-This is the README file for ppp-2.3, a package which implements the
+This is the README file for ppp-2.4, a package which implements the
Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) to provide Internet connections over
serial lines.
The Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) provides a standard way to establish
a network connection over a serial link. At present, this package
supports IP and the protocols layered above IP, such as TCP and UDP.
-The Linux port of this package also has support for IPX.
+The Linux and Solaris ports of this package have optional support for
+IPV6; the Linux port of this package also has support for IPX.
This software consists of two parts:
- Kernel code, which establishes a network interface and passes
packets between the serial port, the kernel networking code and the
PPP daemon (pppd). This code is implemented using STREAMS modules on
-SunOS 4.x, Solaris 2.x, System V Release 4, and OSF/1, and as a
-line discipline under Ultrix, NextStep, NetBSD, FreeBSD, and Linux.
+Solaris, and as a line discipline under Linux.
- The PPP daemon (pppd), which negotiates with the peer to establish
the link and sets up the ppp network interface. Pppd includes support
for authentication, so you can control which other systems may make a
PPP connection and what IP addresses they may use.
+The platforms supported by this package are Linux and Solaris. I have
+code for NeXTStep, FreeBSD, SunOS 4.x, SVR4, Tru64 (Digital Unix), AIX
+and Ultrix but no active maintainers for these platforms. Code for
+all of these except AIX is included in the ppp-2.3.11 release.
+
Installation.
*************
that system. The supported systems, and the corresponding README
files, are:
- Digital Unix (OSF/1) README.osf
Linux README.linux
- NetBSD, FreeBSD README.bsd
- NeXTStep README.next
- Solaris 2 README.sol2
- SunOS 4.x README.sunos4
- System V Release 4 README.svr4
- Ultrix 4.x README.ultrix
-
-(Unfortunately, AIX 4 is no longer supported, since I don't have a
-maintainer for the AIX 4 port. If you want to volunteer, contact me.)
+ Solaris README.sol2
In each case you start by running the ./configure script. This works
-out which operating system you are using and creates symbolic links to
-the appropriate makefiles. You then run `make' to compile the
-user-level code, and (as root) `make install' to install the
-user-level programs pppd, chat and pppstats.
-
-The procedures for installing the kernel code vary from system to
-system. On some systems, the kernel code can be loaded into a running
-kernel using a `modload' facility. On others, the kernel image has to
-be recompiled and the system rebooted. See the README.* files for
-details.
+out which operating system you are using and creates the appropriate
+makefiles. You then run `make' to compile the user-level code, and
+(as root) `make install' to install the user-level programs pppd, chat
+and pppstats.
N.B. Since 2.3.0, leaving the permitted IP addresses column of the
pap-secrets or chap-secrets file empty means that no addresses are
authenticating itself to you, of course.)
-What's new in ppp-2.3.3.
+What's new in ppp-2.4.3.
************************
-* Fixed compilation problems under SunOS.
+* The configure script now accepts --prefix and --sysconfdir options.
+ These default to /usr/local and /etc. If you want pppd put in
+ /usr/sbin as before, use ./configure --prefix=/usr.
-* Fixed a bug introduced into chat in 2.3.2, and compilation problems
-introduced into the MS-CHAP implementation in 2.3.2.
+* Doing `make install' no longer puts example configuration files in
+ /etc/ppp. Use `make install-etcppp' if you want that.
-* The linux kernel driver has been updated for recent 2.1-series
-kernel changes, and it now will ask kerneld to load compression
-modules when required, if the kernel is configured to support kerneld.
+* The code has been updated to work with version 0.8.3 of libpcap.
+ Unfortunately the libpcap maintainers removed support for the
+ "inbound" and "outbound" keywords on PPP links, meaning that if you
+ link pppd with libpcap-0.8.3, you can't use those keywords in the
+ active-filter and pass-filter expressions. The support has been
+ reinstated in the CVS version and should be in future libpcap
+ releases. If you need the in/outbound keywords, use a later release
+ than 0.8.3, or get the CVS version from http://www.tcpdump.org.
-* Pppd should now compile correctly under linux on systems with glibc.
+* There is a new option, child-timeout, which sets the length of time
+ that pppd will wait for child processes (such as the command
+ specified with the pty option) to exit before exiting itself. It
+ defaults to 5 seconds. After the timeout, pppd will send a SIGTERM
+ to any remaining child processes and exit. A value of 0 means no
+ timeout.
+* Various bugs have been fixed, including some CBCP packet parsing
+ bugs that could lead to the peer being able to crash pppd if CBCP
+ support is enabled.
-What was new in ppp-2.3.2.
+* Various fixes and enhancements to the radius and rp-pppoe plugins
+ have been added.
+
+
+What was new in ppp-2.4.2.
**************************
-* In 2.3.1, I made a change which was intended to make pppd able to
-detect loss of CD during or immediately after the connection script
-runs. Unfortunately, this had the side-effect that the connection
-script wouldn't work at all on some systems. This change has been
-reversed.
+* The CHAP code has been rewritten. Pppd now has support for MS-CHAP
+ V1 and V2 authentication, both as server and client. The new CHAP
+ code is cleaner than the old code and avoids some copyright problems
+ that existed in the old code.
+
+* MPPE (Microsoft Point-to-Point Encryption) support has been added,
+ although the current implementation shouldn't be considered
+ completely secure. (There is no assurance that the current code
+ won't ever transmit an unencrypted packet.)
+
+* James Carlson's implementation of the Extensible Authentication
+ Protocol (EAP) has been added.
+
+* Support for the Encryption Control Protocol (ECP) has been added.
+
+* Some new plug-ins have been included:
+ - A plug-in for kernel-mode PPPoE (PPP over Ethernet)
+ - A plug-in for supplying the PAP password over a pipe from another
+ process
+ - A plug-in for authenticating using a Radius server.
+
+* Updates and bug-fixes for the Solaris port.
+
+* The CBCP (Call Back Control Protocol) code has been updated. There
+ are new options `remotenumber' and `allow-number'.
+
+* Extra hooks for plugins to use have been added.
-* Fix compilation problems in the Linux kernel driver.
+* There is now a `maxoctets' option, which causes pppd to terminate
+ the link once the number of bytes passed on the link exceeds a given
+ value.
+* There are now options to control whether pppd can use the IPCP
+ IP-Address and IP-Addresses options: `ipcp-no-address' and
+ `ipcp-no-addresses'.
-What was new in ppp-2.3.1.
+* Fixed several bugs, including potential buffer overflows in chat.
+
+
+What was new in ppp-2.4.1.
**************************
-* Enhancements to chat, thanks to Francis Demierre. Chat can now
-accept comments in the chat script file, and has new SAY, HANGUP,
-CLR_ABORT and CLR_REPORT keywords.
+* Pppd can now print out the set of options that are in effect. The
+ new `dump' option causes pppd to print out the option values after
+ option parsing is complete. The `dryrun' option causes pppd to
+ print the options and then exit.
-* Fixed a bug which causes 2.3.0 to crash Solaris systems.
+* The option parsing code has been fixed so that options in the
+ per-tty options file are parsed correctly, and don't override values
+ from the command line in most cases.
-* Bug-fixes and restructuring of the Linux kernel driver.
+* The plugin option now looks in /usr/lib/pppd/<pppd-version> (for
+ example, /usr/lib/pppd/2.4.1b1) for shared objects for plugins if
+ there is no slash in the plugin name.
-* The holdoff behaviour of pppd has been changed slightly: now, if
-the link comes up for IP (or other network protocol) traffic, we
-consider that the link has been successfully established, and don't
-enforce the holdoff period after the link goes down.
+* When loading a plugin, pppd will now check the version of pppd for
+ which the plugin was compiled, and refuse to load it if it is
+ different to pppd's version string. To enable this, the plugin
+ source needs to #include "pppd.h" and have a line saying:
+ char pppd_version[] = VERSION;
-* Pppd should now correctly wait for CD (carrier detect) from the
-modem, even when the serial port initially had CLOCAL set, and it
-should also detect loss of CD during or immediately after the
-connection script runs.
+* There is a bug in zlib, discovered by James Carlson, which can cause
+ kernel memory corruption if Deflate is used with the lowest setting,
+ 8. As a workaround pppd will now insist on using at least 9.
-* Under linux, pppd will work with older 2.2.0* version kernel
-drivers, although demand-dialling is not supported with them.
+* Pppd should compile on Solaris and SunOS again.
-* Minor bugfixes for pppd.
+* Pppd should now set the MTU correctly on demand-dialled interfaces.
-What was new in ppp-2.3.
-************************
+What was new in ppp-2.4.0.
+**************************
+
+* Multilink: this package now allows you to combine multiple serial
+ links into one logical link or `bundle', for increased bandwidth and
+ reduced latency. This is currently only supported under the
+ 2.4.x and later Linux kernels.
+
+* All the pppd processes running on a system now write information
+ into a common database. I used the `tdb' code from samba for this.
-* Demand-dialling. Pppd now has a mode where it will establish the
-network interface immediately when it starts, but not actually bring
-the link up until it sees some data to be sent. Look for the demand
-option description in the pppd man page. Demand-dialling is not
-supported under Ultrix or NeXTStep.
-
-* Idle timeout. Pppd will optionally terminate the link if no data
-packets are sent or received within a certain time interval.
-
-* Pppd now runs the /etc/ppp/auth-up script, if it exists, when the
-peer successfully authenticates itself, and /etc/ppp/auth-down when
-the connection is subsequently terminated. This can be useful for
-accounting purposes.
-
-* A new packet compression scheme, Deflate, has been implemented.
-This uses the same compression method as `gzip'. This method is free
-of patent or copyright restrictions, and it achieves better
-compression than BSD-Compress. It does consume more CPU cycles for
-compression than BSD-Compress, but this shouldn't be a problem for
-links running at 100kbit/s or less.
-
-* There is no code in this distribution which is covered by Brad
-Clements' restrictive copyright notice. The STREAMS modules for SunOS
-and OSF/1 have been rewritten, based on the Solaris 2 modules, which
-were written from scratch without any Clements code.
-
-* Pppstats has been reworked to clean up the output format somewhat.
-It also has a new -d option which displays data rate in kbyte/s for
-those columns which would normally display bytes.
-
-* Pppd options beginning with - or + have been renamed, e.g. -ip
-became noip, +chap became require-chap, etc. The old options are
-still accepted for compatibility but may be removed in future.
-
-* Pppd now has some options (such as the new `noauth' option) which
-can only be specified if it is being run by root, or in an
-"privileged" options file: /etc/ppp/options or an options file in the
-/etc/ppp/peers directory. There is a new "call" option to read
-options from a file in /etc/ppp/peers, making it possible for non-root
-users to make unauthenticated connections, but only to certain trusted
-peers. My intention is to make the `auth' option the default in a
-future release.
-
-* Several minor new features have been added to pppd, including the
-maxconnect and welcome options. Pppd will now terminate the
-connection when there are no network control protocols running. The
-allowed IP address(es) field in the secrets files can now specify
-subnets (with a notation like 123.45.67.89/24) and addresses which are
-not acceptable (put a ! on the front).
-
-* Numerous bugs have been fixed (no doubt some have been introduced :-)
-Thanks to those who reported bugs in ppp-2.2.
+* New hooks have been added.
+
+For a list of the changes made during the 2.3 series releases of this
+package, see the Changes-2.3 file.
+
+
+Compression methods.
+********************
+
+This package supports two packet compression methods: Deflate and
+BSD-Compress. Other compression methods which are in common use
+include Predictor, LZS, and MPPC. These methods are not supported for
+two reasons - they are patent-encumbered, and they cause some packets
+to expand slightly, which pppd doesn't currently allow for.
+BSD-Compress and Deflate (which uses the same algorithm as gzip) don't
+ever expand packets.
Patents.
********
The BSD-Compress algorithm used for packet compression is the same as
-that used in the Unix "compress" command. It is apparently covered by
-U.S. patents 4,814,746 (owned by IBM) and 4,558,302 (owned by Unisys),
-and corresponding patents in various other countries (but not
-Australia). If this is of concern, you can build the package without
-including BSD-Compress. To do this, edit net/ppp-comp.h to change the
-definition of DO_BSD_COMPRESS to 0. The bsd-comp.c files are then no
-longer needed, so the references to bsd-comp.o may optionally be
-removed from the Makefiles.
+that used in the Unix "compress" command. It was apparently covered
+by U.S. patents 4,814,746 (owned by IBM) and 4,558,302 (owned by
+Unisys), and corresponding patents in various other countries (but not
+Australia). I believe the Unisys patent expired in the US on 20 June
+2003, and that the IBM patent was older.
+
+If these patents are of concern in your situation, you can build the
+package without including BSD-Compress. To do this, edit
+net/ppp-comp.h to change the definition of DO_BSD_COMPRESS to 0. The
+bsd-comp.c files are then no longer needed, so the references to
+bsd-comp.o may optionally be removed from the Makefiles.
Contacts.
If you find bugs in this package, please report them to the maintainer
for the port for the operating system you are using:
-Digital Unix (OSF/1) Farrell Woods <ftw@zk3.dec.com>
-Linux Al Longyear <longyear@pobox.com>
-NetBSD Matthew Green <mrg@eterna.com.au
-FreeBSD Peter Wemm <peter@haywire.DIALix.COM>
-NeXTStep Steve Perkins <perkins@cps.msu.edu>
-Solaris 2 Paul Mackerras <Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au>
-SunOS 4.x Paul Mackerras <Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au>
-System V Release 4 Matthias Apitz <Matthias.Apitz@SOFTCON.de>
-Ultrix 4.x Paul Mackerras (for want of anybody better :-)
+Linux Paul Mackerras <paulus@samba.org>
+Solaris James Carlson <carlson@workingcode.com>
Copyrights:
***********
-All of the code can be freely used and redistributed.
+All of the code can be freely used and redistributed. The individual
+source files each have their own copyright and permission notice.
+Pppd, pppstats and pppdump are under BSD-style notices. Some of the
+pppd plugins are GPL'd. Chat is public domain.
Distribution:
The primary site for releases of this software is:
- ftp://cs.anu.edu.au/pub/software/ppp/
+ ftp://ftp.samba.org/pub/ppp/
-($Id: README,v 1.11 1998/02/04 01:33:10 paulus Exp $)
+($Id: README,v 1.31 2004/11/04 11:58:14 paulus Exp $)
projects / ppp.git / blobdiff