sliplogin is used to turn the terminal line on standard input into a Serial Line IP (SLIP) link to a remote host. To do this, the program searches the file
/etc/sliphome/slip.hosts for an entry matching
loginname (which defaults to the current login name if omitted). If a matching entry is found, the line is configured appropriately for slip (8-bit transparent i/o) and converted to SLIP line discipline. Then a shell script is invoked to initialize the slip interface with the appropriate local and remote IP address, netmask, etc.
The usual initialization script is
/etc/sliphome/slip.login but, if particular hosts need special initialization, the file
/etc/sliphome/slip.login.loginname will be executed instead if it exists. The script is invoked with the parameters
slipunit
The unit number of the slip interface assigned to this line. E.g., 0 for sl0.
speed
The speed of the line.
args
The arguments from the /etc/sliphome/slip.hosts entry, in order starting with loginname.
Only the super-user may attach a network interface. The interface is automatically detached when the other end hangs up or the
sliplogin process dies. If the kernel slip module has been configured for it, all routes through that interface will also disappear at the same time. If there is other processing a site would like done on hangup, the file
/etc/sliphome/slip.logout or
/etc/sliphome/slip.logout.loginname is executed if it exists. It is given the same arguments as the login script.
Format of /etc/sliphome/slip.hosts
Comments (lines starting with a `#') and blank lines are ignored. Other lines must start with a
loginname but the remaining arguments can be whatever is appropriate for the
slip.login file that will be executed for that name. Arguments are separated by white space and follow normal
sh(1) quoting conventions (however,
loginname cannot be quoted). Usually, lines have the form
loginname local-address remote-address netmask opt-args
where
local-address and
remote-address are the IP host names or addresses of the local and remote ends of the slip line and
netmask is the appropriate IP netmask. These arguments are passed directly to
ifconfig(8).
opt-args are optional arguments used to configure the line.