tftp

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 (see the connect command below).

Once tftp is running, it issues the prompt "tftp> " 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 betwen 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 filename

 

get remotename localname

 

get file1 file2 ... fileN

Get a file or set of files from the specified sources. Source 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 hosts: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.

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 file1 file2 ... fileN 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 hosts: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.

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.

The tftp command appeared in 4.3BSD.