Tested on Linux Mint 17 (Ubuntu 14.04 based)

Netcat – The TCP/IP Swiss Army Knife – is a versatile utility for writing and reading data through TCP and UDP connections.

Sending a text file through netcat (Serving the file for a client)

Server machine serving the file:

nc -v -l -q 0 -p 11055 < file.txt

Arguments: -v (verbose), -l (listening/server mode), -q 0 (quit 0 secs after Stdin sees end of file), -p (port number) 11055.

You can also use pipes to feed the file contents to netcat:

cat file.txt | nc -v -l -p 11055

And you can monitor progress and speed using the pipe viewer utility pv:

cat file.txt | pv | nc -v -l -p 11055

Client machine receiving the file:

nc 127.0.0.1 11055 > file_received.txt

Arguments: 127.0.0.1 (desired server IP address), 11055 (server port to connect to).

Remember the sender of the file must quit after done, otherwise the link remains up.

Sending a text file through netcat (client sends file to server)

Server machine receiving the file:

nc -v -l -p 11055 > file_received.txt

Client maching sending the file:

nc -q 0 127.0.0.1 11055 < file.txt

Or (using pipes) and pipe viewer:

cat file.txt | pv | nc 127.0.0.1 11055

Remember since now the client is the sender – the one sending the file – it is the responsibility of the client to end the connection (see -q 0 argument)

Tar + Netcat: Copying multiple files (Serving the file for a client)

Server machine serving the file

tar cz directory_name | nc -v -l -q 0 -p 11055

Arguments: tar (compress using tar utility), c (create archive), z (compress using gzip)

Client machine receiving the file

nc 127.0.0.1 11055 | tar xz

Arguments: x (extract), z (using gzip)

Tar + Netcat: Copying multiple files (client sends file to server)

Server machine receiving and uncompressing the files

nc -v -l -p 11055 | tar xz

Client machine sending the file

tar cz directory_name | nc -q 0 127.0.0.1 11055

Remember you can send the file from the client to the server or vice-versa, the only reason for one or the other is if one of the machines is behind a firewall.



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