Any key=value pair following the first one are dropped after commit 81df8e2 [1], due to changing from the while loop to using getopt. Before: sysctl net.ipv6.conf.tun0.optimistic_dad \ net.ipv6.conf.tun0.mc_forwarding net.ipv6.conf.tun0.optimistic_dad = 0 net.ipv6.conf.tun0.mc_forwarding = 0 After: sysctl net.ipv6.conf.tun0.optimistic_dad \ net.ipv6.conf.tun0.mc_forwarding net.ipv6.conf.tun0.optimistic_dad = 0 Sorry for not providing a patch! I hope it's a trivial and quick thing to correct. [1]: sysctl: options handling & usage output commit 81df8e26300b35968e3702decc02e9413d5389fc Author: Sami Kerola <kerolasa@xxxxxx> Date: Sun Jun 5 19:46:49 2011 +0200 <URL:https://gitorious.org/procps/procps/commit/81df8e26300b35968e3702decc02e9413d5389fc>