-This is the README file for ppp-2.3, a package which implements the
+This is the README file for ppp-2.5, a package which implements the
Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) to provide Internet connections over
-serial lines.
+serial lines and other types of links which can be considered to be
+point-to-point links.
Introduction.
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.
+supports IP and IPV6 and the protocols layered above them, such as TCP
+and UDP.
-This software consists of two parts:
+This PPP implementation 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.
+
+The kernel code for Linux is no longer distributed with this package,
+since the relevant kernel code is in the official Linux kernel source
+(and has been for many years) and is included in all reasonably modern
+Linux distributions. The Linux kernel code supports using PPP over
+things other than serial ports, such as PPP over Ethernet and PPP over
+ATM.
+
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-2.5.1
+***********************
-* Fixed compilation problems under SunOS.
+* Pppd can now measure and log the round-trip time (RTT) of LCP
+ echo-requests and record them in a binary file structured as a
+ circular buffer. Other programs or scripts can examine the file and
+ provide real-time statistics on link latency. This is enabled by a
+ new "lcp-rtt-file" option.
-* Fixed a bug introduced into chat in 2.3.2, and compilation problems
-introduced into the MS-CHAP implementation in 2.3.2.
+* New scripts net-init, net-pre-up and net-down are executed in the
+ process of bringing the network interface up and down. They provide
+ additional, more deterministic ways for pppd to interact with the
+ rest of the networking configuration.
-* 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.
+* Pppd will now create the directory for the TDB connection database
+ if it doesn't already exist.
-* Pppd should now compile correctly under linux on systems with glibc.
+* Various other bug fixes and minor enhancements.
-What was new in ppp-2.3.2.
+What was new in ppp-2.5.0.
**************************
-* 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.
-
-* Fix compilation problems in the Linux kernel driver.
-
-
-What was new in ppp-2.3.1.
-**************************
-
-* 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.
-
-* Fixed a bug which causes 2.3.0 to crash Solaris systems.
-
-* Bug-fixes and restructuring of the Linux kernel driver.
-
-* 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.
-
-* 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.
-
-* Under linux, pppd will work with older 2.2.0* version kernel
-drivers, although demand-dialling is not supported with them.
-
-* Minor bugfixes for pppd.
-
-
-What was new in ppp-2.3.
-************************
-
-* 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.
-
-
-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.
+The 2.5.0 release is a major release of pppd which contains breaking
+changes for third-party plugins, a complete revamp of the build-system
+and that allows for flexibility of configuring features as needed.
+
+In Summary:
+* Support for PEAP authentication by Eivind Næss and Rustam Kovhaev
+* Support for loading PKCS12 certificate envelopes
+* Adoption of GNU Autoconf / Automake build environment, by Eivind Næss
+ and others.
+* Support for pkgconfig tool has been added by Eivind Næss.
+* Bunch of fixes and cleanup to PPPoE and IPv6 support by Pali Rohár.
+* Major revision to PPPD's Plugin API by Eivind Næss.
+ - Defines in which describes what features was included in pppd
+ - Functions now prefixed with explicit ppp_* to indicate that
+ pppd functions being called.
+ - Header files were renamed to better align with their features,
+ and now use proper include guards
+ - A pppdconf.h file is supplied to allow third-party modules to use
+ the same feature defines pppd was compiled with.
+ - No extern declarations of internal variable names of pppd,
+ continued use of these extern variables are considered
+ unstable.
+* Lots of internal fixes and cleanups for Radius and PPPoE by Jaco Kroon
+* Dropped IPX support, as Linux has dropped support in version 5.15
+ for this protocol.
+* Many more fixes and cleanups.
+* Pppd is no longer installed setuid-root.
+* New pppd options:
+ - ipv6cp-noremote, ipv6cp-nosend, ipv6cp-use-remotenumber,
+ ipv6-up-script, ipv6-down-script
+ - -v, show-options
+ - usepeerwins, ipcp-no-address, ipcp-no-addresses, nosendip
+* On Linux, any baud rate can be set on a serial port provided the
+ kernel serial driver supports that.
+
+Note that if you have built and installed previous versions of this
+package and you want to continue having configuration and TDB files in
+/etc/ppp, you will need to use the --sysconfdir option to ./configure.
+
+For a list of the changes made during the 2.4 series releases of this
+package, see the Changes-2.4 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.
Contacts.
*********
-The comp.protocols.ppp newsgroup is a useful place to get help if you
-have trouble getting your ppp connections to work. Please do not send
-me questions of the form "please help me get connected to my ISP" -
-I'm sorry, but I simply do not have the time to answer all the
-questions like this that I get.
+Most communication relating to this package happens on github at
+https://github.com/ppp-project/ppp/. The linux-ppp@vger.kernel.org
+mailing list also exists and can be used.
-If you find bugs in this package, please report them to the maintainer
-for the port for the operating system you are using:
+If you find bugs in this package, the best thing to do is to create an
+issue on github. If you can't or don't want to do that, you can post
+to linux-ppp@vger.kernel.org, or 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@ozlabs.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 $)
projects / ppp.git / blobdiff