Running UUCP Over TCP/IP

To run UUCP on a TCP/IP network, you need to make a few modifications, as described in this section.

Activating UUCP in /etc/inetd.conf

Make sure that the following entry in /etc/inetd.conf is not preceded by a comment mark (#):

uucp stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/in.uucpd in.uucpd 

Tailoring Systems File Entries for TCP/IP

Entries in the /etc/uucp/Systems file should have the following fields:

System-Name Time TCP Port networkname Standard-Login-Chat

A typical entry would look like this:

rochester Any TCP - ur-seneca login: Umachine password: xxx

Notice that the networkname field permits you to specify explicitly the TCP/IP host name. This is important for some sites. In the example above, the site has the UUCP node name rochester is different from its TCP/IP host name ur-seneca. Moreover, there could easily be a completely different machine running UUCP that has the TCP/IP host name of rochester.

The Port field in the Systems file should have the entry -. This is equivalent to listing it as uucp. In almost every case, the networkname is the same as the system name, and the Port field is -, which says to use the standard uucp port from the services database. The in.uucpd daemon expects the remote machine to send its login and password for authentication, and it prompts for them much as getty and login do.

Checking /etc/inet/services for UUCP

The following entry in /etc/inet/services sets up a port for UUCP:

uucp 540/tcp uucpd # uucp daemon

You should not have to change the entry. However, if your machine runs NIS or NIS+ as its name service, you should change the /etc/nsswitch.conf entry for /etc/services to check files first, then check nis or nisplus.