Mail addresses over a BNU or UUCP link

You can send messages to users on another system over a Basic Networking Utilities (BNU) or UNIX-to-UNIX Copy Program (UUCP) link.

To send a message to a user on another system connected to your system by the BNU or another version of UUCP, you must know:

  • The login name
  • The name of the other system
  • The physical route to that other system

The person responsible for connecting your system to other systems should be able to provide routing information to address the other system.

When Your Computer Has a BNU or UUCP Link: At your system command line prompt, use the mail command as shown in the following examples:

Item Description
mail UUCPRoute!LoginName If your local computer has a BNU or UUCP connection that can be used to reach the remote system, use the format in this example to address a message. The variable LoginName is the login name on the remote system for the message recipient. The variable UUCPRoute describes the physical route the message must follow along the UUCP network. If your system is connected to the remote system without any intermediate UUCP systems between, this variable is the name of the remote system.
mailarthur!lancelot!merlin!ken If your message must travel through one or more intermediate UUCP systems before reaching the desired remote system, this variable is a list of each of the intermediate systems. The list starts with the nearest system and proceeds to the farthest system, separated by an exclamation mark (!). You can follow this example, if the message must travel through systems arthur and lancelot (in that order) before reaching merlin.
mail merlin!ken If your local system has a UUCP link to a system called merlin and there are no other UUCP systems between your system and merlin, you can send a message to ken on that system.

When the BNU or UUCP Link Is on Another Computer: In a local or wide area network environment, one of the systems on the network may have a BNU or other type of UUCP connection to a remote system. You can use that UUCP connection to send a message to a user on that remote UUCP system. At your system command line prompt, use the mail command as shown in the following example:

mail @arthur:merlin!ken
Sends mail to ken on UUCP system merlin from the Internet system arthur. The delimiter @ is for the internet addressing, the delimiter ! is for the UUCP addressing, and the delimiter : connects the two addresses. Notice that in this format you are not sending mail to a user at any of the intermediate systems, so no login name precedes the @ in the domain address.
mail @arthur:odin!acct.dept!kelly
Sends mail to kelly on UUCP system acct.dept through system odin from the Internet system arthur.
mail@odin.uucp:@dept1.UUCP:@dept2:bill@dept3
Sends mail to bill@dept3 over odin and dept1 UUCP links and then over the local network link between systems dept2 and dept3. The /etc/sendmail.cf file must be configured accordingly to use this type of UUCP address notation. See your system administrator for information.

If you often send mail to users on other networks, creating aliases that include the users' addresses can save you time. See Aliases and distribution lists.