sysctl - read/write system parameters

#include <unistd.h>
#include <linux/sysctl.h>
[[deprecated]] int _sysctl(struct __sysctl_args *args);

This system call no longer exists on current kernels! See NOTES.

The _sysctl() call reads and/or writes kernel parameters. For example, the hostname, or the maximum number of open files. The argument has the form

struct __sysctl_args {
    int    *name;    /* integer vector describing variable */
    int     nlen;    /* length of this vector */
    void   *oldval;  /* 0 or address where to store old value */
    size_t *oldlenp; /* available room for old value,
                        overwritten by actual size of old value */
    void   *newval;  /* 0 or address of new value */
    size_t  newlen;  /* size of new value */
};

This call does a search in a tree structure, possibly resembling a directory tree under /proc/sys, and if the requested item is found calls some appropriate routine to read or modify the value.

Upon successful completion, _sysctl() returns 0. Otherwise, a value of -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.

#define _GNU_SOURCE
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <sys/syscall.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <linux/sysctl.h>
#define ARRAY_SIZE(arr)  (sizeof(arr) / sizeof((arr)[0]))
int _sysctl(struct __sysctl_args *args);
#define OSNAMESZ 100
int
main(void)
{
    int                   name[] = { CTL_KERN, KERN_OSTYPE };
    char                  osname[OSNAMESZ];
    size_t                osnamelth;
    struct __sysctl_args  args;
    memset(&args, 0, sizeof(args));
    args.name = name;
    args.nlen = ARRAY_SIZE(name);
    args.oldval = osname;
    args.oldlenp = &osnamelth;
    osnamelth = sizeof(osname);
    if (syscall(SYS__sysctl, &args) == -1) {
        perror("_sysctl");
        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }
    printf("This machine is running %*s\n", (int) osnamelth, osname);
    exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}

proc(5)