SYSCTL(8)

NAME
sysctl - get or set kernel state

SYNOPSIS
sysctl [-Aan]
sysctl [-n] name ...
sysctl [-nq] name=value ...

DESCRIPTION
The sysctl utility retrieves kernel state and allows processes with appropriate privilege to set kernel state. The state to be retrieved or set is described using a “Management Information Base” (MIB) style name, described as a dotted set of components.

When retrieving a variable, a subset of the MIB name may be specified to retrieve a list of variables in that subset. For example, to list all the machdep variables:

    $ sysctl machdep

When setting a variable, the MIB name should be followed by an equal sign and the new value.

The options are as follows:

-A  List all the known MIB names including tables. Those with string or integer values will be printed as with the -a flag; for the table values, the name of the utility to retrieve them is given.

-a  List all the currently available string or integer values. This is the default, if no parameters are given to sysctl.

-n  Suppress printing of the field name, only output the field value. Useful for setting shell variables. For example, to set the psize shell variable to the pagesize of the hardware:

        # set psize=`sysctl -n hw.pagesize`

-q  Suppress all output when setting a variable. This option overrides the behaviour of -n.

name=value
    Attempt to set the specified variable name to value.

The information available from sysctl consists of integers, strings, and tables. The tabular information can only be retrieved by special purpose programs such as ps(1), systat(1), and netstat(1). The string and integer information is summarized below. For a detailed description of these variables, see sysctl(3). The changeable column indicates whether a process with appropriate privilege can change the value.

Note: not all of the variables are relevant to all architectures, and a few require a kernel compiled with non-standard options(4).
Name | Type | Changeable
kern.ostype string no
kern.osrelease | string | no
kern.osrevision | integer | no
kern.version | string | no
kern.maxvnodes | integer | yes
kern.maxproc | integer | yes
kern.maxfiles | integer | yes
kern.argmax | integer | no
kern.securelevel | integer | raise only
kern.hostname | string | yes
kern.hostid | u_int | yes
kern.clockrate | struct | no
kern.posix1version | integer | no
kern.ngroups | integer | no
kern.job_control | integer | no
kern.saved_ids | integer | no
kern.boottime | struct | no
kern.domainname | string | yes
kern.maxpartitions | integer | no
kern.rawpartition | integer | no
kern.maxthread | integer | yes
kern.nthreads | integer | no
kern.osversion | string | no
kern.somaxconn | integer | yes
kern.sominconn | integer | yes
kern.usermount | integer | yes
kern.random | struct | no
kern.nosuidcoredump | integer | yes
kern.fsync | integer | no
kern.sysvmsg | integer | no
kern.sysvsem | integer | no
kern.sysvshm | integer | no
kern.arandom | u_int | no
kern.msgbufsize | integer | no
kern.malloc.buckets | string | no
kern.malloc.bucket.<sz> | string | no
kern.malloc.kmemnames | string | no
kern.malloc.kmemstat.<name> | string | no
kern.cp_time | struct | no
kern.nchstats | struct | no
kern.forkstat | struct | no
kern.nselcoll | integer | no
kern.tty.tk_nin | int64_t | no
kern.tty.tk_nout | int64_t | no
kern.tty.tk_rawcc | int64_t | no
kern.tty.tk_cancc | int64_t | no
kern.tty.ttyinfo | struct | no
kern.tty.maxptys | integer | yes
kern.tty.nptys | integer | no
kern.ccpu | u_int | no
kern.fscale | integer | no
kern.nprocs | integer | no
kern.stackgap_random | integer | yes
kern.splassert | integer | yes
kern.nfiles | integer | no
kern.ttycount | integer | no
kern.numvnodes | integer | no
kern.seminfo.semmni | integer | yes
kern.seminfo.semmns | integer | yes
kern.seminfo.semmnu | integer | yes
kern.seminfo.semmsl | integer | yes
kern.seminfo.semopm | integer | yes
kern.seminfo.semume | integer | no
kern.seminfo.semusz | integer | no
kern.seminfo.semvmx | integer | no
kern.seminfo.semaem | integer | no
kern.shminfo.shmmax | integer | yes
kern.shminfo.shmmin | integer | yes
kern.shminfo.shmmni | integer | yes
kern.shminfo.shmseg | integer | yes
kern.shminfo.shmall | integer | yes
kern.watchdog.period | integer | yes
kern.watchdog.auto | integer | yes
kern.emul.nemuls | integer | no
kern.emul.other | integer | yes
kern.maxclusters | integer | yes
kern.timecounter.tick | integer | no
kern.timecounter.timestepwarnings | integer | yes
kern.timecounter.hardware | string | yes
kern.timecounter.choice | string | no
kern.maxlocksperuid | integer | yes
kern.bufcachepercent | integer | yes
kern.consdev | string | no
kern.global_ptrace | integer | yes
vm.vmmeter | struct | no
vm.loadavg | struct | no
vm.psstrings | struct | no
vm.uvmexp | struct | no
vm.swapencrypt.enable | integer | yes
vm.swapencrypt.keyscreated | integer | no
vm.swapencrypt.keysdeleted | integer | no
vm.nkmempages | integer | no
vm.anonmin | integer | yes
vm.vtextmin | integer | yes
vm.vnodemin | integer | yes
vm.maxslp | integer | no
vm.uspace | integer | no
fs.posix.setuid | integer | yes
net.inet.divert.recvspace | integer | yes
net.inet.divert.sendspace | integer | yes
net.inet.ip.forwarding | integer | yes
net.inet.ip.redirect | integer | yes
net.inet.ip.ttl | integer | yes
net.inet.ip.sourceroute | integer | yes
net.inet.ip.directed-broadcast | integer | yes
net.inet.ip.portfirst | integer | yes
net.inet.ip.portlast | integer | yes
net.inet.ip.porthifirst | integer | yes
net.inet.ip.porthilast | integer | yes
net.inet.ip.maxqueue | integer | yes
net.inet.ip.encdebug | integer | yes
net.inet.ip.ipsec-expire-acquire | integer | yes
net.inet.ip.ipsec-invalid-life | integer | yes
net.inet.ip.ipsec-pfs | integer | yes
net.inet.ip.ipsec-soft-allocs | integer | yes
net.inet.ip.ipsec-allocs | integer | yes
net.inet.ip.ipsec-soft-bytes | integer | yes
net.inet.ip.ipsec-bytes | integer | yes
net.inet.ip.ipsec-timeout | integer | yes
net.inet.ip.ipsec-soft-timeout | integer | yes
net.inet.ip.ipsec-soft-firstuse | integer | yes
net.inet.ip.ipsec-firstuse | integer | yes
net.inet.ip.ipsec-enc-alg | string | yes
net.inet.ip.ipsec-auth-alg | string | yes
net.inet.ip.mtudisc | integer | yes
net.inet.ip.mtudisctimeout | integer | yes
net.inet.ip.ipsec-comp-alg | string | yes
net.inet.ip.ifq.len | integer | no
net.inet.ip.ifq.maxlen | integer | yes
net.inet.ip.ifq.drops | integer | no
net.inet.ip.mforwarding | integer | yes
net.inet.ip.multipath | integer | yes
net.inet.icmp.maskrepl | integer | yes
net.inet.icmp.bmcastecho | integer | yes
net.inet.icmp.errppslimit | integer | yes
net.inet.icmp.rediraccept | integer | yes
net.inet.icmp.redirtimeout | integer | yes
net.inet.icmp.tstamprepl | integer | yes
net.inet.ipip.allow | integer | yes
net.inet.tcp.rfc1323 | integer | yes
net.inet.tcp.keepinittime | integer | yes
net.inet.tcp.keepidle | integer | yes
net.inet.tcp.keepintvl | integer | yes
net.inet.tcp.always_keepalive | integer | yes
net.inet.tcp.slowhz | integer | no
net.inet.tcp.baddynamic | array | yes
net.inet.tcp.sack | integer | yes
net.inet.tcp.mssdflt | integer | yes
net.inet.tcp.rstppslimit | integer | yes
net.inet.tcp.ackonpush | integer | yes
net.inet.tcp.ecn | integer | yes
net.inet.tcp.syncachelimit | integer | yes
net.inet.tcp.synbucketlimit | integer | yes
net.inet.tcp.rfc3390 | integer | yes
net.inet.tcp.reasslimit | integer | yes
net.inet.udp.checksum | integer | yes
net.inet.udp.baddynamic | array | yes
net.inet.udp.recvspace | integer | yes
net.inet.udp.sendspace | integer | yes
net.inet.gre.allow | integer | yes
net.inet.gre.wccp | integer | yes
net.inet.esp.enable | integer | yes
net.inet.esp.udpencap | integer | yes
net.inet.esp.udpencap_port | integer | yes
net.inet.ah.enable | integer | yes
net.inet.mobileip.allow | integer | yes
net.inet.etherip.allow | integer | yes
net.inet.ipcomp.enable | integer | yes
net.inet.carp.allow | integer | yes
net.inet.carp.preempt | integer | yes
net.inet.carp.log | integer | yes
net.inet6.ip6.forwarding | integer | yes
net.inet6.ip6.redirect | integer | yes
net.inet6.ip6.hlim | integer | yes
net.inet6.ip6.maxfragpackets | integer | yes
net.inet6.ip6.log_interval | integer | yes
net.inet6.ip6.hdrnestlimit | integer | yes
net.inet6.ip6.dad_count | integer | yes
net.inet6.ip6.auto_flowlabel | integer | yes
net.inet6.ip6.defmcasthlim | integer | yes
net.inet6.ip6.use_deprecated | integer | yes
net.inet6.ip6.rr_prune | integer | yes
net.inet6.ip6.v6only | integer | no
net.inet6.ip6.maxfrags | integer | yes
net.inet6.ip6.mforwarding | integer | yes
net.inet6.ip6.multipath | integer | yes
net.inet6.ip6.multicast_mtudisc | integer | yes
net.inet6.ip6.neighborgcthresh | integer | yes
net.inet6.ip6.maxifprefixes | integer | yes
net.inet6.ip6.maxifdefrouters | integer | yes
net.inet6.ip6.maxdynroutes | integer | yes
net.inet6.ip6.dad_pending | integer | yes
net.inet6.ip6.mtudisctimeout | integer | yes
net.inet6.icmp6.redirtimeout | integer | yes
net.inet6.icmp6.nd6_prune | integer | yes
net.inet6.icmp6.nd6_delay | integer | yes
net.inet6.icmp6.nd6_umaxtries | integer | yes
net.inet6.icmp6.nd6_mmaxtries | integer | yes
net.inet6.icmp6.errppslimit | integer | yes
net.inet6.icmp6.nd6_maxnudhint | integer | yes
net.inet6.icmp6.mtudisc_hiwat | integer | yes
net.inet6.icmp6.mtudisc_lowat | integer | yes
net.inet6.icmp6.nd6_debug | integer | yes
net.mpls.ttl | integer | yes
net.mpls.ifq.len | integer | no
net.mpls.ifq.maxlen | integer | yes
net.mpls.ifq.drops | integer | no
net.mpls.maxloop_inkernel | integer | yes
net.mpls.mapttl_ip | integer | yes
net.mpls.mapttl_ip6 | integer | yes
net.pipex.enable | integer | yes
net.pipex.inq.len | integer | no
net.pipex.inq.maxlen | integer | yes
net.pipex.inq.drops | integer | no
net.pipex.outq.len | integer | no
net.pipex.outq.maxlen | integer | yes
net.pipex.outq.drops=0 | integer | no
debug.syncprt | integer | yes
debug.busyprt | integer | yes
debug.doclusterread | integer | yes
debug.doclusterwrite | integer | yes
debug.doreallocblks | integer | yes
debug.doasyncfree | integer | yes
debug.prtrealloc | integer | yes
hw.machine | string | no
hw.model | string | no
hw.ncpu | integer | no
hw.byteorder | integer | no
hw.physmem | int64_t | no
hw.usermem | int64_t | no
hw.pagesize | integer | no
hw.diskstats | struct | no
hw.disknames | string | no
hw.diskcount | integer | no
hw.sensors.<xname>.<type><numt> | struct | no
hw.cpuspeed | integer | no
hw.setperf | integer | yes
hw.vendor | string | no
hw.product | string | no
hw.version | string | no
hw.serialno | string | no
hw.uuid | string | no
hw.ncpufound | integer | no
hw.allowpowerdown | integer | yes
hw.perfpolicy | string | yes
machdep.console_device | dev_t | no
machdep.unaligned_print | integer | yes
machdep.unaligned_fix | integer | yes
machdep.unaligned_sigbus | integer | yes
machdep.apmwarn | integer | yes
machdep.apmhalt | integer | yes
machdep.kbdreset | integer | yes
machdep.userldt | integer | yes
machdep.osfxsr | integer | no
machdep.sse | integer | no
machdep.sse2 | integer | no
machdep.xcrypt | integer | no
machdep.allowaperture | integer | yes
machdep.led_blink | integer | yes
machdep.ceccerrs | integer | no
machdep.cecclast | quad | no
ddb.radix | integer | yes
ddb.max_width | integer | yes
ddb.max_line | integer | yes
ddb.tab_stop_width | integer | yes
ddb.panic | integer | yes
ddb.console | integer | yes
ddb.log | integer | yes
ddb.trigger | integer | yes
vfs.mounts.* | struct | no
vfs.ffs.doclusterread | integer | yes
vfs.ffs.doclusterwrite | integer | yes
vfs.ffs.doreallocblks | integer | yes
vfs.ffs.doasyncfree | integer | yes
vfs.ffs.max_softdeps | integer | yes
vfs.ffs.sd_tickdelay | integer | yes
vfs.ffs.sd_worklist_push | integer | no
vfs.ffs.sd_blk_limit_push | integer | no
vfs.ffs.sd_ino_limit_push | integer | no
vfs.ffs.sd_blk_limit_hit | integer | no
vfs.ffs.sd_ino_limit_hit | integer | no
vfs.ffs.sd_sync_limit_hit | integer | no
vfs.ffs.sd_indir_blk_ptrs | integer | no
vfs.ffs.sd_inode_bitmap | integer | no
vfs.ffs.sd_direct_blk_ptrs | integer | no
vfs.ffs.sd_dir_entry | integer | no
vfs.ffs.dirhash_dirsize | integer | yes
vfs.ffs.dirhash_maxmem | integer | yes
vfs.ffs.dirhash_mem | integer | no
vfs.nfs.iothreads | integer | yes
vfs.fuse.fusefs_open_devices | integer | no
vfs.fuse.fusefs_fbufs_in | integer | no
vfs.fuse.fusefs_fbufs_wait | integer | no
vfs.fuse.fusefs_pool_pages | integer | no

The sysctl program can extract information about the filesystems that have been compiled into the running system. This information can be obtained by using the command:

    $ sysctl vfs.mounts

By default, only filesystems that are actively being used are listed. Use of the -A flag lists all the filesystems compiled into the running kernel.

FILES
<sys/sysctl.h>
    definitions for top level identifiers and second level kernel and hardware identifiers
<dev/rndvar.h>
    definitions for random(4) device's statistics structure
<sys/socket.h>
    definitions for second level network identifiers
<sys/gmon.h>
    definitions for third level profiling identifiers
<uvm/uvm_param.h>
    definitions for second level virtual memory identifiers
<uvm/uvm_swap_encrypt.h>
    definitions for third level virtual memory identifiers
<netinet/in.h>
    definitions for third level IPv4/v6 identifiers and fourth level IPv4/v6 identifiers
<netinet/ip_divert.h>
    definitions for fourth level divert identifiers
<netinet/icmp_var.h>
    definitions for fourth level ICMP identifiers
<netinet6/icmp6.h>
    definitions for fourth level ICMPv6 identifiers
<netinet/tcp_var.h>
    definitions for fourth level TCP identifiers
<netinet/udp_var.h>
    definitions for fourth level UDP identifiers
<ddb/db_var.h>
    definitions for second level ddb identifiers
<sys/mount.h>
    definitions for second level vfs identifiers
<nfs/nfs.h>
    definitions for third level NFS identifiers
<miscfs/fuse/fusefs.h>
    definitions for third level fusefs identifiers
<ufs/ffs/ffs_extern.h>
    definitions for third level FFS identifiers
<machine/cpu.h>
    definitions for second level CPU identifiers

EXAMPLES
To retrieve the maximum number of processes allowed in the system:

    $ sysctl kern.maxproc

To set the maximum number of processes allowed in the system to 1000:

    # sysctl kern.maxproc=1000

To retrieve information about the system clock rate:

    $ sysctl kern.clockrate

To retrieve information about the load average history:

    $ sysctl vm.loadavg

To make the chown(2) system call use traditional BSD semantics (don't clear setuid/setgid bits):

    # sysctl fs.posix.setuid=0

To set the list of reserved TCP ports that should not be allocated by the kernel dynamically:

    # sysctl net.inet.tcp.baddynamic=749,750,751,760,761,871
    # sysctl net.inet.udp.baddynamic=749,750,751,760,761,871,1024-2048

This can be used to keep daemons from stealing a specific port that another program needs to function. List elements may be separated by commas and/or whitespace; a hyphen may be used to specify a range of ports.

It is also possible to add or remove ports from the current list:

    # sysctl net.inet.tcp.baddynamic=+748,6000-6999
    # sysctl net.inet.tcp.baddynamic=-871

To set the amount of shared memory available in the system and the maximum number of shared memory segments:

    # sysctl kern.shminfo.shmmax=33554432
    # sysctl kern.shminfo.shmseg=32

To place core dumps from issetugid(2) programs (in this example bgpd(8)) into a safe place for debugging purposes:

    # mkdir /var/crash/bgpd
    # chmod 700 /var/crash/bgpd
    # sysctl kern.nosuidcoredump=3

SEE ALSO
sysctl(3), options(4), sysctl.conf(5)

HISTORY
sysctl first appeared in 4.4BSD.