1 This is the README file for ppp-2.3, a package which implements the
2 Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) to provide Internet connections over
9 The Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) provides a standard way to establish
10 a network connection over a serial link. At present, this package
11 supports IP and the protocols layered above IP, such as TCP and UDP.
12 The Linux port of this package also has support for IPX.
14 This software consists of two parts:
16 - Kernel code, which establishes a network interface and passes
17 packets between the serial port, the kernel networking code and the
18 PPP daemon (pppd). This code is implemented using STREAMS modules on
19 SunOS 4.x, Solaris 2.x, System V Release 4, and OSF/1, and as a
20 line discipline under Ultrix, NextStep, NetBSD, FreeBSD, and Linux.
22 - The PPP daemon (pppd), which negotiates with the peer to establish
23 the link and sets up the ppp network interface. Pppd includes support
24 for authentication, so you can control which other systems may make a
25 PPP connection and what IP addresses they may use.
31 The file SETUP contains general information about setting up your
32 system for using PPP. There is also a README file for each supported
33 system, which contains more specific details for installing PPP on
34 that system. The supported systems, and the corresponding README
39 Digital Unix (OSF/1) README.osf
40 NetBSD, FreeBSD README.bsd
42 SunOS 4.x README.sunos4
43 System V Release 4 README.svr4
44 Ultrix 4.x README.ultrix
46 In fact, only the Linux and Solaris 2 ports have been tested in this
47 release. Code for the other systems is still included; if you use it,
48 let me know how it works. If I don't hear from anyone it will
49 probably get dropped in a subsequent release. AIX 4 is no longer
50 supported, since I don't have a maintainer for the AIX 4 port. If you
51 want to volunteer, contact me.
53 In each case you start by running the ./configure script. This works
54 out which operating system you are using and creates symbolic links to
55 the appropriate makefiles. You then run `make' to compile the
56 user-level code, and (as root) `make install' to install the
57 user-level programs pppd, chat and pppstats.
59 The procedures for installing the kernel code vary from system to
60 system. On some systems, the kernel code can be loaded into a running
61 kernel using a `modload' facility. On others, the kernel image has to
62 be recompiled and the system rebooted. See the README.* files for
65 N.B. Since 2.3.0, leaving the permitted IP addresses column of the
66 pap-secrets or chap-secrets file empty means that no addresses are
67 permitted. You need to put a "*" in that column to allow the peer to
68 use any IP address. (This only applies where the peer is
69 authenticating itself to you, of course.)
72 What's new in ppp-2.3.9.
73 ************************
75 * Support for the new generic PPP layer under development for the
78 * You can now place extra options to apply to specific users at the
79 end of the line with their password in the pap-secrets or
80 chap-secrets file, separated from the IP address(es) with a "--"
81 separator. These options are parsed after the peer is authenticated
82 but before network protocol (IPCP, IPXCP) or CCP negotiation
85 * Pppd will apply the holdoff period if the link was terminated by the
86 peer. It doesn't apply it if the link was terminated because the
87 local pppd thought it was idle.
89 * The `nodefaultip' option can be used in demand mode to say that pppd
90 should not suggest its local IP address to the peer.
92 * The `init' option has been added; this causes pppd to run a script
93 to initialize the serial device (e.g. by sending an init string to
94 the modem). Unlike the connect option, this can be used in a
95 dial-in situation. (Thanks to Tobias Ringstrom.)
97 * There is a new `logfile' option to send log messages to a file as
103 What was new in ppp-2.3.8.
104 **************************
106 * The exit status of pppd will now indicate whether the link was
107 successfully established, or if not, what error was encountered.
109 * Pppd has two new options: fdlog <n> will send log messages to file
110 descriptor <n> instead of standard output, and nofdlog will stop log
111 messages from being sent to any file descriptor (they will still be
112 sent to syslog). Pppd now will not send log messages to a file
113 descriptor if the serial port is open on that file descriptor.
115 * Pppd sets an environment variable called PPPLOGNAME for scripts that
116 it runs, indicating the login name of the user who invoked pppd.
118 * Pppd sets environment variables CONNECT_TIME, BYTES_SENT and
119 BYTES_RCVD for the ip-down and auth-down scripts indicating the
120 statistics for the connection just terminated. (CONNECT_TIME is in
123 * If the user has the serial device open on standard input and
124 specifies a symbolic link to the serial device on the command line,
125 pppd will detect this and behave correctly (i.e. not detach from its
126 controlling terminal). Furthermore, if the serial port is open for
127 reading and writing on standard input, pppd will assume that it is
128 locked by its invoker and not lock it itself.
130 * Chat now has a feature where if a string to be sent begins with an
131 at sign (@), the rest of the string is taken as the name of a file
132 (regular file or named pipe), and the actual string to send is taken
135 * Support for FreeBSD-2.2.8 and 3.0 has been added, thanks to Paul
138 * The Tru64 (aka Digital Unix aka OSF/1) port has been updated.
140 * The system panics on Solaris SMP systems related to PPP connections
141 being established and terminated should no longer occur.
143 * Fixed quite a few bugs.
146 What was new in ppp-2.3.7.
147 **************************
149 * Pppd can now automatically allocate itself a pseudo-tty to use as
150 the serial device. This has made three new options possible:
152 - `pty script' will run `script' with its standard input and output
153 connected to the master side of the pty. For example:
154 pppd pty 'ssh -t server.my.net pppd'
155 is a basic command for setting up a PPP link (tunnel) over ssh.
156 (In practice you may need to specify other options such as IP
159 - `notty' tells pppd to communicate over its standard input and
160 output, which do not have to be a terminal device.
162 - `record filename' tells pppd to record all of the characters sent
163 and received over the serial device to a file called `filename'.
164 The data is recorded in a tagged format with timestamps, which can
165 be printed in a readable form with the pppdump program, which is
166 included in this distribution.
168 * Pppd now logs the connect time and number of bytes sent and received
169 (at the level of the serial device) when the connection is
172 * If you use the updetach or nodetach option, pppd will print its
173 messages to standard output as well as logging them with syslog
174 (provided of course pppd isn't using its standard input or output as
177 * There is a new `privgroup groupname' option (a privileged option).
178 If the user running pppd is in group `groupname', s/he can use
179 privileged options without restriction.
181 * There is a new `receive-all' option, which causes pppd to accept all
182 control characters, even the ones that the peer should be escaping
183 (i.e. the receive asyncmap is 0). This is useful with some buggy
186 * The default asyncmap is now 0.
188 * There is a new `sync' option, currently only implemented under
189 Linux, which allows pppd to run on synchronous HDLC devices.
191 * If a value for the device name or for the connect, disconnect,
192 welcome or pty option is given in a privileged option file
193 (i.e. /etc/ppp/options or a file loaded with the `call' option), it
194 cannot be overridden by a non-privileged user.
196 * Many bugs have been fixed, notably:
197 - signals are not blocked unnecessarily, as they were in 2.3.6.
198 - the usepeerdns option should work now.
199 - the SPEED environment variable for scripts is set correctly.
200 - the /etc/ppp/auth-down script is not run until auth-up completes.
201 - the device is opened as root if it is the device on standard
203 - pppd doesn't die with the ioctl(PPPIOCSASYNCMAP) error under linux
204 if a hangup occurs at the wrong time.
206 * Some error messages have been changed to be clearer (I hope :-)
209 What was new in ppp-2.3.6.
210 **************************
212 * Pppd now opens the tty device as the user (rather than as root) if
213 the device name was given by the user, i.e. on the command line or
214 in the ~/.ppprc file. If the device name was given in
215 /etc/ppp/options or in a file loaded with the `call' option, the
216 device is opened as root.
218 * The default behaviour of pppd is now to let a peer which has not
219 authenticated itself (e.g. your ISP) use any IP address to which the
220 system does not already have a route. (This is currently only
221 supported under Linux, Solaris and Digital Unix; on the other
222 systems, the peer must now authenticate itself unless the noauth
225 * Added new option `usepeerdns', thanks to Nick Walker
226 <nickwalker@email.com>. If the peer supplies DNS addresses, these
227 will be written to /etc/ppp/resolv.conf. The ip-up script can then
228 be used to add these addresses to /etc/resolv.conf if desired (see
229 the ip-up.local.add and ip-down.local.add files in the scripts
232 * The Solaris ppp driver should now work correctly on SMP systems.
234 * Minor corrections so that the code can compile under Solaris 7,
235 and under Linux with glibc-2.1.
237 * The Linux kernel driver has been restructured for improved
240 * Pppd now won't start the ip-down script until the ip-up script has
244 What was new in ppp-2.3.5.
245 **************************
247 * Minor corrections to the Digital UNIX and NetBSD ports.
249 * A workaround to avoid tickling a bug in the `se' serial port driver
250 on Sun PCI Ultra machines running Solaris.
252 * Fixed a bug in the negotiation of the Microsoft WINS server address
255 * Fixed a bug in the Linux port where it would fail for kernel
256 versions above 2.1.99.
259 What was new in ppp-2.3.4.
260 **************************
262 * The NeXT port has been updated, thanks to Steve Perkins.
264 * ppp-2.3.4 compiles and works under Solaris 2.6, using either gcc or
267 * With the Solaris, SVR4 and SunOS ports, you can control the choice
268 of C compiler, C compiler options, and installation directories by
269 editing the svr4/Makedefs or sunos4/Makedefs file.
271 * Until now, we have been using the number 24 to identify Deflate
272 compression in the CCP negotiations, which was the number in the draft
273 RFC describing Deflate. The number actually assigned to Deflate is
274 26. The code has been changed to use 26, but to allow the use of 24
275 for now for backwards compatibility. (This can be disabled with the
276 `nodeflatedraft' option to pppd.)
278 * Fixed some bugs in the linux driver and deflate compressor which
279 were causing compression problems, including corrupting long
280 incompressible packets sometimes.
282 * Fixes to the PAM and shadow password support in pppd, from Al
285 * Pppd now sets some environment variables for scripts it invokes
286 (ip-up/down, auth-ip/down), giving information about the connection.
287 The variables it sets are PEERNAME, IPLOCAL, IPREMOTE, UID, DEVICE,
290 * Pppd now has an `updetach' option, which will cause it to detach
291 from its controlling terminal once the link has come up (i.e. once it
292 is available for IP traffic).
295 What was new in ppp-2.3.3.
296 **************************
298 * Fixed compilation problems under SunOS.
300 * Fixed a bug introduced into chat in 2.3.2, and compilation problems
301 introduced into the MS-CHAP implementation in 2.3.2.
303 * The linux kernel driver has been updated for recent 2.1-series
304 kernel changes, and it now will ask kerneld to load compression
305 modules when required, if the kernel is configured to support kerneld.
307 * Pppd should now compile correctly under linux on systems with glibc.
310 What was new in ppp-2.3.2.
311 **************************
313 * In 2.3.1, I made a change which was intended to make pppd able to
314 detect loss of CD during or immediately after the connection script
315 runs. Unfortunately, this had the side-effect that the connection
316 script wouldn't work at all on some systems. This change has been
319 * Fix compilation problems in the Linux kernel driver.
322 What was new in ppp-2.3.1.
323 **************************
325 * Enhancements to chat, thanks to Francis Demierre. Chat can now
326 accept comments in the chat script file, and has new SAY, HANGUP,
327 CLR_ABORT and CLR_REPORT keywords.
329 * Fixed a bug which causes 2.3.0 to crash Solaris systems.
331 * Bug-fixes and restructuring of the Linux kernel driver.
333 * The holdoff behaviour of pppd has been changed slightly: now, if
334 the link comes up for IP (or other network protocol) traffic, we
335 consider that the link has been successfully established, and don't
336 enforce the holdoff period after the link goes down.
338 * Pppd should now correctly wait for CD (carrier detect) from the
339 modem, even when the serial port initially had CLOCAL set, and it
340 should also detect loss of CD during or immediately after the
341 connection script runs.
343 * Under linux, pppd will work with older 2.2.0* version kernel
344 drivers, although demand-dialling is not supported with them.
346 * Minor bugfixes for pppd.
349 What was new in ppp-2.3.
350 ************************
352 * Demand-dialling. Pppd now has a mode where it will establish the
353 network interface immediately when it starts, but not actually bring
354 the link up until it sees some data to be sent. Look for the demand
355 option description in the pppd man page. Demand-dialling is not
356 supported under Ultrix or NeXTStep.
358 * Idle timeout. Pppd will optionally terminate the link if no data
359 packets are sent or received within a certain time interval.
361 * Pppd now runs the /etc/ppp/auth-up script, if it exists, when the
362 peer successfully authenticates itself, and /etc/ppp/auth-down when
363 the connection is subsequently terminated. This can be useful for
366 * A new packet compression scheme, Deflate, has been implemented.
367 This uses the same compression method as `gzip'. This method is free
368 of patent or copyright restrictions, and it achieves better
369 compression than BSD-Compress. It does consume more CPU cycles for
370 compression than BSD-Compress, but this shouldn't be a problem for
371 links running at 100kbit/s or less.
373 * There is no code in this distribution which is covered by Brad
374 Clements' restrictive copyright notice. The STREAMS modules for SunOS
375 and OSF/1 have been rewritten, based on the Solaris 2 modules, which
376 were written from scratch without any Clements code.
378 * Pppstats has been reworked to clean up the output format somewhat.
379 It also has a new -d option which displays data rate in kbyte/s for
380 those columns which would normally display bytes.
382 * Pppd options beginning with - or + have been renamed, e.g. -ip
383 became noip, +chap became require-chap, etc. The old options are
384 still accepted for compatibility but may be removed in future.
386 * Pppd now has some options (such as the new `noauth' option) which
387 can only be specified if it is being run by root, or in an
388 "privileged" options file: /etc/ppp/options or an options file in the
389 /etc/ppp/peers directory. There is a new "call" option to read
390 options from a file in /etc/ppp/peers, making it possible for non-root
391 users to make unauthenticated connections, but only to certain trusted
392 peers. My intention is to make the `auth' option the default in a
395 * Several minor new features have been added to pppd, including the
396 maxconnect and welcome options. Pppd will now terminate the
397 connection when there are no network control protocols running. The
398 allowed IP address(es) field in the secrets files can now specify
399 subnets (with a notation like 123.45.67.89/24) and addresses which are
400 not acceptable (put a ! on the front).
402 * Numerous bugs have been fixed (no doubt some have been introduced :-)
403 Thanks to those who reported bugs in ppp-2.2.
409 The BSD-Compress algorithm used for packet compression is the same as
410 that used in the Unix "compress" command. It is apparently covered by
411 U.S. patents 4,814,746 (owned by IBM) and 4,558,302 (owned by Unisys),
412 and corresponding patents in various other countries (but not
413 Australia). If this is of concern, you can build the package without
414 including BSD-Compress. To do this, edit net/ppp-comp.h to change the
415 definition of DO_BSD_COMPRESS to 0. The bsd-comp.c files are then no
416 longer needed, so the references to bsd-comp.o may optionally be
417 removed from the Makefiles.
423 The comp.protocols.ppp newsgroup is a useful place to get help if you
424 have trouble getting your ppp connections to work. Please do not send
425 me questions of the form "please help me get connected to my ISP" -
426 I'm sorry, but I simply do not have the time to answer all the
427 questions like this that I get.
429 If you find bugs in this package, please report them to the maintainer
430 for the port for the operating system you are using:
432 Linux Paul Mackerras <Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au>
433 Solaris 2 Paul Mackerras <Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au>
434 SunOS 4.x Paul Mackerras (for want of anybody better :-)
435 Digital Unix (OSF/1) Sowmini Varadhan <varadhan@zk3.dec.com>
436 NetBSD Matthew Green <mrg@eterna.com.au>
437 FreeBSD Peter Wemm <peter@haywire.DIALix.COM>
438 NeXTStep Steve Perkins <perkins@cps.msu.edu>
439 System V Release 4 Matthias Apitz <Matthias.Apitz@SOFTCON.de>
440 Ultrix 4.x Paul Mackerras (for want of anybody better :-)
446 All of the code can be freely used and redistributed.
452 The primary site for releases of this software is:
454 ftp://cs.anu.edu.au/pub/software/ppp/
457 ($Id: README,v 1.18 1999/07/23 07:07:33 paulus Exp $)