Finding documentation for the /proc/sys/vm using a shell - Chap 13 - Memory Monitoring and Usage

punko_brewster

Can someone please help me understand where to find this information using the shell? Thanks!

From Chap 13 - Memory Monitoring and Usage - /proc/sys/vm: "You can find the full documentation for the /proc/sys/vm directory in the kernel source (or kernel documentation package on your distribution), usually under Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt."

info on my system:
me@me:/etc
$ cat mx-version
MX-19.2_KDE_x64 patito feo August 16, 2020
me@me::/etc
$ uname -r
5.6.0-2-amd64

Thank you, in advance!

coop

I don't recognize your distribution so I can't give you specifics as to the packaged documentation (The names smells like Mint Linux which I no longer bother to keep up with as I advise people to stick with Ubuntu or Debian for various reasons I won't mention) -- there is always a "kernel-docs" or some such package. Or if you have the kernel sources, you can easily look in the "Documentation" directory.

Even easier: kernel.org/doc/Documentation

punko_brewster

Got it. Thank you!

aimcorp

hi coop. I was having the same issue as punko here, on Ubuntu 20.04, while following the course material. Several areas of the course referred to the kernel doccos, but by all means, I could not find the stuff on any of my systems, be them vms, or physical.

Below, are two different systems, running two different kernels.

broken is a fresh install, deployed roughly a month ago, while squids has been my ubuntu desktop for about 3 years.

None have the documentation installed and present, however after installing linux-doc on both, I can find the documentation in /usr/share/doc/linux-doc.
This appears to be an optional package, on ubuntu, at least, yet I was never able to find the documentation present on fresh installations of fedora 33, openSuse Leap, Centos7 or Centos8.

I recommend not addressing this, as it allows candidates to search for a solution on their own and check the man pages, as I did.

andrei@broken:~$ uname -r
5.8.0-45-generic
andrei@broken:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS
Release: 20.04
Codename: focal
andrei@broken:~$ ls /usr/src/linux*/Documentation
/usr/src/linux-headers-5.4.0-42/Documentation:
admin-guide devicetree features Kconfig media scsi sphinx
arm64 EDID kbuild Makefile s390 sound trace

/usr/src/linux-headers-5.4.0-42-generic/Documentation:
admin-guide devicetree features Kconfig media scsi sphinx
arm64 EDID kbuild Makefile s390 sound trace

/usr/src/linux-headers-5.8.0-44-generic/Documentation:
admin-guide devicetree kbuild Makefile sound trace
arm64 features Kconfig s390 sphinx userspace-api

/usr/src/linux-headers-5.8.0-45-generic/Documentation:
admin-guide devicetree kbuild Makefile sound trace
arm64 features Kconfig s390 sphinx userspace-api

/usr/src/linux-hwe-5.8-headers-5.8.0-44/Documentation:
admin-guide devicetree kbuild Makefile sound trace
arm64 features Kconfig s390 sphinx userspace-api

/usr/src/linux-hwe-5.8-headers-5.8.0-45/Documentation:
admin-guide devicetree kbuild Makefile sound trace
arm64 features Kconfig s390 sphinx userspace-api
andrei@broken:~$

andrei@squids:~$ uname -r
5.4.0-54-generic
andrei@squids:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS
Release: 20.04
Codename: focal
andrei@squids:~$ ls /usr/src/linux*/Documentation
/usr/src/linux-headers-5.4.0-1033-kvm/Documentation:
admin-guide devicetree features Kconfig media scsi sphinx
arm64 EDID kbuild Makefile s390 sound trace

/usr/src/linux-headers-5.4.0-1034-kvm/Documentation:
admin-guide devicetree features Kconfig media scsi sphinx
arm64 EDID kbuild Makefile s390 sound trace

/usr/src/linux-headers-5.4.0-54/Documentation:
admin-guide devicetree features Kconfig media scsi sphinx
arm64 EDID kbuild Makefile s390 sound trace

/usr/src/linux-headers-5.4.0-54-generic/Documentation:
admin-guide devicetree features Kconfig media scsi sphinx
arm64 EDID kbuild Makefile s390 sound trace

/usr/src/linux-headers-5.4.0-67/Documentation:
admin-guide devicetree features Kconfig media scsi sphinx
arm64 EDID kbuild Makefile s390 sound trace

/usr/src/linux-headers-5.4.0-67-generic/Documentation:
admin-guide devicetree features Kconfig media scsi sphinx
arm64 EDID kbuild Makefile s390 sound trace

/usr/src/linux-kvm-headers-5.4.0-1033/Documentation:
admin-guide devicetree features Kconfig media scsi sphinx
arm64 EDID kbuild Makefile s390 sound trace

/usr/src/linux-kvm-headers-5.4.0-1034/Documentation:
admin-guide devicetree features Kconfig media scsi sphinx
arm64 EDID kbuild Makefile s390 sound trace
andrei@squids:~$

I hope this helps.

coop

these days i have been pointing to the online kernel.org documentation as it is formatted better.
https://kernel.org/doc/html/latest/