summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/fs.rst
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2024-04-07 18:49:45 +0000
committerDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2024-04-07 18:49:45 +0000
commit2c3c1048746a4622d8c89a29670120dc8fab93c4 (patch)
tree848558de17fb3008cdf4d861b01ac7781903ce39 /Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/fs.rst
parentInitial commit. (diff)
downloadlinux-2c3c1048746a4622d8c89a29670120dc8fab93c4.tar.xz
linux-2c3c1048746a4622d8c89a29670120dc8fab93c4.zip
Adding upstream version 6.1.76.upstream/6.1.76
Signed-off-by: Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/fs.rst')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/fs.rst384
1 files changed, 384 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/fs.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/fs.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2a501c9dd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/fs.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,384 @@
+===============================
+Documentation for /proc/sys/fs/
+===============================
+
+kernel version 2.2.10
+
+Copyright (c) 1998, 1999, Rik van Riel <riel@nl.linux.org>
+
+Copyright (c) 2009, Shen Feng<shen@cn.fujitsu.com>
+
+For general info and legal blurb, please look in intro.rst.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+This file contains documentation for the sysctl files in
+/proc/sys/fs/ and is valid for Linux kernel version 2.2.
+
+The files in this directory can be used to tune and monitor
+miscellaneous and general things in the operation of the Linux
+kernel. Since some of the files _can_ be used to screw up your
+system, it is advisable to read both documentation and source
+before actually making adjustments.
+
+1. /proc/sys/fs
+===============
+
+Currently, these files are in /proc/sys/fs:
+
+- aio-max-nr
+- aio-nr
+- dentry-state
+- dquot-max
+- dquot-nr
+- file-max
+- file-nr
+- inode-max
+- inode-nr
+- inode-state
+- nr_open
+- overflowuid
+- overflowgid
+- pipe-user-pages-hard
+- pipe-user-pages-soft
+- protected_fifos
+- protected_hardlinks
+- protected_regular
+- protected_symlinks
+- suid_dumpable
+- super-max
+- super-nr
+
+
+aio-nr & aio-max-nr
+-------------------
+
+aio-nr is the running total of the number of events specified on the
+io_setup system call for all currently active aio contexts. If aio-nr
+reaches aio-max-nr then io_setup will fail with EAGAIN. Note that
+raising aio-max-nr does not result in the pre-allocation or re-sizing
+of any kernel data structures.
+
+
+dentry-state
+------------
+
+From linux/include/linux/dcache.h::
+
+ struct dentry_stat_t dentry_stat {
+ int nr_dentry;
+ int nr_unused;
+ int age_limit; /* age in seconds */
+ int want_pages; /* pages requested by system */
+ int nr_negative; /* # of unused negative dentries */
+ int dummy; /* Reserved for future use */
+ };
+
+Dentries are dynamically allocated and deallocated.
+
+nr_dentry shows the total number of dentries allocated (active
++ unused). nr_unused shows the number of dentries that are not
+actively used, but are saved in the LRU list for future reuse.
+
+Age_limit is the age in seconds after which dcache entries
+can be reclaimed when memory is short and want_pages is
+nonzero when shrink_dcache_pages() has been called and the
+dcache isn't pruned yet.
+
+nr_negative shows the number of unused dentries that are also
+negative dentries which do not map to any files. Instead,
+they help speeding up rejection of non-existing files provided
+by the users.
+
+
+dquot-max & dquot-nr
+--------------------
+
+The file dquot-max shows the maximum number of cached disk
+quota entries.
+
+The file dquot-nr shows the number of allocated disk quota
+entries and the number of free disk quota entries.
+
+If the number of free cached disk quotas is very low and
+you have some awesome number of simultaneous system users,
+you might want to raise the limit.
+
+
+file-max & file-nr
+------------------
+
+The value in file-max denotes the maximum number of file-
+handles that the Linux kernel will allocate. When you get lots
+of error messages about running out of file handles, you might
+want to increase this limit.
+
+Historically,the kernel was able to allocate file handles
+dynamically, but not to free them again. The three values in
+file-nr denote the number of allocated file handles, the number
+of allocated but unused file handles, and the maximum number of
+file handles. Linux 2.6 always reports 0 as the number of free
+file handles -- this is not an error, it just means that the
+number of allocated file handles exactly matches the number of
+used file handles.
+
+Attempts to allocate more file descriptors than file-max are
+reported with printk, look for "VFS: file-max limit <number>
+reached".
+
+
+nr_open
+-------
+
+This denotes the maximum number of file-handles a process can
+allocate. Default value is 1024*1024 (1048576) which should be
+enough for most machines. Actual limit depends on RLIMIT_NOFILE
+resource limit.
+
+
+inode-max, inode-nr & inode-state
+---------------------------------
+
+As with file handles, the kernel allocates the inode structures
+dynamically, but can't free them yet.
+
+The value in inode-max denotes the maximum number of inode
+handlers. This value should be 3-4 times larger than the value
+in file-max, since stdin, stdout and network sockets also
+need an inode struct to handle them. When you regularly run
+out of inodes, you need to increase this value.
+
+The file inode-nr contains the first two items from
+inode-state, so we'll skip to that file...
+
+Inode-state contains three actual numbers and four dummies.
+The actual numbers are, in order of appearance, nr_inodes,
+nr_free_inodes and preshrink.
+
+Nr_inodes stands for the number of inodes the system has
+allocated, this can be slightly more than inode-max because
+Linux allocates them one pageful at a time.
+
+Nr_free_inodes represents the number of free inodes (?) and
+preshrink is nonzero when the nr_inodes > inode-max and the
+system needs to prune the inode list instead of allocating
+more.
+
+
+overflowgid & overflowuid
+-------------------------
+
+Some filesystems only support 16-bit UIDs and GIDs, although in Linux
+UIDs and GIDs are 32 bits. When one of these filesystems is mounted
+with writes enabled, any UID or GID that would exceed 65535 is translated
+to a fixed value before being written to disk.
+
+These sysctls allow you to change the value of the fixed UID and GID.
+The default is 65534.
+
+
+pipe-user-pages-hard
+--------------------
+
+Maximum total number of pages a non-privileged user may allocate for pipes.
+Once this limit is reached, no new pipes may be allocated until usage goes
+below the limit again. When set to 0, no limit is applied, which is the default
+setting.
+
+
+pipe-user-pages-soft
+--------------------
+
+Maximum total number of pages a non-privileged user may allocate for pipes
+before the pipe size gets limited to a single page. Once this limit is reached,
+new pipes will be limited to a single page in size for this user in order to
+limit total memory usage, and trying to increase them using fcntl() will be
+denied until usage goes below the limit again. The default value allows to
+allocate up to 1024 pipes at their default size. When set to 0, no limit is
+applied.
+
+
+protected_fifos
+---------------
+
+The intent of this protection is to avoid unintentional writes to
+an attacker-controlled FIFO, where a program expected to create a regular
+file.
+
+When set to "0", writing to FIFOs is unrestricted.
+
+When set to "1" don't allow O_CREAT open on FIFOs that we don't own
+in world writable sticky directories, unless they are owned by the
+owner of the directory.
+
+When set to "2" it also applies to group writable sticky directories.
+
+This protection is based on the restrictions in Openwall.
+
+
+protected_hardlinks
+--------------------
+
+A long-standing class of security issues is the hardlink-based
+time-of-check-time-of-use race, most commonly seen in world-writable
+directories like /tmp. The common method of exploitation of this flaw
+is to cross privilege boundaries when following a given hardlink (i.e. a
+root process follows a hardlink created by another user). Additionally,
+on systems without separated partitions, this stops unauthorized users
+from "pinning" vulnerable setuid/setgid files against being upgraded by
+the administrator, or linking to special files.
+
+When set to "0", hardlink creation behavior is unrestricted.
+
+When set to "1" hardlinks cannot be created by users if they do not
+already own the source file, or do not have read/write access to it.
+
+This protection is based on the restrictions in Openwall and grsecurity.
+
+
+protected_regular
+-----------------
+
+This protection is similar to protected_fifos, but it
+avoids writes to an attacker-controlled regular file, where a program
+expected to create one.
+
+When set to "0", writing to regular files is unrestricted.
+
+When set to "1" don't allow O_CREAT open on regular files that we
+don't own in world writable sticky directories, unless they are
+owned by the owner of the directory.
+
+When set to "2" it also applies to group writable sticky directories.
+
+
+protected_symlinks
+------------------
+
+A long-standing class of security issues is the symlink-based
+time-of-check-time-of-use race, most commonly seen in world-writable
+directories like /tmp. The common method of exploitation of this flaw
+is to cross privilege boundaries when following a given symlink (i.e. a
+root process follows a symlink belonging to another user). For a likely
+incomplete list of hundreds of examples across the years, please see:
+https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvekey.cgi?keyword=/tmp
+
+When set to "0", symlink following behavior is unrestricted.
+
+When set to "1" symlinks are permitted to be followed only when outside
+a sticky world-writable directory, or when the uid of the symlink and
+follower match, or when the directory owner matches the symlink's owner.
+
+This protection is based on the restrictions in Openwall and grsecurity.
+
+
+suid_dumpable:
+--------------
+
+This value can be used to query and set the core dump mode for setuid
+or otherwise protected/tainted binaries. The modes are
+
+= ========== ===============================================================
+0 (default) traditional behaviour. Any process which has changed
+ privilege levels or is execute only will not be dumped.
+1 (debug) all processes dump core when possible. The core dump is
+ owned by the current user and no security is applied. This is
+ intended for system debugging situations only.
+ Ptrace is unchecked.
+ This is insecure as it allows regular users to examine the
+ memory contents of privileged processes.
+2 (suidsafe) any binary which normally would not be dumped is dumped
+ anyway, but only if the "core_pattern" kernel sysctl is set to
+ either a pipe handler or a fully qualified path. (For more
+ details on this limitation, see CVE-2006-2451.) This mode is
+ appropriate when administrators are attempting to debug
+ problems in a normal environment, and either have a core dump
+ pipe handler that knows to treat privileged core dumps with
+ care, or specific directory defined for catching core dumps.
+ If a core dump happens without a pipe handler or fully
+ qualified path, a message will be emitted to syslog warning
+ about the lack of a correct setting.
+= ========== ===============================================================
+
+
+super-max & super-nr
+--------------------
+
+These numbers control the maximum number of superblocks, and
+thus the maximum number of mounted filesystems the kernel
+can have. You only need to increase super-max if you need to
+mount more filesystems than the current value in super-max
+allows you to.
+
+
+aio-nr & aio-max-nr
+-------------------
+
+aio-nr shows the current system-wide number of asynchronous io
+requests. aio-max-nr allows you to change the maximum value
+aio-nr can grow to.
+
+
+mount-max
+---------
+
+This denotes the maximum number of mounts that may exist
+in a mount namespace.
+
+
+
+2. /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc
+===========================
+
+Documentation for the files in /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc is
+in Documentation/admin-guide/binfmt-misc.rst.
+
+
+3. /proc/sys/fs/mqueue - POSIX message queues filesystem
+========================================================
+
+
+The "mqueue" filesystem provides the necessary kernel features to enable the
+creation of a user space library that implements the POSIX message queues
+API (as noted by the MSG tag in the POSIX 1003.1-2001 version of the System
+Interfaces specification.)
+
+The "mqueue" filesystem contains values for determining/setting the amount of
+resources used by the file system.
+
+/proc/sys/fs/mqueue/queues_max is a read/write file for setting/getting the
+maximum number of message queues allowed on the system.
+
+/proc/sys/fs/mqueue/msg_max is a read/write file for setting/getting the
+maximum number of messages in a queue value. In fact it is the limiting value
+for another (user) limit which is set in mq_open invocation. This attribute of
+a queue must be less or equal then msg_max.
+
+/proc/sys/fs/mqueue/msgsize_max is a read/write file for setting/getting the
+maximum message size value (it is every message queue's attribute set during
+its creation).
+
+/proc/sys/fs/mqueue/msg_default is a read/write file for setting/getting the
+default number of messages in a queue value if attr parameter of mq_open(2) is
+NULL. If it exceed msg_max, the default value is initialized msg_max.
+
+/proc/sys/fs/mqueue/msgsize_default is a read/write file for setting/getting
+the default message size value if attr parameter of mq_open(2) is NULL. If it
+exceed msgsize_max, the default value is initialized msgsize_max.
+
+4. /proc/sys/fs/epoll - Configuration options for the epoll interface
+=====================================================================
+
+This directory contains configuration options for the epoll(7) interface.
+
+max_user_watches
+----------------
+
+Every epoll file descriptor can store a number of files to be monitored
+for event readiness. Each one of these monitored files constitutes a "watch".
+This configuration option sets the maximum number of "watches" that are
+allowed for each user.
+Each "watch" costs roughly 90 bytes on a 32bit kernel, and roughly 160 bytes
+on a 64bit one.
+The current default value for max_user_watches is the 1/25 (4%) of the
+available low memory, divided for the "watch" cost in bytes.