uucp through flow-controlled (XON/XOFF) network

[Henry Spencer]

> Question: Should uucp be able to function over a flow-controlled
> 	network that uses XON/XOFF as flow control.  It appears
> 	that the uucp conversation hangs for large messages
> 	over our DCA stat mux network.  If there is a way
> 	to make uucp work, I would like to know it.  If the
> 	packet-size negotiation could be inhibited from increasing
> 	the packet size that might help.  KERMIT seems to
> 	work just fine over the same network.

Uucp's normal protocol (the "g" protocol) absolutely must have a 100%
transparent 8-bit data path.  I.e., XON/XOFF is out.  There is no easy
way around this.  Even if you tune your connection so flow control never
ever gets invoked, you'll still be in trouble because uucp uses binary
headers in its packets and will probably produce something that looks
like an XON or XOFF sooner or later.

Kermit was designed to work through mainframe tty drivers, which are much
crankier than networks; no surprise that it copes well.  Alas, uucp is
a different story.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry