Provided by: inn2_2.7.1~20230131-1build1_amd64 
NAME
send-uucp - Send Usenet articles via UUCP
SYNOPSIS
send-uucp [site ...]
DESCRIPTION
The send-uucp program processes batch files written by innd(8) to send Usenet articles to
UUCP sites. It reads a configuration file to control how it behaves with various sites.
Normally, it is run periodically out of cron to put together batches and send them to
remote UUCP sites.
It makes it possible to reduce bandwidth usage and to send news to remote UUCP sites which
cannot receive a real-time feed (for instance if they are over dial-up connections).
OPTIONS
Any arguments provided to the program are interpreted as a list of sites specified in
send-uucp.cf for which batches should be generated. If no arguments are supplied, then
batches will be generated for all sites listed in that configuration file.
CONFIGURATION
The sites to which articles are to be sent must be configured in the configuration file
send-uucp.cf in pathetc as set in inn.conf. Each site is specified with a line of the
form:
site[:host[:funnel]] [compressor [maxsize [batchtime]]]
site
The news site name being configured. This must match a site name from newsfeeds(5).
host
The UUCP host name to which batches should be sent for this site. If omitted, the
news site name will be used as the UUCP host name.
funnel
In the case of a site configured as a funnel, send-uucp needs to flush the channel (or
exploder) being used as the target of the funnel instead of flushing the site. This
is the way to tell send-uucp the name of the channel or exploder to flush for this
site. If not specified, default to flushing the site.
compressor
The compression method to use for batches. This should be one of "bzip2", "compress",
"gzip" or "none". Arguments for the compression command may be specified by using "_"
instead of spaces. For example, "gzip_-9". The default value is "gzip".
maxsize
The maximum size in bytes of a single batch before compression. The default value is
500000 bytes.
batchtime
A comma separated list of hours during which batches should be generated for a given
site. When send-uucp runs, a site will only be processed if the current hour matches
one of the hours in batchtime. The default is no limitation on when to generate
batches.
Fields are separated by spaces and only the site name needs to be specified, with defaults
being used for unspecified values. If the first character on a line is a hash sign ("#")
then the rest of the line is ignored.
EXAMPLE
Here is an example for the send-uucp.cf configuration file:
zoetermeer gzip 1048576 5,18,22
hoofddorp gzip 1048576 5,18,22
pa3ebv gzip 1048576 5,18,22
drinkel bzip2 1048576 5,6,18,20,22,0,2
manhole compress 1048576 5,18,22
owl compress 1048576
able
pern::MYFUNNEL!
This defines eight UUCP sites. The first three and the last two use "gzip" compression,
the fourth site ("drinkel") uses "bzip2" and the remaining sites ("manhole" and "owl") use
"compress". The first six use a batch size of 1 MB, and the two last sites ("able" and
"pern") use the default of 500,000 bytes. The "zoetermeer", "hoofddorp", "pa3ebv", and
"manhole" sites will only have batches generated for them during the hours of 05:00,
18:00, and 22:00, and the "drinkel" site will only have batches generated during those
hours and 06:00, 20:00, 00:00, and 02:00. There are no restrictions on when batches will
be generated for "owl", "able" and "pern".
The "pern" site is configured as a funnel into "MYFUNNEL!". send-uucp will issue "ctlinnd
flush MYFUNNEL!" instead of "ctlinnd flush pern".
As for the newsfeeds file, the usual flags used for a UUCP feed are "Tf,Wnb". Here is a
typical entry for "zoetermeer", where the batching is kept between 4 KB and 1 KB:
zoetermeer\
:*,!junk,!control,!control.*/!foo\
:Tf,Wnb,B4096/1024:
SETTING UP UUCP FEEDS
Here are the steps to follow to set up a UUCP feed over SSH between two news servers,
using the UUCP implementation available in Debian as the "uucp" package. The mechanisms
described below should be transposed if you use another UUCP implementation. (And if you
do, please inform the INN maintainers about how to set up a feed with another UUCP
implementation, so that it can be added to this documentation.)
1. First of all, make sure rnews is correctly installed setuid "news", owned by group
"uucp", and mode 4550. This will allow the UUCP subsystem to run rnews to process
UUCP batches of news articles. The "configure" flag --enable-uucp-rnews takes care of
it when installing INN. Otherwise, you'll have to manually change the permissions on
rnews.
2. Install the "uucp" package. It will notably provide uucico(8) and uux(1).
3. Configure in /etc/uucp/Poll the remote news servers to poll, and the hours during
which they are to be polled. For instance, if you send to "news.server.to.feed" UUCP
batches every 4 hours, you can use:
schedule news.server.to.feed 00
poll news.server.to.feed 00 04 08 12 16 20
If sending is hourly, just list all the hours.
4. Configure in /etc/uucp/call the credentials (usernames and passwords) to use when
authenticating against remote news servers, one per line. For instance:
news.server.to.feed login password
5. Configure in /etc/uucp/config the UUCP name of the local news server. For instance:
nodename my.news.server
6. Check that /etc/uucp/expire fits your needs as for the number of days batches are
retained as well as the configuration of daily reports. Default values are normally
fine, though you may want to receive a daily report only if unusual things happen (and
in that case, just set $important_only to 1).
7. Configure in /etc/uucp/passwd the credentials (usernames and passwords separated by a
tabulation) remote news servers use when authenticating against the local news server,
one per line. For instance:
login<TAB>password
8. Configure in /etc/uucp/sys how remote news servers connect to the local news server.
A typical entry to set an SSH connection is the following one where pathbin should be
changed to the real path to rnews:
system news.server.to.feed
call-login *
call-password *
commands <pathbin>/rnews
time any
chat "" \d\d\r\c ogin: \d\L word: \P
chat-timeout 120
protocol i
port ssh.news.server.to.feed
9. Configure in /etc/uucp/port how to connect to remote news servers. A typical entry to
set an SSH connection using a private key is:
port ssh.news.server.to.feed
type pipe
command /usr/bin/ssh -a -x -q -i <key_file> -l uucp news.server.to.feed
reliable true
protocol etyig
where key_file is the private key to use for the SSH connection, like for instance
/var/spool/uucp/.ssh/id_private_key.
10. Make sure the administrators of remote news servers have added the public key related
to id_private_key for connections to the "uucp" user of the remote news servers.
11. Supposing the home directory of the "uucp" user is /var/spool/uucp, you need to
configure the SSH keys in the .ssh subdirectory. First, add the public keys of all
remote news servers in authorized_keys. A typical entry is the following one, which
should be in 1 line (it is wrapped here for a proper display in man page):
no-port-forwarding,no-X11-forwarding,no-agent-forwarding,
command="/usr/sbin/uucico -l",from="news.server.to.feed"
ssh-rsa xxxyyyzzz uucp@news.server.to.feed
This ensures the SSH connection will not be used for another goal than exchanging UUCP
batches.
12. Make sure id_private_key is correctly present, as set in /etc/uucp/port, and only
readable by the "uucp" user.
13. Manually run as the "uucp" user the command set in /etc/uucp/port so as to create the
known_hosts file so as to make sure the SSH setting is fine.
/usr/bin/ssh -a -x -q -i <key_file> -l uucp news.server.to.feed
14. Parameterize the feed to send to the remote servers. A typical entry in newsfeeds to
generate batches in pathoutgoing is:
news.server.to.feed/pathname:*:Tf,Wnb,B4096/1024:
15. Set up the compression method, batch sizes and when to generate them in send-uucp.cf
located in pathetc, as described earlier in this documentation.
news.server.to.feed bzip2 1048576 3,7,11,15,19,23
16. Check that send-uucp is started hourly in crontab by the "news" user. For instance in
/etc/cron.d/inn2:
52 * * * * news <pathbin>/send-uucp
It can be useful to set up a different launch time than your remote servers. For
instance, if you generate batches every hour at minute 52, a remote peer may do the
same at minute 22. This way, you may exchange articles more frequently, depending on
when each other connects.
17. Check that UUCP programs are automatically started in crontab (usually, uudemon.hr is
called hourly in /etc/cron.d/uucp to poll remote news servers, and uudemon.day daily
in /etc/cron.daily/uucp).
Like for send-uucp, adjust the launch time to maximize the number and the freshness of
batches to exchanges.
18. Check the logs in /var/log/uucp to ensure everything works fine, both polling and
sending.
You will see that send-uucp prepares rnews batches named like D.0I8Y, that are queued
by uux. When uucico is afterwards started from cron to transfer these batches, uucico
takes available batches from the remote sites at the same time. These received
batches are then processed by uuxqt which calls rnews to inject them.
That's all!
FILES
pathbin/send-uucp
The Perl script itself used to create news batches from the outgoing files.
pathetc/send-uucp.cf
The configuration file which specifies a list of sites to be processed.
pathlog/send-uucp.log
The log file used if the syslog facility is not available.
HISTORY
This program was originally written by Edvard Tuinder <ed@elm.net> and then maintained and
extended by Miquel van Smoorenburg <miquels@cistron.nl>. Marco d'Itri <md@linux.it>
cleaned up the code for inclusion in INN. This manual page was written by Mark Brown
<broonie@sirena.org.uk>.
SEE ALSO
innd(8), newsfeeds(5), uucp(8).