[comp.mail.uucp] Summary: Can a DOS user run UUCP?

bill@twg.wimsey.bc.ca (Bill Irwin) (07/24/90)

A  couple  of weeks ago I posted an article asking if there was  any  DOS
software  available for running UUCP and/or News.  Following is a reprint
of  my original question followed by a summary of the replies I received.
Thanks to all who responded.

[In message <223@twg.wimsey.bc.ca>, Bill Irwin writes...]

|Please  bear with me over my ignorance of DOS, but I've been 99% UNIX for
|six  years  now.   I have a friend who runs DOS on his system and  has  a
|modem  and is within local calling of my office.  I would like to be able
|to  exchange email with him.  Is there a DOS equivalent for HDB UUCP that
|is public domain?  If so, how would I get a copy?
|While I'm at it, is there a DOS version of Bnews and rn/nn?

DOS   users  certainly  can.   In  fact,   this  message  is   asked   on
comp.mail.uucp  every  two  weeks or so.  Here's a list  of  the  various
packages available:

UUPC and derivatives (free):
     UUPC post-1.0-interim (UUPC 1.06)
       This is the original free UUCP for MS-DOS.  It works, but is very
       short on features and usability.
     UUPC/extended (UUPC 1.07j)
       This is an extended version of the original UUPC.  It has many new
       features, but loses some capabilities.  It is designed for small
       systems or for small subnets of DOS machines with the more advanced
       mail functions handled by a Unix neighbor.
     Mush-PC 6.5
       This is a port of the excellent Unix Mush mailer (the "Mail User's
       Shell".)  It lacks the simple routing capabilities of UUPC/extended
       but instead offers one of the most powerful mail user agents
       available on PC's.  Mush is large, and as such is most usable on
       hard disk systems.  It's worth it, though.
     smail/PC 1.0b3 (smail2.5 port version 1.0)
       smail/PC is my own port of the Unix smail2.5 smart mailer to MS-DOS.
       It provides smart routing, domain handling, aliasing, and all of the
       other features found in a UUCP smart mailer.  The transport system
       is from UUPC and is included; the user agent is Mush-PC which must
       be obtained separately.  smail/PC is the largest of these four related
       packages, but in return is the most capable UUCP mail system for MS-DOS.

Other versions (shareware and commercial):
     UULINK
       This is a commercial package that has been available for some time.
       It is very capable, but is also very expensive.
     FSUUCP
       A shareware implementation.  No mail routing, but supports news with
       a subset of the readnews command.
     Waffle
       A BBS with Usenet support, also with single-user news and mail
       facilities.  I am not sure if this is shareware or free.  Waffle
       is rapidly becoming popular, but lacks mail routing facilities.
     GNUUCP
       This is free, but is apparently even more primitive than the original
       UUPC.  I have never seen it available; its uucico program is used by
       FSUUCP for UUCP protocol support.
     UFGate
       A Shareware package for Fidonet BBS's to access UUCP news and mail,
       UFGate is very hard to configure.  It does offer single-user support,
       but it has fallen out of favor recently because of its size and
       difficulty of use.

Of these, I have used all of the UUPC derivatives on my system.  I ported
smail/PC  because I needed a mailer more capable than UUPC/extended  that
also supported Mush.  It can handle any of the mail needs your friend may
have, but lacks news support.  This flaw, by the way, is common to all of
the UUPC derivatives.  All of the other packages explicity support news.

--
Stephen Trier                              Case Western Reserve University
Home: sct%seldon@scl.cwru.edu              Information Network Services
Work: trier@cwlim.ins.cwru.edu
                 I do _not_ speak for the University.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is the Smail/PC announcement.

I  am happy to announce the release of the beta-test version of smail/PC,
a  port  of the smail UUCP smart mailer to the MS-DOS  operating  system.
smail/PC  serves  as a mail transport agent (MTA) capable of acting as  a
full-blown  smart mailer with full routing capabilities.  In other words,
provide a routing database and smail/PC will automatically look up a path
for  your mail, even for mail of the form "someone@yyyy.UUCP".   smail/PC
also  provides sophisticated aliasing capabilities, a full-name  database
that  recognizes  addresses  like  Stephen.C.Trier@seldon.UUCP,  and  the
ability to communicate with and route mail for multiple UUCP hosts.

smail/PC is based on the public domain smail2.5 mailer, which was written
by  the people at the UUCP mapping project.  It uses a modified UUPC uuio
for UUCP protocol support, and requires an external mail user agent (MUA)
to  provide  a  user interface.  The only MUA with which  I  have  tested
smail/PC  is  Mush-PC,  although smail/PC should work with any  MUA  that
reads  Unix-style mailboxes and can call smail/PC appropriately.  (Anyone
want  to  port MH?) I highly recommend Mush-PC;  the mail environment  it
provides is superior to many Unix mail interfaces.

    Here's an (edited) excerpt from the Unix readme file for smail:

                         Read.Me - Updated 9/15/87

  Features of smail include:

(1) Using pathalias data to choose the best route to your destination.

(2) Handling of user@domain, domain!user, and host!user syntax.

(3) Generation of domain!user syntax to be forwarded by other systems.

(4) Logging  of  traffic through your machine, by sender, recipient,  and
    size  of  message,  so  you can track use and detect  abuse  of  your
    machine.

(5) Mail  being  forwarded  through your machine to another uux  link  is
    correctly processed, not bounced.

(6) Sendmail-like alias capability.

(7) Generation of RFC822 required headers for locally generated mail.

(8) Robust  delivery  scheme  that  reroutes   only  if  stated  path  is
    inaccessible.

(9) Mail that is undeliverable is returned to sender.

(10) Simplicity.

smail/PC is in the late beta stage.  I have tested the code thoroughly on
seldon, and I believe it is sound.  Bug reports are requested.

smail/PC  is mostly in the public domain.  All programs derived from  the
Unix  smail2.5  package are in the public domain, as are the  programs  I
have  added.   The  portions  originating in  the  UUPC  Post-1.0-interim
release  are  copyrighted  by  their original  authors,  but  are  freely
distributable.

At   this  time,  smail/PC  is  available   only  by  anonymous  FTP   to
shasta.scl.cwru.edu   [129.22.32.7],  in   files  /info/smailbin.zip  and
/info/smailsrc.zip.   These  files  are in the PKZip format  and  require
PKZip  1.01 or higher to extract.  Because of disk space restrictions,  I
am  not  able  to  place  Mush-PC on shasta.  You  can  find  Mush-PC  on
wuarchive.wustl.edu  or  SIMTEL20, in their MS-DOS UUCP directories.   At
this  time,  no  other  archive sites or access  methods  are  available.
Offers   from   other  archive  sites  to  carry  smail/PC   are   hereby
categorically accepted!  :-)

            <=> Stephen Trier    sct%seldon@skybridge.SCL.CWRU.Edu
                                 {sun,att,decvax}!cwjcc!skybridge!seldon!sct
                                 sct@po.CWRU.Edu
--
   Steve Yelvington at the lake in Minnesota
   steve@thelake.mn.org
------------------------------------------------------------------------

I enclose information about waffle, a dos program that has uucp, etc. I use
it for about a week and it seems to work. --- Avi

README for Waffle DOS version 1.62
(C) Copyright 1989 Darkside International

This software supersedes Waffle 1.61 which was released on 3-8-90.

CAPABILITIES & FUNCTIONS

o  Allows  a  PC  to communicate with Unix systems using  UUCP  protocol,
   giving them capability to send UUCP mail and Usenet news.

o  Can  be  run as an single-user, individual UUCP node, either in  slave
   (they call you) or master (you call them) mode.

o  Can  be  run  as a BBS program, including electronic  mail,  messages,
   editor, transfer section, cookies and numerous other amenities.

o  Can  be run as a frontend to execute DOS tasks, with access control on
   a per individual basis.

o  Any combination of the above, with enough imagination.

__
No signature
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

                Late Night Software's UFGATE.

UFGATE is a package that will move files, mail, and news- groups back and
forth  between  UUCP/USENET and MS-DOS machines.  The package  will  gate
between  UUCP/USENET  and  FidoNet  or  you  can  just  run  the  package
stand-alone, effectively being a leaf site in UUCP/USENET.

UFGATE runs on IBM-PC/XT/AT or PS/2 machines or compatibles.  UFGATE will
also  work with MS-DOS or PC-DOS machines that are not 100 percent IBM-PC
hardware  compatible with an appropriate FOSSIL (a communications  device
driver).  This is needed for the UUCICO clone, GNUUCP (aka.  UUSLAVE).

The GNUUCP program has been brought up to a full implementation of UUCICO
with  routines  so  it can run with the MS-DOS file structure.   You  can
initiate  or receive UUCP connections and there is full support for l.sys
files.  You can even use it with PC Pursuit.

The  package  will handle the importing, exporting of UUCP messages,  and
also  the  automatic deletion of old USENET newsgroup  messages.   UFGATE
will  also  handle  mail/newsgroups that have been either 12  or  16  bit
compressed.

UFGATE  can handle either UUCP bang-style, ARPA/INTERNET domain style, or
a  hybrid of both.  It can also handle aliases for individuals or machine
names.   Message forwarding is also built in.  UFGATE can handle multiple
hosts.

Message  formatting, like the automatic appending of individual signature
files, is supported.

Detailed debugging is available, so setup is easier.

UFGATE  is  free  to  non-commercial, non-supported users.   If  you  are
interested  in support, which includes updates for a year, the Late Night
Software  telephone support service, and a hard copy of the manual, a $35
fee  is asked.  If you are a commercial site, you will automatically  get
the  support  described  above,  and the manual  for  $195.   Support  is
available to all users via the UFGATE echo on FidoNet.

You  can download the UFGATE package from the Late Night Software BBS at:
+1 415 695 0759.

Currently  we  have a USRobotics dual standard (HST/v.32) 9600b/s  modem.
The  time to transfer the file (UFGATE.ARC) at 9600b/s is 10 minutes,  or
at 2400b/s, it would be about 40 minutes.

We  also accept floppies.  You can send either 360Kbyte or 1.2Mbyte, five
and  a quarter inch floppies.  If you send 360Kbyte floppies, send  four.
The  package  will fit completely on one 1.2Mbyte floppy.   The  floppies
should be pre-formatted on your machine.

Send  the  floppies in a standard floppy mailer with a return label,  and
return postage to:

        Late Night Software
        Tim Pozar
        671 28th Street
        San Francisco, CA 94131

If  you have further questions, you can write us at the above address, or
call us at +1 415 695 7727, or write to the Email address below.

Internet: lns@f555.n125.z1.fidonet.org
    UUCP: ...!sun!hoptoad!fidogate!lns

--
Tim Pozar    Try also...
uunet!hoptoad!kumr!pozar      Fido: 1:125/555      PaBell: (415) 788-3904
      USNail:  KKSF-FM / 77 Maiden Lane /  San Francisco CA 94108
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

There  are  several  UUPC (MSDOS version of UUCP)  programs.   FSUUPC  is
(public  domain,  I think), UUPC is shareware, UUPC07JU is shareware  and
the best of all WAFFLE (shareware), which is a BBS/UUCP program.

With  WAFFLE,  the user is able to read local news, and USENET  news.   I
think FSUUPC or UUPC07JU has PNEWS too (I might be wrong).

They are available from simtel20.

--
Budi Rahardjo                 <rahardj@ccu.umanitoba.ca>
<rahard@ee.umanitoba.ca>   <rahard@budi.ee.umanitoba.ca>
Electrical Engineering - University of Manitoba - Canada
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- 
Bill Irwin    -   TWG The Westrheim Group     -    Vancouver, BC, Canada
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
uunet!van-bc!twg!bill     (604) 431-9600 (voice) |     UNIX Systems
bill@twg.wimsey.bc.ca     (604) 431-4629 (fax)   |     Integration

mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us (Marc Unangst) (07/25/90)

bill@twg.wimsey.bc.ca (Bill Irwin) writes:
>     Waffle
>       A BBS with Usenet support, also with single-user news and mail
>       facilities.  I am not sure if this is shareware or free.  Waffle
>       is rapidly becoming popular, but lacks mail routing facilities.

Waffle is shareware ($30) for individuals.  Source code is available
for $120.  A Unix version (C sources) is available for $100, and is
reported to run under System V, BSD, and Xenix.

Waffle does *not* lack mail routing facilities.  Although the released
v1.62 version is a little short in that department, the current beta
release (v1.63/6) has a smail-like paths file, although costs are not
yet supported.  And there is a full aliases file that supports mailing
lists and include files, not to mention that per-user 'forward' files
are supported.

Disclaimer: I'm not associated with Tom Dell or Darkside International
except as a satisfied Waffle user and beta-tester.

--
Marc Unangst               |
mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us  | Angular momentum makes the world go 'round.
...!umich!leebai!mudos!mju |

cambler@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Fubar) (07/25/90)

Just to keep you all up to date, since there has been some activity in the
pc-uucp arena, FSUUCP no longer uses the old gnuucp drivers. It now
implements full 3 && 7 window g transfer, and is much faster. It is also
being ported to c++ for an increased speedup (as well as new features
including mail routing and more).

The current version out (the one with the gnuucp driver) is 1.01 and is
available at polyslo.calpoly.edu.

Version 1.1, incorporating the new driver and more features is under
development and will be released as soon as it is done. I will no longer
give deadlines because they are always missed and that upsets me more
than anyone else.

All floppies we have received in the past 4 weeks as well as those we
are currently receiving are being held until 1.1 is ready. If you have
sent floppies and would like to receive 1.01 in the meantime, please
drop me a note, and I'll send them off, and then mail you 1.1 when it
is ready (postage and disks on me).

If you send floppies now, I will hold them for 1.1, unless you specifically
request 1.01. I can't afford to do the above for everyone, though, only
those who have already sent their disks. Sorry.

We are working as hard as we can between school hours (some of us are
foolish enough to be trying to graduate) to get 1.1 done. I think that
everyone will think it worth the wait, as there is much improvement even
over 1.01 due to large user feedback.

Thanks to everyone helping...

-- 
++Christopher(); --- cambler@polyslo.calpoly.edu --- chris@fubarsys.slo.ca.us
---
Ever get the feeling that there is someone out there who understands you
completely?