UUX(1C)                                                                UUX(1C)


NAME
     uux - UNIX-to-UNIX system command execution

SYNOPSIS
     uux [ options ] command-string

DESCRIPTION
     uux will gather zero or more files from various systems, execute a
     command on a specified system and then send standard output to a file on
     a specified system.

     NOTE:  For security reasons, most installations limit the list of
     commands executable on behalf of an incoming request from uux, permitting
     only the receipt of mail (see mail(1)).  (Remote execution permissions
     are defined in /etc/uucp/Permissions.)

     The command-string is made up of one or more arguments that look like a
     shell command line, except that the command and file names may be
     prefixed by system-name!.  A null system-name is interpreted as the local
     system.

     File names may be one of

          (1)  a full path name;

          (2)  a path name preceded by ~xxx where xxx is a login name on the
               specified system and is replaced by that user's login
               directory;

          (3)  anything else is prefixed by the current directory.

     As an example, the command

          uux "!diff usg!/usr/dan/file1 pwba!/a4/dan/file2 > !~/dan/file.diff"

     will get the file1 and file2 files from the ``usg'' and ``pwba''
     machines, execute a diff(1) command and put the results in file.diff in
     the local PUBDIR/dan/ directory.

     Any special shell characters such as <>;| should be quoted either by
     quoting the entire command-string, or quoting the special characters as
     individual arguments.

     uux will attempt to get all files to the execution system.  For files
     that are output files, the file name must be escaped using parentheses.
     For example, the command

          uux a!cut -f1 b!/usr/file \(c!/usr/file\)

     gets /usr/file from system "b" and sends it to system "a", performs a cut
     command on that file and sends the result of the cut command to system
     "c".


     uux will notify you if the requested command on the remote system was
     disallowed.  This notification can be turned off by the -n option.  The
     response comes by remote mail from the remote machine.

     The following options are interpreted by uux:

     -         The standard input to uux is made the standard input to the
               command-string.

     -aname    Use name as the user identification replacing the initiator
               user-id.  (Notification will be returned to the user.)

     -b        Return whatever standard input was provided to the uux command
               if the exit status is non-zero.

     -c        Do not copy local file to the spool directory for transfer to
               the remote machine (default).

     -C        Force the copy of local files to the spool directory for
               transfer.

     -ggrade   Grade is a single letter/number; lower ASCII sequence
               characters will cause the job to be transmitted earlier during
               a particular conversation.

     -j        Output the jobid ASCII string on the standard output which is
               the job identification.  This job identification can be used by
               uustat to obtain the status or terminate a job.

     -n        Do not notify the user if the command fails.

     -p        Same as -:  The standard input to uux is made the standard
               input to the command-string.

     -r        Do not start the file transfer, just queue the job.

     -sfile    Report status of the transfer in file.

     -xdebug_level
               Produce debugging output on the standard output.  The
               debug_level is a number between 0 and 9; higher numbers give
               more detailed information.

     -z        Send success notification to the user.

FILES
     /var/spool/uucp          spool directories
     /etc/uucp/Permissions    remote execution permissions
     /etc/uucp/*              uucp system data files
     /usr/lib/uucp/*          uucp administrative programs


SEE ALSO
     cut(1), mail(1), uucp(1C), uustat(1C).

WARNINGS
     Only the first command of a shell pipeline may have a system-name!.  All
     other commands are executed on the system of the first command.
     The use of the shell metacharacter * will probably not do what you want
     it to do.  The shell tokens << and >> are not implemented.

     The execution of commands on remote systems takes place in an execution
     directory known to the uucp system.  All files required for the execution
     will be put into this directory unless they already reside on that
     machine.  Therefore, the simple file name (without path or machine
     reference) must be unique within the uux request.  The following command
     will NOT work:

          uux "a!diff b!/usr/dan/xyz c!/usr/dan/xyz > !xyz.diff"

     but the command

          uux "a!diff a!/usr/dan/xyz c!/usr/dan/xyz > !xyz.diff"

     will work.  (If diff is a permitted command.)

BUGS
     Protected files and files that are in protected directories that are
     owned by the requestor can be sent in commands using uux.  However, if
     the requestor is root, and the directory is not searchable by "other",
     the request will fail.


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