PPP(8)                    BSD System Manager's Manual                   PPP(8)

NAME
     ppp - establish PPP connection over dial-up asynchronous line

SYNOPSIS
     ppp [-d] [-x] [-s sysfile] [system-name]

DESCRIPTION
     Ppp is used to establish network connections with Point-to-Point Protocol
     (PPP) over dial-up asynchronous lines.  The program can be used in both
     originating and answering modes.  Ppp in originating mode dials the num-
     ber, performs the login sequence, attaches the line to a network inter-
     face and waits until the session is terminated.  In answering mode ppp is
     called as login shell from login(1) and attaches the line to a network
     interface for the duration of the session.  To operate in answering mode
     ppp should be called with no arguments.

     Ppp obtains the parameters of remote systems from a single configuration
     file (which will further be called the system file).  The name of the
     system file is /etc/ppp.sys. See ppp.sys(5) for the detailed description
     of the system file format.

     The following operands are supported by ppp:

     -d            Invokes originating ppp in daemon mode - the actual connec-
                   tion will not be initiated until an outgoing data packet
                   will be routed through the interface.  After termination of
                   the session ppp in daemon mode will not exit but will re-
                   turn to the standby mode and wait for outgoing packets.

     -x            Prints some debugging information about the progress of di-
                   aling and login sequences.

     -s sysfile    Use sysfile instead of /etc/ppp.sys as the system file.

     system-name   specifies the system to call; if omitted and -d is present
                   ppp will spawn background processes for every system entry
                   in system file which is marked as dial-out.  If neither
                   system-name nor -d are persent ppp assumes the answering
                   mode in which case the effiective system name is simply the
                   login user name.

     Ppp requires super-user priveleges.  Since ppp can configure the inter-
     face and PPP parameters there is no need to use ifconfig or pppconfig for
     dial-up links.  However, ppp does not add or change routes through PPP
     interfaces.  Usually ppp is called from a system reboot script.

     Although ppp is intended to be used on dial-up links it can be used on
     dedicated asynchronous circuits as well when pppattach functionality is
     not sufficient.

FILES
     /etc/ppp.sys                      The system file.

DIAGNOSTICS
     Diagnostics are, hopefully, self explanatory.

SEE ALSO
     ppp.sys(5),  ifconfig(8),  pppattach(8),  pppconfig(8),  appp(4),  ppp(4)

HISTORY
     The ppp command appeared in BSDI.

BUGS
     The daemon mode with no system specified is not implemented yet.

     It is not currently possible to allocate interfaces dynamically (see
     ppp.sys(5)).

     The program relies on the hardwired modem-specific dialing scripts.

 BSD/386                        March 27, 1993                               2