1 What was new in ppp-2.3.11.
2 ***************************
4 * Support for Solaris 8 has been added, including support for
7 * The Solaris `snoop' utility should now work on ppp interfaces.
9 * New hooks have been added - pap_logout_hook, ip_up_hook, and
12 * A new `passprompt' plugin is included, thanks to Alan Curry, which
13 makes it possible for pppd to call an external program to get the
14 PAP password to send to the peer.
16 * The error messages for the situation where authentication is
17 required because the system has a default route have been improved.
19 * There is a new connect_delay option which specifies how long pppd
20 should pause after the connect script finishes. Previously this
21 delay was fixed at 1 second. (This delay terminates as soon as pppd
22 sees a valid PPP frame from the peer.)
24 * The `hide-password' option is now the default, and there is a new
25 `show-password' option to enable the printing of password strings in
28 * A fairly complete list of the names of PPP protocols has been added
29 so that when pppd rejects a frame because its protocol is not
30 supported, it can print the name of the unsupported protocol.
32 * Synchronous serial lines are supported under Linux 2.3.x.
34 * The bug where pppd would not recognize a modem hangup under Linux
35 2.3.x kernels has been fixed.
38 What was new in ppp-2.3.10.
39 ***************************
41 * Pppd now supports `plugins', which are pieces of code (packaged as
42 shared libraries) which can be loaded into pppd at runtime and which
43 can affect its behaviour. The intention is that plugins provide a
44 way for people to customize the behaviour of pppd for their own
45 needs without needing to change the base pppd source. I have added
46 some hooks into pppd (places where pppd will call a function
47 pointer, if non-zero, to replace some of pppd's code) and I will be
48 receptive to suggestions about places to add more hooks. Plugins
49 are supported under Linux and Solaris at present.
51 * We have a new maintainer for the Solaris port, Adi Masputra of Sun
52 Microsystems, and he has updated the Solaris port so that it should
53 work on 64-bit machines under Solaris 7 and later.
55 * Pppd now has an `allow-ip' option, which takes an argument which is
56 an IP address (or subnet) which peers are permitted to use without
57 authenticating themselves. The argument takes the same form as each
58 element of the allowed IP address list in the secrets files. The
59 allow-ip option is privileged and may be specified multiple times.
60 Using the allow-ip option should be cleaner than putting a line like
61 `"" * "" address' in /etc/ppp/pap-secrets.
63 * Chat can now substitute environment variables into the script. This
64 is enabled by the -E flag. (Thanks to Andreas Arens for the patch.)
66 * If the PAP username and password from the peer contains unprintable
67 characters, they will be translated to a printable form before
68 looking in the pap-secrets file. Characters >= 0x80 are translated
69 to a M- form, and characters from 0 to 0x1f (and 0x7f as well) are
70 translated to a ^X form. If this change causes you grief, let me
71 know what would be a better translation. It appears that some peers
72 send nulls or other control characters in their usernames and
75 * Pppd has new `ktune' and `noktune' options, which enable/disable
76 it to change kernel settings as appropriate. This is only
77 implemented under Linux, and requires the /proc filesystem to be
78 mounted. Under Linux, with the ktune option, pppd will enable IP
79 forwarding in the kernel if the proxyarp option is used, and will
80 enable the dynamic IP address kernel option in demand mode if the
81 local IP address changes.
83 * Pppd no longer requires a remote address to be specified for demand
84 dialling. If none is specified, it will use a default value of
85 10.112.112.112+unit_number. (It will not propose this default to
88 * The default holdoff is now 0 if no connect script is given.
90 * The IPV6 code from Tommi Komulainen, which I unfortunately only
91 partially merged in to ppp-2.3.9, has been fixed and updated.
93 * The linux compilation glitches should be fixed now.
96 What was new in ppp-2.3.9.
97 **************************
99 * Support for the new generic PPP layer under development for the
102 * You can now place extra options to apply to specific users at the
103 end of the line with their password in the pap-secrets or
104 chap-secrets file, separated from the IP address(es) with a "--"
105 separator. These options are parsed after the peer is authenticated
106 but before network protocol (IPCP, IPXCP) or CCP negotiation
109 * Pppd will apply the holdoff period if the link was terminated by the
110 peer. It doesn't apply it if the link was terminated because the
111 local pppd thought it was idle.
113 * Synchronous support for Solaris has been added, thanks to John
114 Morrison, and for FreeBSD, thanks to Paul Fulghum.
116 * IPV6 support has been merged in, from Tommi Komulainen. At the
117 moment it only supports Linux and it is not tested by me.
119 * The `nodefaultip' option can be used in demand mode to say that pppd
120 should not suggest its local IP address to the peer.
122 * The `init' option has been added; this causes pppd to run a script
123 to initialize the serial device (e.g. by sending an init string to
124 the modem). Unlike the connect option, this can be used in a
125 dial-in situation. (Thanks to Tobias Ringstrom.)
127 * There is a new `logfile' option to send log messages to a file as
130 * There is a new, privileged `linkname' option which sets a logical
131 name for the link. Pppd will create a /var/run/ppp-<linkname>.pid
132 file containing its process ID.
134 * There is a new `maxfail' option which specifies how many consecutive
135 failed connection attempts are permitted before pppd will exit. The
136 default value is 10, and 0 means infinity. :-)
141 What was new in ppp-2.3.8.
142 **************************
144 * The exit status of pppd will now indicate whether the link was
145 successfully established, or if not, what error was encountered.
147 * Pppd has two new options: fdlog <n> will send log messages to file
148 descriptor <n> instead of standard output, and nofdlog will stop log
149 messages from being sent to any file descriptor (they will still be
150 sent to syslog). Pppd now will not send log messages to a file
151 descriptor if the serial port is open on that file descriptor.
153 * Pppd sets an environment variable called PPPLOGNAME for scripts that
154 it runs, indicating the login name of the user who invoked pppd.
156 * Pppd sets environment variables CONNECT_TIME, BYTES_SENT and
157 BYTES_RCVD for the ip-down and auth-down scripts indicating the
158 statistics for the connection just terminated. (CONNECT_TIME is in
161 * If the user has the serial device open on standard input and
162 specifies a symbolic link to the serial device on the command line,
163 pppd will detect this and behave correctly (i.e. not detach from its
164 controlling terminal). Furthermore, if the serial port is open for
165 reading and writing on standard input, pppd will assume that it is
166 locked by its invoker and not lock it itself.
168 * Chat now has a feature where if a string to be sent begins with an
169 at sign (@), the rest of the string is taken as the name of a file
170 (regular file or named pipe), and the actual string to send is taken
173 * Support for FreeBSD-2.2.8 and 3.0 has been added, thanks to Paul
176 * The Tru64 (aka Digital Unix aka OSF/1) port has been updated.
178 * The system panics on Solaris SMP systems related to PPP connections
179 being established and terminated should no longer occur.
181 * Fixed quite a few bugs.
184 What was new in ppp-2.3.7.
185 **************************
187 * Pppd can now automatically allocate itself a pseudo-tty to use as
188 the serial device. This has made three new options possible:
190 - `pty script' will run `script' with its standard input and output
191 connected to the master side of the pty. For example:
192 pppd pty 'ssh -t server.my.net pppd'
193 is a basic command for setting up a PPP link (tunnel) over ssh.
194 (In practice you may need to specify other options such as IP
197 - `notty' tells pppd to communicate over its standard input and
198 output, which do not have to be a terminal device.
200 - `record filename' tells pppd to record all of the characters sent
201 and received over the serial device to a file called `filename'.
202 The data is recorded in a tagged format with timestamps, which can
203 be printed in a readable form with the pppdump program, which is
204 included in this distribution.
206 * Pppd now logs the connect time and number of bytes sent and received
207 (at the level of the serial device) when the connection is
210 * If you use the updetach or nodetach option, pppd will print its
211 messages to standard output as well as logging them with syslog
212 (provided of course pppd isn't using its standard input or output as
215 * There is a new `privgroup groupname' option (a privileged option).
216 If the user running pppd is in group `groupname', s/he can use
217 privileged options without restriction.
219 * There is a new `receive-all' option, which causes pppd to accept all
220 control characters, even the ones that the peer should be escaping
221 (i.e. the receive asyncmap is 0). This is useful with some buggy
224 * The default asyncmap is now 0.
226 * There is a new `sync' option, currently only implemented under
227 Linux, which allows pppd to run on synchronous HDLC devices.
229 * If a value for the device name or for the connect, disconnect,
230 welcome or pty option is given in a privileged option file
231 (i.e. /etc/ppp/options or a file loaded with the `call' option), it
232 cannot be overridden by a non-privileged user.
234 * Many bugs have been fixed, notably:
235 - signals are not blocked unnecessarily, as they were in 2.3.6.
236 - the usepeerdns option should work now.
237 - the SPEED environment variable for scripts is set correctly.
238 - the /etc/ppp/auth-down script is not run until auth-up completes.
239 - the device is opened as root if it is the device on standard
241 - pppd doesn't die with the ioctl(PPPIOCSASYNCMAP) error under linux
242 if a hangup occurs at the wrong time.
244 * Some error messages have been changed to be clearer (I hope :-)
247 What was new in ppp-2.3.6.
248 **************************
250 * Pppd now opens the tty device as the user (rather than as root) if
251 the device name was given by the user, i.e. on the command line or
252 in the ~/.ppprc file. If the device name was given in
253 /etc/ppp/options or in a file loaded with the `call' option, the
254 device is opened as root.
256 * The default behaviour of pppd is now to let a peer which has not
257 authenticated itself (e.g. your ISP) use any IP address to which the
258 system does not already have a route. (This is currently only
259 supported under Linux, Solaris and Digital Unix; on the other
260 systems, the peer must now authenticate itself unless the noauth
263 * Added new option `usepeerdns', thanks to Nick Walker
264 <nickwalker@email.com>. If the peer supplies DNS addresses, these
265 will be written to /etc/ppp/resolv.conf. The ip-up script can then
266 be used to add these addresses to /etc/resolv.conf if desired (see
267 the ip-up.local.add and ip-down.local.add files in the scripts
270 * The Solaris ppp driver should now work correctly on SMP systems.
272 * Minor corrections so that the code can compile under Solaris 7,
273 and under Linux with glibc-2.1.
275 * The Linux kernel driver has been restructured for improved
278 * Pppd now won't start the ip-down script until the ip-up script has
282 What was new in ppp-2.3.5.
283 **************************
285 * Minor corrections to the Digital UNIX and NetBSD ports.
287 * A workaround to avoid tickling a bug in the `se' serial port driver
288 on Sun PCI Ultra machines running Solaris.
290 * Fixed a bug in the negotiation of the Microsoft WINS server address
293 * Fixed a bug in the Linux port where it would fail for kernel
294 versions above 2.1.99.
297 What was new in ppp-2.3.4.
298 **************************
300 * The NeXT port has been updated, thanks to Steve Perkins.
302 * ppp-2.3.4 compiles and works under Solaris 2.6, using either gcc or
305 * With the Solaris, SVR4 and SunOS ports, you can control the choice
306 of C compiler, C compiler options, and installation directories by
307 editing the svr4/Makedefs or sunos4/Makedefs file.
309 * Until now, we have been using the number 24 to identify Deflate
310 compression in the CCP negotiations, which was the number in the draft
311 RFC describing Deflate. The number actually assigned to Deflate is
312 26. The code has been changed to use 26, but to allow the use of 24
313 for now for backwards compatibility. (This can be disabled with the
314 `nodeflatedraft' option to pppd.)
316 * Fixed some bugs in the linux driver and deflate compressor which
317 were causing compression problems, including corrupting long
318 incompressible packets sometimes.
320 * Fixes to the PAM and shadow password support in pppd, from Al
323 * Pppd now sets some environment variables for scripts it invokes
324 (ip-up/down, auth-ip/down), giving information about the connection.
325 The variables it sets are PEERNAME, IPLOCAL, IPREMOTE, UID, DEVICE,
328 * Pppd now has an `updetach' option, which will cause it to detach
329 from its controlling terminal once the link has come up (i.e. once it
330 is available for IP traffic).
333 What was new in ppp-2.3.3.
334 **************************
336 * Fixed compilation problems under SunOS.
338 * Fixed a bug introduced into chat in 2.3.2, and compilation problems
339 introduced into the MS-CHAP implementation in 2.3.2.
341 * The linux kernel driver has been updated for recent 2.1-series
342 kernel changes, and it now will ask kerneld to load compression
343 modules when required, if the kernel is configured to support kerneld.
345 * Pppd should now compile correctly under linux on systems with glibc.
348 What was new in ppp-2.3.2.
349 **************************
351 * In 2.3.1, I made a change which was intended to make pppd able to
352 detect loss of CD during or immediately after the connection script
353 runs. Unfortunately, this had the side-effect that the connection
354 script wouldn't work at all on some systems. This change has been
357 * Fix compilation problems in the Linux kernel driver.
360 What was new in ppp-2.3.1.
361 **************************
363 * Enhancements to chat, thanks to Francis Demierre. Chat can now
364 accept comments in the chat script file, and has new SAY, HANGUP,
365 CLR_ABORT and CLR_REPORT keywords.
367 * Fixed a bug which causes 2.3.0 to crash Solaris systems.
369 * Bug-fixes and restructuring of the Linux kernel driver.
371 * The holdoff behaviour of pppd has been changed slightly: now, if
372 the link comes up for IP (or other network protocol) traffic, we
373 consider that the link has been successfully established, and don't
374 enforce the holdoff period after the link goes down.
376 * Pppd should now correctly wait for CD (carrier detect) from the
377 modem, even when the serial port initially had CLOCAL set, and it
378 should also detect loss of CD during or immediately after the
379 connection script runs.
381 * Under linux, pppd will work with older 2.2.0* version kernel
382 drivers, although demand-dialling is not supported with them.
384 * Minor bugfixes for pppd.
387 What was new in ppp-2.3.
388 ************************
390 * Demand-dialling. Pppd now has a mode where it will establish the
391 network interface immediately when it starts, but not actually bring
392 the link up until it sees some data to be sent. Look for the demand
393 option description in the pppd man page. Demand-dialling is not
394 supported under Ultrix or NeXTStep.
396 * Idle timeout. Pppd will optionally terminate the link if no data
397 packets are sent or received within a certain time interval.
399 * Pppd now runs the /etc/ppp/auth-up script, if it exists, when the
400 peer successfully authenticates itself, and /etc/ppp/auth-down when
401 the connection is subsequently terminated. This can be useful for
404 * A new packet compression scheme, Deflate, has been implemented.
405 This uses the same compression method as `gzip'. This method is free
406 of patent or copyright restrictions, and it achieves better
407 compression than BSD-Compress. It does consume more CPU cycles for
408 compression than BSD-Compress, but this shouldn't be a problem for
409 links running at 100kbit/s or less.
411 * There is no code in this distribution which is covered by Brad
412 Clements' restrictive copyright notice. The STREAMS modules for SunOS
413 and OSF/1 have been rewritten, based on the Solaris 2 modules, which
414 were written from scratch without any Clements code.
416 * Pppstats has been reworked to clean up the output format somewhat.
417 It also has a new -d option which displays data rate in kbyte/s for
418 those columns which would normally display bytes.
420 * Pppd options beginning with - or + have been renamed, e.g. -ip
421 became noip, +chap became require-chap, etc. The old options are
422 still accepted for compatibility but may be removed in future.
424 * Pppd now has some options (such as the new `noauth' option) which
425 can only be specified if it is being run by root, or in an
426 "privileged" options file: /etc/ppp/options or an options file in the
427 /etc/ppp/peers directory. There is a new "call" option to read
428 options from a file in /etc/ppp/peers, making it possible for non-root
429 users to make unauthenticated connections, but only to certain trusted
430 peers. My intention is to make the `auth' option the default in a
433 * Several minor new features have been added to pppd, including the
434 maxconnect and welcome options. Pppd will now terminate the
435 connection when there are no network control protocols running. The
436 allowed IP address(es) field in the secrets files can now specify
437 subnets (with a notation like 123.45.67.89/24) and addresses which are
438 not acceptable (put a ! on the front).
440 * Numerous bugs have been fixed (no doubt some have been introduced :-)
441 Thanks to those who reported bugs in ppp-2.2.