Using uucp to transfer files

uucp automatically handles text and binary files. When a file is transferred by uucp to another site, it is put in the public UUCP directory—by default, this is /usr/spool/uucppublic.

  1. You need to know the name of the remote site. To list the remote sites that have been configured, type:
    uuname
    The sites are listed, one per line.
  2. Copy the file to the other site.

    To make file transfers easier, you can use a special character in pathnames for the public UUCP directory. When tilde ( ~) is written as the first directory in a destination path name, the ~/ stands for the public UUCP directory. You can specify the public UUCP directory with the pathname ~/.

    For example, to copy the file memo1.pay in your current directory to the public directory on the site named north, type:
    uucp memo1.pay north!~/memo1.pay

    File transfers may not get processed immediately. If there is any chance that the file that is to be sent will not be available later, use the -C option on the uucp command to immediately copy the file to the uucp spool directory. This ensures that the file is available later when the file transfer occurs.