Linux General Question:

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Linux is a parameter driven system. Kernel parameters used
for
system configuration are found in /proc/sys/kernel, where
you
will find an individual file for each configuration
parameter.
Because these parameters have a direct effect on system
performance and viability, you must have root access in
order to
modify them.

Occasionally, a prerequisite to a package installation
requires
the modification of kernel parameters. Since each parameter
file contains a single line of data consisting of either a
text
string or numeric values, it is often easy to modify a
parameter
by simply using the echo command:

echo 2048 > /proc/sys/kernel/msgmax

The aforementioned command will set the value of the msgmax
parameter to 2048.

Linux also provides the sysctl command to modify kernel
parameters at runtime. Sysctl uses parameter information
stored
in a file called /etc/sysctl.conf. If, for example, we
wanted to
change the value of the msgmax parameter as we did above,
but
this time using sysctl, the command would look like this: