path: root/README

This is the README file for ppp-2.3, a package which implements the
Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) to provide Internet connections over
serial lines.


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.

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.

- 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.


Installation.
*************

The file SETUP contains general information about setting up your
system for using PPP.  There is also a README file for each supported
system, which contains more specific details for installing PPP on
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.
The Ultrix port is untested, as I no longer have access to an Ultrix
box.

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.

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
permitted.  You need to put a "*" in that column to allow the peer to
use any IP address.  (This only applies where the peer is
authenticating itself to you, of course.)


What's new in ppp-2.3.4.
************************

* The NeXT port has been updated, thanks to Steve Perkins.

* ppp-2.3.4 compiles and works under Solaris 2.6, using either gcc or
cc.

* With the Solaris, SVR4 and SunOS ports, you can control the choice
of C compiler, C compiler options, and installation directories by
editing the svr4/Makedefs or sunos4/Makedefs file.

* Until now, we have been using the number 24 to identify Deflate
compression in the CCP negotiations, which was the number in the draft
RFC describing Deflate.  The number actually assigned to Deflate is
26.  The code has been changed to use 26, but to allow the use of 24
for now for backwards compatibility.  (This can be disabled with the
`nodeflatedraft' option to pppd.)

* Fixed some bugs in the linux driver and deflate compressor which
were causing compression problems, including corrupting long
incompressible packets sometimes.

* Fixes to the PAM and shadow password support in pppd, from Al
Longyear and others.

* Pppd now sets some environment variables for scripts it invokes
(ip-up/down, auth-ip/down), giving information about the connection.
The variables it sets are PEERNAME, IPLOCAL, IPREMOTE, UID, DEVICE,
SPEED, and IFNAME.

* Pppd now has an `updetach' option, which will cause it to detach
from its controlling terminal once the link has come up (i.e. once it
is available for IP traffic).


What was new in ppp-2.3.3.
**************************

* Fixed compilation problems under SunOS.

* Fixed a bug introduced into chat in 2.3.2, and compilation problems
introduced into the MS-CHAP implementation in 2.3.2.

* 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 should now compile correctly under linux on systems with glibc.


What was new in ppp-2.3.2.
**************************

* 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.

* 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.


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.

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 :-)


Copyrights:
***********

All of the code can be freely used and redistributed.


Distribution:
*************

The primary site for releases of this software is:

	ftp://cs.anu.edu.au/pub/software/ppp/


($Id: README,v 1.12 1998/03/31 04:31:33 paulus Exp $)