How about something like a reference to a nice, thorough man page
describing all of these options and including some sane examples?

On 11/1/05, Alistair Crooks <agc@pkgsrc.org> wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 28, 2005 at 03:49:23PM -0400, Todd Vierling wrote:
> > On Fri, 28 Oct 2005, Geert Hendrickx wrote:
> >
> > > Is it possible at all to find a sane default for _all_ kinds of syste=
ms?
> > > Maybe we should, like Peter already proposed in the previous thread, =
define
> > > different sets of defaults, for different usage profiles and/or amoun=
ts of
> > > memory, among which the user can choose at install-time, and then sys=
inst
> > > would install an apropriate /etc/sysctl.conf.
> >
> > I have nothing against populating sysctl.conf with sysinst.  However, t=
he
> > defaults compiled into the kernel should work reasonably in between
> > tuned-for-workstation and tuned-for-server on the majority of hardware,=
 even
> > if sysctl.conf is completely missing.
>
> Just to be boring, how about a sysctl.conf which is populated with
> commented out entries, to make it easier for people to tune their
> machine post install. Machines have been known to change their uses,
> get populated with memory, or install on one disk on one machine for
> another.
>
> I'm thinking of something like:
>
> # taken from http://mail-index.netbsd.org/tech-kern/2005/03/06/0004.html
> # for database (and other) servers
> vm.anonmax=3D90
> vm.anonmin=3D80
> vm.execmax=3D30
> vm.execmin=3D5
> vm.filemax=3D20
> vm.filemin=3D5
>
> # taken from Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.63.0510281108230.974@server.duh.org>
> # "compromise settings"
> vm.anonmax=3D70
> vm.anonmin=3D10
> vm.execmax=3D40
> vm.execmin=3D20
> vm.filemax=3D40
> vm.filemin=3D10
>
> # embedded use...
>
> # etc...
>
> or another approach would be to have suggested tuning based on memory
> available.
>
> # RAM <=3D 32MB
> ...
>
> # RAM 32MB -> 256 MB
> ...
>
> # RAM 256 MB -> 1 GB
> ...
>
> # RAM > 1GB
> ...
>
> Looking to the future, we could start off with something like this,
> and then move to automatic sizing at startup, if RAM-based sizing
> proves useful. I still think a "usage" component is useful, though.
>
> Regards,
> Alistair
>