tftp

About tftp

TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol) - main usage is booting of OS for disk-less network devices or workstations.

But, this protocol is used to load a binary file of firmware to embedded devices very often too.

For example: tftp is used to initial flash of OpenWrt firmware to some models of routers.

TFTP based on UDP protocol and uses port 69.

Install of tftp server

Arch Linux is used on my PC, but there are no significant differences for installing and configuring of the tftp server on other Linux OS

There are some implementations of tftp server. tftp-hpa application is lightweight and quite simple for configuring.

Install

pacman -S tftp-hpa

Configure

To modify service parameters edit /etc/conf.d/tftpd. Configuration file has a simple KEY=VALUE format.

Example of configuration file

# /etc/conf.d/tftpd

TFTP_USERNAME="tftp"
TFTP_DIRECTORY="--secure /srv/tftp/"
TFTP_ADDRESS=":69"
TFTP_OPTIONS="--secure"

Use option –create to allow new files to be created. By default, tftpd will only allow upload of files that already exist.

TFTP_OPTIONS="--secure --create"

There is possibility to set all parameters using one row

TFTPD_ARGS="--secure /srv/tftp/"

More information about parameters for tftp-hpa service here

Start service

sudo systemctl start tftpd

Testing

You can create a file in the tftp server directory and download it using any tftp client.

cd /srv/tftp/
sudo echo "TEST!!!" > test.test

cd ~
tftp 192.168.1.1 -c get test.txt

here 192.168.1.1 - ip of tftp server