11/13/2017 8 Practical Linux Netcat NC Command Examples

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8 Practical Linux Netcat NC Command Examples

by Himanshu Arora on April 23, 2012
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Netcat or nc is a networking utility for debugging and investigating the network.

This utility can be used for creating TCP/UDP connections and investigating them. The biggest use of this
utility is in the scripts where we need to deal with TCP/UDP sockets.

In this article we will learn about the netcat command by some practical examples.

1. Netcat in a Server-Client Architecture

The netcat utility can be run in the server mode on a specified port listening for incoming connections.
$ nc -l 2389

Also, it can be used in client mode trying to connect on the port(2389) just opened
$ nc localhost 2389

Now, if we write some text at the client side, it reaches the server side. Here is the proof :
$ nc localhost 2389
HI, server

On the terminal where server is running :

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$ nc -l 2389
HI, server

So we see that netcat utility can be used in the client server socket communication.

2. Use Netcat to Transfer Files

The netcat utility can also be used to transfer files. At the client side, suppose we have a file named testfile
containing :
$ cat testfile
hello test

and at the server side we have an empty file test

Now, we run the server as :

$ nc -l 2389 > test

and run the client as :

cat testfile | nc localhost 2389

Now, when we see the test file at the server end, we see :
$ cat test
hello test

So we see that the file data was transfered from client to server.

3. Netcat Supports Timeouts

There are cases when we do not want a connection to remain open forever. In that case, through -w switch we
can specify the timeout in a connection. So after the seconds specified along with -w flag, the connection
between the client and server is terminated.

Server :
nc -l 2389

Client :

$ nc -w 10 localhost 2389

The connection above would be terminated after 10 seconds.

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NOTE : Do not use the -w flag with -l flag at the server side as in that case -w flag causes no effect and hence
the connection remains open forever.

4. Netcat Supports IPV6 Connectivity

The flag -4 or -6 specifies that netcat utility should use which type of addresses. -4 forces nc to use IPV4
address while -6 forces nc to use IPV6 address.

Server :
$ nc -4 -l 2389

Client :
$ nc -4 localhost 2389

Now, if we run the netstat command, we see :

$ netstat | grep 2389
tcp 0 0 localhost:2389 localhost:50851 ESTABLISHED
tcp 0 0 localhost:50851 localhost:2389 ESTABLISHED

The first field in the above output would contain a postfix 6 in case the IPV6 addresses are being used. Since
in this case it is not, so a connection between server and client is established using IPV4 addresses.

Now, If we force nc to use IPV6 addresses

Server :
$ nc -6 -l 2389

Client :
$ nc -6 localhost 2389

Now, if we run the netstat command, we see :

$ netstat | grep 2389
tcp6 0 0 localhost:2389 localhost:33234 ESTABLISHED
tcp6 0 0 localhost:33234 localhost:2389 ESTABLISHED

So now a postfix 6 with tcp shows that nc is now using IPV6 addresses.

5. Disable Reading from STDIN in Netcat

This functionality can be achieved by using the flag -d. In the following example, we used this flag at the client
side.

Server :

$ nc -l 2389

Client :

$ nc -d localhost 2389
Hi

The text Hi will not be sent to the server end as using -d option the read from stdin has been disabled.

6. Force Netcat Server to Stay Up

If the netcat client is connected to the server and then after sometime the client is disconnected then normally
netcat server also terminates.
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Server :

$ nc -l 2389

Client :

$ nc localhost 2389
^C

Server :

$ nc -l 2389
$

So, in the above example we see that as soon as the client got disconnected the server was also terminated.

This behavior can be controlled by using the -k flag at the server side to force the server to stay up even after
the client has disconnected.

Server :

$ nc -k -l 2389

Client :

$ nc localhost 2389
^C

Server :

$ nc -k -l 2389

So we see that by using the -k option the server remains up even if the client got disconnected.

7. Configure Netcat Client to Stay Up after EOF

Netcat client can be configured to stay up after EOF is received. In a normal scenario, if the nc client receives
an EOF character then it terminates immediately but this behavior can also be controlled if the -q flag is used.
This flag expects a number which depicts number of seconds to wait before client terminates (after receiving
EOF)

Client should be started like :

nc -q 5 localhost 2389

Now if the client ever receives an EOF then it will wait for 5 seconds before terminating.

8. Use Netcat with UDP Protocol

By default all the sockets that nc utility creates are TCP protocols but this utility also works with UDP protocol.
To enable UDP protocol the -u flag is used.

Server :
$ nc -4 -u -l 2389

Client :

$ nc -4 -u localhost 2389

Now, both the server and client are configured to use UDP protocol. This can be confirmed by the following
netstat command. So we see that this connection is now using the UDP protocol.

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$ netstat | grep 2389
udp 0 0 localhost:42634 localhost:2389 ESTABLISHED

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{ 18 comments add one }

Pierre B. April 23, 2012, 1:32 am

Thanks for this overview. I just encountered an nc snippet in a script i have to debug, and as i never
used it myself i guess this page will help me with this task.

Thank you Himanshu

Link
Himanshu April 23, 2012, 2:34 am

@Pierre B
Thanks!!

Link
Saurabh April 23, 2012, 3:31 am

Nice post. Thanks

Link
rinku April 23, 2012, 4:26 am

Great .

Link
Shaheem April 23, 2012, 2:11 pm

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Always great articles on this site. Is there any way to use netcat for multicasting udp or is there a different
util for that? And for either answer if there is, will you be covering examples of it please?

Link
shark April 24, 2012, 6:15 am

A good introductory article.

Link
Mohan April 24, 2012, 12:45 pm

Thanks, its very useful for me.

Link
Anonymous April 26, 2012, 10:39 am

Typo in section 3:
NOTE : Do not use the -w flag with -l flag at the server side as in that case -w flag causes no AFFECT
and hence the connection remains open forever.

should read
NOTE : Do not use the -w flag with -l flag at the server side as in that case -w flag causes no EFFECT
and hence the connection remains open forever.

Otherwise, very pleasant read and well structured post. Thx

Link
Ramesh Natarajan April 26, 2012, 11:42 pm

@Anonymous,

Thanks for pointing it out. It is fixed.

Link
Tanky Woo January 13, 2013, 8:04 am

Hello, in the first one : Netcat in a Server-Client Architecture

nc -l a_port doesnt listen a_port. You should use nc -l -p a_port

Link
SomeGuy March 13, 2013, 7:10 pm

Tanky Woo: There are at least two different versions of netcat around (traditional and openbsd, both
available in Ubuntu etc). The traditional one requires -p to specify the port, while its optional in the
openbsd version. At some point, some version (some older openbsd version?) complained if you used -p.

Link
James May 22, 2013, 6:25 am

Hi guys,
Im trying to understand NC a little better and this is a great tutorial! Im trying to redirect a com port via
udp, but starting out, Im just testing a server that stays alive.

The following works fine, but if I disconnect the client, The server stays live, but when I reconnect again,
no data is passed and the client drops back to the shell after attempting to transmit. Any thoughts?

Sever:
nc -k -l -4 -u 2221

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Client
nc -4 -u localhost 2221

Link
unggul August 11, 2013, 4:13 am

wow great post !

Hello im new in linux programming..im trying to send streaming packet data from my raspberry pi.
My packet data is stored on /home/pi/file , then i want to send that data to my android phone..

here is my code

cat /home/pi/file | awk -F\t END{print} | nc -l 8080

is that right ?

because on my android phone when receive the packet data is success,but sometimes jammed .
Thanks for advance !

Link
Joe Antkowiak December 29, 2014, 4:43 pm

UDP doesnt work the way you have it defined here, there is no such thing as a UDP connection

UDP is connection-less and only listens for data packets on a given port, and NC behaves quite
differently with UDP than it does with TCP because of this.

Your output showing a UDP Connection appears to be fabricated. Netstat will never show you an
established state for anything UDP because there are no connections to establish. It wont even show
you client addresses because there are no connections, just packets coming in on a given port from any
source.

Link
Marius Constantinescu September 25, 2015, 7:53 am

very good article.

thank you!

Link
Brock Judd April 13, 2016, 9:48 pm

Thanks for a very useful page and examples.

Link
PK April 5, 2017, 6:12 am

Thanks for these simple clear examples

Link
Pankaj Kumar Saini May 6, 2017, 8:13 am

Thanks Sir. Very nice article. But I had a problem:

When I used IP6 to connect to Server my client or Client side terminal returned me an ERROR:
nc: getaddrinfo: Name or service not known

I googled the problem but could not found satisfactory answers. It will be very helpful if you can reply
the solution. Thanks very much.

Link

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