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.

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

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 cases 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.

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