tftp(1) — Linux man page
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
Connect with IPv4 only, even if IPv6 support was compiled in.
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
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: ? command-name. help command-name. Print help information ascii
Shorthand for mode ascii.
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 connect command 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) or binary (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 . It was derived from, but has substantially diverged from, an OpenBSD source base, with added patches by Markus Gutschke and Gero Kulhman.
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¶
-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:
? 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 connect command 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 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) or binary (or octet.) The default is ascii. put file
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 . It was derived from, but has substantially diverged from, an OpenBSD source base, with added patches by Markus Gutschke and Gero Kulhman.
SEE ALSO¶
Put file with tftp client in Linux
I am going to put a new ROM file on a network attached instrument and I need to use tftp. Does anyone know how to do this? I am going to upload two different files and they will go into separate folders.
2 Answers 2
It is probably best to use the TFTP server (or «service» in MS parlance) that is «native» to the operating system distribution on which you wish to run the TFTP server.
If you are using Ubuntu, try this article by David Sudjiman.
If you are using Debian, try this Nixcraft article.
If you are using CentOS, RHEL or Fedora try this blog post.
If you are using MS Windows, try TFTPD32. This isn’t a «native» server in the sense of being in the Windows distribution, but it is a commonly used TFTP server.
If the device that you are attaching to the network is itself a TFTP server and you need to upload a file to that server using a TFTP client, then you need to find out
You might also need the port number on which the devices TFPT server is listening if it is not the TFTP well-known (standard) port, port 69.
If the device configures itself using DHCP from a server on your network then you can look at the DHCP service log files to see what its IP address is. Another possibility is that the device configures an ad-hoc IP network. So you need to have some documentation about the device to know how it configures itself.
Most of the above mentioned TFTP server packages also install TFTP clients. If you don’t want to install the servers then some distribution have stand-alone TFPT clients, but they are usually not installed as part of the standard installation so you will have to install them manually.
Once you know the IP address of the device and the name of the file that it is expecting to receive, you should be able to upload the file to the device by using a command like
tftp 192.168.1.1 -c put myfile theirfile Since the tftp default transfer mode is ASCII and you are uploading a ROM, the command should probably be
tftp 192.168.1.1 -m binary -c put myfile theirfile Where «myfile» is the name of the file you wish to upload and «theirfile» is the name that the file should have on the device. You might also want to use the «-v» command parameter so that if something goes wrong you can see what it was:
tftp -v 192.168.1.1 -c put myfile theirfile If the server is running on another port, say 8069, then the command syntax would be
tftp -v 192.168.1.1 8069 -c put myfile theirfile If the local file already has the correct name, then the command is simply
tftp -v 192.168.1.1 -c put myfile