UUCP Documentation

0. INTRO

UUCP is nothing more then a file transfer protocol. Nowadays it's
mostly used to transfer offline mail and news. Most documentation
for it is in the manual pages and in the info files installed in
/usr/info/uucp*.

The Debian UUCP package is configured to use the taylor UUCP style
configuration files. While these files are more readable then the
"standard" HDB (Honey-Danber) configuration files there's less
documentation on it. However the config files supplied in /etc/uucp
are easy to setup. More elaborate exampes can be found in
/usr/share/doc/uucp/examples/taylor.

This package can also use the HDB configuration files instead of
taylor if you really want that. Examples for that can be found
in /usr/share/doc/uucp/examples/hdb.

1. FILE AND DIRECTORY LOCATIONS.

These might be a bit different then you're used to, so here's an overview:

/etc/uucp		Configuration files
/usr/bin		Programs to be executed by users
/usr/sbin		Programs to be executed by root or uucp
/usr/lib/uucp		Internal programs for the UUCP system, generally
			not to be executed directly
/var/spool/uucp		UUCP spool directory
/var/spool/uucppublic	Public UUCP directory
/var/log/uucp		Logfile directory

The most outstanding differences with "traditional" systems are that the
logfiles are not in /var/spool/uucp, uucico is in /usr/sbin instead of
/usr/lib/uucp and the configuration files are in /etc/uucp instead of
also in /usr/lib/uucp.

2. SETTING UP A SIMPLE LEAF SITE.

a. Get a UUCP name from your provider, and a loginname and a password.
   Also ask for the provider's UUCP name and the telephone number.
b. Enter your providers UUCP name, loginname and password into /etc/uucp/call
c. If the UUCP name you got is not the same as your systems hostname,
   edit /etc/uucp/config and set the nodename to your systems UUCP name.
d. Enter the device your modem is connected to in /etc/uucp/port
e. Make an entry with the UUCP name of your provider in /etc/uucp/sys

If you are using a /dev/ttyS device (for example, /dev/ttyS1) to dialout
on, set the modes on /dev/ttyS1 to 660 and chgrp it to the "dialout" group.
That way, uucico (the file transfer engine) can access that port.

The same is true if you use a /dev/cua device but the permissions should
already be OK. (Use of the cua* ports is deprecated however).

Now you should be able to place a call to your provider and login
successfully with the command "uupoll <provider_uucp_name>". Beware
that if there are any mail messages for you and you have not setup
your mail system correctly that you might lose those messages.



3. MAINTENANCE AND POLLING THE OTHER SYSTEM AUTOMATICALLY.

You can add the uucp name, and a list of hours when you want your system
to call the providers UUCP system to the file /etc/uucp/Poll. This file
is examined hourly by the /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.hr script to see if
the remote system(s) should be polled.

uudemon.hr is called from uucp's crontab in /etc/cron.d.  Job expiry is
started from the /etc/cron.daily/uucp script. See /etc/uucp/expire. Logs
are rotated with logrotate.



4. DEBIAN SPECIFIC PATCHES/BEHAVIOUR

* In port commands \H is substituted with the address assoziated with the
  system.  That allows you to use the same port (for instance an ssh port) for
  several systems.

* uucico supports a --grade option that limits outgoing call to a given grade.

* In order to have /etc/uucp root.uucp, i.e. not writeable by the uucp
  processes, it may be necessary that you start uucp related programs like
  uucico as user uucp.  For instance sudo -u uucp uucico... .

    /usr/share/doc/uucp/README          1.02  22-Feb-1998  miquels@cistron.nl
    /usr/share/doc/uucp/README.Debian         39-Jul-2002  weasel@debian.org