Manual nsysctl

Posted on February 23, 2019

nsysctl is a tool to get or set the FreeBSD kernel state supporting LibXo and a lot of options, this is the manual, furthermore a tutorial is available.

This manual is for nsysctl <= 1.2.1, for the new version Manual nsysctl version 2.

NSYSCTL(8)              FreeBSD System Manager's Manual             NSYSCTL(8)

NAME
     nsysctl - get or set system state

SYNOPSIS
     nsysctl [--libxo options [-r tagroot]] [-DdFGgIilmNpqTtWy]
             [-V | -v [h [b | o | x]]] [-e sep] [-B bufsize] [-f filename]
             name[=value[,value]] ...
     nsysctl [--libxo options [-r tagroot]] [-DdFGgIlmNpqTtWy]
             [-V | -v [h [b | o | x]]] [-e sep] [-B bufsize] -A | -a | -X

DESCRIPTION
     The system maintains a "Management Information Base" ("MIB") where the
     objects are properties to tuning the system, the nsysctl utility can get
     or set the value of a property.

     The output is explicitly indicated by the options, see COMPATIBILITY for
     a comparison with sysctl(8).

     The following options are available:

     --libxo options
             Generate output via libxo(3) in a selection of different human
             and machine readable formats.  See xo_parse_args(3)

     -A      Equivalent to -a -V -o.

     -a      Display every object.

     -b      Print value in binary format.

     -B <bufsize>
             use a buffer of <bufsize> bytes.

     -D      Equivalent to -d -F -G -g -l -N -t -v -y.

     -d      Show description.

     -e <sep>
             Use <sep> as separator.

     -F      Display format string.

     -f <filename>
             Load objects to get or set from <filename>.

     -G      Show true-flags.

     -g      Print flags.

     -h      Try to show values in a human-friendly format.

     -I      Show internal nodes, only leaves are printed by default.

     -i      Ignore unknown objects.

     -l      Display aggregation label.

     -m      Display internal magical objects.

     -N      Print name.

     -o      Show value in hex format until 16 bytes.

     -p      Display [property-name]: property-value.

     -q      Avoid to show some warning.

     -r <tagroot>
             Specify a <tagroot> with libxo.

     -T      Show only objects that are settable via loader.

     -t      Print type.

     -V      Show value, if value is not "showable" hidden the object.

     -v      Display value.

     -W      Display only writable objects that are not statistical.

     -X      Equivalent to -a -V -x.

     -x      Print value in hex format.

     -y      Show ID.

EXIT STATUS
     The nsysctl utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

EXAMPLES
     To get the hostname:

           nsysctl -Nv kern.hostname

     To set the hostname:

           nsysctl kern.hostname=myBSD

     Dump all info about an object:

           nsysctl -Dp -e ', '  kern.ostype

     Dump all info about an object in xml format:

           nsysctl --libxo=xml,pretty -r 'ROOT-NAME' -D kern.ostype

COMPATIBILITY
           /sbin/sysctl             /usr/local/sbin/nsysctl
           % sysctl    name=value   % nsysctl -Nv name=value
           % sysctl    name         % nsysctl -Nv name
           % sysctl -d name         % nsysctl -Nd name
           % sysctl -e name         % nsysctl -Nv -e `=' name
           % sysctl -N name         % nsysctl -N name
           % sysctl -n name         % nsysctl -v name
           % sysctl -t name         % nsysctl -Nt name
           % sysctl -a              % nsysctl -aNV
           % sysctl -aN             % nsysctl -aN
           % sysctl -an             % nsysctl -aV
           % sysctl -ad             % nsysctl -aNd
           % sysctl -at             % nsysctl -aNt
           % sysctl -ao             % nsysctl -aNVo
           % sysctl -ax             % nsysctl -aNVx
           % sysctl -A              % nsysctl -AN
           % sysctl -X              % nsysctl -XN

SEE ALSO
     sysctl(3), sysctlmibinfo(3), xo_parse_args(3), sysctlinfo(4), sysctl(8)

HISTORY
     The nsysctl utility first appeared in FreeBSD 13.0.

AUTHORS
     The nsysctl utility was written by Alfonso Sabato Siciliano
     <alf.siciliano@gmail.com>

FreeBSD 13.0-CURRENT          September 14, 2019          FreeBSD 13.0-CURRENT