that system. The supported systems, and the corresponding README
files, are:
- Digital Unix (OSF/1) README.osf
Linux README.linux
+ Solaris 2 README.sol2
+ Digital Unix (OSF/1) README.osf
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.
-The Ultrix port is untested, as I no longer have access to an Ultrix
-box.
+In fact, only the Linux and Solaris 2 ports have been tested in this
+release. Code for the other systems is still included; if you use it,
+let me know how it works. If I don't hear from anyone it will
+probably get dropped in a subsequent release. 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.
In each case you start by running the ./configure script. This works
out which operating system you are using and creates symbolic links to
authenticating itself to you, of course.)
-What's new in ppp-2.3.6.
-************************
+What's new in ppp-2.3.10.
+*************************
+
+* Pppd now supports `plugins', which are pieces of code (packaged as
+ shared libraries) which can be loaded into pppd at runtime and which
+ can affect its behaviour. The intention is that plugins provide a
+ way for people to customize the behaviour of pppd for their own
+ needs without needing to change the base pppd source. I have added
+ some hooks into pppd (places where pppd will call a function
+ pointer, if non-zero, to replace some of pppd's code) and I will be
+ receptive to suggestions about places to add more hooks. Plugins
+ are supported under Linux and Solaris at present.
+
+* We have a new maintainer for the Solaris port, Adi Masputra of Sun
+ Microsystems, and he has updated the Solaris port so that it should
+ work on 64-bit machines under Solaris 7 and later.
+
+* Pppd now has an `allow-ip' option, which takes an argument which is
+ an IP address (or subnet) which peers are permitted to use without
+ authenticating themselves. The argument takes the same form as each
+ element of the allowed IP address list in the secrets files. The
+ allow-ip option is privileged and may be specified multiple times.
+ Using the allow-ip option should be cleaner than putting a line like
+ `"" * "" address' in /etc/ppp/pap-secrets.
+
+* Chat can now substitute environment variables into the script. This
+ is enabled by the -E flag. (Thanks to Andreas Arens for the patch.)
+
+* If the PAP username and password from the peer contains unprintable
+ characters, they will be translated to a printable form before
+ looking in the pap-secrets file. Characters >= 0x80 are translated
+ to a M- form, and characters from 0 to 0x1f (and 0x7f as well) are
+ translated to a ^X form. If this change causes you grief, let me
+ know what would be a better translation. It appears that some peers
+ send nulls or other control characters in their usernames and
+ passwords.
+
+* Pppd has new `ktune' and `noktune' options, which enable/disable
+ it to change kernel settings as appropriate. This is only
+ implemented under Linux, and requires the /proc filesystem to be
+ mounted. Under Linux, with the ktune option, pppd will enable IP
+ forwarding in the kernel if the proxyarp option is used, and will
+ enable the dynamic IP address kernel option in demand mode if the
+ local IP address changes.
+
+* Pppd no longer requires a remote address to be specified for demand
+ dialling. If none is specified, it will use a default value of
+ 10.112.112.112+unit_number. (It will not propose this default to
+ the peer.)
+
+* The default holdoff is now 0 if no connect script is given.
+
+* The IPV6 code from Tommi Komulainen, which I unfortunately only
+ partially merged in to ppp-2.3.9, has been fixed and updated.
+
+* The linux compilation glitches should be fixed now.
+
+
+What was new in ppp-2.3.9.
+**************************
+
+* Support for the new generic PPP layer under development for the
+ Linux kernel.
+
+* You can now place extra options to apply to specific users at the
+ end of the line with their password in the pap-secrets or
+ chap-secrets file, separated from the IP address(es) with a "--"
+ separator. These options are parsed after the peer is authenticated
+ but before network protocol (IPCP, IPXCP) or CCP negotiation
+ commences.
+
+* Pppd will apply the holdoff period if the link was terminated by the
+ peer. It doesn't apply it if the link was terminated because the
+ local pppd thought it was idle.
+
+* Synchronous support for Solaris has been added, thanks to John
+ Morrison, and for FreeBSD, thanks to Paul Fulghum.
+
+* IPV6 support has been merged in, from Tommi Komulainen. At the
+ moment it only supports Linux and it is not tested by me.
+
+* The `nodefaultip' option can be used in demand mode to say that pppd
+ should not suggest its local IP address to the peer.
+
+* The `init' option has been added; this causes pppd to run a script
+ to initialize the serial device (e.g. by sending an init string to
+ the modem). Unlike the connect option, this can be used in a
+ dial-in situation. (Thanks to Tobias Ringstrom.)
+
+* There is a new `logfile' option to send log messages to a file as
+ well as syslog.
+
+* There is a new, privileged `linkname' option which sets a logical
+ name for the link. Pppd will create a /var/run/ppp-<linkname>.pid
+ file containing its process ID.
+
+* There is a new `maxfail' option which specifies how many consecutive
+ failed connection attempts are permitted before pppd will exit. The
+ default value is 10, and 0 means infinity. :-)
+
+* Sundry bugs fixed.
+
+
+What was new in ppp-2.3.8.
+**************************
+
+* The exit status of pppd will now indicate whether the link was
+ successfully established, or if not, what error was encountered.
+
+* Pppd has two new options: fdlog <n> will send log messages to file
+ descriptor <n> instead of standard output, and nofdlog will stop log
+ messages from being sent to any file descriptor (they will still be
+ sent to syslog). Pppd now will not send log messages to a file
+ descriptor if the serial port is open on that file descriptor.
+
+* Pppd sets an environment variable called PPPLOGNAME for scripts that
+ it runs, indicating the login name of the user who invoked pppd.
+
+* Pppd sets environment variables CONNECT_TIME, BYTES_SENT and
+ BYTES_RCVD for the ip-down and auth-down scripts indicating the
+ statistics for the connection just terminated. (CONNECT_TIME is in
+ seconds.)
+
+* If the user has the serial device open on standard input and
+ specifies a symbolic link to the serial device on the command line,
+ pppd will detect this and behave correctly (i.e. not detach from its
+ controlling terminal). Furthermore, if the serial port is open for
+ reading and writing on standard input, pppd will assume that it is
+ locked by its invoker and not lock it itself.
+
+* Chat now has a feature where if a string to be sent begins with an
+ at sign (@), the rest of the string is taken as the name of a file
+ (regular file or named pipe), and the actual string to send is taken
+ from that file.
+
+* Support for FreeBSD-2.2.8 and 3.0 has been added, thanks to Paul
+ Fulghum.
+
+* The Tru64 (aka Digital Unix aka OSF/1) port has been updated.
+
+* The system panics on Solaris SMP systems related to PPP connections
+ being established and terminated should no longer occur.
+
+* Fixed quite a few bugs.
+
+
+What was new in ppp-2.3.7.
+**************************
+
+* Pppd can now automatically allocate itself a pseudo-tty to use as
+ the serial device. This has made three new options possible:
+
+ - `pty script' will run `script' with its standard input and output
+ connected to the master side of the pty. For example:
+ pppd pty 'ssh -t server.my.net pppd'
+ is a basic command for setting up a PPP link (tunnel) over ssh.
+ (In practice you may need to specify other options such as IP
+ addresses, etc.)
+
+ - `notty' tells pppd to communicate over its standard input and
+ output, which do not have to be a terminal device.
+
+ - `record filename' tells pppd to record all of the characters sent
+ and received over the serial device to a file called `filename'.
+ The data is recorded in a tagged format with timestamps, which can
+ be printed in a readable form with the pppdump program, which is
+ included in this distribution.
+
+* Pppd now logs the connect time and number of bytes sent and received
+ (at the level of the serial device) when the connection is
+ terminated.
+
+* If you use the updetach or nodetach option, pppd will print its
+ messages to standard output as well as logging them with syslog
+ (provided of course pppd isn't using its standard input or output as
+ its serial device).
+
+* There is a new `privgroup groupname' option (a privileged option).
+ If the user running pppd is in group `groupname', s/he can use
+ privileged options without restriction.
+
+* There is a new `receive-all' option, which causes pppd to accept all
+ control characters, even the ones that the peer should be escaping
+ (i.e. the receive asyncmap is 0). This is useful with some buggy
+ peers.
+
+* The default asyncmap is now 0.
+
+* There is a new `sync' option, currently only implemented under
+ Linux, which allows pppd to run on synchronous HDLC devices.
+
+* If a value for the device name or for the connect, disconnect,
+ welcome or pty option is given in a privileged option file
+ (i.e. /etc/ppp/options or a file loaded with the `call' option), it
+ cannot be overridden by a non-privileged user.
+
+* Many bugs have been fixed, notably:
+ - signals are not blocked unnecessarily, as they were in 2.3.6.
+ - the usepeerdns option should work now.
+ - the SPEED environment variable for scripts is set correctly.
+ - the /etc/ppp/auth-down script is not run until auth-up completes.
+ - the device is opened as root if it is the device on standard
+ input.
+ - pppd doesn't die with the ioctl(PPPIOCSASYNCMAP) error under linux
+ if a hangup occurs at the wrong time.
+
+* Some error messages have been changed to be clearer (I hope :-)
+
+
+What was new in ppp-2.3.6.
+**************************
* Pppd now opens the tty device as the user (rather than as root) if
the device name was given by the user, i.e. on the command line or
Thanks to those who reported bugs in ppp-2.2.
+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 is also patent-encumbered (its inclusion in this package
+can be considered a historical anomaly :-) but it doesn't ever expand
+packets. Neither does Deflate, which uses the same algorithm as gzip.
+
+
Patents.
********
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) Sowmini Varadhan <varadhan@zk3.dec.com>
Linux Paul Mackerras <Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au>
+Solaris 2 Adi Masputra <adi.masputra@sun.com>
+SunOS 4.x Adi Masputra <adi.masputra@sun.com>
+Digital Unix (OSF/1) Sowmini Varadhan <varadhan@zk3.dec.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 (for want of anybody better :-)
System V Release 4 Matthias Apitz <Matthias.Apitz@SOFTCON.de>
Ultrix 4.x Paul Mackerras (for want of anybody better :-)
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; some
+have a BSD-style notice and some are under the GPL.
Distribution:
ftp://cs.anu.edu.au/pub/software/ppp/
-($Id: README,v 1.15 1999/03/10 05:10:47 paulus Exp $)
+($Id: README,v 1.21 1999/09/17 05:20:36 paulus Exp $)