since when did "sysctl" not require "-w" to make a change?

[Robert P. J. Day]

  needing to make a change under /proc/sys and, following the
instructions on a web page, typed the following:

  $ sudo sysctl vm.mmap_min_addr=0

now, sure enough, it worked, but the man page for "sysctl" suggests
that, to simply change a value like this, you need the "-w" option:

$ man sysctl
...
variable=value
      To  set a key, use the form variable=value where variable is the
      key and value is the value to set it to.  If the value  contains
      quotes or characters which are parsed by the shell, you may need
      to enclose the value in double quotes.   This  requires  the  -w
      parameter to use.

  ignoring that last bit of tortured syntax, doesn't that read as that
you *must* use -w to effect a change?  that's what i'd always thought.

rday


-- 

========================================================================
Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA

            Linux Consulting, Training and Kernel Pedantry.

Web page:                                          http://crashcourse.ca
Twitter:                                       http://twitter.com/rpjday
========================================================================