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Annotated edit history of SysctlNotes version 3, including all changes. View license author blame.
Rev Author # Line
1 BenStaz 1 !!How to Edit Kernel Parameters During Runtime
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3 !List all available kernel parameters and their values:
4 Note : They are all listed under /proc/sys
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6 *sysctl -a
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8 !Modify the value of a kernel parameter:
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10 *sysctl -w variable=value
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2 IanMcDonald 12 For example say I do not want my host to respond to pings (note that this is recommended):
1 BenStaz 13 This can be done by telling the kernel to ignore all ICMP ECHO_REQUEST's
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15 *sysctl -w net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_all=1
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17 OR
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19 *sysctl -w net/ipv4/icmp_echo_ignore_all=1
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21 Notes :
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23 1. Setting this variable to 1 (or anything other than 0) will make the kernel ignore ICMP echo request's.
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25 2. The 'net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_all' part above specifies the path inside /proc/sys/ to the file corresponding to the kernel parameter. If you use cat to take a look inside this file you will see that all in contains is '1' (the value of the kernel variable)
2 IanMcDonald 26
27 If you want to save these in a file it's usually in /etc/sysctl.conf (see [sysctl.conf(5)])
3 JamieCurtis 28
29 There is also another filesystem full of kernel parameters in called SysFs, normally mounted at /sys. SysFs has more details.
2 IanMcDonald 30 ----
31 CategoryNotes
32 ----
3 JamieCurtis 33 See also [sysctl(8)], [sysctl(2)], SysControls, SysFs