Tune your Linux kernel with sysctl

“Not many of today’s Linux users remember the days when you
could (and sometimes had to) compile your own kernel. If you had a
special device or special needs for the kernel there was no other
way to get it to work. Today most kernels work out of the box with
most hardware. But there are times when you could squeeze out a bit
more performance or even lighten your kernel on the fly. You can do
that with the sysctl command.

“This command allows you to turn on or off numerous kernel
parameters on the fly or you can edit a specific file to tune those
same parameters. Either way you can modify all of the parameters
listed in /proc/sys, so if you would like to see just how much you
can modify, take a look at each of the subdirectories under the
/proc/sys directory. For example, you can change the number of the
maximum file descriptors on your machine by tuning the
kern.maxfiles parameter.

“NOTE: You will definitely want to exercise caution when toying
with this command as it could, upon modifying any given parameter
in the wrong way, cause data loss or worse.”

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