This is strange. There's nothing in the package to set the value upon installation. Yet it happens: $ sysctl kernel.yama.ptrace_scope kernel.yama.ptrace_scope = 1 $ zypper in aaa_base-yama-enable-ptrace $ sysctl kernel.yama.ptrace_scope kernel.yama.ptrace_scope = 0 It's not systemd-sysctl.service, that one only runs on boot. The directory is also not monitored, just moving a file there doesn't change the setting