NAME

tftp - Trivial File Transfer Protocol client

SYNOPSIS

tftp [ options... ] [host [port]] [-c command]

DESCRIPTION

tftp is a client for the Trivial file Transfer Protocol, which can be used to transfer files to and from remote machines, including some very minimalistic, usually embedded, systems. The remote host may be specified on the command line, in which case tftp uses host as the default host for future transfers (see the connect command below.)

OPTIONS

Tag	Description
-4	Connect with IPv4 only, even if IPv6 support was compiled in.
-6	Connect with IPv6 only, if compiled in.
-c command
	Execute command as if it had been entered on the tftp prompt. Must be specified last on the command line.
-l	Default to literal mode. Used to avoid special processing of ’:’ in a file name.
-m mode	Set the default transfer mode to mode. This is usually used with -c.
-R port:port
	Force the originating port number to be in the specified range of port numbers.
-v	Default to verbose mode.
-V	Print the version number and configuration to standard output, then exit gracefully.

COMMANDS

Once tftp is running, it issues the prompt tftp> and recognizes the following commands:

Tag	Description
? command-name...  help command-name...
	Print help information
ascii	Shorthand for mode ascii.
binary	Shorthand for mode binary.
connect host [port]
	Set the host (and optionally port) for transfers. Note that the TFTP protocol, unlike the FTP protocol, does not maintain connections between transfers; thus, the connectcommand does not actually create a connection, but merely remembers what host is to be used for transfers. You do not have to use the connect command; the remote host can be specified as part of the get or put commands.
get file
get remotefile localfile
get file1 file2 file3...
	Get a file or set of files from the specified sources. A remote filename can be in one of two forms: a plain filename on the remote host, if the host has already been specified, or a string of the form host:filename to specify both a host and filename at the same time. If the latter form is used, the last hostname specified becomes the default for future transfers. Enable literal mode to prevent special treatment of the ’:’ character (e.g. C:\dir\file).
literal
	Toggle literal mode. When set, this mode prevents special treatment of ’:’ in filenames.
mode transfer-mode
	Specify the mode for transfers; transfer-mode may be one of ascii (or netascii) orbinary (or octet.) The default is ascii.
put file
put localfile remotefile
put file1 file2 file3... remote-directory
	Put a file or set of files to the specified remote file or directory. The destination can be in one of two forms: a filename on the remote host, if the host has already been specified, or a string of the form host:filename to specify both a host and filename at the same time. If the latter form is used, the hostname specified becomes the default for future transfers. If the remote-directory form is used, the remote host is assumed to be a UNIX system or another system using / as directory separator. Enable literal mode to prevent special treatment of the ’:’ character (e.g. C:\dir\file).
quit	Exit tftp. End-of-file will also exit.
rexmt retransmission-timeout
	Set the per-packet retransmission timeout, in seconds.
status	Show current status.
timeout total-transmission-timeout
	Set the total transmission timeout, in seconds.
trace	Toggle packet tracing (a debugging feature.)
verbose
	Toggle verbose mode.

NOTES

The TFTP protocol provides no provisions for authentication or security. Therefore, the remote server will probably implement some kinds of access restriction or firewalling. These access restrictions are likely to be site- and server-specific.

AUTHOR

This version of tftp is maintained by H. Peter Anvin <hpa@zytor.com>. It was derived from, but has substantially diverged from, an OpenBSD source base, with added patches by Markus Gutschke and Gero Kulhman.

SEE ALSO

• tftpd (8)