[PATCH net-next v2] docs: net: document neigh gc_stale_time sysctl
From: Gabriel Goller
Date: Mon Feb 23 2026 - 05:17:23 EST
Add missing documentation for a neighbor table garbage collector sysctl
parameter in ip-sysctl.rst:
neigh/default/gc_stale_time: controls how long an unused neighbor entry
is kept before becoming eligible for garbage collection (default: 60
seconds)
Signed-off-by: Gabriel Goller <g.goller@xxxxxxxxxxx>
---
Changelog:
v1:
* removed documentation for gc_interval, as that sysctl is not used
anymore and doesn't do anything.
* mention gc_stale_time only being used when we have more than
gc_thresh1 neighbors.
Documentation/networking/ip-sysctl.rst | 11 +++++++++++
1 file changed, 11 insertions(+)
diff --git a/Documentation/networking/ip-sysctl.rst b/Documentation/networking/ip-sysctl.rst
index 28c7e4f5ecf9..85fda3759534 100644
--- a/Documentation/networking/ip-sysctl.rst
+++ b/Documentation/networking/ip-sysctl.rst
@@ -202,6 +202,17 @@ neigh/default/gc_thresh3 - INTEGER
Default: 1024
+neigh/default/gc_stale_time - INTEGER
+ Determines how long a neighbor entry can remain unused before it is
+ considered stale and eligible for garbage collection. Entries that have
+ not been used for longer than this time will be removed by the garbage
+ collector, unless they have active references, are marked as PERMANENT,
+ or carry the NTF_EXT_LEARNED or NTF_EXT_VALIDATED flag. Stale entries
+ are only removed by the periodic GC when there are at least gc_thresh1
+ neighbors in the table.
+
+ Default: 60 seconds
+
neigh/default/unres_qlen_bytes - INTEGER
The maximum number of bytes which may be used by packets
queued for each unresolved address by other network layers.
--
2.47.3