File: inetutils.info,  Node: tftp invocation,  Next: inetd invocation,  Prev: telnet invocation,  Up: Top

18 'tftp': TFTP client
**********************

'tftp' is the user interface to the Internet TFTP, Trivial File Transfer
Protocol, which allows users to transfer files to and from a remote
machine.  The remote host may be specified on the command line, in which
case 'tftp' uses host as the default host for future transfers.

Synopsis:

     tftp [OPTION]... HOST

18.1 Commands
=============

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

'? COMMAND-NAME'
     Print help information.

'ascii'
     Shorthand for 'mode ascii'

'binary'
     Shorthand for 'mode binary'

'connect HOST-NAME [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-NAME'
'get REMOTENAME LOCALNAME'
'get FILE...'
     Get a file, or a set of files, from the specified sources.  The
     source can be in one of two forms: a file name 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 file name at the same
     time.  If the latter form is used, the last hostname specified
     becomes the default for future transfers.  When specifying a
     numeric IPv6 address as host part, then this address must be
     enclosed between square brackets, since it contains colons and
     would interfere with the delimiter before the file name.  Brackets
     are optional for IPv4 addresses.

          tftp> get [2001:1234::12]:issue

'mode TRANSFER-MODE'
     Set the mode for transfers; TRANSFER-MODE may be one of 'ascii' or
     'binary'.  The default is 'ascii'.

'put FILE'
'put LOCALFILE REMOTEFILE'
'put FILE... 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 machine.  The same use of square brackets for enclosing
     numeric IPv6 addresses applies here, as was mentioned for the
     command 'get'.

'quit'
     Exit 'tftp'.  An end of file also exits.

'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.

'verbose'
     Toggle verbose mode.

   Because there is no user-login or validation within the 'tftp'
protocol, the remote site will probably have some sort of file-access
restrictions in place.  The exact methods are specific to each site and
therefore difficult to document here.