Administering UUCP

This chapter explains how to start UUCP operations after you have modified the database file relevant to your machines. The chapter contains procedures and troubleshooting information for setting up and maintaining UUCP on machines that run the Solaris environment, such as the following:

• UUCP Administration Task Map

• Adding UUCP Logins

• Starting UUCP

• Running UUCP Over TCP/IP

• UUCP Security and Maintenance

• Troubleshooting UUCP

UUCP Administration Task Map

The following table provides pointers to the procedures that are covered in this chapter, in addition to a short description of each procedure.

Table 35-1 Task Map: UUCP Administration

Adding UUCP Logins

For incoming UUCP (uucico) requests from remote machines to be handled properly, each machine has to have a login on your system.

How to Add UUCP Logins

To allow a remote machine to access your system, you need to add an entry to the /etc/passwd file as follows:

1. Edit the /etc/passwd file and add the entry to identify the machine that is permitted to access your system.

   A typical entry that you might put into the /etc/passwd file for a remote machine that is permitted to access your system with a UUCP connection would be as follows:

   Ugobi:*:5:5:gobi:/var/spool/uucppublic:/usr/lib/uucp/uucico

   
   

   By convention, the login name of a remote machine is the machine name preceded by the uppercase letter U. Note that the name should not exceed eight characters, so that in some situations you might have to truncate or abbreviate it.

   The previous entry shows that a login request by Ugobi is answered by /usr/lib/uucp/uucico. The home directory is /var/spool/uucppublic. The password is obtained from the /etc/shadow file. You must coordinate the password and the login name with the UUCP administrator of the remote machine. The remote administrator must then add an appropriate entry, with login name and unencrypted password, in the remote machine's Systems file.

2. Coordinate your machine name with the UUCP administrators on other systems.

   Similarly, you must coordinate your machine's name and password with the UUCP administrators of all machines that you want to reach through UUCP.

Starting UUCP

UUCP includes four shell scripts that poll remote machines, reschedule transmissions, and clean up old log files and unsuccessful transmissions. The scripts are as follows:

• uudemon.poll

• uudemon.hour

• uudemon.admin

• uudemon.cleanup

These shell scripts should execute regularly to ensure that UUCP runs smoothly. The crontab file to run the scripts is automatically created in /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.crontab as part of the Solaris installation process, if you select the full installation. Otherwise, the file is created when you install the UUCP package.

You can also run the UUCP shell scripts manually. The following is the prototype uudemon.crontab file that you can tailor for a particular machine:

# #ident "@(#)uudemon.crontab 1.5 97/12/09 SMI" # # This crontab is provided as a sample. For systems # running UUCP edit the time schedule to suit, uncomment # the following lines, and use crontab(1) to activate the # new schedule. # #48 8,12,16 * * * /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.admin #20 3 * * * /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.cleanup #0 * * * * /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.poll #11,41 * * * * /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.hour

Note - By default, UUCP operations are disabled. To enable UUCP, edit the time schedule and uncomment the appropriate lines in the uudemon.crontab file.

How to Start UUCP

To activate the uudemon.crontab file, do the following:

1. Become superuser.

2. Edit the /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.crontab file and change entries as required.

3. Activate the uudemon.crontab file by issuing the following command:

   crontab < /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.crontab

   
   

uudemon.poll Shell Script

The default uudemon.poll shell script reads the /etc/uucp/Poll file once an hour. If any machines in the Poll file are scheduled to be polled, a work file (C.sysnxxxx) is placed in the /var/spool/uucp/nodename directory, where nodename represents the UUCP node name of the machine.

The shell script is scheduled to run once an hour, before uudemon.hour, so that the work files are in place when uudemon.hour is called.