smh (04/23/83)
I recently upgraded to a slightly-less-ancient uucp which included the uuname command. For those not familiar with it, it is a simple little thing which lists the names of all systems known to the local uucp. The only reason it is needed at all is that most sites restrict read permission on /usr/lib/uucp/L.sys, which also contains uucp login scripts for those known systems. Uuname simply echoes the first token on each line of that file, and could otherwise be done by a shell script. NOW FOR THE DUMB IDEA: If every uucp site willing to forward mail were to install uuname, and add it to the commands uux will allow, then in principle a fairly simple and completely automatic procedure could determine the entire mail network topology! Via uux, a site would request a uuname from each of its neighbors. New systems which show up in those uunames would be polled in turn, but duplicates would not be polled again. The accumilating connection map could be handled by any of several available relational-database managers. The total number of round-trip messages needed (discounting necessary retries) would be precisely equal to the number of sites. The latest figure I have heard is around 500, although this is likely something of an underestimate. 500 round-trip messages (actually, two uucp files per uux) is a large but not impossible number. Furthermore, /etc/passwd could be copied from permitting sites. If a successful parser could be written for the GCOS field info -- almost always used to contain user identity info -- then it might even be possible to put together a useful (if inaccurate and incomplete) user directory! The uucp map and user directory could be maintained automatically, say bimonthly. There are any number of technical and operational problems, not the least of which would be convincing a majority of sites to make the necessary uux change. Still, the idea is so wondrously grandiose that I just couldn't resist posting it to the net. Steve Haflich genrad!mit-eddie!smh
9212osd (04/23/83)
The idea of using uux to get uucp information from another system sounds good but at this moment I can think of one problem: uuname may tell you lies with respect to mail forwarding. Some sites have implemented a 'no-mail-forwarding-scheme' to certain other sites which just the output of uuname will not reveal. An option to uuname that will output only the sites to which the system is willing to forward mail would be very helpful.