I have had a ppp server running in /etc/ttys for a few months now with no
problem. I don't know where I originally found the documentation for this
but it was rather good. You have to make pppd behave like a run/exit
program instead of a daemon. This is done by giving the '-detach' option
to pppd (for the new version of pppd '-deatch' is replaced by 'nodetach').
You also don't need to specify the tty to pppd as init does this for you.

Here is my /etc/ttys file:

#
#	$NetBSD: ttys,v 1.11 1995/10/09 02:19:39 thorpej Exp $
#	from: @(#)ttys	5.1 (Berkeley) 4/17/89
#
# name	getty				type	status		comments
#
# If the console is marked insecure, single-user requires
# the root password.
console	"/usr/libexec/getty Pc"		vt220	off secure

# Define the console that we actually run getty on.
ttye0	"/usr/libexec/getty Pc"		vt220	on secure

# Hardwired lines are marked off, by default, so getty(8)
# is quiet when they don't exist.
tty00	"/usr/libexec/getty std.9600"	unknown off secure

## The old line for tty01
#tty01	"/usr/libexec/getty std.9600"	unknown off secure

## My line for the pppd server, all the options are stored in
## /etc/ppp/options.tty01
tty01	"/usr/sbin/pppd nodetach"	unknown on  local

tty02	"/usr/libexec/getty std.9600"	unknown off secure


And my /etc/ppp/options.tty01 file:

57600
gambit:jubilee
local
asyncmap 0
refuse-chap
refuse-pap
require-pap
name gambit
remotename jubilee
netmask 255.255.255.0
nodefaultroute
noipdefault
passive
persist


Hope this helps.

On Wed, 17 Jun 1998, Johan Carlsson wrote:

> Executive summary: it's working, but not exactly as I would like to.
> 
> Typing "pppd tty00 9600 silent local lock :spock" at the root prompt on
> the server (heimdall) and typing "pppd tty00 9600 :heimdall" at the root 
> prompt on the client (spock) *does* open a ppp connection (yay!). 
> Everything works just fine: ping, ftp etc.
> 
> Firing up ppp in /etc/ttys, however, *doesn't work*. I'm getting a weird
> message:
> 
> Jun 17 22:23:25 heimdall init: getty repeating too quickly on port
> /dev/tty00
> 
> which is repeated in bursts every few minutes. Can someone explain what's
> going on? TIA.
> 
> /Johan
> 
> P.S. The relevant part of my /etc/ttys looks like:
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> #
> #       $NetBSD: ttys,v 1.11 1995/10/09 02:19:39 thorpej Exp $
> #       from: @(#)ttys  5.1 (Berkeley) 4/17/89
> #
> # name  getty                           type    status          comments
> #
> # If the console is marked insecure, single-user requires
> # the root password.
> console "/usr/libexec/getty Pc"         vt220   off secure
> 
> # Define the console that we actually run getty on.
> ttye0   "/usr/libexec/getty Pc"         vt220   off secure
> 
> # Hardwired lines are marked off, by default, so getty(8)
> # is quiet when they don't exist.
> tty00   "/usr/sbin/pppd tty00 9600 silent local lock :spock" unknown on
> secure
> tty01   "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600"   vt100   on  secure
>