/sys/kernel - general kernel parameters with Documentation/sysctls/kernel.txt remove - 2.5 /proc/sys/dev - Device specific parameters since it's obsolete the sysfs is used now. remove - 2.6 /proc/sys/sunrpc - Remote procedure calls since it's not better then the Documentation/sysctls/sunrpc.txt move - 2.7 /proc/sys/net - Networking stuff - 2.9 Appletalk - 2.10 IPX to newly created Documentation/sysctls/net.txt. remove - 2.8 /proc/sys/net/ipv4 - IPV4 settings since it's not better then the Documentation/networking/ip-sysctl.txt. add - Chapter 3 Per-Process Parameters to descibe /proc//xxx parameters. Signed-off-by: Shen Feng Cc: Randy Dunlap Cc: "David S. Miller" Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds --- Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt | 1097 +----------------------------------- 1 file changed, 28 insertions(+), 1069 deletions(-) (limited to 'Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt') diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt b/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt index efc4fd9f40ce..ce84cfc9eae0 100644 --- a/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt +++ b/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt @@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ Bodo Bauer 2.4.x update Jorge Nerin November 14 2000 +move /proc/sys Shen Feng April 1 2009 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Version 1.3 Kernel version 2.2.12 Kernel version 2.4.0-test11-pre4 @@ -26,25 +27,17 @@ Table of Contents 1.6 Parallel port info in /proc/parport 1.7 TTY info in /proc/tty 1.8 Miscellaneous kernel statistics in /proc/stat + 1.9 Ext4 file system parameters 2 Modifying System Parameters - 2.1 /proc/sys/fs - File system data - 2.2 /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc - Miscellaneous binary formats - 2.3 /proc/sys/kernel - general kernel parameters - 2.4 /proc/sys/vm - The virtual memory subsystem - 2.5 /proc/sys/dev - Device specific parameters - 2.6 /proc/sys/sunrpc - Remote procedure calls - 2.7 /proc/sys/net - Networking stuff - 2.8 /proc/sys/net/ipv4 - IPV4 settings - 2.9 Appletalk - 2.10 IPX - 2.11 /proc/sys/fs/mqueue - POSIX message queues filesystem - 2.12 /proc//oom_adj - Adjust the oom-killer score - 2.13 /proc//oom_score - Display current oom-killer score - 2.14 /proc//io - Display the IO accounting fields - 2.15 /proc//coredump_filter - Core dump filtering settings - 2.16 /proc//mountinfo - Information about mounts - 2.17 /proc/sys/fs/epoll - Configuration options for the epoll interface + + 3 Per-Process Parameters + 3.1 /proc//oom_adj - Adjust the oom-killer score + 3.2 /proc//oom_score - Display current oom-killer score + 3.3 /proc//io - Display the IO accounting fields + 3.4 /proc//coredump_filter - Core dump filtering settings + 3.5 /proc//mountinfo - Information about mounts + ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Preface @@ -990,1021 +983,24 @@ review the kernel documentation in the directory /usr/src/linux/Documentation. This chapter is heavily based on the documentation included in the pre 2.2 kernels, and became part of it in version 2.2.1 of the Linux kernel. -2.1 /proc/sys/fs - File system data ------------------------------------ - -This subdirectory contains specific file system, file handle, inode, dentry -and quota information. - -Currently, these files are in /proc/sys/fs: - -dentry-state ------------- - -Status of the directory cache. Since directory entries are dynamically -allocated and deallocated, this file indicates the current status. It holds -six values, in which the last two are not used and are always zero. The others -are listed in table 2-1. - - -Table 2-1: Status files of the directory cache -.............................................................................. - File Content - nr_dentry Almost always zero - nr_unused Number of unused cache entries - age_limit - in seconds after the entry may be reclaimed, when memory is short - want_pages internally -.............................................................................. - -dquot-nr and dquot-max ----------------------- - -The file dquot-max shows the maximum number of cached disk quota entries. - -The file dquot-nr shows the number of allocated disk quota entries and the -number of free disk quota entries. - -If the number of available cached disk quotas is very low and you have a large -number of simultaneous system users, you might want to raise the limit. - -file-nr and file-max --------------------- - -The kernel allocates file handles dynamically, but doesn't free them again at -this time. - -The value in file-max denotes the maximum number of file handles that the -Linux kernel will allocate. When you get a lot of error messages about running -out of file handles, you might want to raise this limit. The default value is -10% of RAM in kilobytes. To change it, just write the new number into the -file: - - # cat /proc/sys/fs/file-max - 4096 - # echo 8192 > /proc/sys/fs/file-max - # cat /proc/sys/fs/file-max - 8192 - - -This method of revision is useful for all customizable parameters of the -kernel - simply echo the new value to the corresponding file. - -Historically, the three values in file-nr denoted the number of allocated file -handles, the number of allocated but unused file handles, and the maximum -number of file handles. Linux 2.6 always reports 0 as the number of free file -handles -- this is not an error, it just means that the number of allocated -file handles exactly matches the number of used file handles. - -Attempts to allocate more file descriptors than file-max are reported with -printk, look for "VFS: file-max limit reached". - -inode-state and inode-nr ------------------------- - -The file inode-nr contains the first two items from inode-state, so we'll skip -to that file... - -inode-state contains two actual numbers and five dummy values. The numbers -are nr_inodes and nr_free_inodes (in order of appearance). - -nr_inodes -~~~~~~~~~ - -Denotes the number of inodes the system has allocated. This number will -grow and shrink dynamically. - -nr_open -------- - -Denotes the maximum number of file-handles a process can -allocate. Default value is 1024*1024 (1048576) which should be -enough for most machines. Actual limit depends on RLIMIT_NOFILE -resource limit. - -nr_free_inodes --------------- - -Represents the number of free inodes. Ie. The number of inuse inodes is -(nr_inodes - nr_free_inodes). - -aio-nr and aio-max-nr ---------------------- - -aio-nr is the running total of the number of events specified on the -io_setup system call for all currently active aio contexts. If aio-nr -reaches aio-max-nr then io_setup will fail with EAGAIN. Note that -raising aio-max-nr does not result in the pre-allocation or re-sizing -of any kernel data structures. - -2.2 /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc - Miscellaneous binary formats ------------------------------------------------------------ - -Besides these files, there is the subdirectory /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc. This -handles the kernel support for miscellaneous binary formats. - -Binfmt_misc provides the ability to register additional binary formats to the -Kernel without compiling an additional module/kernel. Therefore, binfmt_misc -needs to know magic numbers at the beginning or the filename extension of the -binary. - -It works by maintaining a linked list of structs that contain a description of -a binary format, including a magic with size (or the filename extension), -offset and mask, and the interpreter name. On request it invokes the given -interpreter with the original program as argument, as binfmt_java and -binfmt_em86 and binfmt_mz do. Since binfmt_misc does not define any default -binary-formats, you have to register an additional binary-format. - -There are two general files in binfmt_misc and one file per registered format. -The two general files are register and status. - -Registering a new binary format -------------------------------- - -To register a new binary format you have to issue the command - - echo :name:type:offset:magic:mask:interpreter: > /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/register - - - -with appropriate name (the name for the /proc-dir entry), offset (defaults to -0, if omitted), magic, mask (which can be omitted, defaults to all 0xff) and -last but not least, the interpreter that is to be invoked (for example and -testing /bin/echo). Type can be M for usual magic matching or E for filename -extension matching (give extension in place of magic). - -Check or reset the status of the binary format handler ------------------------------------------------------- - -If you do a cat on the file /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/status, you will get the -current status (enabled/disabled) of binfmt_misc. Change the status by echoing -0 (disables) or 1 (enables) or -1 (caution: this clears all previously -registered binary formats) to status. For example echo 0 > status to disable -binfmt_misc (temporarily). - -Status of a single handler --------------------------- - -Each registered handler has an entry in /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc. These files -perform the same function as status, but their scope is limited to the actual -binary format. By cating this file, you also receive all related information -about the interpreter/magic of the binfmt. - -Example usage of binfmt_misc (emulate binfmt_java) --------------------------------------------------- - - cd /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc - echo ':Java:M::\xca\xfe\xba\xbe::/usr/local/java/bin/javawrapper:' > register - echo ':HTML:E::html::/usr/local/java/bin/appletviewer:' > register - echo ':Applet:M::