Name

tcpcat — gets data from a remote host.

Synopsis

tcpcat [host [port] ]

Description

tcpcat uses tcpclient(1) to connect to TCP port port on host, and prints any data that it receives. It can be used to transfer binary data. It does no conversions; and sends no data to the server.

Its default use is to enable UNIX tools to obtain data from a network QOTD server. If port is not supplied, the default is 17. If host is not supplied, the default is the local host.

See also

mconnect(1)

a bidirectional client for line-by-line servers

History

tcpcat was originally part of Daniel J. Bernstein's ucspi-tcp toolset in 1999.

Author

Original code and documentation by Daniel J. Bernstein. Documentation modernizations by Jonathan de Boyne Pollard.