# Introduction

The intent of this document is to answer some of the questions and comments that appear to meet the definition of "frequently asked questions" about UUCP software under Linux in general, and the version in the Linux SLS and Slackware distributions in particular.

This document and the corresponding Mail and News "HOWTO" documents collectively supersede the UUCP-NEWS-MAIL-FAQ that has previously been posted to comp.os.linux.announce.

### New versions of this document

New versions of this document will be periodically posted to comp.os.linux.announce, comp.answers, and news.answers. They will also be added to the various anonymous ftp sites who archive such information including sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO.

### Feedback

I am interested in any feedback, positive or negative, regarding the content of this document via e-mail. Definitely contact me if you find errors or obvious omissions.

I read, but do not necessarily respond to, all e-mail I receive. Requests for enhancements will be considered and acted upon based on that day's combination of available time, merit of the request, and daily blood pressure :-)

Flames will quietly go to /dev/null so don't bother.

Feedback concerning the actual format of the document should go to the HOWTO coordinator - Matt Welsh (mdw@sunsite.unc.edu).

### Copyright Information

The UUCP-HOWTO is copyrighted (c)1994 Vince Skahan.

A verbatim copy may be reproduced or distributed in any medium physical or electronic without permission of the author. Translations are similarly permitted without express permission if it includes a notice on who translated it.

Short quotes may be used without prior consent by the author. Derivative work and partial distributions of the UUCP-HOWTO must be accompanied with either a verbatim copy of this file or a pointer to the verbatim copy.

Commercial redistribution is allowed and encouraged; however, the author would like to be notified of any such distributions.

In short, we wish to promote dissemination of this information through as many channels as possible. However, we do wish to retain copyright the HOWTO documents, and would like to be notified of any plans to redistribute the HOWTOs.

We further want that ALL information provided in the HOWTOS is disseminated. If you have questions, please contact Matt Welsh, the Linux HOWTO coordinator, at mdw@sunsite.unc.edu, or +1 607 256 7372.

### Standard Disclaimer

Of course, I disavow any potential liability for the contents of this document. Use of the concepts, examples, and/or other content of this document is entirely at your own risk.

### Other sources of information

### USENET

comp.mail.uucp can answer most of your UUCP questions

### Mailing Lists

There is a Taylor UUCP mailing list.

To join (or get off) the list, send mail to

                  taylor-uucp-request@gnu.ai.mit.edu

This request goes to a person, not to a program, so please make sure that you include the address at which you want to receive mail in the text of the message.

To send a message to the list, send it to

                 taylor-uucp@gnu.ai.mit.edu

### Books

HDB and V2 versions of UUCP are documented in about every vendor's documentation as well as in almost all *nix communications books.

Taylor config files are currently only documented in the info files provided with the sources (and in the SLS distribution hopefully). To read them, you can grab the nice "infosrc" program from the SLS "s" disks and compile it.

The following is a non-inclusive set of books that will help.

- "Managing UUCP and USENET" from O'Reilly and Associates is in my opinion the best book out there for figuring out the programs and protocols involved in being a USENET site.
- "Unix Communications" from The Waite Group contains a nice description of all the pieces (and more) and how they fit together.
- "Practical Unix Security" from O'Reilly and Associates has a nice discussion of how to secure UUCP in general.
- "The Internet Complete Reference" from Osborne is a fine reference book that explains the various services available on Internet and is a great "one-stop-shopping" source for information on news, mail, and various other Internet resources.

### Where *NOT* to look for help

There is nothing "special" about configuring and running UUCP under Linux (any more). Accordingly, you almost certainly do *NOT* want to be posting generic UUCP-related questions to the comp.os.linux.* newsgroups.

Unless your posting is truly Linux-specific (ie, "please tell me what config file support is built into the binaries for Taylor uucp v1.04 in SLS v1.02"), you should be asking your questions in comp.mail.uucp or on the Taylor UUCP mailing list as indicated above.

Let me repeat that.

There is virtually no reason to post anything uucp-related in the comp.os.linux hierarchy any more. There are existing newsgroups in the comp.mail.* hierarchy to handle *ALL* your questions.

IF YOU POST TO COMP.OS.LINUX.* FOR NON-LINUX-SPECIFIC QUESTIONS, YOU ARE LOOKING IN THE WRONG PLACE FOR HELP. THE UUCP EXPERTS HANG OUT IN THE PLACES INDICATED ABOVE AND GENERALLY DO NOT RUN LINUX.

POSTING TO THE LINUX HIERARCHY FOR NON-LINUX-SPECIFIC QUESTIONS WASTES YOUR TIME AND EVERYONE ELSE'S AND IT FREQUENTLY DELAYS YOU FROM GETTING THE ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION.