uux(1)uux(1)NAMEuux - Runs a command on another system
SYNOPSISuux [-c | -C] [-n | -z] [- | -p] [-a user] [-bjr] [-g grade] [-s
file] [-x debug_level] command_string
The uux command runs a specified command command_string on a specified
system while enabling you to continue working on the local system. This
command runs on systems that support the UUCP protocol.
STANDARDS
Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to industry stan‐
dards as follows:
uux(): XCU5.0
Refer to the standards(5) reference page for more information about
industry standards and associated tags.
OPTIONS
Makes the standard input to uux the standard input to the com‐
mand_string. Same as -p. Replaces the user ID of the person issuing
the command with user ID user. Returns standard input to the command
if the exit status is not zero. Transfers the source files to the des‐
tination on the specified system. The source files are not copied into
the spool directory for transfer. (See the description of the -C
option.) Transfers the source files to the spool directory. After a
set period of time, (specified in the uusched program) the uucico dae‐
mon attempts to transfer the files to the destination on the specified
computer. This option is on by default.
Occasionally, there are problems in transferring a source file;
for example, the remote computer might not be working, or the
login attempt might fail. In such cases, the file remains in
the spool directory until it is either transferred successfully
or removed by the uucleanup command. Specifies when the files
are to be transmitted during a particular connection. The vari‐
able grade is a single number (0-9) or ASCII letter (A-Z, a-z);
lower ASCII-sequence characters cause the files to be transmit‐
ted earlier than do higher sequence characters. The number 0 is
the highest (earliest) grade; z is the lowest (latest). The
default is N. Displays the job identification number of the
process that is running the command on the specified system.
Use this job number with the uustat command to check the status
of the command, or with uustat -k to terminate the process.
Prevents user notification by mailx of whether the command exe‐
cuted successfully. The default is to notify you if the command
fails. Uses the standard input to uux as the standard input to
command_string. A - (dash) has the same effect. Prevents the
starting of the spooling program that transfers files between
systems. The default is to start the spooling program. Reports
the status of the transfer in a file specified by file on the
designated system. Displays debugging information on the screen
of the user's terminal. The debug_level is a number between 0
and 9. The higher number gives a more detailed report. Noti‐
fies you if the command executed successfully on the specified
system. In that case, you are notified about the failure
through the mail system.
DESCRIPTION
The command gathers various files from the designated systems, if nec‐
essary. It then runs a specified command on a designated system. The
user can direct the output from the command to a specified file on a
specified system. (For security reasons, many installations permit uux
to run only the rmail command.)
The uux command creates execute (X.*) files that run commands on the
local system. In addition, uux also creates both command (C.*) files
and data (D.*) files.
Execute files contain the command string to be executed on the desig‐
nated system. Command files contain the same information as those cre‐
ated by the uucp command. Data files either contain the data for a
remote command execution, or else become X.* files on remote systems
for remote command executions.
The full pathname of an execute file is a form of the following:
/usr/spool/uucp/system/X.systemNxxxx
After creating the files in the spooling directory, uux calls the
uucico daemon, to transfer the files from the spooling directory on the
local system to the designated remote system. Once the files are
transferred, the uuxqt daemon executes the command_string on the speci‐
fied system, placing any output from the command in a designated file
on a specified system.
The command_string variable is made up of one or more arguments that
look like a command line, except that command_string might be prefixed
by system!. The default system is the local system.
Unless the -n option is specified, uux notifies you if the remote sys‐
tem does not run the command. This response comes by mailx from the
remote system.
Filenames, Pathnames, and System Names
When specifying the destination of the output of a command, you can
enter uux in either of the following formats: uux [option ...] com‐
mand_string > destination uux [option ...] command_string \{destina‐
tion\}
Destination names can be either of the following: A full pathname. A
full pathname preceded by ~user, where user is a login name on the
specified system. The uux command replaces this pathname with your
login directory.
The shell pattern-matching characters ?, *, and [...] can be used in
the pathname of a source file (such as files compared by the diff com‐
mand); the appropriate system expands them.
Shell pattern-matching characters should not be used in the destination
pathname.
Place either two \ (backslashes) or a pair of " " (double quotes)
around pattern-matching characters in a pathname so the local shell
cannot interpret them before uux sends the command to a designated sys‐
tem. If using the special shell characters >, <, ;, or | in a pathname,
precede each special character with \ or place "..." around the entire
command string. Do not use the shell redirection characters << or >> in
a pathname.
The uux command attempts to move all files specified on the command
line to the designated system. Enclose the names of all output files
in parentheses so that uux does not try to transfer them.
When specifying a system, always place it before the command_string in
the entry. System names must contain only ASCII characters.
The ! (exclamation point) preceding the name of the local system in a
command is optional. If you choose to include the ! to run a command
on the local system using files from two different remote systems, use
! instead of system! to represent the local system, and add system!
as the first entry in any pathname on the remote systems.
The exclamation point representing a remote system has a different
meaning in C shells (csh). When running uux in a C shell, place a \
(backslash) before the exclamation point in a system name.
If the command being executed requests two files stored on the same
system, or two files with the same name that are stored on separate
systems, the command will be executed, but will not produce the desired
results.
The following two commands will be executed:
uux "nhk!/usr/bin/diff /usr/amy/out1 nhk!/u/amy/out > ~uucp/DF"
uux "nhk!/usr/bin/diff nhk!/usr/amy/out1 &!/u/amy/out > ~uucp/DF"
(The notation ~uucp is the shorthand way of specifying the public
spooling directory /usr/spool/uucppublic.) In the first command, diff
is on system nhk, the first source file is on the local system, the
second source file (with a different name) is on system nhk, and the
output is directed to the file DF in the public directory on the local
system. In the second command, diff is again on nhk, the first file is
also on nhk, the second file (with a different name) is on &, and the
output is again directed to DF in the ~uucp directory.
The following command will not be executed properly:
uux "nhk!/usr/bin/diff &!/u/amy/out merl!/u/amy/out > ~uucp/DF"
This command will not be executed because, although the files are on
two different systems, they still have the same filename.
EXAMPLES
To run the lp command on a remote system, enter: uux merl!lp
/reports/memos/lance
In this example, the file /reports/memos/lance is printed on the
remote system merl. Unless the -n option or the -z option is
specified, the uux command notifies you if the remote system
fails to run the command. The response comes by the mailx com‐
mand from the remote system. To run commands on two remote sys‐
tems, enter the information on separate command lines, enter:
uux merl!print /reports/memos/lance uux zeus!print /test/exam‐
ples/examp1
In this example, the file /reports/memos/lance is printed on the
remote system merl, and the file /test/examples/examp1 is
printed on the remote system zeus. To get the job_number of a
job and then compare a file on the local system zeus with a file
on a remote system when the diff command is stored on the local
system, use either of the following formats: uux-j
"/usr/bin/diff /usr/amy/f1 nhk!/u/amy/f2 > ~uucp/f1.diff"
or uux-j /usr/bin/diff /usr/amy/f1 nhk!/u/amy/f2
\{~uucp/f1/diff\}
This command gets the file /usr/amy/f1 from the remote system
nhk, compares it to the file /u/amy/f2 on the local system zeus,
and places the output of the command in the local public direc‐
tory in a file named f1.diff. (The full pathname of this file
is /usr/spool/uucppublic/f1.diff.) Using the -j option produces
the output zeusN52d9.
As shown in the example, the destination name must be entered in
one of two ways: Preceded by a > (redirection symbol) with the
whole command string enclosed in "..." (double quotes) Enclosed
in braces and backslashes, as \{...\} To compare files that are
located on two different remote systems, nhk and &, using the
diff command on the local system, enter: uux "!/usr/bin/diff
nhk!/usr/amy/f1 &!/u/amy/f2 > !f1.diff"
This command gets the file /usr/amy/f1 from the system nhk and
the file /u/amy/f2 from &, runs a diff command on the two
files, and places the results in the file f1.diff, located in
the current working directory on the local system.
Additional points: This output file must be write enabled. If
you are uncertain about the permission status of a specific tar‐
get output file, direct the results to the public directory.
The exclamation points representing the local system are
optional. Both of the examples above use a > (redirection sym‐
bol) preceding the name of the output file. When using the spe‐
cial shell characters >, <, ;, or |, either quote the entire
command_string, or quote the special characters as individual
arguments. To specify an output file on a different remote sys‐
tem, enter: uux nhk!uucp &!/u/amy/f1 \{merl!/u/geo/test\}
This command runs uucp on the remote system nhk. The uucp com‐
mand then sends the file /u/amy/f1, stored on system &, to user
geo on system merl as test. To get selected fields from a file
on remote system nhk and place them in a file on the local sys‐
tem, enter: uux "cut -f1 -d: nhk\!/etc/passwd > ~uucp/passw.cut"
This command runs cut on the local system, gets the first field
from each line of the password file on system nhk, and places
the output in the file passw.cut in the public directory on the
local system.
In this example, uux is running in a C shell, so a \ (backslash)
must precede the ! (exclamation point) in the name of the
remote system.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables affect the execution of uux: [Tru64
UNIX] Specifies the flow control used on the connection. Permitted
values are: HW (hardware), SW (software), HSW (hardware and software),
and NONE. The uugetty on the remote system must also use the same flow
control. Provides a default value for the internationalization vari‐
ables that are unset or null. If LANG is unset or null, the correspond‐
ing value from the default locale is used. If any of the internation‐
alization variables contains an invalid setting, the utility behaves as
if none of the variables had been defined. If set to a non-empty
string value, overrides the values of all the other internationaliza‐
tion variables. Determines the locale for the interpretation of
sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte
as opposed to multibyte characters in arguments and input files).
Determines the locale that should be used to affect the format and con‐
tents of diagnostic messages written to standard error. Determines the
location of message catalogues for the processing of LC_MESSAGES.
[Tru64 UNIX] Specifies the amount of time (in seconds) for uucico to
try to establish a connection before it times out. A value of 0 (zero)
indicates an unlimited amount of time.
FILES
Spooling directory. Contains the uucico daemon. Public directory.
SEE ALSO
Commands: ct(1), cu(1), mailx(1), rmail(1), sendmail(8), tip(1),
uucico(8), uucleanup(8), uucp(1), uuencode(1), uulog(1), uuname(1),
uupick(1), uusched(8), uusend(1), uustat(1), uuto(1)
Standards: standards(5)uux(1)
