Bug 38426

Summary: extra manpage .Xr to locate relevant sysctl information
Product: Documentation Reporter: Phil Pennock <pdp>
Component: Books & ArticlesAssignee: Christian Brueffer <brueffer>
Status: Closed FIXED    
Severity: Affects Only Me    
Priority: Normal    
Version: Latest   
Hardware: Any   
OS: Any   
Attachments:
Description Flags
file.diff none

Description Phil Pennock 2002-05-22 17:20:01 UTC 
Some kernel values are available through sysctl(8), but are read-only.
By reading the kernel source, it's possible to trace back to the fact
that a variable such as kern.ipc.nmbclusters can be derived from the
kernel's boot-time environment.  More digging around in manual-pages
points to loader(8) and possible Forth programming.  More investigation
finally reveals that a simple variable assignment in /boot/loader.conf
does the trick (and even samples in /boot/defaults/loader.conf).

Fix: This patch for src/sbin/sysctl.8 improves the chances of finding the
information quickly:
How-To-Repeat: Try, from first principles, to figure out how to change
kern.ipc.nmbclusters without building a new kernel.
Comment 1 Phil Pennock 2002-05-22 17:24:08 UTC 
Pox.  Make that "src/sbin/sysctl/sysctl.8" in the Fix.

Sorry.  Should have proof-read more carefully.
Comment 2 Christian Brueffer freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2003-05-14 16:09:45 UTC 
Responsible Changed
From-To: freebsd-doc->brueffer

I'll take this
Comment 3 Christian Brueffer freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2003-05-17 02:01:27 UTC 
State Changed
From-To: open->patched

Patch (slightly modified) committed to -CURRENT, MFC to come
Comment 4 Christian Brueffer freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2003-05-19 08:49:53 UTC 
State Changed
From-To: patched->closed

MFC done.