Configuring the Remote Station

Configuring the Remote Station

The remote station name in our example is japan. The local station name in our example is us. There are two steps in configuring the remote station:

Update standard system files.
Modify the UUCP configuration files.

Updating Standard System Files

The three system files that you need to be concerned with are

/etc/passwd
/etc/group
/etc/inittab

/etc/passwd

To ensure proper security and access, you need to ensure that the user entries for uucp and nuucp are both present and correct. The uucp entry in the passwd file is for ownership purposes and the nuucp entry is for remote UUCP access. Ensure that your password file has both entries and that they are the same as the following example. If the uucp and nuucp entries don't match the following, edit them so they do match.

uucp:*:3:5:UUCP Owner:/usr/lib/uucp:/bin/csh
nuucp::10:10:Remote UUCP User:/var/spool/uucppublic:/usr/lib/uucp/uucico

On a newly installed station, neither uucp nor nuucp has a password. It is a good idea to put an asterisk (*) in the password field for uucp, since no one should log in as uucp. You need to assign nuucp a valid password that matches the password you assign for nuucp in the Systems file. (See "The Systems File".) Assign nuucp the password "secret" with the command:

passwd nuucp

New password: secret

Re-enter new password: secret

/etc/group

Check this file to ensure that there are valid groups for both uucp and nuucp. Compare your uucp and nuucp group entries with the following example. If there is a discrepancy, correct it now.

uucp::5:uucp
nuucp::10:nuucp

/etc/inittab

This sample entry is for the remote station. It allows calls to be received on serial port 2, but does not allow outgoing calls on the port. Edit your /etc/inittab entry for "t2" as follows:

t2:23:respawn:/usr/lib/uucp/uugetty -Nt 60 ttyf2 co_9600#pt 2

For complete information on the uugetty command, see the uugetty(1M) reference page. As usual, any time you make a change to the /etc/inittab, you must use the telinit q command to tell init to read the file again. Issue the following command:

/etc/telinit q

Modifying the UUCP Configuration Files

The UUCP configuration files to be modified are

/etc/uucp/Systems
/etc/uucp/Permissions

/etc/uucp/Systems

The Systems file contains information describing the station(s) that the remote station knows about. Add this line to the bottom of the Systems file:

japan Never

Note: The permission of the Systems file is read-only. If you edit this file, you may have to use a forced write in order to save your changes. Consult the jot or vi reference page for more information. The first field specifies the name of a station that can call the local station. The second field indicates the times this station can make the call. The value Never in this field indicates that this station that this station may receive calls, but never initiate them.

/etc/uucp/Permissions

The Permissions file controls remote uucp access with regard to remote users and stations. See "The Permissions File" for descriptions on all options. For this example, edit the Permissions file to look like the following:

#ident"@(#)uucp:Permissions2.2" 
# This entry for public login. 
# It provides the default permissions. 
# See the Basic Networking Utilities Guide for more 
                                                 information. 
LOGNAME=nuucp MACHINE=japan READ=/var/spool/uucp/uucppublic\ 
WRITE=/var/spool/uucppublic REQUEST=yes SENDFILES=yes \ 
COMMANDS=rmail

Note: This entry must be interpreted as a single line, even if it expands to more than one physical line. This entry specifies that the user, nuucp, is allowed to log in from the local station (japan). The nuucp user on japan may read any files that reside in /var/spool/uucp/uucppublic directory and write to the general public directory /var/spool/uucppublic. The users on japan may request files. The users on us can send files.