Re: [GIT PULL] sysctl changes for v7.4-rc1

[Linus Torvalds]

On Tue, 20 Oct 2026 at 03:09, Joel Granados <joel.granados@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> * Disallow partial vector updates
>
>   Stage sysctl vector writes before updating. Removes the chance of leaving a
>   sysctl vector partially updated due to erroneous input. This is not an atomic
>   write; a concurrent reader can still see a partially updated vector.

I've pulled this, but this feels like it could easily break any number
of random scripts.

We used to just update until we hit an error, and I would not be AT
ALL surprised if there are scripts around that echo some
not-entirely-cleaned-up string to /proc/sys.

Put another way: I do not understand why that commit claims that the
vector data should be unchanged just because the Nth element wasn't a
number.

What was the impetus for this change? Was there an actual problem it
fixes, or was it just a random decision to possibly break user space?

                  Linus