UUCP book versions
I’ve written about UUCP a few times and may have mentioned UUCP books but I don’t think I’ve actually explained the differences in what’s out there from O’Reilly. There’s a few different titles with some important differences to be aware of if you’re looking for a particular vintage of software. I learned many sellers use the wrong title/cover photo/edition information when they list these for sale as they are similar, so I’ve included the ISBN information to help tell them apart.
Managing uucp and Usenet
The original book “Managing uucp and Usenet” by Tim O’Reilly and Grace Todino was first printed in 1986 and covered both UUCP and Usenet. It had at least 10 editions spanning 1986-1992. There was even an earlier “nutshell handbook” version, which is available on the Internet Archive. The ISBN for my copy is 0-937175-93-5.
Managing UUCP and Usenet, Tenth edition, 1992
This covered HoneyDanBer UUCP (a/k/a BNU), Verison 2 UUCP, Telebit modems, Netnews. The ninth edition from 1990 is available on Internet Archive as well as the tenth edition from 1992.
Using UUCP and usenet
Grace Todino and Dale Dougherty, first published in 1986. I don’t have this book, I didn’t even know it existed until I was writing this. It appears to be the intermediate between Managing uucp and Usenet and the dedicated Using & Managing uucp. The 1991 version is up on Internet Archive.
Using & Managing uucp
Using & Managing uucp, Second Edition,1996
Ed Ravin, Tim O’Reilly, Dale Dougherty, Grace Todino. ISBN 1-56592-153-4. This book notes it is based on the previous two books I just mentioned above. This one focuses solely on UUCP, all of the Usenet/netnews content has been removed. For me this is my favorite reference as it covers Taylor UUCP, which is the implementation still included in some modern Linux distributions like CentOS and Ubuntu. The second edition is up on the Internet Archive too.
UUCP versions covered in Managing UUCP
Managing Usenet
Henry Spencer and David Lawrence. ISBN 1-56592-198-4. This doesn’t appear to be a direct descendent from the UUCP books, it’s a fresh book on the subject. Published in 1998 it’s a bit later but it covers C News and INN, the latter of which is still bundled with Linux today.
