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Bug 1217077

Summary: sysctl: Better description of --system switch
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Reporter: Branislav Náter <bnater>
Component: procpsAssignee: Jan Rybar <jrybar>
Status: CLOSED ERRATA QA Contact: David Jež <djez>
Severity: low Docs Contact:
Priority: low    
Version: 6.7CC: albert
Target Milestone: betaKeywords: EasyFix, FastFix, ManPageChange
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: Unspecified   
OS: Unspecified   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: procps-3.2.8-41.el6 Doc Type: If docs needed, set a value
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of:
: 1456905 (view as bug list) Environment:
Last Closed: 2017-03-21 11:39:56 UTC Type: Bug
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description Branislav Náter 2015-04-29 13:55:33 UTC
Description of problem:
During testing of bz#1120580 I've found out, that if configuration files have the same name, only one (the one with higer priority?) file is processed.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
procps-3.2.8-33.el6

How reproducible:
always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. create configuration file with the same name in different system directory (/etc/sysctl.d/ and /run/sysctl.d/)

# cat /etc/sysctl.d/test.conf
vm.swappiness=60
# cat /run/sysctl.d/test.conf
vm.stat_interval=2

2. run sysctl --system

Actual results:
* Applying /run/sysctl.d/test.conf ...
vm.stat_interval = 2
#

Additional info:
If the configuration files have different names, both are applied (even if they have the same values):
* Applying /run/sysctl.d/test1.conf ...
vm.swappiness = 60
* Applying /etc/sysctl.d/test2.conf ...
vm.swappiness = 60

After the quick discussion with devel it seems to be expected behaviour. Then this should be explained in man pages. Current description in man pages is:

--system
              Load settings from all system configuration files.
              /run/sysctl.d/*.conf
              /etc/sysctl.d/*.conf
              /usr/local/lib/sysctl.d/*.conf
              /usr/lib/sysctl.d/*.conf
              /lib/sysctl.d/*.conf
              /etc/sysctl.conf

Comment 3 Jan Rybar 2016-07-19 13:44:33 UTC
This issue is fixed in new sysctl in procps-ng as the new version takes systemd into account and manpage is rewritten. Hence this issue is RHEL6 specific and will not be proposed to upstream. However it can be fixed as easyfix.

Comment 9 errata-xmlrpc 2017-03-21 11:39:56 UTC
Since the problem described in this bug report should be
resolved in a recent advisory, it has been closed with a
resolution of ERRATA.

For information on the advisory, and where to find the updated
files, follow the link below.

If the solution does not work for you, open a new bug report.

https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2017-0769.html