From: ian@airs.com (Ian Lance Taylor)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp,news.answers
Subject: UUCP Internals Frequently Asked Questions
Keywords: UUCP, protocol, FAQ
Date: 25 Jan 93 09:30:02 GMT
Expires: 8 Mar 93 09:30:01 GMT
Reply-To: ian@airs.com (Ian Lance Taylor)
Followup-To: comp.mail.uucp
Organization: Infinity Development, Waltham, MA
Supersedes: <uucp-internals_725505572@airs.com>

Archive-name: uucp-internals
Version: $Revision: 1.10 $
Last-modified: $Date: 1992/10/22 03:55:21 $

 This article was written by Ian Lance Taylor <ian@airs.com> and I may
 even update it periodically.  Please send me mail about suggestions
 or inaccuracies.

 This article describes how the various UUCP protocols work, and
 discusses some other internal UUCP issues.  It does not describe how
 to configure UUCP, nor how to solve UUCP connection problems, nor how
 to deal with UUCP mail.  There are currently no FAQ postings on any
 of these topics, and I do not plan to write any.

 If you haven't read the news.announce.newusers articles, read them.

 This article is in digest format.  Some newsreaders will be able to
 break it apart into separate articles.  Please don't ask me how to do
 this, though.

 This article answers the following questions.  If one of these
 questions is posted to comp.mail.uucp, please send mail to the poster
 referring her or him to this FAQ.  There is no reason to post a
 followup, as most of us know the answer already.

Sources
What does "alarm" mean in debugging output?
What are UUCP grades?
What is the format of a UUCP lock file?
What is the format of a UUCP X.* files?
What is the UUCP protocol?
What is the 'g' protocol?
What is the 'f' protocol?
What is the 't' protocol?
What is the 'e' protocol?
What is the 'G' protocol?
What is the 'x' protocol?
What is the 'd' protocol?
What is the 'h' protocol?
Thanks

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Sources
Subject: Sources

I took a lot of the information from Jamie E. Hanrahan's paper in the
Fall 1990 DECUS Symposium, and from Managing UUCP and Usenet by Tim
O'Reilly and Grace Todino (with contributions by several other
people).  The latter includes most of the former, and is published by
        O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
        103 Morris Street, Suite A
        Sebastopol, CA 95472
It is currently in its tenth edition.  The ISBN number is
0-937175-93-5.

Some information is originally due to a Usenet article by Chuck
Wegrzyn.  The information on execution files comes partially from
Peter Honeyman.  The information on the 'g' protocol comes partially
from a paper by G.L. Chesson of Bell Laboratories, partially from
Jamie E. Hanrahan's paper, and partially from source code by John
Gilmore.  The information on the 'f' protocol comes from the source
code by Piet Berteema.  The information on the 't' protocol comes from
the source code by Rick Adams.  The information on the 'e' protocol
comes from a Usenet article by Matthias Urlichs.  The information on
the 'd' protocol comes from Jonathan Clark, who also supplied
information about QFT.  The FSUUCP information comes straight from
Christopher J. Ambler.

Although there are few books about UUCP, there are many about networks
and protocols in general.  I recommend two non-technical books which
describe the sorts of things that are available on the network: ``The
Whole Internet,'' by Ed Krol, and ``Zen and the Art of the Internet,''
by Brendan P. Kehoe.  Good technical discussions of networking issues
can be found in ``Internetworking with TCP/IP,'' by Douglas E. Comer
and David L. Stevens and in ``Design and Validation of Computer
Protocols'' by Gerard J. Holzmann.

------------------------------

From: alarm
Subject: What does "alarm" mean in debugging output?

The debugging output of many versions of UUCP (but not Taylor UUCP)
will include messages like
    alarm 1
or
    pkcget: alarm 1

This message means that the UUCP package has timed out while waiting
for some sort of response from the remote system.  This normally
indicates some sort of connection problem.  For example, the modems
might have lost their connection, or perhaps one of the modems will
not transmit the XON and XOFF characters, or perhaps one side or the
other is dropping characters.  It can also mean that the packages
disagree about some aspect of the UUCP protocol, although this is less
common.

Using the information in the rest of this posting, you should be able
to figure out what type of data your UUCP was expecting to receive.
This may give some indication as to exactly what the problem is.  It
is difficult to be more specific, since there are many possiblities.

------------------------------

From: UUCP-grades
Subject: What are UUCP grades?

Modern UUCP packages support grades for each command.  The grades
generally range from 'A' (the highest) to 'Z' followed by 'a' to 'z'.
Some UUCP packages also support '0' to '9' before 'A'.  Some UUCP
packages may permit any ASCII character as a grade.

On Unix, these grades are encoded in the name of the command file.  A
command file name generally has the form
    C.nnnngssss
where nnnn is the remote system name for which the command is queued,
g is a single character grade, and ssss is a four character sequence
number.  For example, a command file created for the system ``airs''
at grade 'Z' might be named
    C.airsZ2551

The remote system name will be truncated to seven characters, to
ensure that the command file name will fit in the 14 character file
name limit of the traditional Unix file system.  UUCP packages which
have no other means of distinguishing which command files are intended
for which systems thus require all systems they connect to to have
names that are unique in the first seven characters.  Some UUCP
packages use a variant of this format which truncates the system name
to six characters.  HDB and Taylor UUCP use a different spool
directory format, which allows up to fourteen characters to be used
for each system name.

The sequence number in the command file name may be a decimal integer,
or it may be a hexadecimal integer, or it may contain any alphanumeric
character.  Different UUCP packages are different.

FSUUCP (a DOS based UUCP and news package) uses up to 8 characters for
file names in the spool (this is a DOS file name limitation; actually,
with the extension, 11 characters are available, but FSUUCP reserves
that for future use).  FSUUCP defaults mail to grade D, and news to
grade N, except that when the grade of incoming mail can be
determined, that grade is preserved if the mail is forwarded to
another system.  Mail and news are currently the only 2 types of
transfers supported.  The default grades may be changed by editing
the MAIL.RC file for mail, or the FSUUCP.CFG file for news.

I do not know how command grades are handled in other non-Unix UUCP
packages.

Modern UUCP packages allow you to restrict file transfer by grade
depending on the time of day.  Typically this is done with a line in
the Systems (or L.sys) file like this:
    airs Any/Z,Any2305-0855 ...
This allows grades 'Z' and above to be transferred at any time.  Lower
grades may only be transferred at night.  I believe that this grade
restriction applies to local commands as well as to remote commands,
but I am not sure.  It may only apply if the UUCP package places the
call, not if it is called by the remote system.  Taylor UUCP can use
the ``timegrade'' and ``call-timegrade'' commands to achieve the same
effect (and supports the above format when reading Systems or L.sys).

This sort of grade restriction is most useful if you know what grades
are being used at the remote site.  The default grades used depend on
the UUCP package.  Generally uucp and uux have different defaults.  A
particular grade can be specified with the -g option to uucp or uux.
For example, to request execution of rnews on airs with grade 'd', you
might use something like
    uux -gd - airs!rnews <article

Uunet queues up mail at grade 'C', but increases the grade based on
the size.  News is queued at grade 'd', and file transfers at grade
'n'.  The example above would allow mail (below some large size) to be
received at any time, but would only permit news to be transferred at
night.

------------------------------

From: UUCP-lock-file
Subject: What is the format of a UUCP lock file?

This discussion applies only to Unix.  I have no idea how UUCP locks
ports on other systems.

UUCP creates files to lock serial ports and systems.  On most if not
all systems these same lock files are also used by cu to coordinate
access to serial ports.  On some systems getty also uses these lock
files, often under the name uugetty.

The lock file normally contains the process ID of the locking process.
This makes it easy to determine whether a lock is still valid.  The
algorithm is to create a temporary file and then link it to the name
that must be locked.  If the link fails because a file with that name
already exists, the existing file is read to get the process ID.  If
the process still exists, the lock attempt fails.  Otherwise the lock
file is deleted and the locking algorithm is retried.

Older UUCP packages put the lock files in the main UUCP spool
directory, /usr/spool/uucp.  HDB UUCP generally puts the lock files in
a directory of their own, usually /usr/spool/locks or /etc/locks.

The original UUCP lock file format encodes the process ID as a four
byte binary number.  The order of the bytes is host-dependent.  HDB
UUCP stores the process ID as a ten byte ASCII decimal number, with a
trailing newline.  For example, if process 1570 holds a lock file, it
would contain the eleven characters space, space, space, space, space,
space, one, five, seven, zero, newline.  Some versions of UUCP add a
second line indicating which program created the lock (uucp, cu, or
getty/uugetty).  I have also seen a third type of UUCP lock file which
does not contain the process ID at all.

The name of the lock file is traditionally "LCK.." followed by the
base name of the device.  For example, to lock /dev/ttyd0 the file
LCK..ttyd0 would be created.  On SCO Unix, the lock file name is
always forced to lower case even if the device name has upper case
letters.

System V Release 4 UUCP names the lock file using the major and minor
device numbers rather than the device name.  The file is named
LK.XXX.YYY.ZZZ, where XXX, YYY and ZZZ are all three digit decimal
numbers.  XXX is the major device number of the device holding the
directory holding the device file (e.g., /dev).  YYY is the major
device number of the device file itself.  ZZZ is the minor device
number of the device file itself.  If s holds the result of passing
the device to the stat system call (e.g., stat ("/dev/ttyd0", &s)),
the following line of C code will print out the corresponding lock
file name:
    printf ("LK.%03d.%03d.%03d", major (s.st_dev),
            major (s.st_rdev), minor (s.st_rdev));
The advantage of this system is that even if there are several links
to the same device, they will all use the same lock file name.

------------------------------

From: X-file
Subject: What is the format of a UUCP X.* files?

UUCP X.* files control program execution.  They are created by uux.
They are transferred between computers just like any other file.  The
uuxqt daemon reads them to figure out how to execute the job requested
by uux.

An X.* file is simply a text file.  The first character of each line
is a command, and the remainder of the line supplies arguments.  The
following commands are defined:
    C command
        This gives the command to execute, including the program and
        all arguments.  For example,
            C rmail ian@airs.com
    U user system
        This names the user who requested the command, and the system
        from which the request came.
    I standard-input
        This names the file from which standard input is taken.  If no
        standard input file is given, the standard input will probably
        be attached to /dev/null.  If the standard input file is not
        from the system on which the execution is to occur, it will
        also appear in an F command.
    O standard-output [ system ]
        This names the standard output file.  The optional second
        argument names the system to which the file should be sent.
        If there is no second argument, the file should be created on
        the executing system.
    F required-file [ filename-to-use ]
        The F command can appear multiple times.  Each F command names
        a file which must exist before the execution can proceed.
        This will usually be a file which is transferred from the
        system on which uux was executed, but it can also be a file
        from the local system or some other system.  If the file is
        not from the local system, then the command will usually name
        a file in the spool directory.  If the optional second
        argument appears, then the file should be copied to the
        execution directory under that name.  This is necessary for
        any file other than the standard input file.  If the standard
        input file is not from the local system, it will appear in
        both an F command and an I command.
    R requestor-address
        This is the address to which mail about the job should be
        sent.  It is relative to the system named in the U command.
        If the R command does not appear, then mail is sent to the
        user named in the U command.
    Z
        This command takes no arguments.  It means that a mail message
        should be sent if the command failed.  This is the default
        behaviour for most modern UUCP packages, and for them the Z
        command does not actually do anything.
    N
        This command takes no arguments.  It means that no mail
        message should be sent, even if the command failed.
    n
        This command takes no arguments.  It means that a mail message
        should be sent if the command succeeded.  Normally a message
        is sent only if the command failed.
    B
        This command takes no arguments.  It means that the standard
        input should be returned with any error message.  This can be
        useful in cases where the input would otherwise be lost.
    e
        This command takes no arguments.  It means that the command
        should be processed with /bin/sh.  For some packages this is
        the default anyhow.  Most packages will refuse to execute
        complex commands or commands containing wildcards, because of
        the security holes this opens.
    E
        This command takes no arguments.  It means that the command
        should be processed with the execve system call.  For some
        packages this is the default anyhow.
    M status-file
        This command means that instead of mailing a message, the
        message should be copied to the named file on the system named
        by the U command.
    # comment
        This command is ignored, as is any other unrecognized command.  

Here is an example.  Given the following command executed on system
test1
    uux - test2!cat - test2!~ian/bar !qux '>~/gorp'
(this is only an example, as most UUCP systems will not permit the cat
command to be executed) Taylor UUCP will produce the following X.
file:
    U ian test1
    F D.test1N003r qux
    O /usr/spool/uucppublic test1
    F D.test1N003s
    I D.test1N003s
    C cat - ~ian/bar qux
The standard input will be read into a file and then transferred to
the file D.test1N003s on system test2, and the file qux will be
transferred to D.test1N003r on system test2.  When the command is
executed, the latter file will be copied to the execution directory
under the name qux.  Note that since the file ~ian/bar is already on
the execution system, no action need be taken for it.  The standard
output will be collected in a file, then copied to the directory
/usr/spool/uucppublic on the system test1.

------------------------------

From: UUCP-protocol
Subject: What is the UUCP protocol?

The UUCP protocol is a conversation between two UUCP packages.  A UUCP
conversation consists of three parts: an initial handshake, a series
of file transfer requests, and a final handshake.

Before the initial handshake, the caller will usually have logged in
the called machine and somehow started the UUCP package there.  On
Unix this is normally done by setting the shell of the login name used
to /usr/lib/uucp/uucico.

All messages in the initial handshake begin with a ^P (a byte with the
octal value \020) and end with a null byte (\000).  A few systems end
these messages with a line feed character (\012) instead of a null
byte; the examples below assume a null byte is being used.

Some options below are supported by QFT, which stands for Queued File
Transfer, and is (or was) an internal Bell Labs version of UUCP.  Some
are supported by FSUUCP, which is a DOS based UUCP and news package.

The initial handshake goes as follows.  It is begun by the called
machine.

called: \020Shere=hostname\000
    The hostname is the UUCP name of the called machine.  Older UUCP
    packages do not output it, and simply send \020Shere\000.

caller: \020Shostname options\000
    The hostname is the UUCP name of the calling machine.  The
    following options may appear (or there may be none):
        -QSEQ
            Report sequence number for this conversation.  The
            sequence number is stored at both sites, and incremented
            after each call.  If there is a sequence number mismatch,
            something has gone wrong (somebody may have broken
            security by pretending to be one of the machines) and the
            call is denied.  If the sequence number changes on one of
            the machines, perhaps because of an attempted breakin or
            because a disk backup was restored, the sequence numbers
            on the two machines must be reconciled manually.  This is
            not supported by FSUUCP.
        -xLEVEL
            Requests the called system to set its debugging level to
            the specified value.  This is not supported by all
            systems.
        -pGRADE
        -vgrade=GRADE
            Requests the called system to only transfer files of the
            specified grade or higher.  This is not supported by all
            systems.  Some systems support -p, some support -vgrade=.
        -R
            Indicates that the calling UUCP understands how to restart
            failed file transmissions.  Supported only by System V
            Release 4 UUCP and QFT.
        -ULIMIT
            Reports the ulimit value of the calling UUCP.  The limit
            is specified as a base 16 number in C notation (e.g.,
            -U0x1000000).  This number is the number of 512 byte
            blocks in the largest file which the calling UUCP can
            create.  The called UUCP may not transfer a file larger
            than this.  Supported only by System V Release 4 UUCP, QFT
            and FSUUCP.  FSUUCP reports the lesser of the
            available disk space on the spool directory drive and the
            ulimit variable in FSUUCP.CFG.
        -N
            Indicates that the calling UUCP understands the Taylor
            UUCP size limiting extensions.  Supported only by Taylor
            UUCP and FSUUCP.

called: \020ROK\000
    There are actually several possible responses.
        ROK
            The calling UUCP is acceptable, and the handshake proceeds
            to the protocol negotiation.  Some options may also
            appear; see below.
        ROKN
            The calling UUCP is acceptable, it specified -N, and the
            called UUCP also understands the Taylor UUCP size limiting
            extensions.  Supported only by Taylor UUCP and FSUUCP.
        RLCK
            The called UUCP already has a lock for the calling UUCP,
            which normally indicates the two machines are already
            communicating.
        RCB
            The called UUCP will call back.  This may be used to avoid
            impostors (but only one machine out of each pair should
            call back, or no conversation will ever begin).
        RBADSEQ
            The call sequence number is wrong (see the -Q discussion
            above). 
        RLOGIN
            The calling UUCP is using the wrong login name.
        RYou are unknown to me
            The calling UUCP is not known to the called UUCP, and the
            called UUCP does not permit connections from unknown
            systems.  Some versions of UUCP just drop the line rather
            than sending this message.

    If the response is ROK, the following options are supported by
    System V Release 4 UUCP and QFT.
        -R
            The called UUCP knows how to restart failed file
            transmissions.
        -ULIMIT
            Reports the ulimit value of the called UUCP.  The limit is
            specified as a base 16 number in C notation.  This number
            is the number of 512 byte blocks in the largest file which
            the called UUCP can create.  The calling UUCP may not send
            a file larger than this.  Also supported by FSUUCP.
        -xLEVEL
            I'm not sure just what this means.  It may request the
            calling UUCP to set its debugging level to the specified
            value.
    If the response is not ROK (or ROKN) both sides hang up the phone,
    abandoning the call.

called: \020Pprotocols\000
    Note that the called UUCP outputs two strings in a row.  The
    protocols string is a list of UUCP protocols supported by the
    caller.  Each UUCP protocol has a single character name.  These
    protocols are discussed in more detail later in this document.
    For example, the called UUCP might send \020Pgf\000.

caller: \020Uprotocol\000
    The calling UUCP selects which protocol to use out of the
    protocols offered by the called UUCP.  If there are no mutually
    supported protocols, the calling UUCP sends \020UN\000 and both
    sides hang up the phone.  Otherwise the calling UUCP sends
    something like \020Ug\000.

Most UUCP packages will consider each locally supported protocol in
turn and select the first one supported by the called UUCP.  With some
versions of HDB UUCP, this can be modified by giving a list of
protocols after the device name in the Devices file or the Systems
file.  For example, to select the 'e' protocol in Systems,
    airs Any ACU,e ...
or in Devices,
    ACU,e ttyXX ...
Taylor UUCP provides the ``protocol'' command which may be used either
for a system or a port.

After the protocol has been selected and the initial handshake has been
completed, both sides turn on the selected protocol.  For some
protocols (notably 'g') a further handshake is done at this point.

Each protocol supports a method for sending a command to the remote
system.  This method is used to transmit a series of commands between
the two UUCP packages.  At all times, one package is the master and
the other is the slave.  Initially, the calling UUCP is the master.

If a protocol error occurs during the exchange of commands, both sides
move immediately to the final handshake.

The master will send one of four commands: S, R, X or H.

Any file name referred to below is either an absolute pathname
beginning with "/", a public directory pathname beginning with "~/", a
pathname relative to a user's home directory beginning with "~USER/",
or a spool directory file name.  File names in the spool directory are
not pathnames, but instead are converted to pathnames within the spool
directory by UUCP.  They always begin with "C." (for a command file
created by uucp or uux), "D." (for a data file created by uucp, uux or
by an execution, or received from another system for an execution), or
"X." (for an execution file created by uux or received from another
system).

master: S FROM TO USER -OPTIONS TEMP MODE NOTIFY SIZE
    The S and the - are literal characters.  This is a request by the
    master to send a file to the slave.
        FROM
            The name of the file to send.  If the C option does not
            appear in OPTIONS, the master will actually open and send
            this file.  Otherwise the file has been copied to the
            spool directory, where it is named TEMP.  The slave
            ignores this field unless TO is a directory, in which case
            the basename of FROM will be used as the file name.  If
            FROM is a spool directory filename, it must be a data file
            created for or by an execution, and must begin with "D.".
        TO
            The name to give the file on the slave.  If this field
            names a directory the file is placed within that directory
            with the basename of FROM.  A name ending in `/' is taken
            to be a directory even if one does not already exist with
            that name.  If TO begins with `X.', an execution file will
            be created on the slave.  Otherwise, if TO begins with
            `D.' it names a data file to be used by some execution
            file.  Otherwise, TO should not be in the spool directory.
        USER
            The name of the user who requested the transfer.
        OPTIONS
            A list of options to control the transfer.  The following
            options are defined (all options are single characters):
                C
                    The file has been copied to the spool directory
                    (the master should use TEMP rather than FROM).
                c
                    The file has not been copied to the spool
                    directory (this is the default).
                d
                    The slave should create directories as necessary
                    (this is the default).
                f
                    The slave should not create directories if
                    necessary, but should fail the transfer instead.
                m
                    The master should send mail to USER when the
                    transfer is complete (not supported by FSUUCP).
                n
                    The slave should send mail to NOTIFY when the
                    transfer is complete (not supported by FSUUCP).
        TEMP
            If the C option appears in OPTIONS, this names the file to
            be sent.  Otherwise if FROM is in the spool directory,
            TEMP is the same as FROM.  Otherwise TEMP may be a dummy
            string, such as "D.0".  After the transfer has been
            succesfully completed, the master will delete the file
            TEMP.
        MODE
            This is an octal number giving the mode of the file on
            MASTER.  If the file is not in the spool directory, the
            slave will always create it with mode 0666, except that if
            (MODE & 0111) is not zero (the file is executable), the
            slave will create the file with mode 0777.  If the file is
            in the spool directory, some UUCP packages will use the
            algorithm above and some will always create the file with
            mode 0600.  This field is not used by FSUUCP, since it is
            meaningless on DOS.
        NOTIFY
            This field may not be present, and in any case is only
            meaningful if the n option appears in OPTIONS.  If the n
            option appears, then when the transfer is successfully
            completed, the slave will send mail to NOTIFY, which must
            be a legal mailing address on the slave.  If a SIZE field
            will appear but the n option does not appear, NOTIFY will
            always be present, typically as the string "dummy" or
            simply a pair of double quotes.
        SIZE
            This field is only present when doing size negotiation,
            with Taylor UUCP, SVR4 UUCP, QFT or FSUUCP.  It is the
            size of the file in bytes.  SVR4 UUCP, QFT and FSUUCP send
            the size in base 16 as 0x.... while Taylor UUCP sends the
            size as a decimal integer (a later version of Taylor UUCP
            will probably change to the SVR4 behaviour).

    The slave then responds with an S command response.
        SY START
            The slave is willing to accept the file, and file transfer
            begins.  The START field will only be present when using
            file restart.  It specifies the byte offset into the file
            at which to start sending.  If this is a new file, START
            will be 0x0.
        SN2
            The slave denies permission to transfer the file.  This
            can mean that the destination directory may not be
            accessed, or that no requests are permitted.  It implies
            that the file transfer will never succeed.
        SN4
            The slave is unable to create the necessary temporary
            file.  This implies that the file transfer might succeed
            later.
        SN6
            This is only used by Taylor UUCP and FSUUCP size
            negotiation.  It means that the slave considers the file
            too large to transfer at the moment, but it may be
            possible to transfer it at some other time.
        SN7
            This is only used by Taylor UUCP and FSUUCP size
            negotiation.  It means that the slave considers the file
            too large to ever transfer.
        SN8
            This is only used by Taylor UUCP.  It means that the file
            was already received in a previous conversation.  This can
            happen if the receive acknowledgement was lost after it
            was sent by the receiver but before it was received by the
            sender.

    If the slave responds with SY, a file transfer begins.  When the
    file transfer is complete, the slave sends a C command response.
        CY
            The file transfer was successful.
        CYM
            The file transfer was successful, and the slave wishes to
            become the master; the master should send an H command,
            described below.
        CN5
            The temporary file could not be moved into the final
            location.  This implies that the file transfer will never
            succeed.

    After the C command response has been received (in the SY case) or
    immediately (in an SN case) the master will send another command.

master: R FROM TO USER -OPTIONS SIZE
    The R and the - are literal characters.  This is a request by the
    master to receive a file from the slave.  I do not know how SVR4
    UUCP or QFT implement file transfer restart in this case.
        FROM
            This is the name of the file on the slave which the master
            wishes to receive.  It must not be in the spool directory,
            and it may not contain any wildcards.
        TO
            This is the name of the file to create on the master.  I
            do not believe that it can be a directory.  It may only be
            in the spool directory if this file is being requested to
            support an execution either on the master or on some
            system other than the slave.
        USER
            The name of the user who requested the transfer.
        OPTIONS
            A list of options to control the transfer.  The following
            options are defined (all options are single characters):
                d
                    The master should create directories as necessary
                    (this is the default).
                f
                    The master should not create directories if
                    necessary, but should fail the transfer instead.
                m
                    The master should send mail to USER when the
                    transfer is complete.
        SIZE
            This only appears if Taylor UUCP or FSUUCP size
            negotiation is being used.  It specifies the largest file
            which the master is prepared to accept (when using SVR4
            UUCP or QFT, this was specified in the -U option during
            the initial handshake).

    The slave then responds with an R command response.  FSUUCP does
    not support R requests, and always responds with RN2.
        RY MODE
            The slave is willing to send the file, and file transfer
            begins.  MODE is the octal mode of the file on the slave.
            The master treats this just as the slave does the MODE
            argument in the send command, q.v.
        RN2
            The slave is not willing to send the file, either because
            it is not permitted or because the file does not exist.
            This implies that the file request will never succeed.
        RN6
            This is only used by Taylor UUCP size negotiation.  It
            means that the file is too large to send, either because
            of the size limit specifies by the master or because the
            slave considers it too large.  The file transfer might
            succeed later, or it might not (this will be cleared up in
            a later release of Taylor UUCP).

    If the slave responds with RY, a file transfer begins.  When the
    file transfer is complete, the master sends a C command.  The
    slave pretty much ignores this, although it may log it.
        CY
            The file transfer was successful.
        CN5
            The temporary file could not be moved into the final
            location.

    After the C command response has been sent (in the RY case) or
    immediately (in an RN case) the master will send another command.

master: X FROM TO USER -OPTIONS
    The X and the - are literal characters.  This is a request by the
    master to, in essence, execute uucp on the slave.  The slave
    should execute "uucp FROM TO".
        FROM
            This is the name of the file or files on the slave which
            the master wishes to transfer.  Any wildcards are expanded
            on the slave.  If the master is requesting that the files
            be transferred to itself, the request would normally
            contain wildcard characters, since otherwise an `R'
            command would suffice.  The master can also use this
            command to request that the slave transfer files to a
            third system.
        TO
            This is the name of the file or directory to which the
            files should be transferred.  This will normally use a
            UUCP name.  For example, if the master wishes to receive
            the files itself, it would use "master!path".
        USER
            The name of the user who requested the transfer.
        OPTIONS
            A list of options to control the transfer.  It is not
            clear which, if any, options are supported by most UUCP
            packages.

    The slave then responds with an X command response.  FSUUCP does
    not support X requests, and always responds with XN.
        XY
            The request was accepted, and the appropriate file
            transfer commands have been queued up for later
            processing.
        XN
            The request was denied.  No particular reason is given.

    In either case, the master will then send another command.

master: H
    This is used by the master to hang up the connection.  The slave
    will respond with an H command response.
        HY
            The slave agrees to hang up the connection.  In this case
            the master sends another HY command.  In some UUCP
            packages the slave will then send a third HY command.  At
            this point the protocol is shut down, and the final
            handshake is begun.
        HN
            The slave does not agree to hang up.  In this case the
            master and the slave exchange roles.  The next command
            will be sent by the former slave, which is the new master.
            The roles may be reversed several times during a single
            connection.

After the protocol has been shut down, the final handshake is
performed.  This handshake has no real purpose, and some UUCP packages
simply drop the connection rather than do it (in fact, some will drop
the connection immediately after both sides agree to hangup, without
even closing down the protocol).

caller: \020OOOOOO\000
called: \020OOOOOOO\000

That is, the calling UUCP sends six O's and the called UUCP replies
with seven O's.  Some UUCP packages always send six O's.

------------------------------

From: UUCP-g
Subject: What is the 'g' protocol?

The 'g' protocol is a packet based flow controlled error correcting
protocol that requires an eight bit clear connection.  It is the
original UUCP protocol, and is supported by all UUCP implementations.
Many implementations of it are only able to support small window and
packet sizes, specifically a window size of 3 and a packet size of 64
bytes, but the protocol itself can support up to a window size of 7
and a packet size of 4096 bytes.  Complaints about the inefficiency of
the 'g' protocol generally refer to specific implementations, rather
than to the correctly implemented protocol.

The 'g' protocol was originally designed for general packet drivers,
and thus contains some features that are not used by UUCP, including
an alternate data channel and the ability to renegotiate packet and
window sizes during the communication session.

The 'g' protocol is spoofed by many Telebit modems.  When spoofing is
in effect, each Telebit modem uses the 'g' protocol to communicate
with the attached computer, but the data between the modems is sent
using a Telebit proprietary error correcting protocol.  This allows
for very high throughput over the Telebit connection, which, because
it is half-duplex, would not normally be able to handle the 'g'
protocol very well at all.

This discussion of the 'g' protocol explains how it works, but does
not discuss useful error handling techniques.  Some discussion of this
can be found in Jamie E. Hanrahan's paper, cited above.

All 'g' protocol communication is done with packets.  Each packet
begins with a six byte header.  Control packets consist only of the
header.  Data packets contain additional data.

The header is as follows:

    \020
        Every packet begins with a ^P.
    k (1 <= k <= 9)
        The k value is always 9 for a control packet.  For a data
        packet, the k value indicates how must data follows the six
        byte header.  The amount of data is 2 ** (k + 4), where **
        indicates exponentiation.  Thus a k value of 1 means 32 data
        bytes and a k value of 8 means 4096 data bytes.  The k value
        for a data packet must be between 1 and 8 inclusive.
    checksum low byte
    checksum high byte
        The checksum value is described below.
    control byte
        The control packet indicates the type of packet, and is
        described below.
    xor byte
        This byte is the xor of k, the checksum low byte, the checksum
        high byte and the control byte (i.e., the second, third,
        fourth and fifth header bytes).  It is used to ensure that the
        header data is valid.

The control byte in the header is composed of three bit fields,
referred to here as TT (two bits), XXX (three bits) and YYY (three
bits).  The control is TTXXXYYY, or (TT << 6) + (XXX << 3) + YYY.

The TT field takes on the following values:
    0
        This is a control packet.  In this case the k byte in the
        header must be 9.  The XXX field indicates the type of control
        packet; these types are described below.
    1
        This is an alternate data channel packet.  This is not used by
        UUCP.
    2
        This is a data packet, and the entire contents of the attached
        data field (whose length is given by the k byte in the header)
        are valid.  The XXX and YYY fields are described below.
    3
        This is a short data packet.  Let the length of the data field
        (as given by the k byte in the header) be L.  Let the first
        byte in the data field be B1.  If B1 is less than 128 (if the
        most significant bit of B1 is 0), then there are L - B1 valid
        bytes of data in the data field, beginning with the second
        byte.  If B1 >= 128, let B2 be the second byte in the data
        field.  Then there are L - ((B1 & 0x7f) + (B2 << 7)) valid
        bytes of data in the data field, beginning with the third
        byte.  In all cases L bytes of data are sent (and all data
        bytes participate in the checksum calculation) but some of the
        trailing bytes may be dropped by the receiver.   The XXX and
        YYY fields are described below.

In a data packet (short or not) the XXX field gives the sequence
number of the packet.  Thus sequence numbers can range from 0 to 7,
inclusive.  The YYY field gives the sequence number of the last
correctly received packet.

Each communication direction uses a window which indicates how many
unacknowledged packets may be transmitted before waiting for an
acknowledgement.  The window may range from 1 to 7, and may be
different in each direction. For example, if the window is 3 and the
last packet acknowledged was packet number 6, packet numbers 7, 0 and
1 may be sent but the sender must wait for an acknowledgement before
sending packet number 2.  This acknowledgement could come as the YYY
field of a data packet or as the YYY field of a RJ or RR control
packet (described below).

Each packet must be transmitted in order (the sender may not skip
sequence numbers).  Each packet must be acknowledged, and each packet
must be acknowledged in order.

In a control packet, the XXX field takes on the following values:
    1 CLOSE
        The connection should be closed immediately.  This is
        typically sent when one side has seen too many errors and
        wants to give up.  It is also sent when shutting down the
        protocol.  If an unexpected CLOSE packet is received, a CLOSE
        packet should be sent in reply and the 'g' protocol should
        halt, causing UUCP to enter the final handshake.
    2 RJ or NAK
        The last packet was not received correctly.  The YYY field
        contains the sequence number of the last correctly received
        packet.
    3 SRJ
        Selective reject.  The YYY field contains the sequence number
        of a packet that was not received correctly, and should be
        retransmitted.  This is not used by UUCP, and most
        implementations will not recognize it.
    4 RR or ACK
        Packet acknowledgement.  The YYY field contains the sequence
        number of the last correctly received packet.
    5 INITC
        Third initialization packet.  The YYY field contains the
        maximum window size to use.
    6 INITB
        Second initialization packet.  The YYY field contains the
        packet size to use.  It requests a size of 2 ** (YYY + 5).
        Note that this is not the same coding used for the k byte in
        the packet header (it is 1 less).  Most UUCP implementations
        that request a packet size larger than 64 bytes can handle any
        packet size up to that specified.
    7 INITA
        First initialization packet.  The YYY field contains the
        maximum window size to use.

The checksum of a control packet is simply 0xaaaa - the control byte.

The checksum of a data packet is 0xaaaa - (CHECK ^ the control byte),
where ^ denotes exclusive or, and CHECK is the result of the following
routine as run on the contents of the data field (every byte in the
data field participates in the checksum, even for a short data
packet).  Below is the routine used by Taylor UUCP; it is a slightly
modified version of a routine which John Gilmore patched from G.L.
Chesson's original paper.  The z argument points to the data and the c
argument indicates how much data there is.

int
igchecksum (z, c)
     register const char *z;
     register int c;
{
  register unsigned int ichk1, ichk2;

  ichk1 = 0xffff;
  ichk2 = 0;

  do
    {
      register unsigned int b;

      /* Rotate ichk1 left.  */
      if ((ichk1 & 0x8000) == 0)
        ichk1 <<= 1;
      else
        {
          ichk1 <<= 1;
          ++ichk1;
        }

      /* Add the next character to ichk1.  */
      b = *z++ & 0xff;
      ichk1 += b;

      /* Add ichk1 xor the character position in the buffer counting from
         the back to ichk2.  */
      ichk2 += ichk1 ^ c;

      /* If the character was zero, or adding it to ichk1 caused an
         overflow, xor ichk2 to ichk1.  */
      if (b == 0 || (ichk1 & 0xffff) < b)
        ichk1 ^= ichk2;
    }
  while (--c > 0);

  return ichk1 & 0xffff;
}

When the 'g' protocol is started, the calling UUCP sends an INITA
control packet with the window size it wishes the called UUCP to use.
The called UUCP responds with an INITA packet with the window size it
wishes the calling UUCP to use.  Pairs of INITB and INITC packets are
then similarly exchanged.  When these exchanges are completed, the
protocol is considered to have been started.

When a UUCP package transmits a command, it sends one or more data
packets.  All the data packets will normally be complete, although
some UUCP packages may send the last one as a short packet.  The
command string is sent with a trailing null byte, to let the receiving
package know when the command is finished.  Some UUCP packages require
the last byte of the last packet sent to be null, even if the command
ends earlier in the packet.  Some packages may require all the
trailing bytes in the last packet to be null, but I have not confirmed
this.

When a UUCP package sends a file, it will send a sequence of data
packets.  The end of the file is signalled by a short data packet
containing zero valid bytes (it will normally be preceeded by a short
data packet containing the last few bytes in the file).

Note that the sequence numbers cover the entire communication session,
including both command and file data.

When the protocol is shut down, each UUCP package sends a CLOSE
control packet.

------------------------------

From: UUCP-f
Subject: What is the 'f' protocol?

The 'f' protocol is a seven bit protocol which checksums an entire
file at a time.  It only uses the characters between \040 and \176
(ASCII space and ~) inclusive as well as the carriage return
character.  It can be very efficient for transferring text only data,
but it is very inefficient at transferring eight bit data (such as
compressed news).  It is not flow controlled, and the checksum is
fairly insecure over large files, so using it over a serial connection
requires handshaking (XON/XOFF can be used) and error correcting
modems.  Some people think it should not be used even under those
circumstances.

I believe the 'f' protocol originated in BSD versions of UUCP.  It was
originally intended for transmission over X.25 PAD links.

The 'f' protocol has no startup or finish protocol.  However, both
sides typically sleep for a couple of seconds before starting up,
because they switch the terminal into XON/XOFF mode and want to allow
the changes to settle before beginning transmission.

When a UUCP package transmits a command, it simply sends a string
terminated by a carriage return.

When a UUCP package transmits a file, each byte b of the file is
translated according to the following table:

       0 <= b <=  037: 0172, b + 0100 (0100 to 0137)
     040 <= b <= 0171:       b        ( 040 to 0171)
    0172 <= b <= 0177: 0173, b - 0100 ( 072 to  077)
    0200 <= b <= 0237: 0174, b - 0100 (0100 to 0137)
    0240 <= b <= 0371: 0175, b - 0200 ( 040 to 0171)
    0372 <= b <= 0377: 0176, b - 0300 ( 072 to  077)

That is, a byte between \040 and \171 inclusive is transmitted as is,
and all other bytes are prefixed and modified as shown.

When all the file data is sent, a seven byte sequence is sent: two
bytes of \176 followed by four ASCII bytes of the checksum as printed
in base 16 followed by a carriage return.  For example, if the
checksum was 0x1234, this would be sent: "\176\1761234\r".

The checksum is initialized to 0xffff.  For each byte that is sent it
is modified as follows (where b is the byte before it has been
transformed as described above):

      /* Rotate the checksum left.  */
      if ((ichk & 0x8000) == 0)
        ichk <<= 1;
      else
        {
          ichk <<= 1;
          ++ichk;
        }

      /* Add the next byte into the checksum.  */
      ichk += b;

When the receiving UUCP sees the checksum, it compares it against its
own calculated checksum and replies with a single character followed
by a carriage return.
    G
        The file was received correctly.
    R
        The checksum did not match, and the file should be resent from
        the beginning.
    Q
        The checksum did not match, but too many retries have occurred
        and the communication session should be abandoned.

The sending UUCP checks the returned character and acts accordingly.

------------------------------

From: UUCP-t
Subject: What is the 't' protocol?

The 't' protocol is intended for use on links which provide reliable
end-to-end connections, such as TCP.  It does no error checking or
flow control, and requires an eight bit clear channel.

I believe the 't' protocol originated in BSD versions of UUCP.

When a UUCP package transmits a command, it first gets the length of
the command string, C.  It then sends ((C / 512) + 1) * 512 bytes (the
smallest multiple of 512 which can hold C bytes plus a null byte)
consisting of the command string itself followed by trailing null
bytes.

When a UUCP package sends a file, it sends it in blocks.  Each block
contains at most 1024 bytes of data.  Each block consists of four
bytes containing the amount of data in binary (most significant byte
first, the same format as used by the Unix function htonl) followed by
that amount of data.  The end of the file is signalled by a block
containing zero bytes of data.

------------------------------

From: UUCP-e
Subject: What is the 'e' protocol?

The 'e' protocol is similar to the 't' protocol.  It does no flow
control or error checking and is intended for use over networks
providing reliable end-to-end connections, such as TCP.

The 'e' protocol originated in versions of HDB UUCP.

When a UUCP package transmits a command, it simply sends the command
as an ASCII string terminated by a null byte.

When a UUCP package transmits a file, it sends the complete size of
the file as an ASCII decimal number.  The ASCII string is padded out
to 20 bytes with null bytes (i.e. if the file is 1000 bytes long, it
sends "1000\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0").  It then sends the
entire file.

------------------------------

From: UUCP-G
Subject: What is the 'G' protocol?

The 'G' protocol is used by SVR4 UUCP.  It is identical to the 'g'
protocol, except that it is possible to modify the window and packet
sizes.  The SVR4 implementation of the 'g' protocol reportedly is
fixed at a packet size of 64 and a window size of 7.  Supposedly SVR4
chose to implement a new protocol using a new letter to avoid any
potential incompatibilities when using different packet or window
sizes.

Most implementations of the 'g' protocol that accept packets larger
than 64 bytes will also accept packets smaller than whatever they
requested in the INITB packet.  The SVR4 'G' implementation is an
exception; it will only accept packets of precisely the size it
requests in the INITB packet.

------------------------------

From: UUCP-x
Subject: What is the 'x' protocol?

The 'x' protocol is used in Europe (and probably elsewhere) with
machines that contain an builtin X.25 card and can send eight bit data
transparently across X.25 circuits, without interference from the X.28
or X.29 layers.  The protocol sends packets of 512 bytes, and relies
on a write of zero bytes being read as zero bytes without stopping
communication.  It originally appeared in some version of HDB UUCP.

------------------------------

From: UUCP-d
Subject: What is the 'd' protocol?

This is apparently used for DataKit muxhost (not RS-232) connections.
No file size is sent.  When a file has been completely transferred, a
write of zero bytes is done; this must be read as zero bytes on the
other end.

------------------------------

From: UUCP-h
Subject: What is the 'h' protocol?

This is apparently used in some places with HST modems.  It does no
error checking, and is not that different from the 't' protocol.  I
don't know the details.

------------------------------

From: Thanks
Subject: Thanks

Besides the papers and information acknowledged at the top of this
article, the following people have contributed help, advice,
suggestions and information:
    Earle Ake 513-429-6500 <ake@Dayton.SAIC.COM>
    cambler@nike.calpoly.edu (Christopher J. Ambler)
    jhc@iscp.bellcore.com (Jonathan Clark)
    celit!billd@UCSD.EDU (Bill Davidson)
    erik@pdnfido.fidonet.org
    Matthew Farwell <dylan@ibmpcug.co.uk>
    "Jonathan I. Kamens" <jik@pit-manager.MIT.EDU>
    "David J. MacKenzie" <djm@eng.umd.edu>
    jum@helios.de (Jens-Uwe Mager)
    david nugent <david@csource.oz.au>
    Stephen.Page@prg.oxford.ac.uk
    joey@tessi.UUCP (Joey Pruett)
    James Revell <revell@uunet.uu.net>
    Larry Rosenman <ler@lerami.lerctr.org>
    Rich Salz <rsalz@bbn.com>
    kls@ditka.Chicago.COM (Karl Swartz)
    Dima Volodin <dvv@hq.demos.su>
    jon@console.ais.org (Jon Zeeff)

------------------------------

End of UUCP Internals Frequently Asked Questions
******************************
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Ian Taylor | ian@airs.com | First to identify quote wins free e-mail message:
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