Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!eci386!woods
From: woods@eci386.uucp (Greg A. Woods)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp
Subject: Re: UUCP Over 7-bit connection
Summary: sure, with 'f', if you have it
Message-ID: <1991Mar22.001432.1420@eci386.uucp>
Date: 22 Mar 91 00:14:32 GMT
References: <91070.203832LDSHANER@MTUS5.BITNET> <1991Mar17.224601.27427@scuzzy.in-berlin.de>
Reply-To: woods@eci386.UUCP (Greg A. Woods)
Organization: Elegant Communications Inc.
Lines: 53

In article <1991Mar17.224601.27427@scuzzy.in-berlin.de> src@scuzzy.in-berlin.de (Heiko Blume) writes:
> you must use f protocol to do this. in fact i receive a full news
> feed with it. of course news (and other 8bit data) should be 7 bit
> encoded before transmission.

The last time I looked at the UUCP 'f' protocol code (which was just
seconds ago), it explicitly quotes the 8'th bit using the following
conversions:
/* Byte conversion:
 *
 *   from        pre       to
 * 000-037       172     100-137
 * 040-171               040-171
 * 172-177       173     072-077
 * 200-237       174     100-137
 * 240-371       175     040-171
 * 372-377       176     072-077
 */

I.e. 'f' actually lets you transmit 8-bit data through a 7-bit only
link with UUCP.  I.e. 'f' is 8-bit transparent.

I've used 'f' several times over x.25 links (for which it was designed
to do).  Thankfully some vendors have included 'f' in their UUCP's,
since even with the file from which the following opening comment was
taken, binary only sites are stuck.

/* $Header: fio.c,v 1.20 85/04/30 12:57:32 rick Exp $ */
/*	%M%	%I%	%E%	(Mathematisch Centrum)	*/
/*
 * flow control protocol.
 *
 * This protocol relies on flow control of the data stream.
 * It is meant for working over links that can (almost) be
 * guaranteed to be errorfree, specifically X.25/PAD links.
 * A sumcheck is carried out over a whole file only. If a
 * transport fails the receiver can request retransmission(s).
 * This protocol uses a 7-bit datapath only, so it can be
 * used on links that are not 8-bit transparent.
 *
[... how to set up an X.25 PAD with X.28/X.29 ...]
 *
 * Author: Piet Beertema, CWI, Amsterdam, Sep 1984
 */

On the other hand, AT&T's 'e' protocol may work over 7-bit paths, if
the data has the 8'th bit quoted.  I don't know if the rest of the
protocol is 8-bit transparent though.
-- 
							Greg A. Woods
woods@{eci386,gate,robohack,ontmoh,tmsoft}.UUCP		ECI and UniForum Canada
+1-416-443-1734 [h]  +1-416-595-5425 [w]  VE3TCP	Toronto, Ontario CANADA
Political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible-ORWELL