uux(1) General Commands Manual uux(1)
NAME
uux - Remote command execution over UUCP
SYNOPSIS
uux [ options ] command
DESCRIPTION
The uux command is used to execute a command on a remote system, or to
execute a command on the local system using files from remote systems.
The command is not executed immediately; the request is queued until
the uucico (8) daemon calls the system and executes it. The daemon is
started automatically unless one of the -r or --nouucico options is
given.
The actual command execution is done by the uuxqt (8) daemon.
File arguments can be gathered from remote systems to the execution
system, as can standard input. Standard output may be directed to a
file on a remote system.
The command name may be preceded by a system name followed by an excla-
mation point if it is to be executed on a remote system. An empty sys-
tem name is taken as the local system.
Each argument that contains an exclamation point is treated as naming a
file. The system which the file is on is before the exclamation point,
and the pathname on that system follows it. An empty system name is
taken as the local system; this must be used to transfer a file to a
command being executed on a remote system. If the path is not abso-
lute, it will be appended to the current working directory on the local
system; the result may not be meaningful on the remote system. A path-
name may begin with ~/, in which case it is relative to the UUCP public
directory (usually /usr/spool/uucppublic or /var/spool/uucppublic) on
the appropriate system. A pathname may begin with ~name/, in which
case it is relative to the home directory of the named user on the ap-
propriate system.
Standard input and output may be redirected as usual; the pathnames
used may contain exclamation points to indicate that they are on remote
systems. Note that the redirection characters must be quoted so that
they are passed to uux rather than interpreted by the shell. Append
redirection (>>) does not work.
All specified files are gathered together into a single directory be-
fore execution of the command begins. This means that each file must
have a distinct base name. For example,
uux 'sys1!diff sys2!~user1/foo sys3!~user2/foo >!foo.diff'
will fail because both files will be copied to sys1 and stored under
the name foo.
Arguments may be quoted by parentheses to avoid interpretation of ex-
clamation points. This is useful when executing the uucp command on a
remote system.
A request to execute an empty command (e.g., uux sys!) will create a
poll file for the specified system.
The exit status of uux is one of the codes found in the header file sy-
sexits.h. In particular, EX_OK ( 0 ) indicates success, and EX_TEMP-
FAIL ( 75 ) indicates a temporary failure.
OPTIONS
The following options may be given to uux.
-, -p, --stdin
Read standard input and use it as the standard input for the com-
mand to be executed.
-c, --nocopy
Do not copy local files to the spool directory. This is the de-
fault. If they are removed before being processed by the uucico
(8) daemon, the copy will fail. The files must be readable by the
uucico (8) daemon, as well as the by the invoker of uux.
-C, --copy
Copy local files to the spool directory.
-l, --link
Link local files into the spool directory. If a file can not be
linked because it is on a different device, it will be copied un-
less one of the -c or --nocopy options also appears (in other
words, use of --link switches the default from --nocopy to
--copy). If the files are changed before being processed by the
uucico (8) daemon, the changed versions will be used. The files
must be readable by the uucico (8) daemon, as well as by the in-
voker of uux.
-g grade, --grade grade
Set the grade of the file transfer command. Jobs of a higher
grade are executed first. Grades run 0 ... 9 A ... Z a ... z from
high to low.
-n, --notification=no
Do not send mail about the status of the job, even if it fails.
-z, --notification=error
Send mail about the status of the job if an error occurs. For
many uuxqt daemons, including the Taylor UUCP uuxqt, this is the
default action; for those, --notification=error will have no ef-
fect. However, some uuxqt daemons will send mail if the job suc-
ceeds unless the --notification=error option is used, and some
other uuxqt daemons will not send mail if the job fails unless the
--notification=error option is used.
-r, --nouucico
Do not start the uucico (8) daemon immediately; merely queue up
the execution request for later processing.
-j, --jobid
Print jobids on standard output. A jobid will be generated for
each file copy operation required to perform the operation. These
file copies may be cancelled by passing the jobid to the --kill
switch of uustat (1), which will make the execution impossible to
complete.
-a address, --requestor address
Report job status to the specified e-mail address.
-x type, --debug type
Turn on particular debugging types. The following types are rec-
ognized: abnormal, chat, handshake, uucp-proto, proto, port, con-
fig, spooldir, execute, incoming, outgoing. Only abnormal, con-
fig, spooldir and execute are meaningful for uux.
Multiple types may be given, separated by commas, and the --debug
option may appear multiple times. A number may also be given,
which will turn on that many types from the foregoing list; for
example, --debug 2 is equivalent to --debug abnormal,chat.
-I file, --config file
Set configuration file to use. This option may not be available,
depending upon how uux was compiled.
-v, --version
Report version information and exit.
--help
Print a help message and exit.
EXAMPLES
uux -z - sys1!rmail user1
Execute the command ``rmail user1'' on the system sys1, giving it as
standard input whatever is given to uux as standard input. If a fail-
ure occurs, send a message using mail (1).
uux 'diff -c sys1!~user1/file1 sys2!~user2/file2 >!file.diff'
Fetch the two named files from system sys1 and system sys2 and execute
diff putting the result in file.diff in the current directory. The
current directory must be writable by the uuxqt (8) daemon for this to
work.
uux 'sys1!uucp ~user1/file1 (sys2!~user2/file2)'
Execute uucp on the system sys1 copying file1 (on system sys1) to sys2.
This illustrates the use of parentheses for quoting.
RESTRICTIONS
The remote system may not permit you to execute certain commands. Many
remote systems only permit the execution of rmail and rnews.
Some of the options are dependent on the capabilities of the uuxqt (8)
daemon on the remote system.
SEE ALSO
mail(1), uustat(1), uucp(1), uucico(8), uuxqt(8)
BUGS
Files can not be referenced across multiple systems.
Too many jobids are output by --jobid, and there is no good way to can-
cel a local execution requiring remote files.
AUTHOR
Ian Lance Taylor (ian@airs.com)
Taylor UUCP 1.07 uux(1)