uucico(8) MachTen Programmer’s Manual uucico(8)

NAME
uucico - UUCP file transfer daemon

SYNOPSIS
uucico [ options ]

DESCRIPTION
The uucico daemon processes file transfer requests queued
by uucp (1) and uux (1). It is started when uucp or uux
is run (unless they are given the -r option). It is also
typically started periodically using entries in the
crontab table(s).

When invoked with -r1, --master, -s, --system, or -S, the
daemon will place a call to a remote system, running in
master mode. Otherwise the daemon will start in slave
mode, accepting a call from a remote system. Typically a
special login name will be set up for UUCP which automati-
cally invokes uucico when a call is made.

When uucico terminates, it invokes the uuxqt (8) daemon,
unless the -q or --nouuxqt option is given; uuxqt (8) exe-
cutes any work orders created by uux (1) on a remote sys-
tem, and any work orders created locally which have
received remote files for which they were waiting.

If a call fails, uucico will normally refuse to retry the
call until a certain (configurable) amount of time has
passed. This may be overriden by the -f, --force, or -S
option.

The -l, --prompt, -e, or --loop options may be used to
force uucico to produce its own prompts of "login: " and
"Password:". When another daemon calls in, it will see
these prompts and log in as usual. The login name and
password will normally be checked against a separate list
kept specially for uucico rather than the /etc/passwd
file; it is possible on some systems to direct uucico to
use the /etc/passwd file. The -l or --prompt option will
prompt once and then exit; in this mode the UUCP adminis-
trator or the superuser may use the -u or --login option
to force a login name, in which case uucico will not
prompt for one. The -e or --loop option will prompt again
after the first session is over; in this mode uucico will
permanently control a port.

If uucico receives a SIGQUIT, SIGTERM or SIGPIPE signal,
it will cleanly abort any current conversation with a
remote system and exit. If it receives a SIGHUP signal it
will abort any current conversation, but will continue to
place calls to (if invoked with -r1 or --master) and
accept calls from (if invoked with -e or --loop) other
systems. If it receives a SIGINT signal it will finish
the current conversation, but will not place or accept any
more calls.

OPTIONS
The following options may be given to uucico.

-r1, --master
Start in master mode (call out to a system); implied
by -s, --system, or -S. If no system is specified,
call any system for which work is waiting to be done.

-r0, --slave
Start in slave mode. This is the default.

-s system, --system system
Call the named system.

-S system
Call the named system, ignoring any required wait.
This is equivalent to -s system -f.

-f, --force
Ignore any required wait for any systems to be
called.

-l, --prompt
Prompt for login name and password using "login: "
and "Password:". This allows uucico to be easily run
from inetd (8). The login name and password are
checked against the UUCP password file, which proba-
bly has no connection to the file /etc/passwd. The
--login option may be used to force a login name, in
which cause uucico will only prompt for a password.

-p port, --port port
Specify a port to call out on or to listen to.

-e, --loop
Enter endless loop of login/password prompts and
slave mode daemon execution. The program will not
stop by itself; you must use kill (1) to shut it
down.

-w, --wait
After calling out (to a particular system when -s,
--system, or -S is specifed, or to all systems which
have work when just -r1 or --master is specifed),
begin an endless loop as with --loop.

-q, --nouuxqt
Do not start the uuxqt (8) daemon when finished.

-c, --quiet
If no calls are permitted at this time, then don’t
make the call, but also do not put an error message
in the log file and do not update the system status
(as reported by uustat (1)). This can be convenient
for automated polling scripts, which may want to sim-
ply attempt to call every system rather than worry
about which particular systems may be called at the
moment. This option also suppresses the log message
indicating that there is no work to be done.

-C, --ifwork
Only call the system named by -s, --system or -S if
there is work for that system.

-D, --nodetach
Do not detach from the controlling terminal. Nor-
mally uucico detaches from the terminal before each
call out to another system and before invoking uuxqt.
This option prevents this.

-u name, --login name
Set the login name to use instead of that of the
invoking user. This option may only be used by the
UUCP administrator or the superuser. If used with
--prompt, this will cause uucico to prompt only for
the password, not the login name.

-z, --try-next
If a call fails after the remote system is reached,
try the next alternate rather than simply exiting.

-i type, --stdin type
Set the type of port to use when using standard
input. The only support port type is TLI, and this
is only available on machines which support the TLI
networking interface. Specifying -iTLI causes uucico
to use TLI calls to perform I/O.

-x type, -X type, --debug type
Turn on particular debugging types. The following
types are recognized: abnormal, chat, handshake,
uucp-proto, proto, port, config, spooldir, execute,
incoming, outgoing.

Multiple types may be given, separated by commas, and
the --debug option may appear multiple times. A num-
ber may also be given, which will turn on that many
types from the foregoing list; for example, --debug 2
is equivalent to --debug abnormal,chat.

The debugging output is sent to the debugging file,
usually one of /usr/spool/uucp/Debug,
/usr/spool/uucp/DEBUG, or
/usr/spool/uucp/.Admin/audit.local.

-I file, --config file
Set configuration file to use. This option may not
be available, depending upon how uucico was compiled.

-v, --version
Report version information and exit.

--help
Print a help message and exit.

-u login
This option is ignored. It is only included because
some versions of uucpd invoke uucico with it.

FILES
The file names may be changed at compilation time or by
the configuration file, so these are only approximations.

/etc/uucp/config - Configuration file.
/etc/uucp/passwd - Default UUCP password file.
/usr/spool/uucp - UUCP spool directory.
/usr/spool/uucp/Log - UUCP log file.
/usr/spool/uucppublic - Default UUCP public directory.
/usr/spool/uucp/Debug - Debugging file.

SEE ALSO
kill(1), uucp(1), uux(1), uustat(1), uuxqt(8)

AUTHOR
Ian Lance Taylor <ian@airs.com>