PPPCTL(8) BSD System Manager's Manual PPPCTL(8)
pppctl - PPP control program
pppctl [-v] [-p passwd] [-t n] [host:]port | LocalSocket
[command [;command ...]]
This program provides command line control of the ppp(8) daemon. Its pri-
mary use is to facilitate simple scripts that control a running daemon.
pppctl is passed at least one argument, specifying the socket on which
ppp(8) is listening. Refer to the set server command of ppp(8) for de-
tails. If the socket contains a leading '/', it is taken as an AF_LOCAL
socket. If it contains a colon, it is treated as a host:port pair, other-
wise it is treated as a TCP port specification on the local machine
(127.0.0.1). Both the host and port may be specified numerically if you
wish to avoid a DNS lookup or don't have an entry for the given port in
/etc/services.
All remaining arguments are concatenated to form the command(s) that will
be sent to the ppp(8) daemon. If any semi-colon characters are found,
they are treated as command delimiters, allowing more than one command in
a given "session". For example (adding a route):
pppctl 3000 add 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 127.0.0.1\; show route
Don't forget to escape or quote the ';' as it is a special character for
most shells.
If no command arguments are given, pppctl enters interactive mode, where
commands are read from standard input. When reading commands, the
editline(3) library is used, allowing command-line editing (with
editrc(5) defining editing behaviour). The history size defaults to 20
lines.
The following command line options are available:
-p passwd Specify the password required by the ppp(8) daemon. If this
switch is not used, pppctl will prompt for a password once
it has successfully connected to ppp(8).
-t n Use a timeout of n instead of the default 2 seconds when
connecting. This may be required if you wish to control a
daemon over a slow (or even a dialup) link.
-v Display all data sent to and received from the ppp(8) dae-
mon. Normally, pppctl displays only non-prompt lines re-
ceived. This option is ignored in interactive mode.
The following environment variables are understood by pppctl when in in-
teractive mode:
EL_SIZE The number of history lines. The default is 20.
EL_EDITOR The edit mode. Only values of "emacs" and "vi" are accepted.
Other values are silently ignored. This environment variable
will override the "bind -v" and "bind -e" commands in
~/.editrc.
If you run ppp(8) in -auto mode, pppctl can be used to automate many fre-
quent tasks (you can actually control ppp(8) in any mode except interac-
tive mode). Use of the -p option is discouraged (even in scripts that
aren't readable by others) as a ps(1) listing may reveal your secret.
The best way to allow easy, secure pppctl access is to create a local
server socket in /etc/ppp/ppp.conf (in the correct section) like this:
set server /var/run/internet "" 0177
This will instruct ppp to create a local domain socket, with srw-------
permissions and no password, allowing access only to the user that in-
voked ppp. Refer to the ppp(8) man page for further details.
You can now create some easy-access scripts. To connect to the Internet:
#!/bin/mksh
test $# -eq 0 && time=300 || time=$1
exec pppctl /var/run/internet set timeout $time\; dial
To disconnect:
#!/bin/mksh
exec pppctl /var/run/internet set timeout 300\; close
To check if the line is up:
#!/bin/mksh
pppctl -p '' -v /var/run/internet quit | grep ^PPP >/dev/null
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
echo Link is up
else
echo Link is down
fi
You can even make a generic script:
#!/bin/mksh
exec pppctl /var/run/internet "$@"
ps(1), editline(3), editrc(5), services(5), ppp(8)
The pppctl command first appeared in FreeBSD 2.2.5.
MirBSD #10-current June 26, 1997 1