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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!nntp.coast.net!dispatch.news.demon.net!demon!awfulhak.demon.co.uk!awfulhak.demon.co.uk!awfulhak.demon.co.uk!not-for-mail From: brian@awfulhak.demon.co.uk (Brian Somers) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Problem with PPPD dial script(s) Date: 10 Jul 1996 18:13:12 +0100 Organization: Coverform Ltd. Lines: 60 Message-ID: <4s0ob8$9n@anorak.coverform.lan> References: <HUFF.96Jul7001252@sunspot.tiac.net> <4rrf2f$fg@anorak.coverform.lan> <4ruq0b$or7@cronkite.cisco.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: localhost.coverform.lan X-NNTP-Posting-Host: awfulhak.demon.co.uk X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Tim Iverson (iverson@cisco.com) wrote: : In article <4rrf2f$fg@anorak.coverform.lan>, : Brian Somers <brian@awfulhak.demon.co.uk> wrote: : |Robert Huff (huff@sunspot.tiac.net) wrote: : |: I'm setting up kernel PPP and the sample scripts provided in : |: the Handbook don't work. : | : |This is one of the reasons I stopped using it. ijppp (prog: ppp) : |is infinitely better - it dials, allows auto-connection, firewalling : |etc. I'd advise this approach. : Hmmm. Iijppp is easier to play with for simple setups, but it has serious : drawbacks. The biggest being that it never execs another program to do : anything for it -- everything must be done from within iijppp's own internal : scripting language. I need to configure NAT from a dynamically assigned IP : when I dial up. Can't do this with iijppp. I want to do such things too. I have patched ppp so that it runs /etc/ppp/ppp.etherup after connecting. : |ijppp allows you to run "chat" from within the program (fork/exec). : |Here, chat inherits the serial descriptors, reads & writes the necessary : No. At least not in the 2.1-release that I have. Take a look at the : source; iijppp never calls the chat program. Instead, some of the source : code from chat was copied into iijppp. IMHO, this is poor engineering and : a major design flaw -- always use an existing tool unless there is some : large gain to be made by not doing so. : BTW, the documentation does say that iijppp fork/execs chat. It lies. ;-) I agree - sorry for the mis-information, I *assumed* that ppp was doing the correct thing. : |If you *really* have a good reason for not using ijppp, the only : |satisfactory way I found was to get your modem not to drop carrier : |on loss of DTR for a long time (say 255 hundreths of a second). : |You can then write a script that kermits, then *immediately* : |runs pppd. As long as pppd re-opens the line within your 2.55 : |second limit, you keep carrier. : Umm, no. Open the line, run chat, run pppd, close line. If you need : special dialing, use xchat from tUUCP (it can do anything). Documentation : seems to indicate that pppd can open the line and then run chat for you, : but none of the example scripts use this capability. Oops, you're right again. I'm sure that when I first did this nasty hack, pppd insisted on opening the serial device itself - without any O_NONBLOCK flag. So, a script that says ( chat .....; pppd .... ) </dev/cuaa0 >&0 2>/tmp/ppp.err & should do the trick.... Nice one - although you won't get a nice uucp lock file (will you?). -- Brian <brian@awfulhak.demon.co.uk> Don't _EVER_ lose your sense of humour....