creating file with default text..how to?

rohan208 · 05-10-2004, 04:23 AM

Hello,
there is a perticular file on my system,
/proc/sys/net/ip_forward, whose content is set to 0 every time the pc is restarted. I want to ensure that it is set to 1 before i run my other automated tasks. how do i get about doing this?
I think we can do something like

Code:

$ ls > filename

but that would put the contents of directory in file. How do i get rid of the 0 and make that a 1?
thx

SciYro · 05-10-2004, 04:49 AM

/proc file system is just a representation of the kernel, and what the kernel see's, it takes up no hard drive space (except for the directory listing, with hardly counts as space on most file systems)

use echo to change the contents.. I'm not sure on the syntax, but something like

echo /proc/sys/net/ip_forward > 1
should change the value to 1, if you always want it like that, then it'll require you reconfigure and recompile the kernel

slano · 05-10-2004, 04:52 AM

just add this command "echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ip_forward" to you rc.local (or somewhere where it will start automatically after each reboot, depending on your distro). this will do the trick

rohan208 · 05-10-2004, 04:53 AM

Thx SciYro and slano,
Ill try that out, I just want that line to go to 1 before i load my program, so i think it sould be fine without the recompile.
yea adding the line to rc.local sounds better than making a script file and loading it every time user logs in.
thx

Edit:
works as root.
however i want a perticular user in the group "root" to be able to write to file. So i did

Code:

$chmod 664 /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

and i get error saying

Code:

chmod:changing permission of ip_forward:(requested0664, actual 0644) Permission denied

I dont understnd why i am getting this error. I am su'd as root.