Wrong defaults for sysctl -p since upgrade to systemd 207?

Question

I've run into this when trying to increase the inotify watches limit following these instructions.
Since upgrading systemd to version 207 sysctl.conf no longer exists, so instead I've put the following line in /etc/sysctl.d/99-sysctl.conf:
fs.inotify.max_user_watches = 524288
But when running "sudo sysctl -p" I get the following message:
$ sudo sysctl -p
sysctl: cannot open "/etc/sysctl.conf": No such file or directory
This is because according to the man page for sysctl:
-p[FILE], --load[=FILE]
Load in sysctl settings from the file specified or
/etc/sysctl.conf if none given.
So, "sysctl -p" by default looks for the sysctl.conf file, which no longer exists in up-to-date arch boxes.
The solution of course is simply running:
sudo sysctl -p /etc/sysctl.d/99-sysctl.conf
But my question is, shouldn't "sysctl -p" look for settings files in /etc/sysctl.d and run all of them by default, instead of looking for a file which does not exist? (and that, even if it exists, will not be run on startup). From my understanding, "sysctl -p" is supposed to apply by default the same settings that will be applied on the next reboot.

Answer 1

@kaszak696: no, "sysctl --system" also gives an error message:
$ sudo sysctl --system
[sudo] password for amatriain:
* Applying /usr/lib/sysctl.d/50-coredump.conf ...
kernel.core_pattern = |/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-coredump %p %u %g %s %t %e
* Applying /usr/lib/sysctl.d/50-default.conf ...
kernel.sysrq = 16
kernel.core_uses_pid = 1
net.ipv4.conf.default.rp_filter = 1
net.ipv4.conf.default.accept_source_route = 0
fs.protected_hardlinks = 1
fs.protected_symlinks = 1
* Applying /etc/sysctl.d/99-sysctl.conf ...
fs.inotify.max_user_watches = 524288
* Applying /etc/sysctl.conf ...
sysctl: cannot open "/etc/sysctl.conf": No such file or directory
Thanks for finding another example of sysctl wrongly assuming that sysctl.conf exists
I'll report the bug to upstream.