From: Simon Peter Subject: Bug#306261: pppd does not properly close /dev/ppp on persist When using the kernel PPPoE driver, pppd never closes /dev/ppp when the link has come down. It opens superfluous fds to the device each time it re-opens the connection, with the unclosed ones falsely reported always ready for data by select(). This makes pppd eat up 100% CPU time after the first persist because of the always instantly returning select() on the unclosed fds. The problem also occurs with the upstream version, but does not occur when a pty/tty device is used for the ppp connection. diff -u -r ppp-2.4.3/pppd/sys-linux.c ppp-2.4.3/pppd/sys-linux.c --- ppp-2.4.3/pppd/sys-linux.c 2005-04-29 20:08:37.000000000 +0200 +++ ppp-2.4.3/pppd/sys-linux.c 2005-04-29 20:07:03.000000000 +0200 @@ -455,6 +455,13 @@ if (new_style_driver) { int flags; + /* if a ppp_fd is already open, close it first */ + if(ppp_fd > 0) { + close(ppp_fd); + remove_fd(ppp_fd); + ppp_fd = -1; + } + /* Open an instance of /dev/ppp and connect the channel to it */ if (ioctl(fd, PPPIOCGCHAN, &chindex) == -1) { error("Couldn't get channel number: %m");