ctftp

# ctftp A lightweight, multi-threaded TFTP server focused on **auto-provisioning** (e.g. Cisco IP phones), with strong logging and event streaming. [⬇️ Download static Linux binary](https://github.com/seifzadeh/ctftp/releases/download/0.0.1/ctftp-static-linux) · [💻 Source code on GitHub](https://github.com/seifzadeh/ctftp)

1. Super Quick Start (Linux, static binary)

If you just want to run it now on Linux, follow these steps.

Step 1 — Download the static binary

cd /opt
sudo mkdir -p /opt/ctftp
cd /opt/ctftp

# Download static Linux binary
sudo curl -L -o ctftp-static-linux \
  https://github.com/seifzadeh/ctftp/releases/download/0.0.1/ctftp-static-linux

# Make it executable
sudo chmod +x ctftp-static-linux

Step 2 — Create directories

# Root directory for TFTP files
sudo mkdir -p /srv/tftp

# Log directory for ctftp
sudo mkdir -p /var/log/ctftp

# Optional: dedicated user (recommended)
sudo useradd -r -s /usr/sbin/nologin ctftp || true
sudo chown -R ctftp:ctftp /srv/tftp /var/log/ctftp /opt/ctftp

Step 3 — Basic configuration file

Create /opt/ctftp/ctftp.conf:

# Root directory for TFTP files
root_dir=/srv/tftp

# Log directory (central log file)
log_dir=/var/log/ctftp

# One or more listeners (comma-separated)
# Standard TFTP port 69 on all interfaces
listeners=0.0.0.0:69

# Optional UDP event target (host:port)
event_udp=

# Optional HTTP event URL (plain HTTP)
event_http_url=

# Timeout and retries
timeout_sec=3
max_retries=5

# Log level: error, info, debug
log_level=info

Place one test file in /srv/tftp, for example:

echo "hello from ctftp" | sudo tee /srv/tftp/test.txt
sudo chown ctftp:ctftp /srv/tftp/test.txt

Step 4 — Run ctftp manually (for a quick test)

cd /opt/ctftp
sudo -u ctftp ./ctftp-static-linux ./ctftp.conf

Now, from another machine (or the same one), you can test with any TFTP client, for example:

tftp <server-ip> 69
tftp> get test.txt

If everything is correct, you should receive test.txt from /srv/tftp.

2. Run ctftp as a systemd service

To run ctftp as a background service on a systemd-based Linux distribution:

Step 1 — Create systemd unit file

Create /etc/systemd/system/ctftp.service with:

[Unit]
Description=ctftp - Multi-threaded TFTP server
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=ctftp
Group=ctftp
WorkingDirectory=/opt/ctftp
ExecStart=/opt/ctftp/ctftp-static-linux /opt/ctftp/ctftp.conf
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Make sure the paths match your actual installation (/opt/ctftp, config file path, and binary name).

Step 2 — Reload systemd and enable service

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable ctftp
sudo systemctl start ctftp
sudo systemctl status ctftp

If everything goes well, ctftp should be running in the background and listening on the configured port(s).

3. Checking logs

Central log

The main log file is written under log_dir (from your config), usually:

sudo tail -f /var/log/ctftp/ctftp.log

Example log lines:

[2025-12-02T10:15:42] [INFO] ctftp starting with config: /opt/ctftp/ctftp.conf
[2025-12-02T10:15:42] [INFO] Starting listener on 0.0.0.0:69
[2025-12-02T10:16:01] [INFO] RRQ from 192.168.10.50:40000 file="test.txt" mode="octet"
[2025-12-02T10:16:02] [INFO] EVENT type=0 client=192.168.10.50:40000 file="test.txt" bytes=16 status=ok msg=transfer_complete

Per-file logs

For each requested file, ctftp appends a line to a sidecar log file in root_dir with the same name plus .log:

/srv/tftp/test.txt
/srv/tftp/test.txt.log

View it with:

sudo cat /srv/tftp/test.txt.log

Example content:

2025-12-02T10:16:01;2025-12-02T10:16:02;192.168.10.50;40000;16;ok;transfer_complete

This makes it easy to audit which clients have downloaded which files and when.

4. Basic Configuration Overview

ctftp uses a simple key/value configuration file (usually ctftp.conf).

Common options:

For more detailed documentation, see the main project README in the repository.

5. Source Code & Contributions

If you find ctftp useful:

Thanks for using ctftp!

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