2008-02-12 07:31:37

by Peter Teoh

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Documentation about sysfs/procfs entries (resent due to errors)

I was looking for documentation on the kstack_depth_to_print under
/proc/sys/kernel, and I found it in Documentation/sysctl.txt (written
by Rik).

How about /proc/sys/net? or all other directories under /sys or /proc fs?

Wouldn't it be useful to have a centralized store located in
Documentation - properly structured, just a one-liner or two - on the
reasons and explanations for each of these /proc or /sys parameters?
And something to look for further details?

Something of the following:

|-- netfilter
| |-- nf_conntrack_buckets:your explanation here
| |-- nf_conntrack_checksum:your explanation here...
| |-- nf_conntrack_count
| |-- nf_conntrack_expect_max
| |-- nf_conntrack_generic_timeout
| |-- nf_conntrack_icmp_timeout
| |-- nf_conntrack_log_invalid
| |-- nf_conntrack_max
| |-- nf_conntrack_tcp_be_liberal
| |-- nf_conntrack_tcp_loose
| |-- nf_conntrack_tcp_max_retrans
| |-- nf_conntrack_tcp_timeout_close
| |-- nf_conntrack_tcp_timeout_close_wait
| |-- nf_conntrack_tcp_timeout_established
| |-- nf_conntrack_tcp_timeout_fin_wait
| |-- nf_conntrack_tcp_timeout_last_ack
| |-- nf_conntrack_tcp_timeout_max_retrans
| |-- nf_conntrack_tcp_timeout_syn_recv
| |-- nf_conntrack_tcp_timeout_syn_sent
| |-- nf_conntrack_tcp_timeout_time_wait
| |-- nf_conntrack_udp_timeout
| `-- nf_conntrack_udp_timeout_stream
|-- nf_conntrack_max
|-- token-ring
| `-- rif_timeout
`-- unix
`-- max_dgram_qlen


Alternatively, we can write a script to extract out the partial
explanations/details from existing source code, based on some coding
convention/style structure, and further hand-modification from there.
(given the dynamic nature of the kernel code, this may be preferred?)