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ANONCVSH A D03-Aug-20014.8 KiB

CHANGESH A D03-Aug-20013 KiB

client/H12-Oct-201512

common/H12-Oct-201534

configureH A D11-Aug-20056.3 KiB

contrib/H12-Oct-20158

COPYRIGHTH A D18-Feb-2003746

dhcpctl/H12-Oct-201512

doc/H12-Oct-201515

dst/H12-Oct-201513

includes/H12-Oct-201521

LICENSEH A D11-Aug-2005966

MakefileH A D11-Aug-20052.8 KiB

Makefile.confH A D11-Aug-200510.7 KiB

Makefile.distH A D11-Aug-20051.9 KiB

minires/H12-Oct-201519

omapip/H12-Oct-201527

READMEH A D11-Aug-200530.2 KiB

relay/H12-Oct-20156

RELNOTESH A D11-Aug-200555.8 KiB

server/H12-Oct-201520

site.confH A D03-Aug-200194

tests/H12-Oct-20154

README

1	       Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Distribution
2			      Version 3.0.3
3			      July 22, 2005
4
5			      README FILE
6
7You should read this file carefully before trying to install or use
8the ISC DHCP Distribution.
9
10			  TABLE OF CONTENTS
11
12	1	WHERE TO FIND DOCUMENTATION
13	2	RELEASE STATUS
14	3	BUILDING THE DHCP DISTRIBUTION
15	 3.1	 UNPACKING IT
16	 3.2	 CONFIGURING IT
17	  3.2.1	  DYNAMIC DNS UPDATES
18	  3.2.2   LOCALLY DEFINED OPTIONS
19	 3.3	 BUILDING IT
20	4	INSTALLING THE DHCP DISTRIBUTION
21	5	USING THE DHCP DISTRIBUTION
22	 5.1	  FIREWALL RULES
23	 5.2	 LINUX
24	  5.2.1	  IF_TR.H NOT FOUND
25	  5.2.2	  SO_ATTACH_FILTER UNDECLARED
26	  5.2.3	  PROTOCOL NOT CONFIGURED
27	  5.2.4	  BROADCAST
28	  5.2.6	  IP BOOTP AGENT
29	  5.2.7	  MULTIPLE INTERFACES
30	 5.3	 SCO
31	 5.4	 HP-UX
32	 5.5	 ULTRIX
33	 5.6	 FreeBSD
34	 5.7	 NeXTSTEP
35	 5.8	 SOLARIS
36	6	SUPPORT
37	 6.1	 HOW TO REPORT BUGS
38
39		      WHERE TO FIND DOCUMENTATION
40
41Documentation for this software includes this README file, the
42RELNOTES file, and the manual pages, which are in the server, common,
43client and relay subdirectories.  The README file (this file) includes
44late-breaking operational and system-specific information that you
45should read even if you don't want to read the manual pages, and that
46you should *certainly* read if you run into trouble.  Internet
47standards relating to the DHCP protocol are stored in the doc
48subdirectory.  You will have the best luck reading the manual pages if
49you build this software and then install it, although you can read
50them directly out of the distribution if you need to.
51
52DHCP server documentation is in the dhcpd man page.  Information about
53the DHCP server lease database is in the dhcpd.leases man page.
54Server configuration documentation is in the dhcpd.conf man page as
55well as the dhcp-options man page.   A sample DHCP server
56configuration is in the file server/dhcpd.conf.   The source for the
57dhcpd, dhcpd.leases and dhcpd.conf man pages is in the server/ sub-
58directory in the distribution.   The source for the dhcp-options.5
59man page is in the common/ subdirectory.
60
61DHCP Client documentation is in the dhclient man page.  DHCP client
62configuration documentation is in the dhclient.conf man page and the
63dhcp-options man page.  The DHCP client configuration script is
64documented in the dhclient-script man page.   The format of the DHCP
65client lease database is documented in the dhclient.leases man page.
66The source for all these man pages is in the client/ subdirectory in
67the distribution.   In addition, the dhcp-options man page should be
68referred to for information about DHCP options.
69
70DHCP relay agent documentation is in the dhcrelay man page, the source
71for which is distributed in the relay/ subdirectory.
72
73To read installed manual pages, use the man command.  Type "man page"
74where page is the name of the manual page.   This will only work if
75you have installed the ISC DHCP distribution using the ``make install''
76command (described later).
77
78If you want to read manual pages that aren't installed, you can type
79``nroff -man page |more'' where page is the filename of the
80unformatted manual page.  The filename of an unformatted manual page
81is the name of the manual page, followed by '.', followed by some
82number - 5 for documentation about files, and 8 for documentation
83about programs.   For example, to read the dhcp-options man page,
84you would type ``nroff -man common/dhcp-options.5 |more'', assuming
85your current working directory is the top level directory of the ISC
86DHCP Distribution.
87
88If you do not have the nroff command, you can type ``more catpage''
89where catpage is the filename of the catted man page.  Catted man
90pages names are the name of the manual page followed by ".cat"
91followed by 5 or 8, as with unformatted manual pages.
92
93Please note that until you install the manual pages, the pathnames of
94files to which they refer will not be correct for your operating
95system.
96
97			    RELEASE STATUS
98
99This is the first beta release of ISC DHCP 3.0.3.  This is a maintenance
100release which seeks only to fix bugs present in versions 3.0.2 and
101earlier.  No new features have or will be added in subsequent
102release candidates of this release.
103
104In this release, the server and relay agent are currently fully
105functional on NetBSD, Linux systems with kernel version 2.2 or later,
106FreeBSD, OpenBSD, BSD/OS, Digital Tru64 Unix and Solaris.  The software
107will also run on AIX and HP-UX, but only supports a single network
108interface.  Ports also exist for QNX, SCO, NeXTStep, and MacOS X, but
109are not in wide use, with all that implies.   We are not aware of an
110easy way to get this software running on HP-UX.
111
112The DHCP client currently only knows how to configure the network on
113NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, BSD/os, Linux, Solaris and NextStep.  The
114client depends on a system-dependent shell script to do network
115configuration - support for other operating systems is simply a matter
116of porting this shell script to the new platform.
117
118If you are running the DHCP distribution on a machine which is a
119firewall, or if there is a firewall between your DHCP server(s) and
120DHCP clients, please read the section on firewalls which appears later
121in this document.
122
123If you wish to run the DHCP Distribution on Linux, please see the
124Linux-specific notes later in this document.  If you wish to run on an
125SCO release, please see the SCO-specific notes later in this document.
126You particularly need to read these notes if you intend to support
127Windows 95 clients.  If you are running a version of FreeBSD prior to
1282.2, please read the note on FreeBSD.  If you are running HP-UX or
129Ultrix, please read the notes for those operating systems below.  If
130you are running NeXTSTEP, please see the notes on NeXTSTEP below.
131
132If you start dhcpd and get a message, "no free bpf", that means you
133need to configure the Berkeley Packet Filter into your operating
134system kernel.   On NetBSD, FreeBSD and BSD/os, type ``man bpf'' for
135information.   On Digital Unix, type ``man pfilt''.
136
137
138		    BUILDING THE DHCP DISTRIBUTION
139
140			     UNPACKING IT
141
142To build the DHCP Distribution, unpack the compressed tar file using
143the tar utility and the gzip command - type something like:
144
145	zcat dhcp-3.0.3.tar.gz |tar xvf -
146
147On BSD/OS, you have to type gzcat, not zcat, and you may run into
148similar problems on other operating systems.
149
150			    CONFIGURING IT
151
152Now, cd to the dhcp-3.0.3 subdirectory that you've just created and
153configure the source tree by typing:
154
155	./configure
156
157If the configure utility can figure out what sort of system you're
158running on, it will create a custom Makefile for you for that
159system; otherwise, it will complain.  If it can't figure out what
160system you are using, that system is not supported - you are on
161your own.
162
163			 DYNAMIC DNS UPDATES
164
165A fully-featured implementation of dynamic DNS updates is included in
166this release.   There are no build dependencies with any BIND version
167- this version can and should just use the resolver in your C library.
168
169There is documentation for the DDNS support in the dhcpd.conf manual
170page - see the beginning of this document for information on finding
171manual pages.
172
173		       LOCALLY DEFINED OPTIONS
174
175In previous versions of the DHCP server there was a mechanism whereby
176options that were not known by the server could be configured using
177a name made up of the option code number and an identifier:
178"option-nnn"   This is no longer supported, because it is not future-
179proof.   Instead, if you want to use an option that the server doesn't
180know about, you must explicitly define it using the method described
181in the dhcp-options man page under the DEFINING NEW OPTIONS heading.
182
183			     BUILDING IT
184
185Once you've run configure, just type ``make'', and after a while
186you should have a dhcp server.  If you get compile errors on one
187of the supported systems mentioned earlier, please let us know.
188If you get warnings, it's not likely to be a problem - the DHCP
189server compiles completely warning-free on as many architectures
190as we can manage, but there are a few for which this is difficult.
191If you get errors on a system not mentioned above, you will need
192to do some programming or debugging on your own to get the DHCP
193Distribution working.
194
195		   INSTALLING THE DHCP DISTRIBUTION
196
197Once you have successfully gotten the DHCP Distribution to build, you
198can install it by typing ``make install''.   If you already have an old
199version of the DHCP Distribution installed, you may want to save it
200before typing ``make install''.
201
202		     USING THE DHCP DISTRIBUTION
203
204			    FIREWALL RULES
205
206If you are running the DHCP server or client on a computer that's also
207acting as a firewall, you must be sure to allow DHCP packets through
208the firewall.  In particular, your firewall rules _must_ allow packets
209from IP address 0.0.0.0 to IP address 255.255.255.255 from UDP port 68
210to UDP port 67 through.  They must also allow packets from your local
211firewall's IP address and UDP port 67 through to any address your DHCP
212server might serve on UDP port 68.  Finally, packets from relay agents
213on port 67 to the DHCP server on port 67, and vice versa, must be
214permitted.
215
216We have noticed that on some systems where we are using a packet
217filter, if you set up a firewall that blocks UDP port 67 and 68
218entirely, packets sent through the packet filter will not be blocked.
219However, unicast packets will be blocked.   This can result in strange
220behaviour, particularly on DHCP clients, where the initial packet
221exchange is broadcast, but renewals are unicast - the client will
222appear to be unable to renew until it starts broadcasting its
223renewals, and then suddenly it'll work.   The fix is to fix the
224firewall rules as described above.
225
226			   PARTIAL SERVERS
227
228If you have a server that is connected to two networks, and you only
229want to provide DHCP service on one of those networks (e.g., you are
230using a cable modem and have set up a NAT router), if you don't write
231any subnet declaration for the network you aren't supporting, the DHCP
232server will ignore input on that network interface if it can.  If it
233can't, it will refuse to run - some operating systems do not have the
234capability of supporting DHCP on machines with more than one
235interface, and ironically this is the case even if you don't want to
236provide DHCP service on one of those interfaces.
237
238				LINUX
239
240There are three big LINUX issues: the all-ones broadcast address,
241Linux 2.1 ip_bootp_agent enabling, and operations with more than one
242network interface.   There are also two potential compilation/runtime
243problems for Linux 2.1/2.2: the "SO_ATTACH_FILTER undeclared" problem
244and the "protocol not configured" problem.
245
246		  LINUX: SO_ATTACH_FILTER UNDECLARED
247
248In addition, there is a minor issue that we will mention here because
249this release is so close on the heels of the Linux 2.2 release: there
250is a symlink in /usr/include that points at the linux asm headers.  It
251appears to be not uncommon that this link won't be updated correctly,
252in which case you'll get the following error when you try to build:
253
254   lpf.c: In function `if_register_receive':
255   lpf.c:152: `SO_ATTACH_FILTER' undeclared (first use this function)
256   lpf.c:152: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once
257   lpf.c:152: for each function it appears in.)
258
259The line numbers may be different, of course.   If you see this
260header, your linux asm header link is probably bad, and you should
261make sure it's pointing to correct linux source directory.
262
263		    LINUX: PROTOCOL NOT CONFIGURED
264
265One additional Linux 2.1/2.2 issue: if you get the following message,
266it's because your kernel doesn't have the linux packetfilter or raw
267packet socket configured:
268
269 Make sure CONFIG_PACKET (Packet socket) and CONFIG_FILTER (Socket
270 Filtering) are enabled in your kernel configuration
271
272If this happens, you need to configure your Linux kernel to support
273Socket Filtering and the Packet socket.  You can do this by typing
274``make config'', ``make menuconfig'' or ``make xconfig'', and then
275enabling the Packet socket and Socket Filtering options that you'll
276see displayed on the menu or in the questionnaire.  You can also edit
277your linux kernel .config file directly: set CONFIG_FILTER=y and
278CONFIG_PACKET=y.  If you do this, make sure you run ``make oldconfig''
279afterwards, so that the changes you've made are propogated to the
280kernel header files.   After you've reconfigured, you need to type
281``make'' to build a new Linux kernel, and then install it in the
282appropriate place (probably /linux).  Make sure to save a copy of your
283old /linux.
284
285If the preceding paragraph made no sense to you, ask your Linux
286vendor/guru for help - please don't ask us.
287
288If you set CONFIG_PACKET=m or CONFIG_FILTER=m, then you must tell the
289kernel module loader to load the appropriate modules.  If this doesn't
290make sense to you, don't use CONFIG_whatever=m - use CONFIG_whatever=y.  
291Don't ask for help with this on the DHCP mailing list - it's a Linux
292kernel issue.   This is probably not a problem with the most recent
293Linux 2.2.x kernels.
294
295			   LINUX: BROADCAST
296
297If you are running a recent version of Linux, this won't be a problem,
298but on older versions of Linux (kernel versions prior to 2.2), there
299is a potential problem with the broadcast address being sent
300incorrectly.
301
302In order for dhcpd to work correctly with picky DHCP clients (e.g.,
303Windows 95), it must be able to send packets with an IP destination
304address of 255.255.255.255.  Unfortunately, Linux changes an IP
305destination of 255.255.255.255 into the local subnet broadcast address
306(here, that's 192.5.5.223).
307
308This isn't generally a problem on Linux 2.2 and later kernels, since
309we completely bypass the Linux IP stack, but on old versions of Linux
3102.1 and all versions of Linux prior to 2.1, it is a problem - pickier
311DHCP clients connected to the same network as the ISC DHCP server or
312ISC relay agent will not see messages from the DHCP server.   It *is*
313possible to run into trouble with this on Linux 2.2 and later if you
314are running a verson of the DHCP server that was compiled on a Linux
3152.0 system, though.
316
317It is possible to work around this problem on some versions of Linux
318by creating a host route from your network interface address to
319255.255.255.255.   The command you need to use to do this on Linux
320varies from version to version.   The easiest version is:
321
322	route add -host 255.255.255.255 dev eth0
323
324On some older Linux systems, you will get an error if you try to do
325this.   On those systems, try adding the following entry to your
326/etc/hosts file:
327
328255.255.255.255	all-ones
329
330Then, try:
331
332	route add -host all-ones dev eth0
333
334Another route that has worked for some users is:
335
336	route add -net 255.255.255.0 dev eth0
337
338If you are not using eth0 as your network interface, you should
339specify the network interface you *are* using in your route command.
340
341			LINUX: IP BOOTP AGENT
342
343Some versions of the Linux 2.1 kernel apparently prevent dhcpd from
344working unless you enable it by doing the following:
345
346	      echo 1 >/proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_bootp_agent
347
348
349		      LINUX: MULTIPLE INTERFACES
350
351Very old versions of the Linux kernel do not provide a networking API
352that allows dhcpd to operate correctly if the system has more than one
353broadcast network interface.  However, Linux 2.0 kernels with version
354numbers greater than or equal to 2.0.31 add an API feature: the
355SO_BINDTODEVICE socket option.  If SO_BINDTODEVICE is present, it is
356possible for dhcpd to operate on Linux with more than one network
357interface.  In order to take advantage of this, you must be running a
3582.0.31 or greater kernel, and you must have 2.0.31 or later system
359headers installed *before* you build the DHCP Distribution.
360
361We have heard reports that you must still add routes to 255.255.255.255
362in order for the all-ones broadcast to work, even on 2.0.31 kernels.
363In fact, you now need to add a route for each interface.   Hopefully
364the Linux kernel gurus will get this straight eventually.
365
366Linux 2.1 and later kernels do not use SO_BINDTODEVICE or require the
367broadcast address hack, but do support multiple interfaces, using the
368Linux Packet Filter.
369
370				 SCO
371
372SCO has the same problem as Linux (described earlier).  The thing is,
373SCO *really* doesn't want to let you add a host route to the all-ones
374broadcast address.
375
376On more recent versions of SCO, you can do this:
377
378  ifconfig net0 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx netmask 0xNNNNNNNN broadcast 255.255.255.255
379
380If this doesn't work, you can also try the following strange hack:
381
382  ifconfig net0 alias 10.1.1.1 netmask 8.0.0.0
383
384Apparently this works because of an interaction between SCO's support
385for network classes and the weird netmask.  The 10.* network is just a
386dummy that can generally be assumed to be safe.   Don't ask why this
387works.   Just try it.   If it works for you, great.   SCO has added
388support for doing DHCP in a more sensible way, but I have not had the
389time or cause to implement them.   If you are interested in this, and
390are able to hack your way out of a wet paper back without assistance,
391we'd appreciate it if you'd give it a try, but don't expect too much
392support from us (sorry!).
393
394				HP-UX
395
396HP-UX has the same problem with the all-ones broadcast address that
397SCO and Linux have.   One user reported that adding the following to
398/etc/rc.config.d/netconf helped (you may have to modify this to suit
399your local configuration):
400
401INTERFACE_NAME[0]=lan0
402IP_ADDRESS[0]=1.1.1.1
403SUBNET_MASK[0]=255.255.255.0
404BROADCAST_ADDRESS[0]="255.255.255.255"
405LANCONFIG_ARGS[0]="ether"
406DHCP_ENABLE[0]=0
407
408				ULTRIX
409
410Now that we have Ultrix packet filter support, the DHCP Distribution
411on Ultrix should be pretty trouble-free.  However, one thing you do
412need to be aware of is that it now requires that the pfilt device be
413configured into your kernel and present in /dev.  If you type ``man
414packetfilter'', you will get some information on how to configure your
415kernel for the packet filter (if it isn't already) and how to make an
416entry for it in /dev.
417
418			       FreeBSD
419
420Versions of FreeBSD prior to 2.2 have a bug in BPF support in that the
421ethernet driver swaps the ethertype field in the ethernet header
422downstream from BPF, which corrupts the output packet.   If you are
423running a version of FreeBSD prior to 2.2, and you find that dhcpd
424can't communicate with its clients, you should #define BROKEN_FREEBSD_BPF 
425in site.h and recompile.
426
427Modern versions of FreeBSD include the ISC DHCP 3.0 client as part of
428the base system, and the full distribution (for the DHCP server and
429relay agent) is available from the Ports Collection in
430/usr/ports/net/isc-dhcp3, or as a package on FreeBSD installation
431CDROMs.
432
433                              NeXTSTEP
434
435The NeXTSTEP support uses the NeXTSTEP Berkeley Packet Filter
436extension, which is not included in the base NextStep system.  You
437must install this extension in order to get dhcpd or dhclient to work.
438
439			       SOLARIS
440
441One problem which has been observed and is not fixed in this
442patchlevel has to do with using DLPI on Solaris machines.  The symptom
443of this problem is that the DHCP server never receives any requests.
444This has been observed with Solaris 2.6 and Solaris 7 on Intel x86
445systems, although it may occur with other systems as well.  If you
446encounter this symptom, and you are running the DHCP server on a
447machine with a single broadcast network interface, you may wish to
448edit the includes/site.h file and uncomment the #define USE_SOCKETS
449line.  Then type ``make clean; make''.
450
451The DHCP client on Solaris will only work with DLPI.  If you run it
452and it just keeps saying it's sending DHCPREQUEST packets, but never
453gets a response, you may be having DLPI trouble as described above.
454If so, we have no solution to offer at this time.  Also, because
455Solaris requires you to "plumb" an interface before it can be detected
456by the DHCP client, you must either specify the name(s) of the
457interface(s) you want to configure on the command line, or must plumb
458the interfaces prior to invoking the DHCP client.  This can be done
459with ``ifconfig iface plumb'', where iface is the name of the
460interface (e.g., ``ifconfig hme0 plumb'').
461
462It should be noted that Solaris versions from 2.6 onward include a
463DHCP client that you can run with ``/sbin/ifconfig iface dhcp start''
464rather than using the ISC DHCP client.  The feature set of the Solaris
465client is different (not necessarily better or worse) than that of the
466ISC client, but in most cases it will be a lot easier for you to just
467use that.  Please do not ask for help in using the Solaris DHCP client
468on Internet Systems Consortium mailing lists - that's why you're
469paying Sun the big bucks.   If you're having a problem with the
470Solaris client interoperating with the ISC dhcp server, that's another
471matter, but please check with Sun first.
472
473				AIX
474
475The AIX support uses the BSD socket API, which cannot differentiate on
476which network interface a broadcast packet was received; thus the DHCP
477server and relay will work only on a single interface.  (They do work
478on multi-interface machines if configured to listen on only one of the
479interfaces.)
480
481The ISC DHCP distribution does not include a dhclient-script for AIX--
482AIX comes with a DHCP client.  Contribution of a working dhclient-script
483for AIX would be welcome.
484
485			       SUPPORT
486
487The Internet Systems Consortium DHCP server is developed and distributed
488by ISC in the public trust, thanks to the generous donations of its
489sponsors.  ISC now also fofers commercial quality support contracts for
490ISC DHCP, more information about ISC Support Contracts can be found at
491the following URL:
492
493	http://www.isc.org/ops/support/
494
495No donators, as yet, have asked for their dollars to be spent providing
496free support to all who ask.  Please understand that we may not respond
497to support inquiries unless you have a support contract.  ISC will
498continue its practice of always responding to critical items that effect
499the entire community.
500
501However, ISC DHCP has attracted a fairly sizable following on the
502Internet, which means that there are a lot of knowledgable users who
503may be able to help you if you get stuck.  These people generally read
504the dhcp-server@isc.org mailing list.
505
506If you are going to use dhcpd, you should probably subscribe to the
507dhcp-server or dhcp-announce mailing lists.  If you will be using
508dhclient, you should subscribe to the dhcp-client mailing list.
509
510If you need help, you should ask on the dhcp-server or dhcp-client
511mailing list - whichever is appropriate to your application.  Support
512requests for the ISC DHCP client should go to dhcp-client@isc.org.
513Support requests for the DHCP server should go to dhcp-server@isc.org.
514If you are having trouble with a combination of the client and server,
515send the request to dhcp-server@isc.org.  Please do not cross-post to
516both lists under any circumstances.
517
518WHERE TO SEND FEATURE REQUESTS: We like to hear your feedback.  We may
519not respond to it all the time, but we do read it.  If ISC DHCP doesn't
520work well for you, or you have an idea that would improve it for your
521use, please send your suggestion to dhcp-suggest@isc.org.  This is also
522an excellent place to send patches that add new features.
523
524WHERE TO REPORT BUGS: If you want the act of sending in a bug report
525to result in you getting help in the form of a fixed piece of
526software, you are asking for help.  Your bug report is helpful to us,
527but fundamentally you are making a support request, so please use the
528addresses described in the previous paragraphs.  If you are _sure_ that
529your problem is a bug, and not user error, or if your bug report
530includes a patch, you can send it to dhcp-bugs@isc.org without
531subscribing.   This e-mail address goes into a bug tracking system, so
532you don't need to check periodically to see if we still remember the
533bug - if you haven't been notified that the bug has been closed, we
534still consider it a bug, and still have it in the system.
535
536PLEASE DO NOT REPORT BUGS IN OLD SOFTWARE RELEASES!  Fetch the latest
537release and see if the bug is still in that version of the software,
538and if it's not, _then_ report it.  It's okay to report bugs in the
539latest patchlevel of a major version that's not the most recent major
540version, though - for example, if you're running 3.0.2, you don't have
541to upgrade to a 3.0.3rc (release candidate) or even a 3.1.x release
542before you can report bugs.
543
544PLEASE DO NOT REPORT BUGS IF YOU ARE RUNNING A VERSION OF THE ISC
545DHCP DISTRIBUTION THAT YOU DIDN'T GET FROM THE ISC!   Free operating
546system distributions are notorious for including outdated versions of
547software, and also versions of software that were not compiled on your
548particular version of the operating system.   These versions
549frequently do not work.   Getting a source distribution from the ISC
550and installing it frequently *does* work.   Please try this *before*
551asking for help.
552
553PLEASE READ THIS README FILE CAREFULLY BEFORE REPORTING BUGS,
554PARTICULARLY THE SECTION BELOW ON WHAT TO INCLUDE IN A BUG REPORT OR
555HELP REQUEST.
556
557PLEASE DO NOT SEND REQUESTS FOR SUPPORT DIRECTLY TO THE ENGINEERS WHO
558WORK ON THE ISC DHCP DISTRIBUTION!  *PARTICULARLY*, DO NOT SEND MAIL
559TO THE ENGINEERS BECAUSE YOU AREN'T SURE TO WHOM YOU SHOULD SEND MAIL
560- if you aren't sure, *ask* on the dhcp-server@isc.org or
561dhcp-client@isc.org mailing list.
562
563The number of people using the DHCP Distribution is sufficiently large
564that if we take interrupts every time any one of those people runs
565into trouble, we will never get any more coding done.  If you send a
566support request directly to any ISC or Nominum engineer, we will
567forward it to the mailing list, or possibly ignore it, depending on
568how much stress we are under at the time.
569
570Please do not Cc: us on mail you send to these lists - we read both
571mailing lists, so this just means we get two copies!
572
573If your question can only be answered by one of the engineers, send it
574to the appropriate public mailing list anyway - we will answer it
575there.  When we have time.
576
577Please do not think "Oh, I don't want to bother the whole mailing list
578with this question."  If you are too embarrassed to ask publically,
579get a support contract.
580
581If you are concerned about bothering everybody on the list, that's
582great, but that's what the list is there for.  When you send mail to
583one of the engineers, you are taking resources away from everybody on
584the mailing list *anyway* - they just don't know it.
585
586We're not writing this because we don't respect you - we really do
587want to help you, and we appreciate your bug reports and comments.
588But please use the mechanisms we have in place to provide you with
589help, because otherwise you are almost certainly depriving someone
590else of our help.
591
592PLEASE DO NOT CALL US ON THE PHONE FOR HELP!  Answering the phone
593takes a lot more of our time and attention than answering email.  If
594you do call us on the phone, we will tell you to send email to the
595mailing list or buy a support contract, so please don't waste your
596time or ours.  If you have a support contract, please use the support
597channel mentioned in the support contract - otherwise you probably
598won't get timely support unless you happen to ask an interesting
599question and we happen to have some time to kill, because we can't
600tell you're a support customer if you send mail to the public mailing
601lists.
602
603		HOW TO REPORT BUGS OR REQUEST HELP
604
605When you report bugs or ask for help, please provide us complete
606information.  A list of information we need follows.  Please read it
607carefully, and put all the information you can into your initial bug
608report, so that we don't have to ask you any questions in order to
609figure out your problem.   If you need handholding support, please
610consider contacting a commercial provider of the ISC DHCP
611Distribution.
612
613      1.  The specific operating system name and version of the
614          machine on which the DHCP server or client is running.
615      2.  The specific operating system name and version of the
616          machine on which the client is running, if you are having
617          trouble getting a client working with the server.
618      3.  If you're running Linux, the version number we care about is
619          the kernel version and maybe the library version, not the
620          distribution version - e.g., while we don't mind knowing
621          that you're running Redhat version mumble.foo, we must know
622          what kernel version you're running, and it helps if you can
623          tell us what version of the C library you're running,
624          although if you don't know that off the top of your head it
625          may be hard for you to figure it out, so don't go crazy
626          trying.
627      4.  The specific version of the DHCP distribution you're
628          running, for example "2.0b1pl19", not "2.0".
629      5.  Please explain the problem carefully, thinking through what
630          you're saying to ensure that you don't assume we know
631          something about your situation that we don't know.
632      6.  Include your dhcpd.conf and dhcpd.leases file if they're not
633          huge (if they are huge, we may need them anyway, but don't
634          send them until you're asked).   Huge means more than 100
635          kilobytes each.
636      7.  Include a log of your server or client running until it
637          encounters the problem - for example, if you are having
638          trouble getting some client to get an address, restart the
639          server with the -d flag and then restart the client, and
640          send us what the server prints.   Likewise, with the client,
641          include the output of the client as it fails to get an
642          address or otherwise does the wrong thing.   Do not leave
643          out parts of the output that you think aren't interesting.
644      8.  If the client or server is dumping core, please run the
645          debugger and get a stack trace, and include that in your
646          bug report.   For example, if your debugger is gdb, do the
647          following:
648
649		gdb dhcpd dhcpd.core
650		(gdb) where
651		      [...]
652		(gdb) quit
653
654	  This assumes that it's the dhcp server you're debugging, and
655	  that the core file is in dhcpd.core.
656      9.  If you know that the problem is an actual bug, and you can
657	  reproduce the bug, you can skip steps 6 through 8 and instead
658	  capture a trace file using the -tf flag (see the man page for
659	  details).   If you do this, and there is anything in your
660	  dhcp configuration that you are not willing to make public,
661	  please send the trace file to dhcp-bugs@isc.org and NOT to
662	  dhcp-server@isc.org, because the tracefile contains your entire
663	  dhcp configuration.
664
665PLEASE DO NOT send queries about non-isc clients to the dhcp-client
666mailing list.   If you're asking about them on an ISC mailing list,
667it's probably because you're using the ISC DHCP server, so ask there.
668If you are having problems with a client whose executable is called
669dhcpcd, this is _not_ the ISC DHCP client, and we probably can't help
670you with it.
671
672Please see http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/ for details on how to subscribe
673to the ISC DHCP mailing lists.
674
675