[comp.mail.uucp] Using MYNAME with Sun uucp

dpw@astro.as.utexas.edu (David Way) (05/07/91)

I am trying to use the MYNAME keyword in the /etc/uucp/Permissions file of
Sun (really HoneyDanBer) uucp, running under SunOs 4.1.1.   It doesn't seem 
to work the way I expect - when uucico reads the Permissions file, it aborts, 
saying: "This system specified: -sMyname: [name], exit code 101".   It is 
essential that this work, since our uucp name differs from our Internet 
hostname.  It appears to work properly in reverse: another machine can call 
mine, and is permitted to call mine by it's uucp hostname.   Here's what the 
Permissions file looks like:

MACHINE=[incoming_hostname] LOGNAME=[login_hostname] MYNAME=[my_uucp_hostname]

Everything works fine if I let uucico determine the hostname by running 
hostname(1).   It almost looks like uucico does the wrong thing with the
MYNAME keyword, using it for the target of the call, instead of the host
specified with `-s' on the command line.

Anybody out there encounter this ?   Please email replies, since I don't
always read this newsgroup.    Much thanks in advance if you can help.
--
David Way  McDonald Observatory/Astronomy Dept.- Univ. of Texas, Austin 
(office) RLM 16.206 (voice) 471-7439 (internet) dpw@astro.as.utexas.edu

dpw@astro.as.utexas.edu (David Way) (05/14/91)

In article <1991May6.231157.13859@astro.as.utexas.edu> I wrote:

> I am trying to use the MYNAME keyword in the /etc/uucp/Permissions file of
> a Sun (really HoneyDanBer) uucp package.   It doesn't seem to work the way
> I expect - when uucico reads the Permissions file, it aborts, saying:
> "This system specified: -sMyname: [name], exit code 101".   It is essential
> that this work, since our uucp name differs from our Internet hostname.  It
> appears to work properly in reverse: another machine can call mine, and is
> permitted to call mine by it's uucp hostname.   Here's what the Permissions
> file looks like:
> 
> MACHINE=[incoming_hostname] LOGNAME=[login_hostname] MYNAME=[my_uucp_hostname]
>
> Everything works fine if I let uucico determine the hostname by running 
> hostname(1).   It almost looks like uucico does the wrong thing with the
> MYNAME keyword, using it for the target of the call, instead of the host
> specified with `-s' on the command line.

Several people that replied to my plea for help requested that I post a 
followup explaining what solved this problem.   So here it is - pretty simple,
actually.  The uucp names of the 2 hosts involved differ only in the 8th 
character. It turns out that this edition of uucp only cares about the first
7 characters of a hostname.   I changed the non-unique 8-character name of 
my host to something unique in the first 7 characters, and the MYNAME option
now seems to work correctly for both incoming and outgoing uucp calls.
As far as I know, this isn't documented in the Sun uucp manual.   In fact, 
on page 680 of the Sun System & Network Administration manual (SunOS 4.1.1), 
2nd paragraph from the bottom, it clearly says "Note that the name should not 
exceed 8 characters, so that in some cases truncation or abbreviation may be 
necessary".   This actually applies to the uucp login name in /etc/hosts, 
but it seemed like a reasonable rule for uucp names throughout this 
implementation, and I took it as such.   Live and learn ...

Thanks to all those who responded to my original message.   I hope my
experience documented here will be helpful to someone out there.
--
David Way  McDonald Observatory/Astronomy Dept.- Univ. of Texas, Austin 
(office) RLM 16.206 (voice) 471-7439 (internet) dpw@astro.as.utexas.edu