Provided by: mosquitto-clients_1.6.9-1_amd64 
NAME
mosquitto_pub - an MQTT version 5/3.1.1/3.1 client for publishing simple messages
SYNOPSIS
mosquitto_pub {[-h hostname] [-p port-number] [-u username] [-P password] -t message-topic... | -L URL}
[-A bind-address] [-c] [-d] [-D command identifier value] [-i client-id]
[-I client-id-prefix] [-k keepalive-time] [-q message-QoS] [--quiet] [-r] [--repeat count]
[--repeat-delay seconds] [-S] {-f file | -l | -m message | -n | -s}
[--will-topic topic [--will-payload payload] [--will-qos qos] [--will-retain]]
[[{--cafile file | --capath dir} [--cert file] [--key file] [--ciphers ciphers] [--tls-version version] [--tls-alpn protocol] [--tls-engine engine] [--keyform {pem | engine}] [--tls-engine-kpass-sha1 kpass-sha1] [--insecure]]
| [--psk hex-key --psk-identity identity [--ciphers ciphers] [--tls-version version]]]
[--proxy socks-url] [-V protocol-version]
mosquitto_pub [--help]
DESCRIPTION
mosquitto_pub is a simple MQTT version 5/3.1.1 client that will publish a single message on a topic and
exit.
ENCRYPTED CONNECTIONS
mosquitto_pub supports TLS encrypted connections. It is strongly recommended that you use an encrypted
connection for anything more than the most basic setup.
To enable TLS connections when using x509 certificates, one of either --cafile or --capath must be
provided as an option.
To enable TLS connections when using TLS-PSK, you must use the --psk and the --psk-identity options.
OPTIONS
The options below may be given on the command line, but may also be placed in a config file located at
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mosquitto_pub or $HOME/.config/mosquitto_pub with one pair of -option value per line.
The values in the config file will be used as defaults and can be overridden by using the command line.
The exceptions to this are the message type options, of which only one can be specified. Note also that
currently some options cannot be negated, e.g. -S. Config file lines that have a # as the first
character are treated as comments and not processed any further.
-A
Bind the outgoing connection to a local ip address/hostname. Use this argument if you need to
restrict network communication to a particular interface.
-c, --disable-clean-session
Disable the 'clean session' flag. This means that all of the subscriptions for the client will be
maintained after it disconnects, along with subsequent QoS 1 and QoS 2 messages that arrive. When the
client reconnects, it will receive all of the queued messages.
If using this option, the client id must be set manually with --id
--cafile
Define the path to a file containing PEM encoded CA certificates that are trusted. Used to enable SSL
communication.
See also --capath
--capath
Define the path to a directory containing PEM encoded CA certificates that are trusted. Used to
enable SSL communication.
For --capath to work correctly, the certificate files must have ".crt" as the file ending and you
must run "openssl rehash <path to capath>" each time you add/remove a certificate.
See also --cafile
--cert
Define the path to a file containing a PEM encoded certificate for this client, if required by the
server.
See also --key.
--ciphers
An openssl compatible list of TLS ciphers to support in the client. See ciphers(1) for more
information.
-d, --debug
Enable debug messages.
-D, --property
Use an MQTT v5 property with this publish. If you use this option, the client will be set to be an
MQTT v5 client. This option has two forms:
-D command identifier value
-D command identifier name value
command is the MQTT command/packet identifier and can be one of CONNECT, PUBLISH, PUBREL, DISCONNECT,
AUTH, or WILL. The properties available for each command are listed in the Properties section.
identifier is the name of the property to add. This is as described in the specification, but with
'-' as a word separator. For example: payload-format-indicator. More details are in the Properties
section.
value is the value of the property to add, with a data type that is property specific.
name is only used for the user-property property as the first of the two strings in the string pair.
In that case, value is the second of the strings in the pair.
-f, --file
Send the contents of a file as the message.
--help
Display usage information.
-h, --host
Specify the host to connect to. Defaults to localhost.
-i, --id
The id to use for this client. If not given, a client id will be generated depending on the MQTT
version being used. For v3.1.1/v3.1, the client generates a client id in the format
mosq-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, where the X are replaced with random alphanumeric characters. For v5.0, the
client sends a zero length client id, and the server will generate a client id for the client.
This option cannot be used at the same time as the --id-prefix argument.
-I, --id-prefix
Provide a prefix that the client id will be built from by appending the process id of the client.
This is useful where the broker is using the clientid_prefixes option. Cannot be used at the same
time as the --id argument.
--insecure
When using certificate based encryption, this option disables verification of the server hostname in
the server certificate. This can be useful when testing initial server configurations but makes it
possible for a malicious third party to impersonate your server through DNS spoofing, for example.
Use this option in testing only. If you need to resort to using this option in a production
environment, your setup is at fault and there is no point using encryption.
-k, --keepalive
The number of seconds between sending PING commands to the broker for the purposes of informing it we
are still connected and functioning. Defaults to 60 seconds.
--key
Define the path to a file containing a PEM encoded private key for this client, if required by the
server.
See also --cert.
--keyform
Specifies the type of private key in use when making TLS connections.. This can be "pem" or "engine".
This parameter is useful when a TPM module is being used and the private key has been created with
it. Defaults to "pem", which means normal private key files are used.
See also --tls-engine.
-L, --url
Specify specify user, password, hostname, port and topic at once as a URL. The URL must be in the
form: mqtt(s)://[username[:password]@]host[:port]/topic
If the scheme is mqtt:// then the port defaults to 1883. If the scheme is mqtts:// then the port
defaults to 8883.
-l, --stdin-line
Send messages read from stdin, splitting separate lines into separate messages.
-m, --message
Send a single message from the command line.
-n, --null-message
Send a null (zero length) message.
-p, --port
Connect to the port specified. If not given, the default of 1883 for plain MQTT or 8883 for MQTT over
TLS will be used.
-P, --pw
Provide a password to be used for authenticating with the broker. Using this argument without also
specifying a username is invalid when using MQTT v3.1 or v3.1.1. See also the --username option.
--proxy
Specify a SOCKS5 proxy to connect through. "None" and "username" authentication types are supported.
The socks-url must be of the form socks5h://[username[:password]@]host[:port]. The protocol prefix
socks5h means that hostnames are resolved by the proxy. The symbols %25, %3A and %40 are URL decoded
into %, : and @ respectively, if present in the username or password.
If username is not given, then no authentication is attempted. If the port is not given, then the
default of 1080 is used.
More SOCKS versions may be available in the future, depending on demand, and will use different
protocol prefixes as described in curl(1).
--psk
Provide the hexadecimal (no leading 0x) pre-shared-key matching the one used on the broker to use
TLS-PSK encryption support. --psk-identity must also be provided to enable TLS-PSK.
--psk-identity
The client identity to use with TLS-PSK support. This may be used instead of a username if the broker
is configured to do so.
-q, --qos
Specify the quality of service to use for the message, from 0, 1 and 2. Defaults to 0.
--quiet
If this argument is given, no runtime errors will be printed. This excludes any error messages given
in case of invalid user input (e.g. using --port without a port).
-r, --retain
If retain is given, the message will be retained as a "last known good" value on the broker. See
mqtt(7) for more information.
--repeat
If the publish mode is-m, -f, or -s (i.e. the modes where only a single message is sent), then
--repeat can be used to specify that the message will be published multiple times.
See also --repeat-delay.
--repeat-delay
If using --repeat, then the default behaviour is to publish repeated messages as soon as the previous
message is delivered. Use --repeat-delay to specify the number of seconds to wait after the previous
message was delivered before publishing the next. Does not need to be an integer number of seconds.
Note that there is no guarantee as to the actual interval between messages, this option simply
defines the minimum time from delivery of one message to the start of the publish of the next.
-s, --stdin-file
Send a message read from stdin, sending the entire content as a single message.
-S
Use SRV lookups to determine which host to connect to. Performs lookups to _mqtt._tcp.<host> when
used in conjunction with -h, otherwise uses _mqtt._tcp.<local dns domain>.
-t, --topic
The MQTT topic on which to publish the message. See mqtt(7) for more information on MQTT topics.
--tls-alpn
Provide a protocol to use when connecting to a broker that has multiple protocols available on a
single port, e.g. MQTT and WebSockets.
--tls-engine
A valid openssl engine id. These can be listed with openssl engine command.
See also --keyform.
--tls-engine-kpass-sha1
SHA1 of the private key password when using an TLS engine. Some TLS engines such as the TPM engine
may require the use of a password in order to be accessed. This option allows a hex encoded SHA1 hash
of the password to the engine directly, instead of the user being prompted for the password.
See also --tls-engine.
--tls-version
Choose which TLS protocol version to use when communicating with the broker. Valid options are
tlsv1.3, tlsv1.2 and tlsv1.1. The default value is tlsv1.2. Must match the protocol version used by
the broker.
-u, --username
Provide a username to be used for authenticating with the broker. See also the --pw argument.
-V, --protocol-version
Specify which version of the MQTT protocol should be used when connecting to the rmeote broker. Can
be 5, 311, 31, or the more verbose mqttv5, mqttv311, or mqttv31. Defaults to 311.
--will-payload
Specify a message that will be stored by the broker and sent out if this client disconnects
unexpectedly. This must be used in conjunction with --will-topic.
--will-qos
The QoS to use for the Will. Defaults to 0. This must be used in conjunction with --will-topic.
--will-retain
If given, if the client disconnects unexpectedly the message sent out will be treated as a retained
message. This must be used in conjunction with --will-topic.
--will-topic
The topic on which to send a Will, in the event that the client disconnects unexpectedly.
WILLS
mosquitto_sub can register a message with the broker that will be sent out if it disconnects
unexpectedly. See mqtt(7) for more information.
The minimum requirement for this is to use --will-topic to specify which topic the will should be sent
out on. This will result in a non-retained, zero length message with QoS 0.
Use the --will-retain, --will-payload and --will-qos arguments to modify the other will parameters.
PROPERTIES
The -D / --property option allows adding properties to different stages of the mosquitto_pub run. The
properties supported for each command are as follows:
Connect
• authentication-data (binary data - note treated as a string in mosquitto_pub)
• authentication-method (UTF-8 string pair)
• maximum-packet-size (32-bit unsigned integer)
• receive-maximum (16-bit unsigned integer)
• request-problem-information (8-bit unsigned integer)
• request-response-information (8-bit unsigned integer)
• session-expiry-interval (32-bit unsigned integer)
• topic-alias-maximum (16-bit unsigned integer)
• user-property (UTF-8 string pair)
Publish
• content-type (UTF-8 string)
• correlation-data (binary data - note treated as a string in mosquitto_pub)
• message-expiry-interval (32-bit unsigned integer)
• payload-format-indicator (8-bit unsigned integer)
• response-topic (UTF-8 string)
• topic-alias (16-bit unsigned integer)
• user-property (UTF-8 string pair)
Disconnect
• session-expiry-interval (32-bit unsigned integer)
• user-property (UTF-8 string pair)
Will properties
• content-type (UTF-8 string)
• correlation-data (binary data - note treated as a string in mosquitto_pub)
• message-expiry-interval (32-bit unsigned integer)
• payload-format-indicator (8-bit unsigned integer)
• response-topic (UTF-8 string)
• user-property (UTF-8 string pair)
• will-delay-interval (32-bit unsigned integer)
EXAMPLES
Publish temperature information to localhost with QoS 1:
• mosquitto_pub -t sensors/temperature -m 32 -q 1
Publish timestamp and temperature information to a remote host on a non-standard port and QoS 0:
• mosquitto_pub -h 192.168.1.1 -p 1885 -t sensors/temperature -m "1266193804 32"
Publish light switch status. Message is set to retained because there may be a long period of time
between light switch events:
• mosquitto_pub -r -t switches/kitchen_lights/status -m "on"
Send the contents of a file in two ways:
• mosquitto_pub -t my/topic -f ./data
• mosquitto_pub -t my/topic -s < ./data
Send parsed electricity usage data from a Current Cost meter, reading from stdin with one line/reading as
one message:
• read_cc128.pl | mosquitto_pub -t sensors/cc128 -l
FILES
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mosquitto_pub, $HOME/.config/mosquitto_pub
Configuration file for default options.
BUGS
mosquitto bug information can be found at https://github.com/eclipse/mosquitto/issues
SEE ALSO
mqtt(7), mosquitto_rr(1), mosquitto_sub(1), mosquitto(8), libmosquitto(3), mosquitto-tls(7)
AUTHOR
Roger Light <roger@atchoo.org>