Internet Info 1994 March/Internet Info CD-ROM (Walnut Creek) (March 1994).iso/answers/alt/amiga/AmigaUUCP-FAQ/part2

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Archive-name: amiga/AmigaUUCP-FAQ/part2


                  AMIGA-UUCP-FAQ version 2.B.14 [Posting 23]
                  MONTHLY POSTING, last update Mar 21 12:52
                  This FAQ is posted monthly (28th of month)

                author: Marc SCHAEFER, <[e-mail]>
                Bugs, typos, ideas to <[e-mail]>
            (ch stands for Switzerland)

    NOTE: This is the second part of the FAQ. The first part contains
    more general information. This part contains technical problems
    and solutions to common AmigaUUCP problems, along with information
    on how to get UUCP distributions, patches, enhancements and third
    party utilities. You should however consider reading the first part
    first.

    CHANGES FROM ORIGINAL MATT DILLON'S FAQ ARE NOTED WITH A (*).

    To skip to a topic, search for the roman numeral surrounded by
    parenthesis.  For example, (I).

    FAQ.1 (another post)
(*) 0.      Changes from last posting
(*) I.        Introduction to alt.sys.amiga.uucp[.patches]
    II.     Introduction to AmigaUUCP
(*) III.    Principal utilities
    IV.     Constructing mail addresses
    V.        Using DCRON
    VI.     US domain clarification

    FAQ.2 (this article)
(*) VII.    Common problems (new, please submit things to go in here).
    VIII.   Using SENDMAIL directly.
(*) IX.     Other UUCP utilities.
(*) X.      How to get UUCP stuff ?
(*) XI.     BBS software supporting UUCP.
(*) XII.    Other UUCP implementations for AmigaOS.
(*) XIII.   Unresolved topics.


(0)                 RECENT CHANGES TO THIS FILE (PART 2)

    Changes are listed below.

        Cosmetical, None.

(VII)                       COMMON PROBLEMS

    1. AS225 TCP/IP PACKAGE

    Apparently there is a line in the startup:

        inet:c/config >env:user -v user

    Which screws up DMail due to the \n appended to the ENV: variable
    (not supposed to be a newline).  Fixed for 1.14.  Work around is
    to use, under 2.0:

        setenv user `inet:c/config -v user`

    2. Batch news, yes but how ? [Autobatch entry in UULIB:Config]

    if you add the config line (UULIB:CONFIG) "autobatch autobatch",
    news article will be compressed separately at each posting. You
    will end up with a lot of files in UUSPOOL:, decreasing
    throughoutput. However if you don't post a lot of articles, this
    can be interesting (you don't need to deal with DCRON or nasty
    uucico options.)

    If you only poll another site, it would perhaps be more efficient
    to use the pre-batching capability of uucico (uucico -b). This
    will batch all posted articles in one file (if possible) and then
    call the specified host.

    If you have downsites (if you feed other sites that calls you), you
    could also set up a "BatchNews" entry in S:Crontab (if you use
    DCRON) to pre-batch news before calling hours. Don't specify -b in
    UULIB:Passwd, because then the other uucico would have to wait (and
    possibly time-out) while online paying taxes.

    The only situation you want to add the "Autobatch autobatch" config
    line to UULIB:CONFIG is when you don't know a lot about DCRON, you
    don't post a lot of articles and you don't have sites that you feed.

    More information, see UUMAN:Batchnews, UUMAN:UUCICO, UUMAN:CONFIG.

    3. RNews uses hardlinks. How to prevent it ?

    Under the 2.0 operating system, RNews uses hardlinks to prevent
    cross-posted article to use n times the space on the harddisk.
    However, some utilities do not like very well hardlinks. It is then
    possible to disable hardlinks with the following change to
    UULIB:Config:

        RNEWS    UUCP:C/RNEWS -h

    WARNING! Hardlinks to directories are buggy with ALL releases of
    the Operating System (V37-V39). Harlinks to files are also buggy
    under OFS and DCFS. Hardlinks should be turned off if not under
    FFS as shown above.

    4. The UULIB:SEQ field.

    The UULIB:SEQ fields is used to assign unique id's to files in the
    spool directory and to messages/articles sent out. Note that some
    news and mail systems (not AmigaUUCP) uses the ID's to prevent
    newsloops/mailloops. If you clear (or restore from a backup) the
    UULIB:SEQ, you should set it to a high value (or more than the last
    number it was) so your message are not getting filtered.

    5. UUencode problems.

    If you edit a mail and insert an uuencoded file, you may have
    problems if the editor changes spaces to tabs. With DME, you simply
    set this option to off ("savetabs off"). If you don't the file
    won't uu-decodable.
    By the way the syntax for uuencode, if you want to uuencode file
    "test.lha" is something like

        uuencode <test.lha >test.lha.uu test.lha

    The "test.lha.uu" file is the one to insert in your mail/news.
    Some NEWS utilities allow automatic posting of binaries (GRN).

    6. UUCICO G protocol.

    UUCico 1.16a and 1.15c implement also a "G" protocol besides the
    normal "g" protocol: If you poll one of these UNIX sites which
    support the 'G' protocol you have to force your own uucico to first
    try to use 'G' instead of 'g' when asking for the supported
    protocolls at connection startup.  To do this, poll with

        $ uupoll ... "-u -pG" ...       or
        $ uucico ... -pG      ...

    Note that I couldn't test this.

    There are a LOT more infos in the UUCP.internal FAQ, especially
    about other UUCP protocols.

    7. Trimnews

    New trimnews have been implemented, last is version 04, which supports
    new OS2.04 ExAll() calls which diminush the risk of a partition being
    trashed when deleting articles. It also offers trimming by hours rather
    than day and ALL trimming. It can be found on FTP/BMS/UUCP/FSP sites.

    8. Multiple UUCICOs

    A lot of changes have been made on native UUCICO, and most of them
    in an uncontrolled way. When you specify a UUCICO version, you should
    also give the size of the file. The latest UUCICO is something like
    65504 bytes long (1.16.23.sd.3) (uucico_sd3.lha)

    9. Problems with newsloops due to Path-naming.

    Suppose your newssite is called "foo". However, for an unknown reason,
    for example adminstration, it puts on the "Path" something like
    "foo.bar" or "bar" or "bar.edu". You will then have looping problems.
    The solution is to add the following entry to your sys file, replacing
        foo:*
    by    foo:foo.bar:bar:bar.edu:*

    10. Augmenting throughoutput.

    The UUCP protocol, because it is a "send-ack-send" protocol,
    which needs an acknowledge of each packets before resuming
    sending, may be very slow. The following are some ideas to
    augment throughoutput.

    a) Try to augment the window size. The window size is the
    amount of packets that may have been sent without being
    ack'ed in return. The bigger the better. Usually, 7 is OK.
    You set it via the -n uucico parameter (e.g. -n7).
    However some implementations of your feed's UUCP software
    will not allow above 3 (e.g. SYSV Basic Networking Utilities).

    b) Try to augment the packet size. It is how much data are
    being sent in one packet. This is done via the -P uucico
    keyword. For example -P5 selects 512 bytes packets.

    c) Try to batch news in bigger packets. Avoid the "autobatch autobatch"
    configuration line in UULIB:CONFIG. Only batch once just before the
    outgoing call (for example use the -b switch for uucico).

    d) Try to batch mail. Ask your feed if he can use BSMTP on both
    sides. This will diminush the number of small files to transmit.

    e) In some case SUPPRESSING any error correction *AND* data compression
    protocol may decrease response time and increase throughoutput. Measures
    have been done concluding that it should be tested if your feed cannot
    do more than 3 windows and 64-bytes packets. If you do not send a lot
    of small files and can use 7-window packets with big size, usually
    disabling data compression and error correction may not be needed nor
    useful.

    In general, you should TRY and figure out if anything helps. There
    is no universal solution to such problems.

11.    Don't use tabs inside configuration files

    A lot of problems have been reported with using TABs in your
    configuration files. For example, the BSMTP package written
    in Arexx does not accept any TABs in UULIB:Config. Also it
    has been reported that Batchnews will not understand a TAB in
    UULIB:L.Sys between the name of the node and "Any". This will
    result in no batching for the specified site. Beware that some
    editors will compress spaces into tabs. To force saving TAB to
    spaces use "savetabs on" in DME.

12.    Using the mail/newssystem with "detaching" editors.

    Most of AmigaUUCP software when calling external editors relies
    on the fact that the editor will only return control when the
    user has either cancelled (ie not changed the original edit file),
    or created a message (ie changed the oroginal edit file).
    DNEWS, GRn, DMAIL, and other software detect the cancel/ok condition
    from the length/modification date of the file. If it was not modified,
    then nothing is to be sent. Of course if the editor detaches itself
    it will prevent this mechanism from correctly working.
    The only solution is to force the editor not to return immediately.
    For example, with CED (CygnusEditor, commercial), you have to add
        Editor    "CED -keepio"
    to your config file.

13.    Miscellaneous Q&A.

Q:    All news are stored in the JUNK newsdirectory
A:    Edit the UULIB:Newsgroups file, there must be a line with the
    newsgroup name (in . notation), a space/tab and the expiration delay

Q:    My news partition is growing, nothing seems to be deleted
A:    You have to either use cron to automatically run trimnews at
    specified times, or run trimnnews by hand. trimnews -all will
    delete all news. You should redirect the output to NIL: if
    you use it interactively (it will execute faster). Don't forget
    to use ONLY the latest version of trimnews. Some of them did
    awful things. Remember that a newspartition must be on a FFS
    disk. Using DCFS or other filesystems may create problemes due
    to bugs in the OS.

Q:    My machine name is 'testa', but the world knows me as 'test.com'
A:    Add the following to UULIB:Domain: 'test.com MD UU testa', and
    add Reply-To: to your messages (or use testa.test.com)

Q:    I have two news feeds from which I get same newsgroups (eg. for
    backup in case of lost news), however, I'm making dupes and sending
    the news from one feed to the other.
A:    If your feeds are sitea and siteb, update your UULIB:Sys config
    to:
        sitea:siteb:comp.sys.amiga.*
        siteb:sitea:comp.sys.amiga.*

Q:    I keep getting 'Received x expected y' messages while uucico'ing.
A:    Use hardware flow control, minimize other tasks running, augment
    uucico priority or buy a faster Amiga. These messages mean the two
    uucico speaking to each other are out of sync. This is not fatal,
    and will be recovered automatically by the protocol.

(VIII)                    USING SENDMAIL DIRECTLY

    In many cases you will want to have scripts run from dcron to send
    automated postings, mailings, or do other automated tasks such as
    backups.  Usually bookeeping is made a lot easier if you have these
    script files send you local mail containing the results of their
    actions (such as log files or a success/failure message).

    The easiest way to send a message to yourself from a script is to
    use the sendmail program.  Please refer to the manual page for more
    information.  Essentially there are two ways to do this depending on
    the type of message you want to send:

    If you wish to send a simple message to yourself and include some
    sort of generated log file which is not formatted mail (i.e. has
    no headers), you can specify various headers through options to
    sendmail and also include the -raw option.

    sendmail -raw -f cron -t dillon -s "backups completed" <t:logfile

    On the otherhand, if you have some sort of monthly posting, such as
    this FAQ sheet, and want to send it automatically, and the file IS
    formatted mail (has normal mail headers such as 'From:' and 'To:' and
    'Subject:') you can use the following:

    sendmail <mail_file

    Since the headers are in the file, no other command line options are
    necessary, though you can effectively ADD additional recipients through
    appropriate command line options.

(IX)                    OTHER UUCP UTILITIES.

    1. Other crons.

    There are to my knowledge 3 crons available:
    DCRON
    AmiCron (fish disk)
    CyberCron (later fish disk)
        This one is 2.0 only and has special features like "at" command,
        and resembles a lot the UNIX cron.
    TPTCron from the DLG Pro package (however has been released for public use)

    2. Logging in remotely.

    Since 1.15, the following method can be used to log in remotely. It is
    very stable and allows for custom AmigaShell scripts.

    You NEED LIBS:fifo.library & L:fifo-handler (latest version if
    possible, some versions do not work with Getty. It is available, with
    source, on overload.Berkeley.CA.US as BMS:PUB/fifo37.4). I use version
    37.3, length 4260, and fifo-handler length 7432. Note that it is
    possible that more than one version 37.3 exists, that's why I added the
    length). Note that fifo-handler, although it is a DOS handler, *cannot*
    be mounted. You have to RUN it. Eg in your S:user-startup (or
    S:Startup-Sequence under 1.3) you have to add

    RUN <NIL: >NIL: L:Fifo-Handler

    Now you have two possibilities:

    a) You want an user with full shell access.
    Set up the following line in your UULIB:Passwd file:
       sysop,sysop_password,1,1,(Sysop Shell Login),RAM:,*

    Drawback: The Ctrl-C and Ctrl-D signals are not passed. By the way,
    More does not work (FIFO: does not support DISK_INFO Console packet
    used by More to retrieve window information). However most commands
    do work. Requesters will be disabled automagically by getty.


    b) You want to launch a script. Note that Getty will not pass Ctrl-C and Ctrl-D,
    as in a). In this case this is an advantage.
    Set up the following line in UULIB:Passwd
        guest,*,2,2,(Guest login),RAM:,*Guest-Startup

    This is a guest login without password. In S:Guest-Startup you may
    have the following lines. It won't be stoppable and if it fails
    there won't be any requesters, and the script won't return to a
    shell.

        Echo "Welcome on as a guest"
        Type MY_DATA:Information
        EndCLI

    You may well also create a complete menu system with options.

    Note that the old method using a Newshell AUX: cannot be used anymore
    due to Getty new method of locking the serial port. If you do you will
    get errors.

    See also "AuxSupport", and AXSH.

    3. AXSH

    AXsh is a multiuser shell with built-in protections. It can be
    used with UUCP. Users may then send/receive mail & news. Current
    version is 1.30 (works under 1.3 with arp.library, under 2.0, or
    under WB 2.1 for localization. It is shareware (US $30), mail to
    [e-mail] for more information. See included information
    how to install it with UUCP, and the BBS section below.


    A full-working demo version is available from aminet: util/shell/
    and from nic.funet.fi:/pub/amiga/shells/AXsh/.

    4. Archiving newsgroups.

    Archiving newsgroups can be automatically done with the following
    steps:

    a) Edit S:CronTab and add the following lines. This will launch a
    script at 00:30 each day.

        30 00 * * * UUArchive-Newsgroups

    b) Edit UULIB:Sys and add

# dummy node(s) for archiving news, will never be batched since not in L.Sys
uuarchive:alt.sys.amiga.alphanet,alphanet.*

    c) Create S:UUArchive-Newsgroups. Note you need an TRASH: assign to
    some temporary directory. We use LHA as an archiver. We could also
    first join the article and then LHA them (it would be more
    efficient).

--- cut here ---
Echo "UUArchive-Newsgroups(4)"
; What follows to prevent forgetting articles.
; Convert "." format to "/" format (1.16D)
; Does not prevent from being launched twice, however.

CD UUNEWS:

; ALPHANET newsgroups
IF EXISTS UUSPOOL:BATCH/UUArchive
  Delete TRASH:#?UUArchive
  Rename UUSPOOL:BATCH/UUArchive TRASH:_UUArchive      ; Needed for batchnews multitasking.
  ConvertNewsgroup TRASH:_UUArchive TRASH:UUArchive
  LhA -iTRASH:UUArchive a ARCHIVES:Newsgroups/ALPHANET_NEWSGROUPS
EndIF
--- cut here ---

    d) Create S:ConvertNewsgroup which converts "." syntax to "/" syntax
    as used in UUCP V1.16d and above. Note we use SED (Stream Editor).
    It can be found on fish disks. Probably the use of the Amiga stream
    editor "edit" would be possible.

--- cut here ---
.key source,dest
.bra {
.ket }

Sed < {source} > {dest} -fS:Sed-Newsgroup-Script
--- cut here

    e) Create S:Sed-Newsgroup-Script, which is the SED macro itself

--- cut here ---
y%.%/%
--- cut here ---

    5a. MAIL to NEWS Gateway.

    It is very easy to set up a (working but ugly) Mail to News gateway.
    For example you want all mail to user "alphanet-general" to be posted
    automatically on alphanet.general. Simply add the following lines to
    your UULIB:aliases file :

    alphanet-general: "|postnews -R UULIB:alphanet-general-refs"

    Also create the "UULIB:alphanet-general-refs file on the following
    skeleton:

    Newsgroups: alphanet.general
    Distribution: alphanet
    Sender: [e-mail] (Mail to News gateway)

    This will work easily, but is not always of a pretty sight.

    5b. NEWS to MAIL Gateway

    CNEWS users may want to use newsgate/mailgate, posted to .patches some
    time ago (available at litamiga /pub/amiga/uucp, or at alphanet). Contact
    the author, [e-mail], if you have problems locating a copy.
    AmigaUUCP 1.16D users should find Newsgate.lha on litamiga.epfl.ch
    /pub/amiga/uucp directory, or contact its author [e-mail].

    6. Mail Vacation programs.

    A mail vacation program is a program that replies automatically to
    received mail while you are absent. I know of two versions that are
    available at litamiga, and were posted a while ago on a.s.a.u.patches.
    Look for MailVacation.lha & vacation.lha.
    A new vacation program "mwm_vacation.lha", done by Mike Meyer, is
    also available (just posted on .patches with the "vacation.lha" name)

    Authors: MailReflect.Rexx, [e-mail] (Christian Balzer)
             ARexx.Reflector, [e-mail] (Friedrich Gentner)
             vacation.rexx, [e-mail] (Heiner Kordewiner)

    7. UUPoll

    UUPoll is a polling server. It supports the following features:
     -  controls the execution of a UUCICO child as the parent part
     -  checks for correct hostname and polling-time violation
     -  controls abortion of UUCICO due to a precalculated restriction time
     -  operates dependendly on status of last session
     -  operates dependendly on (specific) pending work
     -  controls dialup retries due to busy line or other UUCICO failures
     -  controls abortions due to user interupts
     -  can be disabled through a job control feature for crontab interventions
     -  can abort a startup due to or break an already running UUCICO process
     -  can give information about polling times and host status
     -  can setup your modem before start of a polling session
     -  can spawn UUCICO with additional options
     -  can spawn own user command after a (successful) session
     -  full UUCP logfile support similar to UUCICO
     -  can run under full runtime debugging with variable debug level

    Author: UUPoll R0.68, [e-mail] (Ralf S. Engelschall)

    8. UUTraf

    UUTraf sums up all xferstat entries of your UUCICO connections and
    calculates a statistic chart.  It can also pack the original log entries
    into a shorter form which will be also understand by UUTRAF when
    scanning the xferstat.  Basically resembles the UNIX version, but gives
    more information.  Requires UUCICO Release 1.13n, 1.15c or 1.16a.

    Author: UUTraf R0.15, [e-mail] (Ralf S. Engelschall)

    9. UUAcct

    UUAcct resembles UUTraf, but gives more accounting-related information
    (such as last call from node x)

    Author: UUACCT 1.3, [e-mail] (Kai 'wusel' Siering)

    10. Elm

    Elm is a more user friendly mailreader, based on its unix equivalent.
    Last version is 1.19. Shareware  $US10. Supports MIME.

    Author: ELM 1.15beta, [e-mail] (Andreas M. Krichwitz)

    11. GRN

    GRN is a fully intutionized Newsreader. Works well on flicker-free
    systems. 2.0 only. By Mike Schwartz, latest releases by Michael B.
    Smith. It supports NNTP also, on top of Commodore's AS225, or by
    itself.

    12. BMS

    BMS stands for Batch Mail Server. It allows to either request files
    from another node which has BMS installed, or to create a BMS node
    which will process file requests from other nodes. By Matt Dillon.

    13. BSMTP (Batch Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)

    Normal mail pieces ready for sending via UUCP are stored each in 3
    files. One local control file, and two data files (mail is not batched)
    Moreover, mail is not compressed. If you send a lot of mail, the
    overhead and the fact mail is not compressed may slow down your
    connection. You may then choose to go for BSMTP. BSMTP is an
    additionnal layer on the UUCP system. You continue writing independant
    files in the UUSPOOL: directory. At a specified (DCRON) time, you run
    the BSMTP batcher for a specified site, and this will create one
    batched and compressed file to send to the specified site. Batched
    means that data all is in one single file.
    NOTE: The other site MUST have set up his BSMTP system correctly. Ask
    also for the type of compression (compress-14, compress-16, freeze,
    none). Best is freeze.


    To my knowledge there are two packages available (litamiga or Aminet):
       - A set of ARexx script + modified UUXQT
       - C executables.
       - SmailAmiga

    Authors:
    BSMTP 0.14 [e-mail] (Ralf S. Engelschall)
    BSMTP-ARexx: [e-mail] (Georg Sassen)
        SmailAmiga, see the SmailAmiga subsection.

    14. AVM

    AVM's last version is 1.3.2 and is available on ftp.eunet.ch
    Author: [e-mail] (Gavin Stark).

    15. UUXQT L:Commands

    A special version of the UUXQT executable is available. It allows the
    launching of more commands than the usual UUXQT. Launchable commands
    are configurable. This can be used for special needs (BSMTP, ...).
    Couldn't find the author name.

    16. MIME [Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions]

    Mime is at this time a mail standard. Amiga packages include
    "metamail-2.3" available by ftp on ftp.eunet.ch mirrors. It is
    an extension to standard mail message, allowing to pass enhanced text,
    graphics, audio, and more, in a standardized and interoperable manner.
    It's far more than just ASCII text. The only News system that is
    supposed to include something similar is the NeXT NewsGrazer which
    uses RTF (rich text format). GRn and GMail will probably support MIME
    in some future releases. The metamail-2.4 port for the Amiga (by Johan
    Widin) requires a suite of other programs as well (as most Amiga MIME
    implementation will) to convert the text and graphics formats to things
    that can be displayed on the Amiga (GIF, TIFF, TeX, etc.)

    17. XStat

    XStat is a traffic analyser for UUCP connections. It allows not only
    reporting usual figures, but also may be used to calculate real phone
    costs based on user-settable rates. It needs at least AmigaOS 2.04.

    Available on Fish 714 (with Modula-2 source). A newer version was
    distributed in December 1993 (1.14)

    Author: Juergen Weinelt, [e-mail]

    18. AuxSupport

    In order to log in remotely, you may also use the AuxSupport.lzh package
    (posted a while back) which uses a special aux handler which will work
    with getty. It also does pass control C,D etc... and includes emacs that
    works over aux, and AZ (an XPRZmodem util) that allows interactive zmodem
    transfers while logged in. With this method you do not need fifolibrary
    nor fifo-handler.

    Drawback: the sd-aux-handler currently does not work with multi serial
    line cards, and the newshell command must be done via script that also
    invokes a wait process to prevent getty from getting back on port until
    shell exits (examples supplied in archive).

    Author: Steve Drew, [e-mail]

    19. Remote-WShell

    Could allow you to use WShell remotely. Seems to be based on AuxSupport.
    Incorporates TNews to read news. I have not registered to WShell so I
    couldn't test it.

    20. ANN

    Newsreader. Very configurable. Similar to Unix's nn.
    Author: Walther Mildenberger ([e-mail])

    21. TIN

    TIN is a threaded (meaning it groups articles by Subject: and References:)
    and interactive (meaning you move a cursor to the group/article you want to
    read and type return) newsreader ported from its UNIX version. There is
    also a special BBS version (e.g. for DLG or similar Bulletin Board Systems).
    It is distributed with full source code. Latest version, directly
    compilable on Amiga (SAS/C) is 1.20 PL0.

    Author: Iain Lea <[e-mail]>,
            ported to AmigaOS by Mark Tomlinson <[e-mail]>.

    22. WPL

    WPL is a telecomunications interpreted language, in many ways similar
    to AREXX.  It is a grouping of shared libraries, with the main libraries
    being 'wpl.library' for the main interpreter, 'xferq.library' for address
    parsing/handling and the outbound list, xpr*.library(xprfts.library,
    xprzedzap.library,etc) for actual file transfers, and a number of new
    libraries 'yet to be written' that will allow third party authors to
    add commands to this language (In much the same way as RXLib'd libraries
    work for AREXX, only much faster).

    For more information, join the following mailing lists.

    [e-mail]   - For the WPL language developers,
             people writing support utilities or language extensions,
             protocol authors, language beta testers.

    [e-mail]  - For the users of WPL based
              mailers, the GUI users, etc.  This conference will remain
              as non-technical as we possibly can, and is the place
              where WPL programmers can support their software.

    23. AmigaMail

    AM (AmigaMail) is a completely Intuition controlled mail user agent
    for use with  AmigaUUCP and  AmigaUUCP+. It runs only on OS 2.04 and
    above, and its goal is to provide a consistent user interface for mails.
    Note that it is still beta, latest version is AM V1.19beta, installation
    needs good comprehension of UUCP internals.

    Author: Christian Riede  <[e-mail]>

    24. UUFS

    UUFS is a file-mailserver. However it seems it has some security leaks.

    Author: Andrew Koppa & others

    25. mpack/munpack

    mpack is a program for encoding binary files and sending them through
    the mail and news. The messages it creates follow the MIME (see the
    MIME section in this FAQ for more information) format outlined in RFCs
    1521 and 1522. Being of more recent design, it has several technical
    advantages over messages containing uuencoded files. It was designed
    to send binaries through mail and news, and it is easier to use than
    raw uuencode for posting.

    munpack is the unpacker that goes with mpack. It has many of the same
    advantages over uudecode that mpack has over uuencode. The one
    drawback is that you cannot save all the parts of an mpack posting in
    one file to be fed to munpack. munpack must be able to distinguish the
    separate messages from each other in some way. The obvious advantages
    - not having to save the messages at all, not having to worry about
    what order you process them in, and being able to process parts from
    two postings in intermixed order - outweigh this disadvantage.

    Exactly how you unpack an mpack archive depends on your news reader.
    The hard - but always possible - way is to save the each part of an
    mpack message as a separate file and run munpack with those files as
    arguments. As stated above, you must put each part in a separate file,
    but order doesn't matter.  You can save multiple multipart postings in
    a directory, cd to that directory and issue the command "munpack `list
    lformat %p%n`".

    If your newsreader supports MIME format messages, it may decode and
    unpack mpacked files without any action on your part, or it may
    require you to issue a command to process each part as a MIME message.
    If it does not support MIME format messages, the easiest way to unpack
    mpacked files is to arrange to run munpack on each message from inside
    your newsreader. Details of how this is done depend on your
    newsreader.

    The central release mechanism for mpack and munpack is FTP from
    export.acs.cmu.edu, in the directory pub/mpack. This directory has
    MS-DOS, Mac and Amiga binaries, as well as sources for those and the
    Unix version. Amiga-specific distributions are also available via BMS
    from various sites, including contessa.phone.net and
    adastra.cvl.va.us. If none of those work, the maintainer of the Amiga
    version can be contacted via email to [e-mail], and will
    send you a uuencoded version of munpack.

    26. SmailAmiga (V2.5)

    This is a port from [e-mail] of the popular SMAIL
    UNIX mailer, including BSMTP. It is a full replacement for the
    original sendmail, mainly useful for gateway-site Amigas.
    It is available on Aminet.

(X)                    HOW TO GET UUCP STUFF.

    1. UUCP Patches FTP sites.

    The litamiga.epfl.ch:/pub/amiga/uucp directory is expected to contain
    all stuff posted in alt.sys.amiga.uucp.patches. Please allow some
    delay from the time things are posted on alt.sys.amiga.uucp.patches to
    the time they are available on litamiga. [128.178.151.32]
    The litamiga FSP daemon is on disun3.epfl.ch at port 9999.
    There is also an IRC client called ALPHABot.

    **NOTE** litamiga.epfl.ch is available from 1800 to 0900 GMT+2

    Aminet: The ftp.eunet.ch mirrors (of which litamiga is) also
    have most of UUCP stuff. (/pub/aminet/comm/uucp)

    2. Public UUCP sites.

    Site name:     alphanet.ch
    Login:         nuucp (changed)
    Phone number:  [phone]    (changed)
    Country:       Switzerland
    Modem norms:   up to V32bis MNP/V42bis
    Calling hours: 24 hour a day. However access is only assured from 16h-22h00 CED (GMT+2)
    Contents-file: ~/README ~/ls-laR.gz
    Notes:         alphanet.ch is a UNIX system (satcom.alphanet.ch), and
                   archives alt.sys.amiga.uucp.patches. It also has some
                   aminet files. It is scheduled that in February it will
                   start mirroring Aminet again.

    Date of entry: Sat, 28 August 1993 11:00:04 CED

    Site name:     hactar.hanse.de
    Login:         nuucp
    Password:      nuucp
    Phone number:  [phone]
    Country:       West Germany
    Modem norms:   up to V32bis MNP/V42bis
    Calling hours: 21:00-10:00 UTC
    Contents-file: UUPUB:Contents(.Z|.F|.lha)
    Notes:         Get `~/$readme.1st` the first time you call. Running BMS
                   and a mailserver, [e-mail]
    Date of entry: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 23:51:39 +0200

    3. BMS sites

    Generally the file to get is BMS:PUB/FILES.

    Site address: overload.Berkeley.CA.US
    Restrictions: None known.
    Notes:        UUCP sources and binaries

    Site address: hactar.hanse.de
    Restrictions: None (yet). But make SURE you ARE reachable before getting
                  large files !!
    Notes:        UUCP sources and binaries. AmigaUUCP Plus. Refer to BMS:pub/Files

    Site address: anaconda.bloomington.in.us
    Restrictions: None
    Notes:        Most files were lost in a disk crash. Some will be restored.
                  Probably only the UUCP system will remain downloadable.
                  BBS is [phone] (V32bis/V42bis) (Fido also)

    Site address: brunz.Santa-Cruz.CA.US
    Restrictions: None known.
    Notes:        None

    Site address: haadav.boston.ma.us
    Restrictions: None known.
    Notes:        2400 baud connection. Please limit your requests.

    Site address: moose.cs.indiana.edu!dolmen
    Restrictions: None known.
    Notes:        None

    Site address: uunet.uu.net!decvax!ftlcpu
    Restrictions: None known.
    Notes:        UUCP Patches.

    Site address: seq.uncwil.edu!marin
    Restrictions: None known.
    Notes:        Contains UUCP sources and binaries for AmigaOS, MacOS, and MS-DOS.

    Site address: dacami.cmhnet.org
    Restrictions: None known.
    Notes:        ???

    Site address: alphanet.ch        ###### NOT AVAILABLE NOW ######
    Restrictions: Currently BMS requests are processed by an amiga computer
                  which is not always running. alphanet.ch itself is a UNIX
                  box, which forwards mails to the BMS server. Due to space
                  limitations on amiga1.alphanet.ch, files are being moved to
                  the UNIX box. Replacement include nuucp directly to the
                  UNIX box, which has all alt.sys.amiga.uucp.patches files
                  and some aminet files.
    Notes:        Files to get are UUPUB:CONTENTS.LHA
                  and UUPUB:TREE.LHA. Manager is [e-mail]

    Site address: mirkwood.cam.org
    Restrictions: None known.
    Notes:        BETTY server. (see paragraph 4)

    Site address: peti.GUN.de
    Restrictions: none
    Notes:        Holds the latest versions of all programs Peter Simons is
                  responsible for (eg AGetty, PMAIL, PGP, UUCP library project)
                  System administrator is Peter Simons <[e-mail]>

    4. BETTY

    Betty is an automatic "archie"-like system for BMS servers. It maintains
    a list of known BMS sites and their files. You can even request a server's
    list or find a program on a server via this method.

    Betty maintains a database that lists all the files available on
    some BMS sites.  To consult the Betty database, you send a mail
    message to the server describing what you are looking for.  The
    server will reply your message with the results of the query.
    Here is an example:

        To: [e-mail]
        Subject:

        prog commodity
        quit

    And the reply would contain:

        From: [e-mail]
        To: [e-mail]
        Subject: Betty

        [ ... ]

        Matches on deepthot.cary.nc.us:
        File:DOS2.0/
            FBLANK.LZH            26509 28-Sep-91 01:52:44 : SCN BLNK USING FRACTALS - COMMODITY

        Matches on mirkwood.cam.org:
        PUB:utilities/system/workbench/
            KCommodity.lha       218914 14-Jun-92 11:17:58

        [ ... ]

    Betty understands a number of commands.  To get the HELP file,
    send a mail message to "[e-mail]" with the word
    "help" in the subject line.  You may contact the maintainer
    of Betty at "[e-mail]".

    5. FSP sites

    Try disun3.epfl.ch at port 9999, in subdirectory uucp.

    6. Mailservers for getting the UUCP FAQ (this FAQ)

        mail to               [e-mail]
        request format        xsend auucp_faq.txt

        bms to                caron.ati.com
        request               files:auucp_faq.txt


(XI)                     BBS SOFTWARE SUPPORTING UUCP

    Most BBS software support FIDONET, most do not support UUCP directly.
    That means that often they need to import news and mail, thus using
    precious diskspace. Moreover they often do not translate news format
    correctly, or have problems with mails. If the BBS does only support
    FIDONET, a special package called UNETGATE (or something similar) can
    be used to translate news & mail into FIDONET echomail & netmail.
    Or when it is possible to run external programs ('Doors'), one can use
    Tin for reading news.

    1. DLG

    State:    COMMERCIAL
    Contact:    *no idea*
    UUCP:    News and mail are being imported to DLG internal mail and news
        format, which is more a FIDONET derivate. This means that users
        have to see ugly newsheaders, and some of the features of the
        newssystem are lost. After an import, it's a good idea to do a
        trimnews -all to remove dupes. News are expired not on a time
        basis but rather on an amount per area basis. However when
        posting an article, the underlying UUCP system is used to post
        directly mail & news.
    Doors:    There is a special version of TIN (dlgtin.lha) usable as a 'Door'

    2. AXsh 1.3

    State:    Shareware, with a full-working demo version available on
        Aminet and nic.funet.fi. Registration is US$30
    Contact:    Pasi 'Albert' Ojala <[e-mail]>
    UUCP:    AXsh is infact "simply" a shell. Custom scripts and commands
                may be installed by the operator. The standard version includes
                a readnews program which reads UUCP and CNews news directly.
        So you need UUCP or CNEWS as the transport layer for mail and
                news if you don't talk with another AXsh BBS (if yes, transport
        is assured by zmodem and lha). It uses a special AUX handler
        which passes signals (C-D-E-F) and allows XPR filetransfers.
        An interesting utility is the FFE program which allows to
        browse through directories and select the file(s) you want
        to download. AXSH can be used with any serial device driver
        or unit number, and shared mode is available, along with
        handshake settings, speed an carrier detection. Examples
        and tested settings are included.
     Doors:    Almost full CLI/Shell support.

     3. 4D-BBS V2.x+

     State:    Shareware, with a full-working demo version available on
        Aminet and many BBS/Commercial services.  Registration is
        US $49.95 with educational and competetive upgrades available.
     Contact:    Dale E. Reed Jr. <[e-mail]>
     UUCP:    4D-BBS directly reads and writes native news message store
        formats, so no importing/exporting is needed.  It presents this
        is the SAME format as mail and other network messages offering
        the user the same frontend, no matter which network the message
        is from/to.  The AmigaUUCP package is needed in order to support
        news/mail over UUCP.  4D-BBS uses sendmail and postnews to
        actually write the messages out to the network, allowing a
        seamlesses integration.  News is setup on either a time expire
        or on an amount limit configurable by the SysOp.
     Doors:    In the works in a full featured news and mail reading door,
        along with a qwk packer/reader which allows both mail and
        news to be read and replied to off-line.


(XII)                    OTHER UUCP IMPLEMENTATIONS FOR AMIGAOS.

    This sections lists known UUCP implementations for AmigaOS:

    1. AmigaUUCP, by Matt Dillon and others.

    2. AmigaUUCP+, originally written by Ingo Feulner, loosely based
    on AmigaUUCP V1.06 and CNEWS. Its news-system can handle an active
    file, control messages and dupes.

    However,  Ingo  has  moved  to  NeXT,  so he abandoned this project.
    Its last version  was  1.02.  This project has been taken over by
    Kai 'wusel' Siering <[e-mail]>, using the CNews port
    of Frank 'Crash' Edwards (instead of the older one used as the base
    for AmigaUUCP+), this version is called 'wCNews'.

    Along with modified uucico-stuff (subdirectory support) it has been
    posted to .patches in mid-february 1993. (No, that's NOT true :-; )

    There  is also a rewrite of the uucico by Andrew Kopp
    ([e-mail]). Henning Schmiedehausen do plan a new release
    of the AmigaUUCP+ for '92, but this is not absolutely certain.

    AmigaUUCP+ is available via ftp from ftp.uni-erlangen.de
    (131.188.1.43) along with the sources and binaries of AmigaUUCP 1.16.

    A bug fixed version of the AmigaUUCP+ sendmail (sendmail1.02i21) also
    exists.

(XIII)                    UNRESOLVED TOPICS.

    - Fido <-> UUCP gateway software
    - More BBS software.

EOF = END OF FAQ :-)