From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from us-smtp-delivery-124.mimecast.com (us-smtp-delivery-124.mimecast.com [170.10.129.124]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp.subspace.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 2350D3A0E8D for ; Thu, 6 Aug 2026 15:33:54 +0000 (UTC) Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; arc=none smtp.client-ip=170.10.129.124 ARC-Seal:i=1; a=rsa-sha256; d=subspace.kernel.org; s=arc-20240116; t=1786030436; cv=none; b=f3GoekuBSTqLu0bGWTwfSCgszYWaqCaDwkj0CSpvAyhsHlK5HeIjH4PjeRPmkIWKrkCbBpa2ELXp2WTsJxufc4NhntP4TwI9mCcD/QK2Y76b9R6WlGzRHaEW901S82WGkuJ1/3u4Uroi8KB6Fl74KtoNLACU1MXhiD30wWSxqdw= ARC-Message-Signature:i=1; a=rsa-sha256; d=subspace.kernel.org; s=arc-20240116; t=1786030436; c=relaxed/simple; bh=ZMIrf3/pm8iyeC7Q4eRCkkY46KXl547OF5pWB3gj/aY=; h=From:To:Cc:Subject:In-Reply-To:Date:Message-ID:MIME-Version: Content-Type; b=nvYJVv7ZhF5GD6aq0aYSWQQRi1RtMClj70VMVQsmL89ajZN4sWlTqRKu47xQ/v/Duxo5/2D0tb1DvCVt5ODjANuqAHP0olnCX6w2R5FTBO1/iQvTupcoyUl+ppDZAA6a+GvCRr2i4zA5X4R4NmqJSoBGSuUiaOZ+FdYh2Y6QYiw= ARC-Authentication-Results:i=1; smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dmarc=pass (p=quarantine dis=none) header.from=redhat.com; spf=pass smtp.mailfrom=redhat.com; dkim=pass (1024-bit key) header.d=redhat.com header.i=@redhat.com header.b=YvbtY/s0; arc=none smtp.client-ip=170.10.129.124 Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dmarc=pass (p=quarantine dis=none) header.from=redhat.com Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; spf=pass smtp.mailfrom=redhat.com Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dkim=pass (1024-bit key) header.d=redhat.com header.i=@redhat.com header.b="YvbtY/s0" DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=redhat.com; s=mimecast20190719; t=1786030434; h=from:from:reply-to:subject:subject:date:date:message-id:message-id: to:to:cc:cc:mime-version:mime-version:content-type:content-type: in-reply-to:in-reply-to; bh=gKL1WJ7bFI7J74kfk4fmpSNs317EpcBvN3Jy9mIH6bI=; b=YvbtY/s0DGOvAXWUh0vMn+r79HgSaD776/tdIRey2o++tiAswLD7sWnXNb0RRUITQEKSSD m9L7e95+2OEgIy/C/TbK8BQtRxf17av5jqZW2trQUmX2Bm8bbsEsc3l3R8ixws+nuOSTUr Yjh0Yk1T4+0lbbAz36KbrC+0s0CGzsY= Received: from mx-prod-mc-03.mail-002.prod.us-west-2.aws.redhat.com (ec2-54-186-198-63.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com [54.186.198.63]) by relay.mimecast.com with ESMTP with STARTTLS (version=TLSv1.3, cipher=TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384) id us-mta-527-XWl5JbDiPNKAhwQ9ybyp9Q-1; Thu, 06 Aug 2026 11:33:50 -0400 X-MC-Unique: XWl5JbDiPNKAhwQ9ybyp9Q-1 X-Mimecast-MFC-AGG-ID: XWl5JbDiPNKAhwQ9ybyp9Q_1786030429 Received: from mx-prod-int-06.mail-002.prod.us-west-2.aws.redhat.com (mx-prod-int-06.mail-002.prod.us-west-2.aws.redhat.com [10.30.177.93]) (using TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256/256 bits) key-exchange X25519 server-signature RSA-PSS (2048 bits) server-digest SHA256) (No client certificate requested) by mx-prod-mc-03.mail-002.prod.us-west-2.aws.redhat.com (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 9C6341955F17; Thu, 6 Aug 2026 15:33:49 +0000 (UTC) Received: from greed.delorie.com (unknown [10.22.89.120]) by mx-prod-int-06.mail-002.prod.us-west-2.aws.redhat.com (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 5D5E61800348; Thu, 6 Aug 2026 15:33:49 +0000 (UTC) Received: from greed.delorie.com.redhat.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by greed.delorie.com (8.16.1/8.16.1) with ESMTP id 676FXl2g2147780; Thu, 6 Aug 2026 11:33:47 -0400 From: DJ Delorie To: Alejandro Colomar Cc: linux-man@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: [PATCH v4 2/4] man/man5/tunables.conf: Document system-wide tunables config In-Reply-To: (message from Alejandro Colomar on Thu, 6 Aug 2026 16:37:53 +0200) Date: Thu, 06 Aug 2026 11:33:47 -0400 Message-ID: Precedence: bulk X-Mailing-List: linux-man@vger.kernel.org List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 3.4.1 on 10.30.177.93 Alejandro Colomar writes: > A few minor comments below. I'll defer a v5 until we finish discussing... >> +The file may also contain >> +.IR filters , >> +which limit the tunables following it, >> +up to the end of the file >> +(or end of the included file, >> +or start of a new included file) > > I'd append within the parentheses: > , whichever comes first "first"? Or "next"? >> +or a line with only >> +.B [] >> +on it. > > So, this is like an end-all-filters directive, right? > > I wonder something: Does a filter end previous filters, or do they > compound until a [] ends them all? There is only ever one filter active at a time. It stops being the active filter when another filter is encountered, or the current file ends, or an include directive. An empty filter spec (i.e. "[]") is a "no filters" filter. It acts as a "new filter" for the purpose of ending the previous filter, but does not specify a new filter, so no new filter is active after that. If you can get that into five words or less, you win ;-) >> +The syntax is: >> +.P >> +.in +4n >> +.EX >> +.RI [ filter : pattern ] > > Since '[', ':', and ']' are literal, let's put them in bold. Thus, BI. Done.