Starting UUCP

UUCP comes with four shell scripts that poll remote machines, reschedule transmissions, and clean up old log files and unsuccessful transmissions. The scripts are:

• uudemon.poll

• uudemon.hour

• uudemon.admin

• uudemon.cleanup

These shell scripts should execute regularly to keep UUCP running smoothly. The crontab file to run the scripts is automatically created in /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.crontab as part of the Solaris installation process, if you select the full installation. Otherwise, it is created when you install the UUCP package.

You can also run the UUCP shell scripts manually. The following is the prototype uudemon.crontab file that you can tailor for a particular machine:

#
#ident "@(#)uudemon.crontab 1.3 93/02/02 SMI"
#
48 8,12,16 * * * /usr/libuucp/uudemon.admin
45 23 * * * /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.cleanup
0 * * * * /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.poll
11,41 * * * * /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.hour

To activate the uudemon.crontab file, become superuser and type:

# su uucp
# crontab < /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.crontab

uudemon.poll Shell Script

The default uudemon.poll shell script reads the /etc/uucp/Poll file once an hour. If any machines in the Poll file are scheduled to be polled, a work file (C.sysnxxxx) is placed in the /var/spool/uucp/nodename directory, where nodename represents the UUCP node name of the machine.

The shell script is scheduled to run once an hour, before uudemon.hour, so that the work files are there when uudemon.hour is called.

uudemon.hour Shell Script

The default uudemon.hour shell script:

• Calls the uusched program to search the spool directories for work files (C.) that have not been processed and schedules these files for transfer to a remote machine.

• Calls the uuxqt daemon to search the spool directories for execute files (X.) that have been transferred to your computer and were not processed at the time they were transferred.

By default, uudemon.hour runs twice an hour. You might want it to run more often if you expect high failure rates of calls to remote machines.

uudemon.admin Shell Script

The default uudemon.admin shell script does the following:

1. Runs the uustat command with p and q options. The q reports on the status of work files (C.), data files (D.), and execute files (X.) that are queued. The p prints process information for networking processes listed in the lock files (/var/spool/locks).

2. Sends resulting status information to the uucp administrative login via mail.

uudemon.cleanup Shell Script

The default uudemon.cleanup shell script does the following:

1. Takes log files for individual machines from the /var/uucp/.Log directory, merges them, and places them in the /var/uucp/.Old directory with other old log information.

2. Removes work files (C.) seven days old or older, data files (D.) Seven days old or older, and execute files (X.) two days old or older from the spool files.

3. Returns mail that cannot be delivered to the sender.

4. Mails a summary of the status information gathered during the current day to the UUCP administrative login (uucp).