pppd(1M) pppd(1M)
NAME
pppd - Point-to-Point Protocol Daemon
SYNOPSIS
in.pppd [-d debug_level] [-w wait]
DESCRIPTION
The pppd command starts a daemon which manages the Point-to-
Point physical connection between the local and remote PPP
hosts. pppd uses the login-password technique to establish
PPP connections to remote hosts. pppd uses the configuration
files associated with the Basic Network Utilities (BNU) for
UNIX System V.
The method for configuring the serial IP link is similar to
that used for uucp(1C) or cu(1C). The serial lines may be
used interchangeably for standard user logins, uucp logins,
and PPP logins. The standard uucp lock file techniques are
used to share these resources.
Upon startup, pppd opens a control channel to the PPP STREAMS
kernel driver through /dev/ppcid and then listens for:
PPP status requests
incoming PPP connection requests
outgoing PPP connection requests
pppd listens at the port indicated in the ``pppmsg'' service
specification [see services(4)].
PPP status requests come from pppstat(1M), which sends
requests to pppd through a socket. pppd gets PPP status from
the PPP STREAMS kernel driver and sends that to pppstat.
Incoming PPP connection requests come from the PPP user shell
ppp(1M), which sends requests to pppd through a socket. pppd
extracts connection parameters from /etc/inet/ppphosts, passes
the parameters to the PPP STREAMS kernel driver, and links the
tty, through which the requester logged onto the local host,
beneath the PPP STREAMS kernel driver.
Outgoing PPP connection requests come from the PPP STREAMS
kernel driver. The PPP STREAMS kernel driver will send a
request over the control channel to pppd with the desired IP
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 1
pppd(1M) pppd(1M)
address. pppd searches /etc/inet/ppphosts [see ppphosts(4)]
for an entry with a host name corresponding to this IP
address. This entry, in conjunction with the
/etc/uucp/Systems file, is used to dial the modem (if
necessary) and perform a login into the remote host. When the
remote login process completes, pppd links the connected tty
beneath the PPP STREAMS kernel driver and informs PPP that the
link is established.
If password authentication is required for either incoming or
outgoing connection establishment, pppd consults the
pppauth(4) file to acquire authentication information.
Files
/dev/ppcid
/etc/inet/ppphosts
/etc/inet/pppauth
/usr/lib/uucp/Systems
/usr/lib/uucp/Devices
USAGE
Options are:
-d debug_level The value of debug_level specifies whether
debug information is logged using the
syslog(3G) facility.
A value of zero logs no debug information. A
non-zero value logs all debug information. The
default value for debug_level is zero.
-w wait The value of wait specifies the maximum number
of PPP connection requests which the system can
queue while waiting for pppd to execute the
accept system call.
Any connection requests that arrive when the
number of queued calls equals wait are
discarded by the system. The default value of
wait is 5. pppd passes wait as the second
parameter when calling the listen(3N) system
call.
REFERENCES
ASYHDLC(7), cu(1C), listen(3N), ppp(1M), PPP(7), ppphosts(4),
pppstat(1M), pppauth(4), syslogd(1M), uucp(1C)
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 2