UFW firewall: /etc/sysctl.conf vs. /etc/ufw/sysctl.conf (2)

[ygoe]

This thread has been closed, but it was not answered and is still relevant, so I'm asking it again.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2108325

usually you enable things like IP forwarding in /etc/sysctl.conf. Now I read through the UFW firewall documentation, and regarding to that, it has it's own sysctl.conf file in /etc/ufw.

Why is that? What happens if I enable UFW and have things configured in /etc/sysctl.conf? Will UFW overrule these settings with whatever is in /etc/ufw/sysctl.conf? Why two files for the same purpose?

Now on 14.04

[kevdog]

I'm not sure if I totally know the answer, however I'm betting the ufw is forwarding or interpreting your setting specified in the firewall and redirecting it to the kernel directive -- like
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

You can do some experimenting, but can always query the status of the kernel ip_forward state by:
cat /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

0=forwarding disabled
1=forwarding enabled