uux(1C) Communication Commands uux(1C)NAMEuux - UNIX-to-UNIX system command execution
SYNOPSISuux [-] [-bcCjnprz] [-a name] [-g grade]
[-s filename] [-x debug_level] command-string
DESCRIPTION
The uux utility will gather zero or more files from various systems,
execute a command on a specified system and then send standard output
to a file on a specified system.
Note: For security reasons, most installations limit the list of com‐
mands executable on behalf of an incoming request from uux, permitting
only the receipt of mail (see mail(1)). (Remote execution permissions
are defined in /etc/uucp/Permissions.)
The command-string is made up of one or more arguments that look like a
shell command line, except that the command and file names may be pre‐
fixed by system-name!. A null system-name is interpreted as the local
system.
File names may be one of the following:
o An absolute path name.
o A path name preceded by ~xxx, where xxx is a login name on
the specified system and is replaced by that user's login
directory.
Anything else is prefixed by the current directory.
As an example, the command:
example% uux "!diff sys1!/home/dan/filename1 \
sys2!/a4/dan/filename2 > !~/dan/filename.diff"
will get the filename1 and filename2 files from the sys1 and sys2
machines, execute a diff(1) command and put the results in file‐
name.diff in the local PUBDIR/dan/ directory. PUBDIR is a public direc‐
tory defined in the uucp source. By default, this directory is
/var/spool/uucppublic.
Any special shell characters (such as < > ; |) should be quoted either
by quoting the entire command-string, or quoting the special characters
as individual arguments. The redirection operators >>, <<, >|, and >&
cannot be used.
uux will attempt to get all appropriate files to the specified system
where they will be processed. For files that are output files, the file
name must be escaped using parentheses. For example, the command:
example% uux "a!cut -f1 b!/usr/filename > c!/usr/filename"
gets /usr/filename from system b and sends it to system a, performs a
cut command on that file and sends the result of the cut command to
system c.
uux will notify you if the requested command on the remote system was
disallowed. This notification can be turned off by the -n option. The
response comes by remote mail from the remote machine.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
− The standard input to uux is made the standard input
to the command-string.
-a name Uses name as the user job identification replacing
the initiator user-id. (Notification will be returned
to user-id name.)
-b Returns whatever standard input was provided to the
uux command if the exit status is non-zero.
-c Does not copy local file to the spool directory for
transfer to the remote machine (default).
-C Forces the copy of local files to the spool directory
for transfer.
-g grade grade can be either a single letter, number, or a
string of alphanumeric characters defining a service
grade. The uuglist(1C) command determines whether it
is appropriate to use the single letter, number, or a
string of alphanumeric characters as a service grade.
The output from the uuglist command will be a list of
service grades that are available or a message that
says to use a single letter or number as a grade of
service.
-j Outputs the jobid string on the standard output which
is the job identification. This job identification
can be used by uustat(1C) to obtain the status or
terminate a job.
-n Does not notify the user if the command fails.
-p Same as −. The standard input to uux is made the
standard input to the command-string.
-r Does not start the file transfer, but just queues the
job.
-s filename Reports status of the transfer in filename. This
option is accepted for compatibility, but it is
ignored because it is insecure.
-x debug_level Produces debugging output on the standard output.
debug_level is a number between 0 and 9. As
debug_level increases to 9, more detailed debugging
information is given.
-z Sends success notification to the user.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables
that affect the execution of uux: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES,
and NLSPATH.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned:
0 Successful completion.
>0 An error occurred.
FILES
/etc/uucp/* other data and programs
/etc/uucp/Permissions remote execution permissions
/usr/lib/uucp/* other programs
/var/spool/uucp spool directories
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Availability │service/network/uucp │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Interface Stability │Committed │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Standard │See standards(5). │
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
SEE ALSOcut(1), mail(1), uucp(1C), uuglist(1C), uustat(1C), attributes(5), env‐
iron(5), standards(5)NOTES
The execution of commands on remote systems takes place in an execution
directory known to the uucp system.
All files required for the execution will be put into this directory
unless they already reside on that machine. Therefore, the simple file
name (without path or machine reference) must be unique within the uux
request. The following command will NOT work:
example% uux "a!diff b!/home/dan/xyz c!/home/dan/xyz > !xyz.diff"
But the command:
example% uux "a!diff a!/home/dan/xyz c!/home/dan/xyz > !xyz.diff"
will work (if diff is a permitted command.)
Protected files and files that are in protected directories that are
owned by the requester can be sent in commands using uux. However, if
the requester is root, and the directory is not searchable by "other",
the request will fail.
The following restrictions apply to the shell pipeline processed by
uux:
o In gathering files from different systems, pathname expan‐
sion in not performed by uux. Thus, a request such as
uux "c89 remsys!~/*.c"
would attempt to copy the file named literally *.c to the
local system.
o Only the first command of a shell pipeline may have a sys‐
tem-name!. All other commands are executed on the system of
the first command.
o The use of the shell metacharacter * will probably not do
what you want it to do.
o The shell tokens << and >> are not implemented.
o The redirection operators >>, <<, >|, and >& cannot be used.
o The reserved word ! cannot be used at the head of the pipe‐
line to modify the exit status.
o Alias substitution is not performed.
SunOS 5.11 28 Mar 1995 uux(1C)
