UUCP CALLBACK feature failing

[Rob Bernardo]

[I've posted this to comp.mail.uucp and gotten absolutely no response. Maybe
someone in this group can help.]

I'm running SUN OS 4.1 with HoneyDanBer uucp and I'm having trouble
with the CALLBACK feature.

There is a system I have properly noted in my Permissions file as
subject to CALLBACK.  What happens when that remote system logs in for
uucp is that the call is terminated with a callback required status and
outgoing uucico is then initiated back to the remote system.

Now I only have one modem on my system, and a good deal of the time, the
remote system's incoming call has not yet disconnected before the
outgoing uucico tries to dial out.  Consequently the outgoing uucico
fails in the way it should under the circumstances.  However, the uucp
system then has no way of knowing that the call back is still needed; no
further outgoing uucico to the remote system is attempted again (until
some other event might coincidentally instigate it).

Is there a different way that I can set up callback to get around this
problem?

It seems to me that there is a misfeature here.  If uucp dials out in
response to a callback situation, and if it fails for any number of
legitimate reasons, it keeps no record that the call back is needed.  It
seems to me that instead of merely starting an outgoing call, uucp
should create a dummy uucp job for the remote system (such as a poll),
so that the remote system is called repeatedly until the call succeeds
just as it would for any other pending uucp job.
-- 
Rob Bernardo, Mt. Diablo Software Solutions
email: rob at mtdiablo.Concord.CA.US
phone: (415) 827-4301