1.\" Copyright (c) 1993 The Regents of the University of California. 2.\" All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" %sccs.include.redist.roff% 5.\" 6.\" @(#)sysctl.3 6.7 (Berkeley) 05/20/93 7.\" 8.Dd "" 9.Dt SYSCTL 3 10.Os 11.Sh NAME 12.Nm sysctl 13.Nd get or set system information 14.Sh SYNOPSIS 15.Fd #include <sys/sysctl.h> 16.Ft int 17.Fn sysctl "int *name" "u_int namelen" "void *oldp" "size_t *oldlenp" "void *newp" "size_t newlen" 18.Sh DESCRIPTION 19The 20.Nm sysctl 21function retrieves system information and allows processes with 22appropriate privileges to set system information. 23The information available from 24.Nm sysctl 25consists of integers, strings, and tables. 26Information may be retrieved and set from the command interface 27using the 28.Xr sysctl 1 29utility. 30.Pp 31Unless explicitly noted below, 32.Nm sysctl 33returns a consistent snapshot of the data requested. 34Consistency is obtained by locking the destination 35buffer into memory so that the data may be copied out without blocking. 36Calls to 37.Nm sysctl 38are serialized to avoid deadlock. 39.Pp 40The state is described using a ``Management Information Base'' (MIB) 41style name, listed in 42.Fa name , 43which is a 44.Fa namelen 45length array of integers. 46.Pp 47The information is copied into the buffer specified by 48.Fa oldp . 49The size of the buffer is given by the location specified by 50.Fa oldlenp 51before the call, 52and that location gives the amount of data copied after a successful call. 53If the amount of data available is greater 54than the size of the buffer supplied, 55the call supplies as much data as fits in the buffer provided 56and returns with the error code ENOMEM. 57If the old value is not desired, 58.Fa oldp 59and 60.Fa oldlenp 61should be set to NULL. 62.Pp 63The size of the available data can be determined by calling 64.Nm sysctl 65with a NULL parameter for 66.Fa oldp . 67The size of the available data will be returned in the location pointed to by 68.Fa oldlenp . 69For some operations, the amount of space may change often. 70For these operations, 71the system attempts to round up so that the returned size is 72large enough for a call to return the data shortly thereafter. 73.Pp 74To set a new value, 75.Fa newp 76is set to point to a buffer of length 77.Fa newlen 78from which the requested value is to be taken. 79If a new value is not to be set, 80.Fa newp 81should be set to NULL and 82.Fa newlen 83set to 0. 84.Pp 85The top level names are defined with a CTL_ prefix in 86.Pa <sys/sysctl.h> , 87and are as follows. 88The next and subsequent levels down are found in the include files 89listed here, and described in separate sections below. 90.Pp 91.Bl -column CTLXMACHDEPXXX "Next level namesXXXXXX" -offset indent 92.It Sy Pa Name Next level names Description 93.It CTL\_DEBUG sys/sysctl.h Debugging 94.It CTL\_FS sys/sysctl.h File system 95.It CTL\_HW sys/sysctl.h Generic CPU, I/O 96.It CTL\_KERN sys/sysctl.h High kernel: processes, limits 97.It CTL\_MACHDEP sys/sysctl.h Machine dependent 98.It CTL\_NET sys/socket.h Networking 99.It CTL\_USER sys/sysctl.h User-level 100.It CTL\_VM vm/vm_param.h Virtual memory 101.El 102.Pp 103For example, the following retrieves the maximum number of processes allowed 104in the system: 105.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact 106int mib[2], maxproc; 107size_t len; 108.sp 109mib[0] = CTL_KERN; 110mib[1] = KERN_MAXPROC; 111len = sizeof(maxproc); 112sysctl(mib, 2, &maxproc, &len, NULL, 0); 113.Ed 114.sp 115To retrieve the standard search path for the system utilities: 116.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact 117int mib[2]; 118size_t len; 119char *p; 120.sp 121mib[0] = CTL_USER; 122mib[1] = USER_CS_PATH; 123sysctl(mib, 2, NULL, &len, NULL, 0); 124p = malloc(len); 125sysctl(mib, 2, p, &len, NULL, 0); 126.Ed 127.Sh CTL_DEBUG 128The debugging variables vary from system to system. 129A debugging variable may be added or deleted without need to recompile 130.Nm sysctl 131to know about it. 132Each time it runs, 133.Nm sysctl 134gets the list of debugging variables from the kernel and 135displays their current values. 136The system defines twenty 137.Ns ( Va struct ctldebug ) 138variables named 139.Nm debug0 140through 141.Nm debug19 . 142They are declared as separate variables so that they can be 143individually initialized at the location of their associated variable. 144The loader prevents multiple use of the same variable by issuing errors 145if a variable is initialized in more than one place. 146For example, to export the variable 147.Nm dospecialcheck 148as a debugging variable, the following declaration would be used: 149.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact 150int dospecialcheck = 1; 151struct ctldebug debug5 = { "dospecialcheck", &dospecialcheck }; 152.Ed 153.Sh CTL_FS 154There are currently no second level names for the file system. 155.Sh CTL_HW 156The string and integer information available for the CTL_HW level 157is detailed below. 158The changeable column shows whether a process with appropriate 159privilege may change the value. 160.Bl -column "Second level nameXXXXXX" integerXXX -offset indent 161.It Sy Pa Second level name Type Changeable 162.It HW\_MACHINE string no 163.It HW\_MODEL string no 164.It HW\_NCPU integer no 165.It HW\_BYTEORDER integer no 166.It HW\_PHYSMEM integer no 167.It HW\_USERMEM integer no 168.It HW\_PAGESIZE integer no 169.\".It HW\_DISKNAMES integer no 170.\".It HW\_DISKSTATS integer no 171.El 172.Pp 173.Bl -tag -width "123456" 174.It Li HW_MACHINE 175The machine class. 176.It Li HW_MODEL 177The machine model 178.It Li HW_NCPU 179The number of cpus. 180.It Li HW_BYTEORDER 181The byteorder (4,321, or 1,234). 182.It Li HW_PHYSMEM 183The bytes of physical memory. 184.It Li HW_USERMEM 185The bytes of non-kernel memory. 186.It Li HW_PAGESIZE 187The software page size. 188.\".It Fa HW_DISKNAMES 189.\".It Fa HW_DISKSTATS 190.El 191.Sh CTL_KERN 192The string and integer information available for the CTL_KERN level 193is detailed below. 194The changeable column shows whether a process with appropriate 195privilege may change the value. 196The types of data currently available are process information, 197system vnodes, the open file entries, routing table entries, 198virtual memory statistics, load average history, and clock rate 199information. 200.Bl -column "KERNXCHOWNXRESTRICTEDXXX" "struct clockrateXXX" -offset indent 201.It Sy Pa Second level name Type Changeable 202.It KERN\_ARGMAX integer no 203.It KERN\_BOOTTIME struct timeval no 204.It KERN\_CHOWN\_RESTRICTED integer no 205.It KERN\_CLOCKRATE struct clockinfo no 206.It KERN\_FILE struct file no 207.It KERN\_HOSTID integer yes 208.It KERN\_HOSTNAME string yes 209.It KERN\_JOB\_CONTROL integer no 210.It KERN\_LINK\_MAX integer no 211.It KERN\_MAXFILES integer yes 212.It KERN\_MAXPROC integer yes 213.It KERN\_MAXVNODES integer yes 214.It KERN\_MAX\_CANON integer no 215.It KERN\_MAX\_INPUT integer no 216.It KERN\_NAME\_MAX integer no 217.It KERN\_NGROUPS integer no 218.It KERN\_NO\_TRUNC integer no 219.It KERN\_OSRELEASE string no 220.It KERN\_OSREV integer no 221.It KERN\_OSTYPE string no 222.It KERN\_PATH\_MAX integer no 223.It KERN\_PIPE\_BUF integer no 224.It KERN\_POSIX1 integer no 225.It KERN\_PROC struct proc no 226.It KERN\_PROF node not applicable 227.It KERN\_SAVED\_IDS integer no 228.It KERN\_SECURELVL integer raise only 229.It KERN\_VDISABLE integer no 230.It KERN\_VERSION string no 231.It KERN\_VNODE struct vnode no 232.El 233.Pp 234.Bl -tag -width "123456" 235.It Li KERN_ARGMAX 236Maximum bytes of argument to exec. 237.It Li KERN_BOOTTIME 238A 239.Va struct timeval 240structure is returned. 241This structure contains the time that the system was booted. 242.It Li KERN_CHOWN_RESTRICTED 243Return 1 if appropriate privileges are required for the 244.Xr chown 2 245system call, otherwise 0. 246.It Li KERN_CLOCKRATE 247A 248.Va struct clockinfo 249structure is returned. 250This structure contains the clock, statistics clock and profiling clock 251frequencies, and the number of micro-seconds per hz tick. 252.It Li KERN_FILE 253Return the entire file table. 254The returned data consists of a single 255.Va struct filehead 256followed by an array of 257.Va struct file , 258whose size depends on the current number of such objects in the system. 259.It Li KERN_HOSTID 260Get or set the host id. 261.It Li KERN_HOSTNAME 262Get or set the hostname. 263.It Li KERN_JOB_CONTROL 264Return 1 if job control is available on this system, otherwise 0. 265.It Li KERN_LINK_MAX 266The maximum file link count. 267.It Li KERN_MAXFILES 268The maximum number of open files that may be open in the system. 269.It Li KERN_MAXPROC 270The maximum number of simultaneous processes the system will allow. 271.It Li KERN_MAXVNODES 272The maximum number of vnodes available on the system. 273.It Li KERN_MAX_CANON 274The maximum number of bytes in terminal canonical input line. 275.It Li KERN_MAX_INPUT 276The minimum number of bytes for which space is available in 277a terminal input queue. 278.It Li KERN_NAME_MAX 279The maximum number of bytes in a file name. 280.It Li KERN_NGROUPS 281The maximum number of supplemental groups. 282.It Li KERN_NO_TRUNC 283Return 1 if file names longer than KERN_NAME_MAX are truncated. 284.It Li KERN_OSRELEASE 285The system release string. 286.It Li KERN_OSREV 287The system revision string. 288.It Li KERN_OSTYPE 289The system type string. 290.It Li KERN_PATH_MAX 291The maximum number of bytes in a pathname. 292.It Li KERN_PIPE_BUF 293The maximum number of bytes which will be written atomically to a pipe. 294.It Li KERN_POSIX1 295The POSIX 1003.1 version with which the system attempts to comply. 296.It Li KERN_PROC 297Return the entire process table, or a subset of it. 298An array of 299.Va struct kinfo_proc 300structures is returned, 301whose size depends on the current number of such objects in the system. 302The third and fourth level names are as follows: 303.Bl -column "Third level nameXXXXXX" "Fourth level is:XXXXXX" -offset indent 304.It Pa Third level name Fourth level is: 305.It KERN\_PROC\_ALL None 306.It KERN\_PROC\_PID A process ID 307.It KERN\_PROC\_PGRP A process group 308.It KERN\_PROC\_TTY A tty device 309.It KERN\_PROC\_UID A user ID 310.It KERN\_PROC\_RUID A real user ID 311.El 312.It Li KERN_PROF 313Return profiling information about the kernel. 314If the kernel is not compiled for profiling, 315attempts to retrieve any of the KERN_PROF values will 316fail with EOPNOTSUPP. 317The third level names for the string and integer profiling information 318is detailed below. 319The changeable column shows whether a process with appropriate 320privilege may change the value. 321.Bl -column "GPROFXGMONPARAMXXX" "struct gmonparamXXX" -offset indent 322.It Sy Pa Third level name Type Changeable 323.It GPROF\_STATE integer yes 324.It GPROF\_COUNT u_short[\|] yes 325.It GPROF\_FROMS u_short[\|] yes 326.It GPROF\_TOS struct tostruct yes 327.It GPROF\_GMONPARAM struct gmonparam no 328.El 329.Pp 330The variables are as follows: 331.Bl -tag -width "123456" 332.It Li GPROF_STATE 333Returns GMON_PROF_ON or GMON_PROF_OFF to show that profiling 334is running or stopped. 335.It Li GPROF_COUNT 336Array of statistical program counter counts. 337.It Li GPROF_FROMS 338Array indexed by program counter of call-from points. 339.It Li GPROF_TOS 340Array of 341.Va struct tostruct 342describing destination of calls and their counts. 343.It Li GPROF_GMONPARAM 344Structure giving the sizes of the above arrays. 345.El 346.It Li KERN_SAVED_IDS 347Returns 1 if saved set-group and saved set-user ID is available. 348.It Li KERN_SECURELVL 349The system security level. 350This level may be raised by processes with appropriate privilege. 351It may only be lowered by process 1. 352.It Li KERN_VDISABLE 353Returns the terminal character disabling value. 354.It Li KERN_VERSION 355The system version string. 356.It Li KERN_VNODE 357Return the entire vnode table. 358Note, the vnode table is not necessarily a consistent snapshot of 359the system. 360The returned data consists of an array whose size depends on the 361current number of such objects in the system. 362Each element of the array contains the kernel address of a vnode 363.Va struct vnode * 364followed by the vnode itself 365.Va struct vnode . 366.El 367.Sh CTL_MACHDEP 368There are currently no second level names for the machine dependent 369interface. 370.Sh CTL_NET 371The string and integer information available for the CTL_NET level 372is detailed below. 373The changeable column shows whether a process with appropriate 374privilege may change the value. 375.Bl -column "Second level nameXXXXXX" "routing messagesXXX" -offset indent 376.It Sy Pa Second level name Type Changeable 377.It PF\_ROUTE routing messages no 378.It PF\_INET internet values yes 379.El 380.Pp 381.Bl -tag -width "123456" 382.It Li PF_ROUTE 383Return the entire routing table or a subset of it. 384The data is returned as a sequence of routing messages (see 385.Xr route 4 386for the header file, format and meaning). 387The length of each message is contained in the message header. 388.Pp 389The third level name is a protocol number, which is currently always 0. 390The fourth level name is an address family, which may be set to 0 to 391select all address families. 392The fifth and sixth level names are as follows: 393.Bl -column "Fifth level nameXXXXXX" "Sixth level is:XXX" -offset indent 394.It Pa Fifth level name Sixth level is: 395.It NET\_RT\_FLAGS rtflags 396.It NET\_RT\_DUMP None 397.It NET\_RT\_IFLIST None 398.El 399.It Li PF_INET 400Get or set various global information about the internet protocols. 401The third level name is the protocol. 402The fourth level name is the variable name. 403The currently defined protocols and names are: 404.Bl -column "Protocol nameXXXXXX" "Variable nameXXX" "integerXXX" -offset indent 405.It Pa Protocol name Variable name Type Changeable 406.It ip forwarding integer yes 407.It ip redirect integer yes 408.It ip ttl integer yes 409.It icmp maskrepl integer yes 410.It udp checksum integer yes 411.El 412.Pp 413The variables are as follows: 414.Bl -tag -width "123456" 415.It Li ip.forwarding 416Returns 1 when IP forwarding is enabled for the host, 417meaning that the host is acting as a router. 418.It Li ip.redirect 419Returns 1 when ICMP redirects may be sent by the host. 420This option is ignored unless the host is routing IP packets, 421and should normally be enabled on all systems. 422.It Li ip.ttl 423The maximum time-to-live (hop count) value for an IP packet sourced by 424the system. 425This value applies to normal transport protocols, not to ICMP. 426.It Li icmp.maskrepl 427Returns 1 if ICMP network mask requests are to be answered. 428.It Li udp.checksum 429Returns 1 when UDP checksums are being computed and checked. 430Disabling UDP checksums is strongly discouraged. 431.El 432.Sh CTL_USER 433The string and integer information available for the CTL_USER level 434is detailed below. 435The changeable column shows whether a process with appropriate 436privilege may change the value. 437.Bl -column "USER_COLL_WEIGHTS_MAXXXX" "integerXXX" -offset indent 438.It Sy Pa Second level name Type Changeable 439.It USER\_BC\_BASE\_MAX integer no 440.It USER\_BC\_DIM\_MAX integer no 441.It USER\_BC\_SCALE\_MAX integer no 442.It USER\_BC\_STRING\_MAX integer no 443.It USER\_COLL\_WEIGHTS\_MAX integer no 444.It USER\_CS\_PATH string no 445.It USER\_EXPR\_NEST\_MAX integer no 446.It USER\_LINE\_MAX integer no 447.It USER\_POSIX2\_CHAR\_TERM integer no 448.It USER\_POSIX2\_C\_BIND integer no 449.It USER\_POSIX2\_C\_DEV integer no 450.It USER\_POSIX2\_FORT\_DEV integer no 451.It USER\_POSIX2\_FORT\_RUN integer no 452.It USER\_POSIX2\_LOCALEDEF integer no 453.It USER\_POSIX2\_SW\_DEV integer no 454.It USER\_POSIX2\_UPE integer no 455.It USER\_POSIX2\_VERSION integer no 456.It USER\_RE\_DUP\_MAX integer no 457.El 458.Bl -tag -width "123456" 459.Pp 460.It Li USER_BC_BASE_MAX 461The maximum ibase/obase values in the 462.Xr bc 1 463utility 464.It Li USER_BC_DIM_MAX 465The maximum array size in the 466.Xr bc 1 467utility. 468.It Li USER_BC_SCALE_MAX 469The maximum scale value in the 470.Xr bc 1 471utility. 472.It Li USER_BC_STRING_MAX 473The maximum string length in the 474.Xr bc 1 475utility. 476.It Li USER_COLL_WEIGHTS_MAX 477The maximum number of weights that can be assigned to any entry of 478the LC_COLLATE order keyword in the locale definition file. 479.It Li USER_CS_PATH 480Return a value for the 481.Ev PATH 482environment variable that finds all the standard utilities. 483.It Li USER_EXPR_NEST_MAX 484The maximum number of expressions that can be nested within 485parenthesis by the 486.Xr expr 1 487utility. 488.It Li USER_LINE_MAX 489The maximum length in bytes of a text-processing utility's input 490line. 491.It Li USER_POSIX2_CHAR_TERM 492Return 1 if the system supports at least one terminal type capable of 493all operations described in POSIX 1003.2, otherwise 0. 494.It Li USER_POSIX2_C_BIND 495Return 1 if the system's C-language development facilities support the 496C-Language Bindings Option, otherwise 0. 497.It Li USER_POSIX2_C_DEV 498Return 1 if the system supports the C-Language Development Utilities Option, 499otherwise 0. 500.It Li USER_POSIX2_FORT_DEV 501Return 1 if the system supports the FORTRAN Development Utilities Option, 502otherwise 0. 503.It Li USER_POSIX2_FORT_RUN 504Return 1 if the system supports the FORTRAN Runtime Utilities Option, 505otherwise 0. 506.It Li USER_POSIX2_LOCALEDEF 507Return 1 if the system supports the creation of locales, otherwise 0. 508.It Li USER_POSIX2_SW_DEV 509Return 1 if the system supports the Software Development Utilities Option, 510otherwise 0. 511.It Li USER_POSIX2_UPE 512Return 1 if the system supports the User Portability Utilities Option, 513otherwise 0. 514.It Li USER_POSIX2_VERSION 515The POSIX 1003.2 version with which the system attempts to comply. 516.It Li USER_RE_DUP_MAX 517The maximum number of repeated occurrences of a regular expression 518permitted when using interval notation. 519.El 520.Sh CTL_VM 521The string and integer information available for the CTL_VM level 522is detailed below. 523The changeable column shows whether a process with appropriate 524privilege may change the value. 525.Bl -column "Second level nameXXXXXX" "struct loadavgXXX" -offset indent 526.It Sy Pa Second level name Type Changeable 527.It VM\_LOADAVG struct loadavg no 528.It VM\_METER struct vmtotal no 529.El 530.Pp 531.Bl -tag -width "123456" 532.It Li VM_LOADAVG 533Return the load average history. 534The returned data consists of a 535.Va struct loadavg . 536.It Li VM_METER 537Return the system wide virtual memory statistics. 538The returned data consists of a 539.Va struct vmtotal . 540.El 541.Sh RETURN VALUES 542If the call to 543.Nm sysctl 544is successful, 0 is returned. 545Otherwise \-1 is returned and 546.Va errno 547is set appropriately. 548.Sh ERRORS 549The following errors may be reported: 550.Bl -tag -width Er 551.It Bq Er EFAULT 552The buffer 553.Fa name , 554.Fa oldp , 555.Fa newp , 556or length pointer 557.Fa oldlenp 558contains an invalid address. 559.It Bq Er EINVAL 560The 561.Fa name 562array is less than two or greater than CTL_MAXNAME. 563.It Bq Er EINVAL 564A non-null 565.Fa newp 566is given and its specified length in 567.Fa newlen 568is too large or too small. 569.It Bq Er ENOMEM 570The length pointed to by 571.Fa oldlenp 572is too short to hold the requested value. 573.It Bq Er ENOTDIR 574The 575.Fa name 576array specifies an intermediate rather than terminal name. 577.It Bq Er EOPNOTSUPP 578The 579.Fa name 580array specifies a value that is unknown. 581.It Bq Er EPERM 582An attempt is made to set a read-only value. 583.It Bq Er EPERM 584A process without appropriate privilege attempts to set a value. 585.El 586.Sh FILES 587.Bl -tag -width <netinet/icmpXvar.h> -compact 588.It Pa <sys/sysctl.h> 589definitions for top level identifiers, second level kernel and hardware 590identifiers, and user level identifiers 591.It Pa <sys/socket.h> 592definitions for second level network identifiers 593.It Pa <sys/gmon.h> 594definitions for third level profiling identifiers 595.It Pa <vm/vm_param.h> 596definitions for second level virtual memory identifiers 597.It Pa <netinet/in.h> 598definitions for third level Internet identifiers and 599fourth level IP identifiers 600.It Pa <netinet/icmp_var.h> 601definitions for fourth level ICMP identifiers 602.It Pa <netinet/udp_var.h> 603definitions for fourth level UDP identifiers 604.El 605.Sh SEE ALSO 606.Xr sysctl 8 607.Sh HISTORY 608The 609.Nm sysctl 610function first appeared in 4.4BSD. 611