usr.sbin/pppctl/pppctl.8

.Dd June 26, 1997
.Dt PPPCTL 8
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm pppctl
.Nd PPP control program
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Fl v
.Op Fl t Ar n
.Op Fl p Ar passwd
.Xo Oo Ar host : Oc Ns
.Ar Port | LocalSocket
.Xc
.Oo
.Sm off
.Ar command Oo ; Ar command Oc Ar ...
.Sm on
.Oc
.Sh DESCRIPTION
This utility provides command line control of the
.Xr ppp 8
daemon.
Its primary use is to facilitate simple scripts that
control a running daemon.
.Pp
The
.Nm
utility is passed at least one argument, specifying the socket on which
.Nm ppp
is listening.
Refer to the
.Sq set server
command of
.Nm ppp
for details.
If the socket contains a leading '/', it
is taken as an
.Dv AF_LOCAL
socket.
If it contains a colon, it is treated as a
.Ar host : Ns Ar port
pair, otherwise it is treated as a TCP port specification on the
local machine (127.0.0.1).
Both the
.Ar host
and
.Ar port
may be specified numerically if you wish to avoid a DNS lookup
or do not have an entry for the given port in
.Pa /etc/services .
.Pp
All remaining arguments are concatenated to form the
.Ar command Ns (s)
that will be sent to the
.Nm ppp
daemon.
If any semi-colon characters are found, they are treated as
.Ar command
delimiters, allowing more than one
.Ar command
in a given
.Sq session .
For example:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
pppctl 3000 set timeout 300\\; show timeout
.Ed
.Pp
Do not forget to escape or quote the ';' as it is a special character
for most shells.
.Pp
If no
.Ar command
arguments are given,
.Nm
enters interactive mode, where commands are read from standard input.
When reading commands, the
.Xr editline 3
library is used, allowing command-line editing (with
.Xr editrc 5
defining editing behaviour).
The history size
defaults to
.Em 20 lines .
.Pp
The following command line options are available:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl v
Display all data sent to and received from the
.Nm ppp
daemon.
Normally,
.Nm
displays only non-prompt lines received.
This option is ignored in
interactive mode.
.It Fl t Ar n
Use a timeout of
.Ar 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.
.It Fl p Ar passwd
Specify the password required by the
.Nm ppp
daemon.
If this switch is not used,
.Nm
will prompt for a password once it has successfully connected to
.Nm ppp .
.El
.Sh ENVIRONMENT
The following environment variables are understood by
.Nm
when in interactive mode:
.Bl -tag -width XXXXXXXXXX
.It Dv EL_SIZE
The number of history lines.
The default is 20.
.It Dv EL_EDITOR
The edit mode.
Only values of "emacs" and "vi" are accepted.
Other values
are silently ignored.
This environment variable will override the
.Ar bind -v
and
.Ar bind -e
commands in
.Pa ~/.editrc .
.El
.Sh EXAMPLES
If you run
.Nm ppp
in
.Fl auto
mode,
.Nm
can be used to automate many frequent tasks (you can actually control
.Nm ppp
in any mode except interactive mode).
Use of the
.Fl p
option is discouraged (even in scripts that are not readable by others)
as a
.Xr ps 1
listing may reveal your secret.
.Pp
The best way to allow easy, secure
.Nm
access is to create a local server socket in
.Pa /etc/ppp/ppp.conf
(in the correct section) like this:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
set server /var/run/internet "" 0177
.Ed
.Pp
This will instruct
.Nm ppp
to create a local domain socket, with srw------- permissions and no
password, allowing access only to the user that invoked
.Nm ppp .
Refer to the
.Xr ppp 8
man page for further details.
.Pp
You can now create some easy-access scripts.
To connect to the internet:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
#! /bin/sh
test $# -eq 0 && time=300 || time=$1
exec pppctl /var/run/internet set timeout $time\\; dial
.Ed
.Pp
To disconnect:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
#! /bin/sh
exec pppctl /var/run/internet set timeout 300\\; close
.Ed
.Pp
To check if the line is up:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
#! /bin/sh
pppctl -p '' -v /var/run/internet quit | grep ^PPP >/dev/null
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
  echo Link is up
else
  echo Link is down
fi
.Ed
.Pp
You can even make a generic script:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
#! /bin/sh
exec pppctl /var/run/internet "$@"
.Ed
.Pp
You could also use
.Nm
to control when dial-on-demand works.
Suppose you want
.Nm ppp
to run all the time, but you want to prevent dial-out between 8pm and 8am
each day.
However, any connections active at 8pm should continue to remain
active until they are closed or naturally time out.
.Pp
A
.Xr cron 8
entry for 8pm which runs
.Bd -literal -offset indent
pppctl /var/run/internet set filter dial 0 deny 0 0
.Ed
.Pp
will block all further dial requests, and the corresponding 8am entry
.Bd -literal -offset indent
pppctl /var/run/internet set filter dial -1
.Ed
.Pp
will allow them again.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr ps 1 ,
.Xr editline 3 ,
.Xr editrc 5 ,
.Xr services 5 ,
.Xr ppp 8
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
utility first appeared in
.Fx 2.2.5 .