- <title>Configuration Format</title>
-
- <para>The configuration files should simply contain a
- list of variable assignments, separated by
- newlines. Empty lines and lines whose first
- non-whitespace character is # or ; are ignored.</para>
-
- <para>Note that both / and . are accepted as
- separators in sysctl variable names.</para>
-
- <para>Files in <filename>/etc/</filename> overwrite
- files with the same name in <filename>/usr/lib/</filename>.
- Files in <filename>/run</filename> overwrite files with
- the same name in <filename>/etc/</filename> and
- <filename>/usr/lib/</filename>. Packages should install their
- configuration files in <filename>/usr/lib/</filename>, files
- in <filename>/etc/</filename> are reserved for the local
- administration, which possibly decides to overwrite the
- configurations installed from packages. All files are sorted
- by filename in alphabetical order, regardless in which of the
- directories they reside, to ensure that a specific
- configuration file takes precedence over another file with
- an alphabetically later name.</para>
+ <title>Configuration Format</title>
+
+ <para>The configuration files contain a list of
+ variable assignments, separated by newlines. Empty
+ lines and lines whose first non-whitespace character
+ is <literal>#</literal> or <literal>;</literal> are
+ ignored.</para>
+
+ <para>Each configuration file shall be named in the
+ style of <filename><replaceable>program</replaceable>.conf</filename>.
+ Files in <filename>/etc/</filename> override files
+ with the same name in <filename>/usr/lib/</filename>
+ and <filename>/run/</filename>. Files in
+ <filename>/run/</filename> override files with the same
+ name in <filename>/usr/lib/</filename>. Packages
+ should install their configuration files in
+ <filename>/usr/lib/</filename>. Files in
+ <filename>/etc/</filename> are reserved for the local
+ administrator, who may use this logic to override the
+ configuration files installed by vendor packages. All
+ configuration files are sorted by their filename in
+ lexicographic order, regardless of which of the
+ directories they reside in. If multiple files specify the
+ same variable name, the entry in the file with the
+ lexicographically latest name will be applied. It is
+ recommended to prefix all filenames with a two-digit
+ number and a dash, to simplify the ordering of the
+ files.</para>
+
+ <para>Note that either <literal>/</literal> or
+ <literal>.</literal> may be used as separators within
+ sysctl variable names. If the first separator is a
+ slash, remaining slashes and dots are left intact. If
+ the first separator is a dot, dots and slashes are
+ interchanged. <literal>kernel.domainname=foo</literal>
+ and <literal>kernel/domainname=foo</literal> are
+ equivalent and will cause <literal>foo</literal> to
+ be written to
+ <filename>/proc/sys/kernel/domainname</filename>.
+ Either
+ <literal>net.ipv4.conf.enp3s0/200.forwarding</literal>
+ or
+ <literal>net/ipv4/conf/enp3s0.200/forwarding</literal>
+ may be used to refer to
+ <filename>/proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/enp3s0.200/forwarding</filename>.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>If the administrator wants to disable a
+ configuration file supplied by the vendor, the
+ recommended way is to place a symlink to
+ <filename>/dev/null</filename> in
+ <filename>/etc/sysctl.d/</filename> bearing the
+ same filename.</para>
+
+ <para>The settings configured with
+ <filename>sysctl.d</filename> files will be applied
+ early on boot. The network interface-specific options
+ will also be applied individually for each network
+ interface as it shows up in the system. (More
+ specifically,
+ <filename>net.ipv4.conf.*</filename>,
+ <filename>net.ipv6.conf.*</filename>,
+ <filename>net.ipv4.neigh.*</filename> and <filename>net.ipv6.neigh.*</filename>).</para>
+
+ <para>Many sysctl parameters only become available
+ when certain kernel modules are loaded. Modules are
+ usually loaded on demand, e.g. when certain hardware
+ is plugged in or network brought up. This means that
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-sysctl.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry> which runs
+ during early boot will not configure such parameters
+ if they become available after it has run. To
+ set such parameters, it is recommended to add
+ an <citerefentry><refentrytitle>udev</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry> rule to set those parameters when they become
+ available. Alternatively, a slightly simpler and
+ less efficient option is to add the module to
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>modules-load.d</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>, causing it to be loaded statically
+ before sysctl settings are applied (see
+ example below).</para>