Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!udel!mmdf From: hengeem!smith@aic.nrl.navy.mil (Russ Smith) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: UUCP Message-ID: <1123@nigel.udel.EDU> Date: 9 Oct 89 02:51:36 GMT Sender: mmdf@udel.EDU Lines: 68 Someone asked what UUCP was. It's a protocol/set of programs for sending stuff back and forth between machines in a somewhat friendly automated manner. Originally stood for Unix-to-Unix Copy but has moved far beyond that operating system. A number of UUCP-functionial-similar clones are available for the Amiga. All are somewhat buggy but never-the-less perform a valuable service for many people (including this author). UUCP allows one to send mail, receive mail, and copy files from one machine to another. For example, THIS message was written using a "mail" program. The message was forwarded to another site automatically when that site's UUCP daemon called my home machine. From that machine the message was automatically forwarded to the net. All this required me only to do: mail nrl-aic!udel.edu!amiga-relay and type in the message. The rest was handled by the various UUCP (and other) programs running on various machines (including my own). One can transfer files just as easily. Assume there's an Amiga out there named "kumquat" that my system knows about (let's say that machine calls mine once in a while). I want to get that machine's file called "UUCP:spool/~/Cstuff.zoo". All I have to do is: ^ [This is a trick to get [around UNIX braindamage uucp kumquat!uucp:spool/~/Cstuff.zoo myfile and the transfer will take place when kumquat calls my machine. I use a 512k 2-3.5" floppy Amiga 1000 as a UUCP receiving/sending site 24 hours a day/seven days a week. This is UUCP V0.50, obtained (indirectly) from William Loftus. Each day my site receives about 300K bytes of incoming messages (amiga and aviation, plus a little personal mail and occassionally a transfered file or two). This requires at least two reboots of the Amiga per day due to memory being gobbled and never freed by the set of programs which get invoked when incoming stuff "arrives". I disabled (via bit twiddling the binary) an invocation of a "New mail has arrived" window which caused more frequent crashes (not sure why, but the frequency went down dramatically and can now definitely be traced to memory "slowly" disappearing). C source and binary are available. The C source for the UUCP version discussed is written for Lattice (I have Aztec...sigh). To actually USE the UUCP set of programs you have to "hook yourself into" another machine that runs UUCP-type stuff, since you have to do UUCP-to-UUCP...this is usually the step of the UUCP installation that stops most folks. There are for-money sites that will usually allow such registration if you can't find a site (or site manager) who will do it for you. An aside on MY UUCP installation -- As mentioned above, I get a fair amount of messages daily, probably a hundred or two. Since I've only got floppies, the transfers tend to take quite a while (they're DAMN slow, actually...). After a couple months of use, the UUCP: disk starts squeaking (NOT the drive...the actual DISK), implying it's getting worn out or something. At that point I change disks (and chuck the old). I also tend to wear out the DF0: disk as well since my 512k memory size doesn't permit placing many commands in memory. These symptoms give me the heebie-jeebies when I consider installing UUCP on an Amiga with a HARD drive...can't imagine throwing one of them out every other month or so... I've looked over the source and decided that someday I'll write a version that doesn't do too many UNIX-compatible things (like logfile formats). This'll happen one of these days (RSN...). Anybody got a good reference or two on the UUCP protocol? The GNU version of the protocol implemented is obscure, to say the least... =========================================================== ...uunet!mimsy!nrl-aic!hengeem!smith / ^^^^^^^ Russ Smith - a.k.a. | \ |--- Amiga! smith@aic.nrl.navy.mil