proc.5: /proc/sys: Describe whitespace characters

Suggested patch
https://lkml.org/lkml/2015/8/24/171
indicates missing documentation.

Signed-off-by: Heinrich Schuchardt <xypron.glpk@gmx.de>
Signed-off-by: Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>

diff --git a/man5/proc.5 b/man5/proc.5
index 2e0c5cabcdbc3bb442df2901d1e9b4d95d64a82a..767ade823361ea8332302e827f0561add2370b5b 100644 (file)
--- a/man5/proc.5
+++ b/man5/proc.5
@@ -3303,6 +3303,16 @@ These variables can be read and sometimes modified using
 the \fI/proc\fP filesystem, and the (deprecated)
 .BR sysctl (2)
 system call.
+
+String values may be terminated by either of \'\\0\' or \'\\n\'.
+
+Integer and long values may be written either in decimal or in
+hexadecimal notation (e.g. 0x3FFF).
+When writing multiple integer or long values these may be separated
+by either of the following whitespace characters:
+\' \', \'\\t\', or \'\\n\'.
+Using other separators leads to an error
+.BR EINVAL .
 .TP
 .IR /proc/sys/abi " (since Linux 2.4.10)"
 This directory may contain files with application binary information.