System Administration Guide: Resource Management and Network Services

How to Activate UUCP for TCP/IP

  1. Edit the /etc/inetd.conf file and ensure that the following entry is not preceded by a comment mark (#):


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

  2. Edit the /etc/uucp/Systems file to ensure that the entries have the following fields :

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

    A typical entry would resemble the following:


    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 previous example, the site has the UUCP node name rochester, which is different from its TCP/IP host name ur-seneca. Moreover, a completely different machine could easily run UUCP and have the TCP/IP host name of rochester.

    The Port field in the Systems file should have the entry -. This syntax is equivalent to listing the entry as uucp. In almost every situation, 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 in.uucpd prompts for them, much as getty and login do.

  3. Edit the /etc/inet/services file to set 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.