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+# dhcpcd
+
+dhcpcd is a
+[DHCP](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Host_Configuration_Protocol) and a
+[DHCPv6](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHCPv6) client.
+It's also an IPv4LL (aka [ZeroConf](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeroconf))
+client.
+In layman's terms, dhcpcd runs on your machine and silently configures your
+computer to work on the attached networks without trouble and mostly without
+configuration.
+
+If you're a desktop user then you may also be interested in
+[Network Configurator (dhcpcd-ui)](http://roy.marples.name/projects/dhcpcd-ui)
+which sits in the notification area and monitors the state of the network via
+dhcpcd.
+It also has a nice configuration dialog and the ability to enter a pass phrase
+for wireless networks.
+
+dhcpcd may not be the only daemon running that wants to configure DNS on the
+host, so it uses [openresolv](http://roy.marples.name/projects/openresolv)
+to ensure they can co-exist.
+
+See [BUILDING.md](BUILDING.md) for how to build dhcpcd.
+
+## Configuration
+
+You should read the dhcpcd.conf man page
+and put your options into `/etc/dhcpcd.conf`.
+The default configuration file should work for most people just fine.
+Here it is, in case you lose it.
+
+```
+# A sample configuration for dhcpcd.
+# See dhcpcd.conf(5) for details.
+
+# Allow users of this group to interact with dhcpcd via the control socket.
+#controlgroup wheel
+
+# Inform the DHCP server of our hostname for DDNS.
+hostname
+
+# Use the hardware address of the interface for the Client ID.
+#clientid
+# or
+# Use the same DUID + IAID as set in DHCPv6 for DHCPv4 ClientID as per RFC4361.
+# Some non-RFC compliant DHCP servers do not reply with this set.
+# In this case, comment out duid and enable clientid above.
+duid
+
+# Persist interface configuration when dhcpcd exits.
+persistent
+
+# Rapid commit support.
+# Safe to enable by default because it requires the equivalent option set
+# on the server to actually work.
+option rapid_commit
+
+# A list of options to request from the DHCP server.
+option domain_name_servers, domain_name, domain_search, host_name
+option classless_static_routes
+# Respect the network MTU. This is applied to DHCP routes.
+option interface_mtu
+
+# Most distributions have NTP support.
+#option ntp_servers
+
+# A ServerID is required by RFC2131.
+require dhcp_server_identifier
+
+# Generate SLAAC address using the Hardware Address of the interface
+#slaac hwaddr
+# OR generate Stable Private IPv6 Addresses based from the DUID
+slaac private
+```
+
+The dhcpcd man page has a lot of the same options and more,
+which only apply to calling dhcpcd from the command line.
+
+
+## Compatibility
+dhcpcd-5 is only fully command line compatible with dhcpcd-4
+For compatibility with older versions, use dhcpcd-4
+
+## Upgrading
+dhcpcd-7 defaults the database directory to `/var/db/dhcpcd` instead of
+`/var/db` and now stores dhcpcd.duid and dhcpcd.secret in there instead of
+in /etc.
+
+dhcpcd-9 defaults the run directory to `/var/run/dhcpcd` instead of
+`/var/run` and the prefix of dhcpcd has been removed from the files.
+
+## ChangeLog
+We no longer supply a ChangeLog.
+However, you're more than welcome to read the
+[commit log](https://roy.marples.name/git/dhcpcd/log) and
+[archived release announcements](http://roy.marples.name/archives/dhcpcd-discuss/).