Current misleading description, suggests it outputs value of sysctls only, whereas it can output anything (type/descript etc). Its actual function is to suppress name, not output value only. Current misleading description: "-n: Show only variable values, not their names. This option is useful for setting shell variables. For instance, to save the pagesize in variable psize, use: set psize=`sysctl -n hw.pagesize" Suggested improved wording: -n: Suppress variable names. The output will be the bare value, description, type, or other details, according to the other options used. This option is useful for setting shell variables. For instance, to save the pagesize in variable psize, use: set psize=`sysctl -n hw.pagesize" Sorry, not up to speed on SVN, hence unconfident to push as a change myself.
review D26149
A commit references this bug: Author: fernape Date: Sat Aug 22 11:59:14 UTC 2020 New revision: 364481 URL: https://svnweb.freebsd.org/changeset/base/364481 Log: sysctl(8): clarify -n flag -n omits the name of the variable regardless of the type of information that is requested. Rephrase to clarify this point. PR: 242191 Submitted by: stilezy@gmail.com Approved by: emaste@ Differential Revision: https://reviews.freebsd.org/D26149 Changes: head/sbin/sysctl/sysctl.8
Committed, Thanks!