ppp-2.4.3/README - platform/external/ppp - Git at Google

 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.


 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 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
 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.
 *************

 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:

 	Linux				README.linux
 	Solaris				README.sol2

 In each case you start by running the ./configure script.  This works
 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
 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-2.4.3.
 ************************

 * 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.

 * Doing `make install' no longer puts example configuration files in
   /etc/ppp.  Use `make install-etcppp' if you want that.

 * 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.

 * 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.

 * Various fixes and enhancements to the radius and rp-pppoe plugins
   have been added.

 * There is a new winbind plugin, from Andrew Bartlet of the Samba
   team, which provides the ability to authenticate the peer against an
   NT domain controller using MS-CHAP or MS-CHAPV2.

 * There is a new pppoatm plugin, by various authors, sent in by David
   Woodhouse.

 * The multilink code has been substantially reworked.  The first pppd
   for a bundle still controls the ppp interface, but it doesn't exit
   until all the links in the bundle have terminated.  If the first
   pppd is signalled to exit, it signals all the other pppds
   controlling links in the bundle.

 * The TDB code has been updated to the latest version.  This should
   eliminate the problem that some people have seen where the database
   file (/var/run/pppd.tdb) keeps on growing.  Unfortunately, however,
   the new code uses an incompatible database format.  For this reason,
   pppd now uses /var/run/pppd2.tdb as the database filename.


 What was new in ppp-2.4.2.
 **************************

 * 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.

 * 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'.

 * Fixed several bugs, including potential buffer overflows in chat.


 What was new in ppp-2.4.1.
 **************************

 * 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.

 * 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.

 * 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.

 * 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;

 * 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.

 * Pppd should compile on Solaris and SunOS again.

 * Pppd should now set the MTU correctly on demand-dialled interfaces.


 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.

 * 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 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).  Apparently the Unisys patent expired in the US on 20 June
 2003, but the IBM patent is still pending.

 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.
 *********

 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:

 Linux			Paul Mackerras <paulus@samba.org>
 Solaris			James Carlson <carlson@workingcode.com>


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

 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://ftp.samba.org/pub/ppp/


 ($Id: README,v 1.35 2004/11/13 12:25:54 paulus Exp $)
	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.


	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 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
	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.
	*************

	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:

	Linux README.linux
	Solaris README.sol2

	In each case you start by running the ./configure script. This works
	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
	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-2.4.3.
	************************

	* 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.

	* Doing `make install' no longer puts example configuration files in
	/etc/ppp. Use `make install-etcppp' if you want that.

	* 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.

	* 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.

	* Various fixes and enhancements to the radius and rp-pppoe plugins
	have been added.

	* There is a new winbind plugin, from Andrew Bartlet of the Samba
	team, which provides the ability to authenticate the peer against an
	NT domain controller using MS-CHAP or MS-CHAPV2.

	* There is a new pppoatm plugin, by various authors, sent in by David
	Woodhouse.

	* The multilink code has been substantially reworked. The first pppd
	for a bundle still controls the ppp interface, but it doesn't exit
	until all the links in the bundle have terminated. If the first
	pppd is signalled to exit, it signals all the other pppds
	controlling links in the bundle.

	* The TDB code has been updated to the latest version. This should
	eliminate the problem that some people have seen where the database
	file (/var/run/pppd.tdb) keeps on growing. Unfortunately, however,
	the new code uses an incompatible database format. For this reason,
	pppd now uses /var/run/pppd2.tdb as the database filename.


	What was new in ppp-2.4.2.
	**************************

	* 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.

	* 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'.

	* Fixed several bugs, including potential buffer overflows in chat.


	What was new in ppp-2.4.1.
	**************************

	* 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.

	* 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.

	* 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.

	* 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;

	* 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.

	* Pppd should compile on Solaris and SunOS again.

	* Pppd should now set the MTU correctly on demand-dialled interfaces.


	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.

	* 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 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). Apparently the Unisys patent expired in the US on 20 June
	2003, but the IBM patent is still pending.

	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.
	*********

	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:

	Linux Paul Mackerras <paulus@samba.org>
	Solaris James Carlson <carlson@workingcode.com>


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

	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://ftp.samba.org/pub/ppp/


	($Id: README,v 1.35 2004/11/13 12:25:54 paulus Exp $)