dunc(8)

NAME

dunc - configure a dial up networking client connection

SYNOPSIS

dunc [no options yet]

DESCRIPTION

dunc is a dialog based interactive, menu driven utility to help automate setting up a dial up network connection. It currently only handles vanilla ppp connections with some hooks for manual configuration. It creates (by default) the directory $HOME/.dunc where it stores its options and chatfiles. It keeps a control file in $HOME/.dunc2rc which is created the first time you run the program. This stores the values selected for the various prompts during program execution.

dunc actually does a few things: it creates a chat file (see chat(8)) to be used when calling pppd, it creates an options file to be used on the pppd command line as well, and it names them as <connection name>.cht or .ctn respectively.

These files are designed to be used without this utlity. The idea is to use this utility to create a profile for connecting to an ISP, for example, and then just use the dppp (see dppp(1)) script to make a dial up network connection anytime after that. During program execution, dunc needs to be run as root in order to do certain things, like update the /etc/ppp/options file or /etc/ppp/{pap,chap}-secrets files.

BUILT IN DOCUMENTATION

There is comprehensive help system on the utility and its components available from the menus.

ENVIRONMENT

The following environment variables may be set to augment dunc's default behavior:

DUNC_DIR: This is the base dirctory where ppp options (.ctn) and chat (.cht) files get written to. The default is $HOME/.dunc

DACU_RC: This is the control file that contains the state information between program runs. It defaults to $HOME/.duncrc

EDITOR: This defines the editor called by dunc if manual editing is selected from a menu option. The default is ae (see ae(1)). Please note that if ae is not installed, and this variable is not set, you will not be able to manually edit files from within this utility -- even if you have an editor installed!

FILES

$DUNC_DIR/*.ctn: These files are the name of the connection with a .ctn appended. They are actually a ppp options file appended to the pppd command line by dppp

$DUNC_DIR/*.cht: These are chat files named with the .ctn files.

NOTES

dunc creates temporary files in /tmp. It cleans up after all of these. If you need error logging, redirect STD_ERR on the command line to a file (a la 2>filename in bourne compatable shells).

CAVEATS

dunc now does take the files in /etc/ppp/ into consideration. This means that changes in the /etc/ppp/options file may have adverse effects on a previously working dunc managed PPP connection.

TO DO

This utility needs to support diald and slip at some point.