The uucp command is the user's primary interface with the system. The uucp command was designed to look like cp to the user. The syntax is
where the source and destination may contain the prefix system-name! which indicates the system on which the file or files reside or where they will be copied.
The options interpreted by uucp are:
The following options are used primarily for debugging:
The destination may be a directory name, in which case the file name is taken from the last part of the source's name. The source name may contain special shell characters such as ``?*[]''. If a source argument has a system-name! prefix for a remote system, the file name expansion will be done on the remote system.
The command
will set up the transfer of all files whose names end with ``.c'' to the ``/usr/dan'' directory on the``usg'' machine.
The source and/or destination names may also contain a ~user prefix. This translates to the login directory on the specified system. For names with partial path-names, the current directory is prepended to the file name. File names with ../ are not permitted.
The command
will set up the transfer of files whose names end with ``.h'' in dan's login directory on system ``usg'' to dan's local login directory.
For each source file, the program will check the source and destination file-names and the system-part of each to classify the work into one of five types:
After the work has been set up in the spool directory, the uucico program is started to try to contact the other machine to execute the work (unless the -r option was specified).
A cp command is used to do the work. The -d and the -m options are not honored in this case.
A one line work file is created for each file requested and put in the spool directory with the following fields, each separated by a blank. (All work files and execute files use a blank as the field separator.)
For each source file, a work file is created and the source file is copied into a data file in the spool directory. (A ``-c'' option on the uucp command will prevent the data file from being made.) In this case, the file will be transmitted from the indicated source.) The fields of each entry are given below.
Uucp generates a uucp command and sends it to the remote machine; the remote uucico executes the uucp command.