xref: /openbsd-src/share/man/man4/options.4 (revision 4e1ee0786f11cc571bd0be17d38e46f635c719fc)
1.\"	$OpenBSD: options.4,v 1.267 2019/11/05 07:53:58 jmc Exp $
2.\"	$NetBSD: options.4,v 1.21 1997/06/25 03:13:00 thorpej Exp $
3.\"
4.\" Copyright (c) 1998 Theo de Raadt
5.\" Copyright (c) 1998 Todd Miller
6.\" Copyright (c) 1998 Gene Skonicki
7.\" Copyright (c) 1996
8.\" 	Perry E. Metzger.  All rights reserved.
9.\"
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11.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
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20.\"	This product includes software developed for the NetBSD Project
21.\"	by Perry E. Metzger.
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37.Dd $Mdocdate: November 5 2019 $
38.Dt OPTIONS 4
39.Os
40.Sh NAME
41.Nm options
42.Nd kernel configuration options
43.Sh SYNOPSIS
44.Cd option ...
45.Sh DESCRIPTION
46This manual page describes a number of miscellaneous kernel
47configuration options that may be specified in a kernel config file.
48See
49.Xr config 8
50for information on how to configure and build kernels.
51.Em Note :
52options are passed to the compile process as
53.Fl D
54flags to the C compiler.
55.Sh DEBUGGING OPTIONS
56.Bl -ohang
57.It Cd makeoptions DEBUG=""
58Do not build the debug kernel
59.Pa bsd.gdb .
60Normally,
61.Pa bsd.gdb
62is built
63(in addition to the regular
64.Pa bsd
65kernel)
66and is used for debugging kernels and their crash dumps with
67.Xr gdb 1 .
68A crash dump can be debugged by starting gdb with
69.Pa bsd.gdb
70as an argument (no core file) and then using the gdb command
71.Dq target kvm COREFILE .
72.It Cd makeoptions PROF="-pg"
73The
74.Fl pg
75flag causes the kernel to be compiled with support for profiling.
76The
77.Cm option GPROF
78is required for the kernel compile to succeed.
79.It Cd option ACCOUNTING
80Adds support for the
81.Xr acct 2
82system call.
83.It Cd option DDB
84Compiles in a kernel debugger for diagnosing kernel problems.
85See
86.Xr ddb 4 .
87.It Cd option DDB_SAFE_CONSOLE
88Allows a break into the kernel debugger during boot.
89Useful when debugging problems that can cause
90.Xr init 8
91to fail.
92.It Cd option DEBUG
93Turns on miscellaneous kernel debugging.
94Since options are turned into preprocessor defines (see above),
95.Cm option DEBUG
96is equivalent to doing a
97.Em #define DEBUG
98throughout the kernel.
99Much of the kernel has
100.Em #ifdef DEBUG
101conditional debugging code.
102Note that many parts of the kernel (typically device drivers) include their own
103.Em #ifdef XXX_DEBUG
104conditionals instead.
105.It Cd option DIAGNOSTIC
106Adds code to the kernel that does internal consistency checks.
107This code will cause the kernel to panic if corruption of internal data
108structures is detected.
109.It Cd option GPROF
110Adds code to the kernel for kernel profiling with
111.Xr kgmon 8 .
112.It Cd option KTRACE
113Adds hooks for the system call tracing facility, which allows users to
114watch the system call invocation behavior of processes.
115See
116.Xr ktrace 1 .
117.It Cd option KUBSAN
118Detect undefined behavior in the kernel.
119See
120.Xr kubsan 4 .
121.It Cd option NO_PROPOLICE
122Do not compile the kernel with the ProPolice stack protection.
123See
124.Xr gcc-local 1
125for more information about ProPolice.
126.It Cd option PTRACE
127Adds hooks for the process tracing facility, allowing a process to
128control and observe another process.
129See
130.Xr ptrace 2 .
131.It Cd option SMALL_KERNEL
132Removes some features and some optimizations from the kernel to reduce the
133size of the resulting kernel binary.
134This option is used on some installation media and should not be used
135for general purpose kernels.
136.It Cd option VFSLCKDEBUG
137Turns on debugging for the Virtual File System interface.
138See
139.Xr vfs 9 .
140.It Cd option WITNESS
141Compiles in a lock checker for detecting lock order violations in the kernel.
142See
143.Xr witness 4 .
144.It Cd option WITNESS_COUNT= Ns Ar integer
145Maximum number of lock types that are tracked by
146.Xr witness 4 .
147It defaults to 1536.
148.It Cd option WITNESS_LOCKTRACE
149Enable
150.Xr witness 4
151lock stack trace saving at boot.
152The feature is disabled by default and has to be enabled by setting the
153.Va kern.witness.locktrace
154.Xr sysctl 8
155variable.
156.It Cd option WITNESS_WATCH
157Enable
158.Xr witness 4
159at boot.
160By default, the subsystem is disabled and has to be enabled at runtime
161by raising the
162.Va kern.witness.watch
163.Xr sysctl 8
164variable.
165.El
166.Sh FILE SYSTEMS
167.Bl -ohang
168.It Cd option CD9660
169Includes code for the ISO 9660 + Rock Ridge file system, which is the
170standard file system used on many CD-ROMs.
171It also supports Joliet extensions.
172See
173.Xr mount_cd9660 8 .
174.It Cd option EXT2FS
175Includes code implementing the Second Extended File System
176.Em ( EXT2FS ) ,
177commonly used on the Linux operating system.
178This option is provided here for compatibility.
179Some specific features of
180.Em EXT2FS
181like the "behavior on errors" are not implemented.
182This file system
183can't be used with
184.Li uid_t
185or
186.Li gid_t
187values greater than 65535.
188Also, the filesystem will not function correctly on architectures with
189differing byte-orders.
190That is, a big-endian machine will not be able to read an
191ext2fs filesystem created on an i386 or other little-endian machine.
192See
193.Xr mount_ext2fs 8 .
194.It Cd option FFS
195Includes code implementing the Berkeley Fast File System
196.Em ( FFS ) .
197Most machines need this if they are not running diskless.
198.It Cd option FFS2
199Includes code implementing the enhanced Fast File System
200.Em ( FFS2 ) .
201.It Cd option MFS
202Include the memory file system
203.Em ( MFS ) .
204This file system stores files in swappable memory, and produces
205notable performance improvements when it is used as the file store
206for
207.Pa /tmp
208or similar mount points.
209See
210.Xr mount_mfs 8 .
211.It Cd option MSDOSFS
212Includes support for the MS-DOS FAT file system.
213The kernel also implements the Windows 95
214extensions which permit the use of longer, mixed-case file names.
215See
216.Xr mount_msdos 8
217and
218.Xr fsck_msdos 8 .
219.It Cd option NFSCLIENT
220Include the client side of the
221.Em NFS
222(Network File System) remote file sharing protocol.
223Although the bulk of the code implementing
224.Em NFS
225is kernel based, several user level daemons are needed for it to work.
226See
227.Xr mount_nfs 8
228for details on NFS.
229.It Cd option NTFS
230Includes support for reading NTFS file systems.
231See
232.Xr mount_ntfs 8 .
233.It Cd option UDF
234Includes code for the UDF file systems typically found on DVD discs.
235See
236.Xr mount_udf 8 .
237.It Cd option TMPFS
238Includes code for the TMPFS efficient memory file system.
239See
240.Xr mount_tmpfs 8 .
241.El
242.Sh FILE SYSTEM OPTIONS
243.Bl -ohang
244.It Cd option BUFCACHEPERCENT= Ns Ar integer
245The maximum percentage of DMA-reachable physical memory the buffer cache may use.
246.It Cd option EXT2FS_SYSTEM_FLAGS
247This option changes the behavior of the APPEND and IMMUTABLE flags
248for a file on an
249.Em EXT2FS
250filesystem.
251Without this option, the superuser or owner of the file can set and clear them.
252With this option, only the superuser can set them, and they can't be cleared
253if the securelevel is greater than 0.
254See also
255.Xr chflags 1 .
256.It Cd option FFS_SOFTUPDATES
257Enables a scheme that uses partial ordering of buffer cache operations
258to allow metadata updates in FFS to happen asynchronously, increasing write
259performance significantly.
260Normally, the FFS filesystem writes metadata updates synchronously which exacts
261a performance penalty in favor of filesystem integrity.
262With soft updates, the performance of asynchronous writes is gained while
263retaining the safety of synchronous metadata updates.
264.Pp
265Soft updates must be enabled on a per-filesystem basis.
266See
267.Xr mount 8 .
268.It Cd option FIFO
269Adds support for
270.At V
271style FIFOs (i.e.,
272.Dq named pipes ) .
273This option is recommended in almost all cases as many programs use these.
274.It Cd option NFSSERVER
275Include the server side of the
276.Em NFS
277(Network File System) remote file sharing protocol.
278Although the bulk of the code implementing
279.Em NFS
280is kernel based, several user level daemons are needed for it to
281work.
282See
283.Xr mountd 8
284and
285.Xr nfsd 8 .
286.It Cd option QUOTA
287Enables kernel support for file system quotas.
288See
289.Xr quotaon 8 ,
290.Xr edquota 8 ,
291.Xr repquota 8 ,
292and
293.Xr quota 1 .
294Note that quotas only work on
295.Dq ffs
296file systems, although
297.Xr rpc.rquotad 8
298permits them to be accessed over
299.Em NFS .
300.It Cd option UFS_DIRHASH
301This option enables using an in memory hash table to speed lookups
302in large directories.
303.El
304.Sh MISCELLANEOUS OPTIONS
305.Bl -ohang
306.It Cd option APERTURE
307Provide in-kernel support for controlling VGA framebuffer mapping
308and PCI configuration registers by user-processes
309(such as an X Window System server).
310See
311.Xr xf86 4 .
312This option is supported on the
313.Va alpha ,
314.Va amd64 ,
315.Va i386 ,
316.Va macppc ,
317and
318.Va sparc64
319architectures.
320.It Cd option BOOT_CONFIG
321Adds support for the
322.Fl c
323boot option (User Kernel Config).
324Allows modification of kernel settings (e.g., device parameters) before
325booting the system.
326See
327.Xr boot_config 8 .
328.It Cd option CRYPTO
329Enables support for the kernel cryptographic framework.
330See
331.Xr crypto 9 .
332While not IP specific, this option is usually used in conjunction with option
333.Em IPSEC .
334.It Cd option EISAVERBOSE
335Makes the boot process more verbose for EISA peripherals.
336See
337.Xr eisa 4 .
338.It Cd option KMEMSTATS
339The kernel memory allocator,
340.Xr malloc 9 ,
341will keep statistics on its performance if this option is enabled.
342.It Cd option MULTIPROCESSOR
343On those architectures that have it, this enables multiprocessor support.
344.It Cd option PCIVERBOSE
345Makes the boot process more verbose for PCI peripherals
346(vendor names and other information is printed, etc.).
347See
348.Xr pci 4 .
349.It Cd option PCMCIAVERBOSE
350Makes the boot process more verbose for PCMCIA peripherals.
351See
352.Xr pcmcia 4 .
353.It Cd option USER_PCICONF
354Enables the user level access to the PCI bus configuration space
355through ioctls on the
356.Pa /dev/pci
357device.
358It's used by
359.Xr Xorg 1
360and
361.Xr pcidump 8 .
362See
363.Xr pci 4 .
364.It Cd option UVM_SWAP_ENCRYPT
365Enables kernel support for encrypting pages that are written out to
366swap storage.
367Swap encryption prevents sensitive data from remaining
368on the disk even after the operating system has been shut down.
369This option should be turned on if cryptographic filesystems are used.
370The sysctl variable
371.Em vm.swapencrypt.enable
372controls its behaviour.
373See
374.Xr sysctl 8
375and
376.Xr sysctl 2 .
377.El
378.Sh NETWORKING OPTIONS
379.Bl -ohang
380.It Cd option ENCDEBUG
381This option permits the conditional logging of IPsec debugging information,
382and requires the
383.Em IPSEC
384option.
385Debug logging can be turned on/off through the use of the
386.Em net.inet.ip.encdebug
387sysctl variable.
388If
389.Em net.inet.ip.encdebug
390is 1, debug logging is on.
391See
392.Xr sysctl 8
393and
394.Xr sysctl 2 .
395.It Cd option INET6
396Includes support for the IPv6 protocol stack.
397See
398.Xr inet6 4 .
399.Em INET6
400enables multicast routing code as well.
401.It Cd option IPSEC
402This option enables IP security protocol support.
403See
404.Xr ipsec 4
405for more details.
406.It Cd option MROUTING
407Includes support for IP multicast routers.
408Multicast routing is controlled by the
409.Xr mrouted 8
410daemon.
411.It Cd option ND6_DEBUG
412The option sets the default value of
413.Em net.inet6.icmp6.nd6_debug
414to 1,
415for debugging IPv6 neighbor discovery protocol handling.
416See
417.Xr sysctl 2 .
418.It Cd option PIPEX
419Includes pipex in-kernel acceleration for PPPoE, L2TP or PPTP.
420See
421.Xr pipex 4 .
422.It Cd option PPP_BSDCOMP
423Enables BSD compressor for PPP connections.
424.It Cd option PPP_DEFLATE
425For use in conjunction with PPP_BSDCOMP; provides an interface to zlib for PPP
426for deflate compression/decompression.
427.It Cd option PPPOE_TERM_UNKNOWN_SESSIONS
428Send PADT to terminate open sessions before connecting.
429See
430.Xr pppoe 4 .
431.It Cd option SOCKET_SPLICE
432Enables zero-copy socket splicing in the kernel.
433See
434.Dv SO_SPLICE
435in
436.Xr setsockopt 2
437and
438.Xr sosplice 9 .
439.It Cd option TCP_ECN
440Turns on Explicit Congestion Notification (RFC 3168).
441.Em ECN
442allows intermediate routers to use the Congestion Experienced
443codepoint in the IP header as an indication of congestion, and allows
444TCP to adjust the transmission rate using this signal.
445Both communication endpoints negotiate enabling
446.Em ECN
447functionality at the TCP connection establishment.
448.It Cd option TCP_SIGNATURE
449Turns on support for the TCP MD5 Signature option (RFC 2385).
450This is used by
451Internet backbone routers to provide per-packet authentication for the TCP
452packets used to communicate BGP routing information.
453You will also need a
454routing daemon that supports this option in order to actually use it.
455.El
456.Sh OPERATION RELATED OPTIONS
457.Bl -ohang -compact
458.It Cd option BUFPAGES= Ns Ar value
459This option sets the number of pages available for the buffer cache.
460The default value is machine dependent, often calculated as
461between 5% and 10% of total available RAM.
462.Pp
463.It Cd option NKMEMPAGES= Ns Ar value
464.It Cd option NKMEMPAGES_MAX= Ns Ar value
465Size of kernel malloc area in PAGE_SIZE-sized logical pages.
466This area is covered by the kernel submap
467.Em kmem_map .
468The kernel attempts to auto-size this map based on the amount of
469physical memory in the system.
470Platform-specific code may place bounds on this computed size,
471which may be viewed with the
472.Xr sysctl 8
473variable
474.Em vm.nkmempages .
475See
476.Pa /usr/include/machine/param.h
477for the default upper bound.
478The related option
479.Sq NKMEMPAGES_MAX
480allows the bounds to be overridden in the kernel configuration file
481in the event the computed value is insufficient resulting in an
482.Dq out of space in kmem_map
483panic.
484.El
485.Sh SCSI SUBSYSTEM OPTIONS
486See
487.Xr scsi 4 .
488.Bl -ohang
489.It Cd option SCSI_DELAY= Ns Ar value
490Delay for
491.Ar value
492seconds before starting to probe the first SCSI bus.
493This can be used if a SCSI device needs extra time to get ready.
494.It Cd option SCSIDEBUG
495Enable printing of SCSI subsystem debugging info to the console.
496Each of
497.Em SCSIDEBUG_LEVEL ,
498.Em SCSIDEBUG_BUSES ,
499.Em SCSIDEBUG_TARGETS
500and
501.Em SCSIDEBUG_LUNS
502must have non-zero values for any debugging info to be printed.
503Only
504.Em SCSIDEBUG_LEVEL
505has a default value (SDEV_DB1 | SDEV_DB2) that is non-zero.
506.It Cd option SCSIDEBUG_BUSES= Ns Ar value
507Define which SCSI buses will print debug info.
508Each bit enables debugging info for the corresponding bus.
509e.g. a value of 0x1 enables debug info for bus 0.
510.It Cd option SCSIDEBUG_LEVEL= Ns Ar value
511Define which of the four levels of debugging info are printed.
512Each bit enables a level, and multiple levels are specified by setting multiple
513bits.
514.Bd -literal -offset indent
5150x0010	(SDEV_DB1) SCSI commands, errors, and data
5160x0020	(SDEV_DB2) routine flow
5170x0040	(SDEV_DB3) routine internals
5180x0080	(SDEV_DB4) miscellaneous addition debugging
519.Ed
520.Pp
521If
522.Em SCSIDEBUG_LEVEL
523is undefined, a value of 0x0030 (SDEV_DB1|SDEV_DB2) is used.
524.It Cd option SCSIDEBUG_LUNS= Ns Ar value
525Define which SCSI luns will print debug info.
526Each bit enables debugging info for the corresponding lun.
527.It Cd option SCSIDEBUG_TARGETS= Ns Ar value
528Define which SCSI targets will print debug info.
529Each bit enables debugging info for the corresponding target.
530.It Cd option SCSITERSE
531Terser SCSI error messages.
532This omits the table for decoding ASC/ASCQ info, saving about 30KB.
533.El
534.Sh SYSTEM V IPC OPTIONS
535.Bl -ohang
536.It Cd option SEMMNI= Ns Ar value
537Number of semaphore identifiers (also called semaphore handles
538and semaphore sets) available in the system.
539Default value is 10.
540The kernel allocates memory for the control structures at startup,
541so arbitrarily large values should be avoided.
542.It Cd option SEMMNS= Ns Ar value
543Maximum number of semaphores in all sets in the system.
544Default value is 60.
545.It Cd option SEMMNU= Ns Ar value
546Maximum number of semaphore undo structures in the system.
547Default value is 30.
548.It Cd option SEMUME= Ns Ar value
549Maximum number of per-process undo operation entries in the
550system.
551Semaphore undo operations are invoked by the kernel when
552.Xr semop 2
553is called with the SEM_UNDO flag and the process holding
554the semaphores terminates unexpectedly.
555Default value is 10.
556.It Cd option SHMMAXPGS= Ns Ar value
557Sets the maximum number of
558.At V
559style shared memory pages that are available through the
560.Xr shmget 2
561system call.
562Default value is 1024 on most architectures.
563See
564.Pa /usr/include/machine/vmparam.h
565for the default.
566.It Cd option SYSVMSG
567Includes support for
568.At V
569style message queues.
570See
571.Xr msgctl 2 ,
572.Xr msgget 2 ,
573.Xr msgrcv 2 ,
574.Xr msgsnd 2 .
575.It Cd option SYSVSEM
576Includes support for
577.At V
578style semaphores.
579See
580.Xr semctl 2 ,
581.Xr semget 2 ,
582.Xr semop 2 .
583.It Cd option SYSVSHM
584Includes support for
585.At V
586style shared memory.
587See
588.Xr shmat 2 ,
589.Xr shmctl 2 ,
590.Xr shmdt 2 ,
591.Xr shmget 2 .
592.El
593.Sh SEE ALSO
594.Xr intro 4 ,
595.Xr files.conf 5 ,
596.Xr config 8 ,
597.Xr sysctl 8
598.Sh HISTORY
599The
600.Nm
601man page first appeared in
602.Ox 2.3 .
603