1 .. _kernelparameters:
2
3 The kernel's command-line parameters
4 ====================================
5
6 The following is a consolidated list of the kernel parameters as implemented
7 by the __setup(), early_param(), core_param() and module_param() macros
8 and sorted into English Dictionary order (defined as ignoring all
9 punctuation and sorting digits before letters in a case insensitive
10 manner), and with descriptions where known.
11
12 The kernel parses parameters from the kernel command line up to "``--``";
13 if it doesn't recognize a parameter and it doesn't contain a '.', the
14 parameter gets passed to init: parameters with '=' go into init's
15 environment, others are passed as command line arguments to init.
16 Everything after "``--``" is passed as an argument to init.
17
18 Module parameters can be specified in two ways: via the kernel command
19 line with a module name prefix, or via modprobe, e.g.::
20
21 (kernel command line) usbcore.blinkenlights=1
22 (modprobe command line) modprobe usbcore blinkenlights=1
23
24 Parameters for modules which are built into the kernel need to be
25 specified on the kernel command line. modprobe looks through the
26 kernel command line (/proc/cmdline) and collects module parameters
27 when it loads a module, so the kernel command line can be used for
28 loadable modules too.
29
30 Hyphens (dashes) and underscores are equivalent in parameter names, so::
31
32 log_buf_len=1M print-fatal-signals=1
33
34 can also be entered as::
35
36 log-buf-len=1M print_fatal_signals=1
37
38 Double-quotes can be used to protect spaces in values, e.g.::
39
40 param="spaces in here"
41
42 cpu lists:
43 ----------
44
45 Some kernel parameters take a list of CPUs as a value, e.g. isolcpus,
46 nohz_full, irqaffinity, rcu_nocbs. The format of this list is:
47
48 <cpu number>,...,<cpu number>
49
50 or
51
52 <cpu number>-<cpu number>
53 (must be a positive range in ascending order)
54
55 or a mixture
56
57 <cpu number>,...,<cpu number>-<cpu number>
58
59 Note that for the special case of a range one can split the range into equal
60 sized groups and for each group use some amount from the beginning of that
61 group:
62
63 <cpu number>-<cpu number>:<used size>/<group size>
64
65 For example one can add to the command line following parameter:
66
67 isolcpus=1,2,10-20,100-2000:2/25
68
69 where the final item represents CPUs 100,101,125,126,150,151,...
70
71 The value "N" can be used to represent the numerically last CPU on the system,
72 i.e "foo_cpus=16-N" would be equivalent to "16-31" on a 32 core system.
73
74 Keep in mind that "N" is dynamic, so if system changes cause the bitmap width
75 to change, such as less cores in the CPU list, then N and any ranges using N
76 will also change. Use the same on a small 4 core system, and "16-N" becomes
77 "16-3" and now the same boot input will be flagged as invalid (start > end).
78
79 The special case-tolerant group name "all" has a meaning of selecting all CPUs,
80 so that "nohz_full=all" is the equivalent of "nohz_full=0-N".
81
82 The semantics of "N" and "all" is supported on a level of bitmaps and holds for
83 all users of bitmap_parselist().
84
85 This document may not be entirely up to date and comprehensive. The command
86 "modinfo -p ${modulename}" shows a current list of all parameters of a loadable
87 module. Loadable modules, after being loaded into the running kernel, also
88 reveal their parameters in /sys/module/${modulename}/parameters/. Some of these
89 parameters may be changed at runtime by the command
90 ``echo -n ${value} > /sys/module/${modulename}/parameters/${parm}``.
91
92 The parameters listed below are only valid if certain kernel build options
93 were enabled and if respective hardware is present. This list should be kept
94 in alphabetical order. The text in square brackets at the beginning
95 of each description states the restrictions within which a parameter
96 is applicable::
97
98 ACPI ACPI support is enabled.
99 AGP AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) is enabled.
100 ALSA ALSA sound support is enabled.
101 APIC APIC support is enabled.
102 APM Advanced Power Management support is enabled.
103 APPARMOR AppArmor support is enabled.
104 ARM ARM architecture is enabled.
105 ARM64 ARM64 architecture is enabled.
106 AX25 Appropriate AX.25 support is enabled.
107 CLK Common clock infrastructure is enabled.
108 CMA Contiguous Memory Area support is enabled.
109 DRM Direct Rendering Management support is enabled.
110 DYNAMIC_DEBUG Build in debug messages and enable them at runtime
111 EARLY Parameter processed too early to be embedded in initrd.
112 EDD BIOS Enhanced Disk Drive Services (EDD) is enabled
113 EFI EFI Partitioning (GPT) is enabled
114 EVM Extended Verification Module
115 FB The frame buffer device is enabled.
116 FTRACE Function tracing enabled.
117 GCOV GCOV profiling is enabled.
118 HIBERNATION HIBERNATION is enabled.
119 HW Appropriate hardware is enabled.
120 HYPER_V HYPERV support is enabled.
121 IMA Integrity measurement architecture is enabled.
122 IP_PNP IP DHCP, BOOTP, or RARP is enabled.
123 IPV6 IPv6 support is enabled.
124 ISAPNP ISA PnP code is enabled.
125 ISDN Appropriate ISDN support is enabled.
126 ISOL CPU Isolation is enabled.
127 JOY Appropriate joystick support is enabled.
128 KGDB Kernel debugger support is enabled.
129 KVM Kernel Virtual Machine support is enabled.
130 LIBATA Libata driver is enabled
131 LOONGARCH LoongArch architecture is enabled.
132 LOOP Loopback device support is enabled.
133 LP Printer support is enabled.
134 M68k M68k architecture is enabled.
135 These options have more detailed description inside of
136 Documentation/arch/m68k/kernel-options.rst.
137 MDA MDA console support is enabled.
138 MIPS MIPS architecture is enabled.
139 MOUSE Appropriate mouse support is enabled.
140 MSI Message Signaled Interrupts (PCI).
141 MTD MTD (Memory Technology Device) support is enabled.
142 NET Appropriate network support is enabled.
143 NFS Appropriate NFS support is enabled.
144 NUMA NUMA support is enabled.
145 OF Devicetree is enabled.
146 PARISC The PA-RISC architecture is enabled.
147 PCI PCI bus support is enabled.
148 PCIE PCI Express support is enabled.
149 PCMCIA The PCMCIA subsystem is enabled.
150 PNP Plug & Play support is enabled.
151 PPC PowerPC architecture is enabled.
152 PPT Parallel port support is enabled.
153 PS2 Appropriate PS/2 support is enabled.
154 PV_OPS A paravirtualized kernel is enabled.
155 RAM RAM disk support is enabled.
156 RDT Intel Resource Director Technology.
157 RISCV RISCV architecture is enabled.
158 S390 S390 architecture is enabled.
159 SCSI Appropriate SCSI support is enabled.
160 A lot of drivers have their options described inside
161 the Documentation/scsi/ sub-directory.
162 SECURITY Different security models are enabled.
163 SELINUX SELinux support is enabled.
164 SERIAL Serial support is enabled.
165 SH SuperH architecture is enabled.
166 SMP The kernel is an SMP kernel.
167 SPARC Sparc architecture is enabled.
168 SUSPEND System suspend states are enabled.
169 SWSUSP Software suspend (hibernation) is enabled.
170 TPM TPM drivers are enabled.
171 UMS USB Mass Storage support is enabled.
172 USB USB support is enabled.
173 USBHID USB Human Interface Device support is enabled.
174 V4L Video For Linux support is enabled.
175 VGA The VGA console has been enabled.
176 VMMIO Driver for memory mapped virtio devices is enabled.
177 VT Virtual terminal support is enabled.
178 WDT Watchdog support is enabled.
179 X86-32 X86-32, aka i386 architecture is enabled.
180 X86-64 X86-64 architecture is enabled.
181 More X86-64 boot options can be found in
182 Documentation/arch/x86/x86_64/boot-options.rst.
183 X86 Either 32-bit or 64-bit x86 (same as X86-32+X86-64)
184 X86_UV SGI UV support is enabled.
185 XEN Xen support is enabled
186 XTENSA xtensa architecture is enabled.
187
188 In addition, the following text indicates that the option::
189
190 BOOT Is a boot loader parameter.
191 BUGS= Relates to possible processor bugs on the said processor.
192 KNL Is a kernel start-up parameter.
193
194 Parameters denoted with BOOT are actually interpreted by the boot
195 loader, and have no meaning to the kernel directly.
196 Do not modify the syntax of boot loader parameters without extreme
197 need or coordination with <Documentation/arch/x86/boot.rst>.
198
199 There are also arch-specific kernel-parameters not documented here.
200 See for example <Documentation/arch/x86/x86_64/boot-options.rst>.
201
202 Note that ALL kernel parameters listed below are CASE SENSITIVE, and that
203 a trailing = on the name of any parameter states that that parameter will
204 be entered as an environment variable, whereas its absence indicates that
205 it will appear as a kernel argument readable via /proc/cmdline by programs
206 running once the system is up.
207
208 The number of kernel parameters is not limited, but the length of the
209 complete command line (parameters including spaces etc.) is limited to
210 a fixed number of characters. This limit depends on the architecture
211 and is between 256 and 4096 characters. It is defined in the file
212 ./include/uapi/asm-generic/setup.h as COMMAND_LINE_SIZE.
213
214 Finally, the [KMG] suffix is commonly described after a number of kernel
215 parameter values. These 'K', 'M', and 'G' letters represent the _binary_
216 multipliers 'Kilo', 'Mega', and 'Giga', equaling 2^10, 2^20, and 2^30
217 bytes respectively. Such letter suffixes can also be entirely omitted:
218
219 .. include:: kernel-parameters.txt
220 :literal:
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