Doesn't describe the current design

[thirdparty/dhcp.git] / README

		     Internet Software Consortium
	      Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol Server
			    Beta Release 0
			    March 6, 1996

This is the first Beta release of the Internet Software Consortium
DHCP Server (ISC dhcpd).  In this Beta release, support for the core
DHCP protocol is provided.  BOOTP support is also provided for
backwards compatibility.  The beta release currently runs on NetBSD
and BSD/OS, and may run on Ultrix.  It should port fairly easily to a
variety of UNIX-like systems.

The default Makefile is a 4.4BSD-style makefile.   If you do not have
access to a 4.4BSD-style make, use Makefile.std.   This is an
old-style makefile and should work on most systems.

Last week (February 26-28), I brought ISC dhcpd to Connectathon and
worked out many bugs.  ISC dhcpd was able to boot all of the DHCP
clients at Connectathon by the time I left.  Many thanks to Audrey Van
Belleghem for getting me in to Connectathon even though we weren't
able to budget for it, to Mike Carney for running the DHCP testing in
general and helping me out in particular, and to all the other DHCP
participants at Connectathon who tried their clients against ISC dhcpd
and told me where it was busted, or, later on, that it wasn't busted
anymore.

				 BUGS

Currently, dhcpd supports the DHCP protocol strictly the standard
Berkeley socket interface to UDP/IP.  This makes it very portable, but
has several drawbacks.  First of all, it is impossible to identify the
interface on which a DHCP request was received.  As a consequence,
dhcpd currently exits if it discovers that it's running on a machine
with more than one network address.

Secondly, it is difficult to send a broadcast to the all-ones IP
broadcast address as required by the DHCP protocol.  I have had some
luck on 4.4BSD-based systems declaring a route to 255.255.255.255
through the local IP address, and have also found that some clients
will accept broadcasts from the local subnet broadcast address.  I
would be interested in hearing about your experiences with this.

A socket interface abstraction which can be layered atop sun's NIT or
the Berkeley Packet Filter will be included in the next beta release,
but probably won't work on as many systems.   On those systems where
it works, though, it will solve both the multiple interface problem
and the all-ones broadcast problem.

This release of dhcpd does not contain support for DHCPINFORM.
Support for DHCPINFORM will be present in the next release.
DHCPINFORM is somewhat tangential to the main purpose of the DHCP
protocol, so this probably won't be a major problem for most users.

The man page for dhcpd.leases is not yet ready.

The system is painful to configure.   I will try to get GNU configure
going in the next release.