sysctl does not accept key value pairs with spaces, but perhaps should

[Jason Spashett]

For example, the config files in /etc/sysctl.conf have spaces between name and value pairs

The problem is that the values probably get played into sysctl -w somehow

sysctl does not seem to accept name value pairs with spaces, yet it displayes them with spaces via sysctl -a

e.g.

sysctl -w vm.swappiness = 100 (won't work)
sysctl -w vm.swappiness=100 (works)

The existing files in /etc/sysctl.conf all seem to have spaces in thier settings, as if sysctl -a output was used to generate them.

probably sysctl should be modified to be more consistent / less confusing / error prone.

[Jason Spashett (jspashett)]

The only realistic solutions appear to be:

(1) Make sysctl -a output name value paris without spaces for consistency
(2) Make the things that generate files in /etc/sysconf.d not put spaces in.

The way the sysctl command line works requires one or more name value pairs with no space seperation.