To BNU or not to BNU

[Carl S. Gutekunst]

In article <4703 at pwcs.StPaul.GOV> daveg at pwcs.StPaul.GOV (Dave Glowacki) writes:
>In OSx 4.1, Pyramid extended 4.3BSD UUCP to include support for Telebits.
>What exactly was done?

OSx 4.1 ucb UUCP had the following changes related to the Telebit:

- Fixed interface speed is supported. You get this in L-devices by appending
  the true speed after the data rate, like this:

	ACU  ttyi47  tone  2400,19200  telebit

  This will pattern-match against 'ACU 2400' in L.sys, but will talk to the
  modem at 19200. It will also cause uucico to ignore CONNECT messages from
  the modem that want to change the speed, e.g.:

	CONNECT 2400

  Without fixed interface speed in L-devices, uucico would change to 2400 when
  it saw this message.

- The uucp protocol can be explicitly specified in L.sys, like this:

	pyramid  Any ACU,g  19200 4155551234  ogin:

  When I get to it, you will also be able to specify the protocol in L-devices.
  But this isn't available yet.

- There is a dedicated dialer for the TrailBlazer that uses slightly different
  modem options, and is supposed to do autobauding correctly. (It doesn't :-(
  so you should use fixed interface speed.) It also defaults to the 'f' proto-
  col, which was the only thing that worked on a TrailBlazer at the time that
  OSx 4.1 was shipped. (So you *want* to use the protocol specification in 
  L.sys.) The biggest benefit is that after the connection finishes, you get a
  LOGFILE message that includes the modem's transfer statistics. I've found
  this invaluable for indentifying bad phone lines.

>Is it possible to get uucleanup to work on 4.3 UUCP files?

If you have source, yes. Otherwise, no. There are a number of public domain
equivalents for 4.3BSD; we use package called uumailclean that we're happy
with.

>Also, are there any plans to bring in uugetty?

Not uugetty specifically. Dialin/Out on the same line will be supported 4.3BSD
style, using a separate tty device for dialin and dialout. I have no idea when
this will be included, however. If you want it soon, put in an software problem
report to RTOC (call the 800 number, or e-mail pyramid!bugs) and make yourself
heard. The more people who bitch about it, the sooner it will get done. 

There are other pro/con issues of BNU vs. ucb UUCP. The BNU directory-per-site
in /usr/spool/uucp/ improves performance. BNU is *much* more secure. ucb UUCP
gives you call progress monitoring, so the message you see in the LOGFILE is
what the modem actually reported (BUSY, VOICE, NO CONNECT, NO ANSWER, etc.).
ucb UUCP has full X.25 and TCP/IP support. We have to use ucb UUCP because of
X.25.

Note that I call it ucb UUCP, rather than 4.3BSD UUCP. Pyramid's ucb UUCP
started with 4.3BSD, and is 100% compatible with it, but has been greatly
extended. I don't want people to think the 4.3BSD UUCP on their VAXen will do
things like call progress monitoring, autodialing X.25, or fixed interface
speed; it won't.

<csg>