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<!doctype linuxdoc system>
<article>
<title>The Linux UUCP HOWTO
<author>Vince Skahan, <tt><[e-mail]></tt>
<date>v1.5, 29 November 1995
<abstract>
This document describes the setup and care+feeding of UUCP under Linux.  You
need to read this if you plan to connect to remote sites via UUCP via a modem,
via a direct-connection, or via Internet.  You probably do *not* need to read
this document if don't talk UUCP.
</abstract>
<toc>
<sect>Introduction
<p>
The intent of this document is to answer some of the questions and comments
that appear to meet the definition of "frequently asked questions" about UUCP
software under Linux in general, and the version in the Linux SLS and
Slackware distributions in particular.

This document and the corresponding Mail and News "HOWTO" documents
collectively supersede the UUCP-NEWS-MAIL-FAQ that has previously been posted
to <em>comp.os.linux.announce</em>.
<sect1>New versions of this document
<p>
New versions of this document will be periodically posted to
comp.os.linux.announce, comp.answers, and news.answers.  They will
also be added to the various anonymous ftp sites who archive such
information including <tt>sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO</tt>.
<p>
In addition, you should be generally able to find this document on the
Linux WorldWideWeb home page at <tt>http://sunsite.unc.edu/mdw/linux.html</tt>.

<sect1>Feedback

<p>
I am interested in any feedback, positive or negative, regarding the content
of this document via e-mail.  Definitely contact me if you find errors or
obvious omissions.

I read, but do not necessarily respond to, all e-mail I receive.  Requests for
enhancements will be considered and acted upon based on that day's combination
of available time, merit of the request, and daily blood pressure :-)

Flames will quietly go to /dev/null so don't bother.

In particular, the Linux filesystem standard for pathnames is an evolving
thing.  What's in this document is there for illustration only based on the
current standard at the time that part of the document was written and in
the paths used in the distributions or 'kits' I've personally seen.  Please
consult your particular Linux distribution(s) for the paths they use.

Feedback concerning the actual format of the document should go to the HOWTO
coordinator - Greg Hankins (<tt>[e-mail]</tt>).

<sect1>Copyright Information
<p>
The UUCP-HOWTO is copyrighted (c)1994 Vince Skahan.

A verbatim copy may be reproduced or distributed in any medium physical or
electronic without permission of the author.  Translations are similarly
permitted without express permission if it includes a notice on who translated
it.

Short quotes may be used without prior consent by the author.  Derivative work
and partial distributions of the UUCP-HOWTO must be accompanied with either a
verbatim copy of this file or a pointer to the verbatim copy.

Commercial redistribution is allowed and encouraged; however, the author would
appreciate being notified of any such distributions (as a courtesy).

In short, we wish to promote dissemination of this information through as many
channels as possible. However, we do wish to retain copyright the HOWTO
documents.

We further want that ALL information provided in the HOWTOS is disseminated.
If you have questions, please contact Greg Hankins, the Linux HOWTO coordinator,
at <tt>[e-mail]</tt>.

<sect1>Standard Disclaimer
<p>
Of course, I disavow any potential liability for the contents of this
document.  Use of the concepts, examples, and/or other content of this
document is entirely at your own risk.

<sect1>Other sources of information
<sect2>Linux HOWTO Documents
<p>
There is plenty of exceptional material provided in the other Linux HOWTO
documents and from the Linux DOC project.  In particular, you might want to
take a look at the following:

<itemize>
<item>the Serial Communications HOWTO
<item>the Ethernet HOWTO
<item>the Linux Networking Administrators' Guide
</itemize>

<sect2>USENET
<p>
comp.mail.uucp can answer most of your UUCP questions
<sect2> Mailing Lists
<p>
There is a Taylor UUCP mailing list.

To join (or get off) the list, send mail to
<verb>
              [e-mail]
</verb>

This request goes to a person, not to a program, so please make sure that you
include the address at which you want to receive mail in the text of the
message.

To send a message to the list, send it to
<verb>
             [e-mail]
</verb>

<sect2>Books
<p>
HDB and V2 versions of UUCP are documented in about every vendor's
documentation as well as in almost all *nix communications books.

Taylor config files are currently only documented in the info files provided
with the sources (and in the SLS distribution hopefully).  To read them, you
can grab the nice "infosrc" program from the SLS "s" disks and compile it.

The following is a non-inclusive set of books that will help.
<itemize>

<item> <tt>"Managing UUCP and USENET"</tt> from O'Reilly and Associates is in my opinion the
best book out there for figuring out the programs and protocols involved in
being a USENET site.

<item> <tt>"Unix Communications"</tt> from The Waite Group contains a nice description of all
the pieces (and more) and how they fit together.

<item> <tt>"Practical Unix Security"</tt> from O'Reilly and Associates has a nice discussion
of how to secure UUCP in general.

<item> <tt>"The Internet Complete Reference"</tt> from Osborne is a fine reference book that
explains the various services available on Internet and is a great
source for information on news, mail, and various other Internet resources.

<item>"<tt>The Linux Networking Administrators' Guide</tt>" from Olaf Kirch of the
Linux DOC Project is available on the net and is also published by (at least)
O'Reilly and SSC.  It makes a fine <em>one-stop shopping</em> to learn about
everything you ever imagined you'd need to know about Unix networking.
</itemize>

<sect1>Where *NOT* to look for help
<p>
There is nothing "special" about configuring and running UUCP under
Linux (any more).  Accordingly, you almost certainly do *NOT* want
to be posting generic UUCP-related questions to the comp.os.linux.*
newsgroups.

Unless your posting is truly Linux-specific (ie, "please tell me
what config file support is built into the binaries for Taylor
uucp v1.04 in SLS v1.02"), you should be asking your questions in
comp.mail.uucp or on the Taylor UUCP mailing list as indicated
above.

Let me repeat that.

There is virtually no reason to post anything uucp-related in the
comp.os.linux hierarchy any more.  There are existing newsgroups in the
comp.mail.* hierarchy to handle *ALL* your questions.

<em>
IF YOU POST TO COMP.OS.LINUX.* FOR NON-LINUX-SPECIFIC QUESTIONS, YOU ARE
LOOKING IN THE WRONG PLACE FOR HELP.  THE UUCP EXPERTS HANG OUT IN THE PLACES
INDICATED ABOVE AND GENERALLY DO NOT RUN LINUX.
</em>

<em>
POSTING TO THE LINUX HIERARCHY FOR NON-LINUX-SPECIFIC QUESTIONS WASTES YOUR
TIME AND EVERYONE ELSE'S AND IT FREQUENTLY DELAYS YOU FROM GETTING THE ANSWER
TO YOUR QUESTION.
</em>

<sect>Hardware Requirements
<p>
There are no specific hardware requirements for UUCP under Linux.  Basically
any Hayes-compatible modem works painlessly with UUCP.

In most cases, you'll want the fastest modem you can afford.  In general, you
want to have a 16550 UART on your serial board or built into your modem to
handle speeds of above 9600 baud.

If you don't know what that last sentence means, please consult the
<em>comp.dcom.modems</em> group or the various fine modem and serial communications
FAQs and periodic postings on USENET.

<sect>Getting UUCP
<p>
Taylor UUCP (current version 1.05) is available on <tt>prep.ai.mit.edu</tt> in source
form and in various Linux distributions in binary form.

The <tt>newspak-2.4.tar.z</tt> distribution contains config files and readme files
related to building uucp, news, and mail software under Linux from the various
freely-available sources.  It can usually be found on <tt>sunsite.unc.edu</tt> in the
directory <tt>/pub/Linux/system/Mail/news</tt>.  If you can't find it on
sunsite, please send me mail and I'll make sure you get a copy of it.

<sect>Installing the Software
<p>
(Much of this section is taken verbatim from the README file in the Taylor
UUCP v1.05 sources - it's provided here so I can help you "rtfm" instead of
just telling you to do so)

Detailed compilation instructions are in uucp.texi in the sources.

You can grab "known good" <tt>conf.h</tt> and <tt>policy.h</tt> files for Linux
from the newspak distribution referred to in the "other sources of information"
section above.  In that case, you can probably go right to typing "make".

<sect1>Extracting the compressed sources
<p>
To extract a gzip'd tar archive, I do the following:
<verb>
        gunzip -c filename.tar.z | tar xvf -
</verb>
A "modern" tar can just do a:
<verb>
               tar -zxvf filename.tgz
</verb>
<sect1>Edit Makefile.in to set installation directories.
<p>
Here, I set <tt>"prefix"</tt> to "/usr" rather than the default of "/usr/local"

<sect1>Run "configure"
<p>
Type <tt>"sh configure"</tt>.

The configure script will compile a number of test programs to see what is
available on your system and will calculate many things.

The configure script will create <tt>conf.h</tt> from conf.h.in and <tt>Makefile</tt> from
Makefile.in.  It will also create config.status, which is a shell script which
actually creates the files.

<itemize>
<item>
Rather than editing the Makefile.in file in the sources as indicated above,
you can get the same effect by:
<verb>
    "configure --prefix=/usr/lib"
</verb>
</itemize>
<sect1>Configure the future setup of the software
<p>
<sect2> Examine conf.h and Makefile to make sure they're right.
<p> I took the defaults
<sect2> Edit <tt>policy.h</tt> for your local system.
<p>
<itemize>
<item> - set the type of lockfiles you want (HAVE_HDB_LOCKFILES)
<item> - set the type of config files you want built in
        (HAVE_TAYLOR_CONFIG, HAVE_V2_CONFIG, HAVE_HDB_CONFIG)
<item> - set the type of spool directory structure you want
        (SPOOLDIR_HDB)
<item> - set the type of logging you want (HAVE_HDB_LOGGING)
<item> - set the default search path for commands
        (I added /usr/local/bin to mine)
</itemize>
<sect1>Compile and install the software
<p>
<itemize>
<item>Type <tt>"make"</tt>.
<item>Use <tt>"uuchk | more"</tt> to check configuration files.  You can use <tt>"uuconv"</tt>
to convert between configuration file formats.
<item>Type <tt>"make install"</tt> to install.
</itemize>
<sect1>Set up the config files
<p>
I'd recommend you start by taking the attached known-good config files for HDB
mode and installing them.
<itemize>
<item>Make sure that the <tt>Permissions</tt> file indicates exactly where rmail and rnews
are to be found if you put them anywhere other than in the path you specified
in policy.h
<item>
Make sure that your <tt>Devices</tt> files matches the actual location of your modem
(cua1=COM2 in the examples)
<item>
Edit the <tt>Systems</tt> file to set up the system(s) you talk to with their speed,
phone number, username, and password.

<tt>*PROTECT THIS FILE AGAINST WORLD READ*</tt>

<item>Set up the <tt>Permissions</tt> file and add a set of lines for each site you talk to.
For security reasons, it's recommended to make sure they each have a separate
account (if you allow dialin) and home directory so you can track things.
</itemize>
<sect1>Give it a try
<p>

<verb>
    /usr/lib/uucp/uucico -r 1 -x 9 -s remote_system_name
</verb>

The <tt>-x 9</tt> will have maximum debugging information written to the
<tt>/usr/spool/uucp/.Admin/audit.local</tt> file for help in initial setup.

I normally run <tt>-x 4</tt> here since that level logs details that help me with login
problems.  Obviously, this contains cleartext information from your Systems
file (account/password) so protect it against world-read.

<itemize>
<item> from <em>[e-mail]</em>

Taylor has more logging levels.  Use -x all to get the highest level possible.

Also, do a <tt>"tail -f /usr/spool/uucp/.Admin/audit.local"</tt> while debugging to
watch things happen on the fly.
</itemize>
<sect1>It doesn't work - now what ?
<p>
In general, you can refer to the documentation mentioned above
if things don't work.  You can also refer to your more experienced
UUCP neighbors for help.  Usually, it's something like a typo
anyway.

<sect>Frequently Asked Questions about Linux UUCP
<p>

<sect1>Why is my binary of uucp configured in HDB rather than "Taylor" mode?
<p>
(religious mode on - I know some people are just as religious about "ease
of use" as I am about "being standard".  That's why they make source code you
can build your own from :-) )

Because IMHO it's the de-facto standard UUCP implementation at this time.
There are thousands of sites with experienced admins and there are many places
you can get incredibly good information concerning the HDB setup.

The uucp-1.04 that's in SLS 1.02 and later has all three modes of config files
built in.  While I can't test it, I did "rtfm" and Ian Taylor tells me that it
should work.

The search order for config files is Taylor then V2 (L.sys)  then HDB.
Use the <tt>uuconv</tt> utility in /usr/lib/uucp to convert config files from one mode
to another.

If you can't wait, grab the sources for uucp and specify <tt>HAVE_BNU_CONFIG</tt>,
<tt>HAVE_V2_CONFIG</tt> *and* <tt>HAVE_TAYLOR_CONFIG</tt> in the policy.h file and type "make".

The following workaround is ugly, but it does work, if you want to run Taylor
configs from binaries that don't have it built in.
<itemize>
<item> <em>From [e-mail] (Michael E. Bravo)</em>

- add  <tt>"-I /usr/local/lib/uucp/config"</tt> to _every_ invocation of
whatever program in uucp package
</itemize>

Also, the current Slackware has a nice setup where they separated the
config files for the various configurations into separate directories.
For example, the HDB config files would go into <tt>/usr/lib/uucp/hdb_config</tt>.
While I used to 'roll my own' here, I've been running the out-of-the-box
Slackware UUCP in HDB mode here with no problems for quite a while.

<sect1>Why do I get "timeout" on connections when I upgraded to uucp-1.04 ?
<p>
<itemize>
<item> from <em>Ed Carp - [e-mail]</em>

If you use a "Direct" device in the Devices file, there's now a
10 second timeout compiled in.  Make the name of the Device anything
other than "Direct".  If you tweak the example /usr/lib/uucp files
provided with SLS, you won't have problems with this one.

<item> from <em>Greg Naber - [e-mail]</em>

If you get chat script timeouts, you can tweak the sources by
editing at line 323 in uuconf/syssub.c and changing the default
timeouts from 10 seconds to something larger.

<item> from <em>Ed Rodda - [e-mail]</em>

If you get chat script timeouts, typically connecting to other
Taylor sites, a pause after login can fix this.
<verb>
feed Any ACU,ag 38400 5551212 ogin: \c\d "" yourname word: passwd
</verb>
<item> from <em>Dr. Eberhard W. Lisse - [e-mail]</em>

Some kernels experience modems hanging up after a couple of seconds.
The following patch sent by Ian Taylor might help.
<verb>
*** conn.c.orig Mon Feb 22 20:25:24 1993
--- conn.c      Mon Feb 22 20:33:10 1993
***************
*** 204,209 ****
--- 204,212 ----

     /* Make sure any signal reporting has been done before we set
       fLog_sighup back to TRUE.  */
+   /* SMR: it seems to me if we don't care about SIGHUPS, we should clear
+      the flag before we return  */
+   afSignal[INDEXSIG_SIGHUP] = FALSE;
    ulog (LOG_ERROR, (const char *) NULL);
    fLog_sighup = TRUE;
</verb>
</itemize>
<sect1>Why doesn't HDB anonymous uucp seem to work ?
<p>
The SLS anonymous uucp only works in Taylor mode because it's compiled with
HAVE_TAYLOR_CONFIG.  If you want to do anon uucp in HDB mode, you'll have to
recompile the sources with just HDB defined.  Ian Taylor is considering which
way to deal with this "feature".

Also, Taylor in HDB mode seems to be sensitive to white space and blank lines.
To be safe, make sure that there are no blank lines or trailing spaces in the
Permissions file.

Lastly, make sure that you have a file called <tt>remote.unknown</tt> in /usr/lib/uucp
and that it's <em>*NOT*</em> executable.  See the O'Reilly+Assoc book <tt>"Managing UUCP
and USENET"</tt> for details regarding this file.

<sect1>What does "no matching ports found" mean ?
<p>
In all probability, you are attempting to use a device (<tt>/usr/lib/uucp/Devices</tt>)
that doesn't exist, or the device you've specified in the
<tt>/usr/lib/uucp/Systems</tt> file doesn't match up with any valid devices in the
Devices file.

Following this are *sanitized* versions of my working Taylor 1.05 HDB config
files that you can plug in and use.

note the "ACU" in the Systems ?  That tells which "port" to use in Devices

see the "scout" word in Systems ?  That tells which dialer to use in Dialers.

If you had a ACU port, but none that matched the specified dialer on the same
line in Systems, you'll get that message.

<sect1>What are known good config files for HDB mode ?
<p>
The following are "known-good" config files for Taylor 1.05 under Linux in
HoneyDanBer mode.  They work on kernels of 0.99-8 or later. All files should
be in /usr/lib/uucp unless you've tweaked the sources to put the uucp library
elsewhere.

If you *HAVE* put things in non-standard places, be aware that things like
sendmail might get very confused. You need to ensure that all
communications-related programs agree on your idea of "standard" paths.

If you're running a kernel of 0.99-7 or earlier, change "cua1" to "ttyS1".

<verb>
#------------- Devices -------------
# make sure the device (cua1 here) matches your system
# cua1 = COM2
#
# here "scout" is the Digicom Scout Plus 19.2 modem I use
# tbfast etc. is for a Telebit Trailblazer Plus modem's various speeds
#
ACU cua1 - 19200 scout
ACU cua1 - 9600 tbfast
ACU cua1 - 1200 tbslow
ACU cua1 - 2400 tbmed

#------------- dialers --------------
# note the setting of the Trailblazer registers "on the fly"
# "scout" is a Digicom Scout Plus (Hayes-like) modem I use here
#
scout    =W-,    "" ATM0DT\T CONNECT
tbfast    =W-,    "" A\pA\pA\pT OK ATS50=255DT\T CONNECT\sFAST
tbslow    =W-,    "" A\pA\pA\pT OK ATS50=2DT\T CONNECT\s1200
tbmed    =W-,    "" A\pA\pA\pT OK ATS50=3DT\T CONNECT\s2400

#-------------- Systems -------------
# this is a very generic entry that will work for most systems
#
# the Any;1 means that you can call once per minute with using -f (force)
# the ACU,g means force "g" protocol rather than Taylor's default "i"
#
fredsys Any;1 ACU,g 19200 scout5555555 "" \r ogin:--ogin: uanon word: uanon

#-------------------------------- Permissions -------------------------

# Taylor UUCP in HDB mode appears to be sensitive to blank lines.
# Make sure all Permissions lines are real or commented out.
#
# this is a anonymous uucp entry
#
LOGNAME=nuucp MACHINE=OTHER \
READ=/usr/spool/uucp/nuucp \
WRITE=/usr/spool/uucp/nuucp \
SENDFILES=yes REQUEST=yes \
COMMANDS=/bin/rmail
#
# this is a normal setup for a remote system that talks to us
# note the absolute path to rnews since this site puts things
# in locations that aren't "standard"
#
LOGNAME=fredsys MACHINE=fredsys \
READ=/usr/spool/uucp/fredsys:/usr/spool/uucp/uucppublic:/files \
WRITE=/usr/spool/uucp/fredsys:/usr/spool/uucppublic \
SENDFILES=yes REQUEST=yes \
COMMANDS=/bin/rmail:/usr/local/lib/news/bin/rnews
#----------------------------------------------------------------------
</verb>
<sect1>Getting uucico to call alternate numbers
<p>
The new v1.05 has an added '-z' switch to uucico that will try alternate
numbers for a remote system.
<sect>Acknowledgements
<p>

The following people have helped in the assembly of the information (and
experience) that helped make this document possible:

Ed Carp, Steve Robbins, Ian Taylor, Greg Naber, Matt Welsh,
Pierre Beyssac

If I forgot anybody, my apologies.

</article>