[plug] Funny pppd messages in logs

[Christian]

On Mon, 30 Nov 1998, John Summerfield wrote:

> > I haven't looked too closely into the configuration yet but does anyone
> > have any idea what the problem might be?
> 
> better to look before asking. You might have found this with "man pppd" and
> decided to check what options you have on the commandline and in /etc/ppp.
>        debug  Enables connection debugging facilities.   If  this
>               option  is given, pppd will log the contents of all
>               control packets sent  or  received  in  a  readable
>               form.   The  packets are logged through syslog with
>               facility daemon and level debug.  This  information
>               can  be  directed to a file by setting up /etc/sys-
>               log.conf appropriately (see syslog.conf(5)).

Firstly let's clear up the matter of identity here.  I wrote the original
post from Oliver's account since I'd just fiddled around and got it to
connect up.  I had debug option on in order to see what was happening and
left it on however the little thing I neglected to mention in the previous
post was that the lines pppd was writing to the log file were not during
the initial setup/negotiation but well after the connection was fully
established (IP address assigned etc.) and the lines were being written
every couple of seconds.

My experience using pppd is with version 2.2.0 (this version was 2.3.5 or
something I think - whatever the one which ships with Debian 2.0 is) and
version 2.2.0 only writes the debug lines with the control information
during connection negotiation.  I've never seen pppd write such lines to a
log file after the connection has been fully established.  There is also
nothing in the pppd manual for 2.2.0 which suggests a different pattern of
behaviour from the portion of the 2.3.5 (I assume) manual posted above. 

Hence the question is still legitimate: what is causing those extra LCP
packets and hence the lines in the log file?  Are LCP packets being
continuously sent throughout the course of a normal connection (perhaps
someone who knows a bit more about ppp can answer this - even if just for
curiousity's sake) and the semantics of the debug option of pppd vary from
version to version in a way not detailed in the manual?  Or are the LCP
packets being sent because of some misconfiguration or problem with the
link? 

With regard to looking before asking, it would be pretty rare for me not
to make some effort to find the answer myself before bothering others with
a question. In fact, reading manuals/web-pages/howtos etc. was something I
advocated a few months ago as a way of reducing the amount of noise on
this list.  This was largely rejected since the majority of people
complained that they considered the people on this list to be mates and
wanted to be able to say whatever they wanted whenever they wanted.  I
could be wrong but I believe John, you were one of these people who
advocated this.  Therefore I find it a little strange to now find you
suggesting the opposite now.  However, I hope it is clear that I had
checked the manual for pppd and had no reason to expect different
behaviour from the later version given the information in the manual and
that there is still a question to be answered.

Regards,

Christian.