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NC(1)                                                       BSD General Commands Manual                                                      NC(1)

NAME
     nc — arbitrary TCP and UDP connections and listens

SYNOPSIS
     nc [-46bCDdFhklNnrStUuvZz] [-I length] [-i interval] [-M ttl] [-m minttl] [-O length] [-P proxy_username] [-p source_port] [-q seconds]
        [-s sourceaddr] [-T keyword] [-V rtable] [-W recvlimit] [-w timeout] [-X proxy_protocol] [-x proxy_address[:port]] [destination] [port]

DESCRIPTION
     The nc (or netcat) utility is used for just about anything under the sun involving TCP, UDP, or UNIX-domain sockets.  It can open TCP connec‐
     tions, send UDP packets, listen on arbitrary TCP and UDP ports, do port scanning, and deal with both IPv4 and IPv6.  Unlike telnet(1), nc
     scripts nicely, and separates error messages onto standard error instead of sending them to standard output, as telnet(1) does with some.

     Common uses include:

           •   simple TCP proxies
           •   shell-script based HTTP clients and servers
           •   network daemon testing
           •   a SOCKS or HTTP ProxyCommand for ssh(1)
           •   and much, much more