uupoll Command

Purpose

Forces a poll of a remote BNU system.

Syntax

uupoll [  -gGrade ] [  -n ] SystemName

Description

The uupoll command forces the Basic Networking Utilities (BNU) to poll the remote system specified by the SystemName parameter. The command is usually run by the cron daemon or by a user who wants to force a job to be executed immediately. Otherwise, remote systems are polled by the uudemon.poll command at times scheduled in the /etc/uucp/Poll file and the /var/spool/cron/crontabs/uucp file.

Normally, the uucico daemon contacts a remote system only at times specified in the Poll file or when there is a job queued for that system. The uupoll command queues a null job for the remote system and then invokes the uucico daemon. This forces the uucico daemon to contact the remote system immediately and attempt to send any jobs which are queued for that system. Use the -g flag to specify that only high priority jobs be sent.

Use the -n flag to queue the null job without starting the uucico daemon. Use this option to:

  • Queue a null job before invoking the uucico daemon for debugging.
  • Queue a null job just before the uucico daemon is usually invoked, thus forcing the daemon to poll the specified system.

The SystemName parameter is required, and specifies the name of the remote system to be polled.

Flags

Item Description
-gGrade Instructs the uupoll command to send only jobs of the given grade (specified by the Grade parameter) or higher on this call. Jobs of a lower grade will remain in the queue until the next time the remote system is polled.
-n Queues the null job, but does not invoke the uucico daemon.

Examples

  1. To run the uupoll command with the cron daemon, place an entry in your crontabs file similar to: 
    0  1,7,16  *  *  *  /usr/bin/uupoll hera
    This polls system hera at 0100 hours (1 a.m.), 0700 hours (7 a.m.), and 1600 hours (4 p.m.) daily.
  2. If the local system already runs the uucico daemon at specific times, you may want to queue a null job just before the uucico daemon normally runs. For example, if your system runs the uucico daemon hourly, place an entry similar to the following in your crontabs file:
    0  1,7,16  *  *  *  /usr/bin/uupoll  -n zeus
    0  5,12,21 *  *  *  /usr/bin/uupoll -n hera
    5  *       *  *  *  /usr/sbin/uucp/uucico -r1
    This queues null jobs for the remote sites on the hour, and they are processed by the uucico daemon when it runs at 5 minutes past the hour.
  3. To force the uucico daemon to transfer all jobs of grade N or higher for system zeus:
    uupoll  -gN zeus

Files

Item Description
/usr/bin/uupoll Contains the uupoll command.
/etc/uucp/Poll Specifies when the BNU program should poll remote systems to initiate tasks.
/var/spool/cron/crontabs/uucp Schedules automatic polling of remote systems.
/var/spool/uucp/SystemName Contain files to be transferred to remote systems.