Chapter 4. Tuning the operating system 107
Draft Document for Review May 4, 2007 11:35 am 4285ch04.fm
Figure 4-6 The powertweak utility
The big advantage of powertweak via sysctl for instance is the fact that all tuning parameters
are presented with a short explanation. Note that all changes made with the help of
powertweak will be stored under /etc/powertweak/tweaks.
4.3.1 Where the parameters are stored
The kernel parameters that control how the kernel behaves are stored in /proc (in particular,
/proc/sys).
Reading the files in the /proc directory tree provides a simple way to view configuration
parameters that are related to the kernel, processes, memory, network, and other
components. Each process running in the system has a directory in /proc with the process ID
(PID) as its name. Figure4-3 lists some of the files that contain kernel information.
Table 4-3 Parameter files in /proc
File/directory Purpose
/proc/sys/abi/* Used to provide support for “foreign” binaries, not native to Linux — those
compiled under other UNIX variants such as SCO UnixWare 7, SCO
OpenServer, and SUN Solaris™ 2. By default, this support is installed,
although it can be removed during installation.