vpncwatch is a keepalive daemon for vpnc(8) on Linux systems.
It is a rewrite of vpnc-watch.py by Greg Benson <gbenson@redhat.com>
vpncwatch is written by David Cantrell <dcantrell@redhat.com>

IDEA

    The original vpnc-watch.py is included with this source distribution.  If
    you want your keepalive daemon running in Python, here's your chance.  The
    main motivation for rewriting it in C is so it can be compiled for mipsel
    and put on a very limited storage space OpenWRT system.

    The idea behind the program is simple.  Wrap execution of vpnc and handle
    it receiving SIGHUP and SIGKILL.  SIGHUP will cause a restart, which is
    handy for an external network checking script.  If you find you cannot hit
    any VPN-connected hosts, you can send SIGHUP to vpncwatch and it'll
    restart vpnc.  vpncwatch can do the network checking for you with the
    right options.  See the -? screen for more information.

LICENSE

    GPL 2.0 or later.  Enjoy.

BUILD

    Check the Makefile and modify for your needs.  Then run 'make'.

INSTALL

    All you need is the vpncwatch binary, and you can copy that to any
    location.  There is no 'make install'.

USAGE

    Run 'vpncwatch -?' for examples.  It's really very simple.

EXAMPLE

    For the impatient, let's say you run this vpnc command typically:

        /usr/sbin/vpnc /etc/vpnc/vpnc.conf

    With vpncwatch, your new command is:

        vpncwatch /usr/sbin/vpnc /etc/vpnc/vpnc.conf

    If you want to enable VPN network testing, you need to pass a hostname
    (or IP address) of a host on the VPN as well as a valid TCP port that
    would be open on that host.  For example:

        vpncwatch \
            -c intranet.corp.redhat.com -p 80 \
            /usr/sbin/vpnc /etc/vpnc/vpnc.conf

    You can modify the interval that the host checking occurs with the -i
    option.  All the host checking does is make sure a running vpnc process
    is still actually offering an open link.  If vpncwatch can open a socket
    to that host and it not fail, vpncwatch assumes the link is still open.

    Easy.  If you pass options to vpnc usually, vpncwatch can do that
    too.  See the -? screen for more information.

-- 
David Cantrell <dcantrell@redhat.com>