Network Working Group S. Barber
Internet Draft The UUCP Mapping Project
June 2000
The Conclusion of the UUCP Mapping Project
draft-barber-uucp-project-conclusion-01.txt
Status of this Memo
This document is an Internet-Draft and is NOT offered in accordance
with Section 10 of RFC2026, and the author does not provide the IETF
with any rights other than to publish as an Internet-Draft
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Motivation for This Memo
The UUCP Mapping Project started in the early 1980s as a means to
facilitate the exchange of electronic mail among sites using the UUCP
store-and-forward transport mechanism. This software, originally part
of the UNIX operating system became available on a variety of
operating systems and platforms, from large mainframe to small home
PC's. This was done by creating a single database of systems
connected to each other via UUCP and then using path building
software (such as pathalias) to determine the optimal path from one
system to another. Email addresses using this system incorporated the
use of the path as part of the address.
With the evolution of the Internet into mainstream use, the use of
UUCP for the exchange of electronic mail has been significantly
reduced. Today, UUCP is primarily used to link systems that are not
on the Internet to a nearby system that is connected. By use of mail
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exchange resource records in the domain name system, these off-net
systems can use the now-standard Internet email address format.
Concluding the Project
Due to the fact that the maps are no longer widely used, the
volunteers that make up the project have decided it is time to close
down. The shutdown of the project will take three steps.
The first step will be the freezing of the system database. This
takes place at 0000 GMT on August 1, 2000. After that date, no
further changes to the system database will be accepted.
The second step will be the last postings of the system database to
the newsgroup comp.mail.maps. A penultimate posting will be made
during the month of August. This will contain the final version of
the map database prior to the conclusion of the project. During
September, the final posting will be done. This posting will remove
all listings from the map database except for selected gateways so
that those sites that have no obvious alternative connectivity for
email will continue to work until the end of the 2000.
The final step will be the removal of the newsgroup comp.mail.maps as
a valid newsgroup. This should be done during the month of November,
2000.
IETF Documents that Reference the Project or the Maps
RFC 915 describes a mail path service and specifically references
pathalias and indirectly the maps maintained by the project.
Following the conclusion of the project, the data returned by these
servers will no longer be updated based on data maintained by the
project.
RFC 976 references the UUCP Project. The centralized registration
operation referenced in this memo will be concluded on the time
schedule outlined in this memo.
RFC 1168 describes the database aspect of the project and makes
specific reference to pathalias, EUNET and JUNET.
RFC 1480 make notes that Internet US Domain registration is not
affiliated with the registration of UUCP Map entries. It also
contains an example of a UUCP Map entry as an illustration of an
inappropriate registration for the US Domain.
RFC 1588 makes reference to the UUCP Maps as something that could be
returned by NETFIND.
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RFC 1876 makes reference to the UUCP Maps, though it suggests that
the DNS could be used to contain the location information available
in the maps.
Acknowledgements
A number of individuals have been instrumental in making the UUCP
Project successful. Principle among them are Steve Bellovin and Peter
Honeyman, the creators of pathalias which is the most popular
software available for building paths from the system database. In
RFC 976, Mark R. Horton established the ground rules for the format
of email messages exchanged via UUCP.
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, provided facilities for
the project for many years. Mel Pleasant was the manager of the
project before I succeeded him.
There have been many volunteers who have contributed time (and money,
in some cases) to the project. Here is the list I have been able to
create. I apologize to anyone who may have been left off. It was most
certainly an accident.
Tohru Asami
Jesse Asher
Piet Beertema
Bill Blue
John Bossert
Scott Bradner
Kent Brodie
Malcolm Carlock
Lee Damon
Richard E. Depew
Erik E. Fair
Ken Herron
Haesoon Cho
Dave Davey
Robert Elz
Paul Graham
Ed Hew
Hokey
Nike Horton
C. Bryan Ivey
Jeff Janock
Bob Leffler
K. Richard Magill
Mikel Manitius
Doug McCallum
Mark Moraes
Jim Murray
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Mike O'Connor
Todd Ogasawara
John Owens
Bob Page
Sanjay H. Pathak
John Quarterman
Rob Robertson
Tim Rosmus
Partono Rudiarto
David Schmidt
Larry Snyder
Aris Stathakis
Kris R. Stephens
Gil Tene
Tim Thompson
Jeff Wabik
Peter Wan
Mike Wexler
Rayan Zachariassen
Eric Ziegast
David Paul Zimmerman
Security Considerations
Security considerations are not discussed in this memo.
Author's Address:
Stan Barber
The UUCP Mapping Project
P.O. Box 300481
Houston, Texas 77230-0481
sob@uucp.org
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