Understanding Linux Network Internals

Initialization Options

Both components built into the kernel and components loaded as modules can be passed input parameters so that users can fine-tune the functionality implemented by the components, override defaults compiled into them, or change them from one system boot to the next. The kernel provides two kinds of macros to define options :

Module options (macros of the module_param family)

These define options you can provide when you load a module. When a component is built into the kernel, you cannot provide values for these options at kernel boot time. However, with the introduction of the /sys filesystem, you can configure the options via those files at runtime. The /sys interface is relatively new, compared to the /proc interface. The later section "Module Options" goes into a little more detail on these options.

Boot-time kernel options (macros of the _ _setup family)

These define options you can provide at boot time with a boot loader. They are used mainly by modules that the user can build into the kernel, and kernel components that cannot be compiled as modules. You will see those macros in the section "Boot-Time Kernel Options" in Chapter 7.

It is interesting to note that a module can define an initialization option in both ways: one is effective when the module is built-in and the other is effective when the module is loaded separately. This can be a little confusing, especially because different modules can define passing parameters of the same name at module load ...