---
name: "bootpc"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "bootpc"
version: "0.64-10"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/bootpc"
---

# bootpc(8)

bootp client

## NAME

bootpc - bootp client

## SYNOPSIS

**bootpc** \[**--bootfile** *file*\] \[**--dev** *device*\] \[**--verbose**\] \[**--debug**\] \[**--server** *addr*\] \[**--hwaddr** *addr*\] \[**--returniffail**\] \[**--waitformore** *length*\] \[**--in2host** *addr*\] \[**--serverbcast**\] \[**--help**\]

## DESCRIPTION

This manual page documents briefly the **bootpc** command. This manual page was written for the **Debian GNU/Linux** distribution (but may be used by others), because the original program does not have a manual page.

**bootpc** is a boot protocol client used to grab the machine's IP address, set up DNS nameservers and other useful information.

## OPTIONS

- **--bootfile** *file*

  Tell the server to use *file* as the boot file.

- **--dev** *device*

  Use *device* to communicate with the server.

- **--verbose**

  Be verbose.

- **--debug**

  Produce debugging output.

- **--server** *addr*

  Use the IP address *addr* to communicate with the server.

- **--hwaddr** *addr*

  Use *addr* as our hardware address rather than what the operating system gives us.

- **--returniffail**

  Terminate the program if a failure occurs.  By default **bootpc** will ask the user to press a key if the request did not succeed.

- **--waitformore** *length*

  Wait for more responses when one is received. **bootpc** will wait for at most *length* seconds.  This is probably only useful for debugging.

- **--in2host** *addr*

  Takes an address and returns useful bits of the name after lookup, this was a separate program, but it is more compact to have both together.

- **--serverbcast**

  Tell the server to send back a broadcast reply.  This is necessary on **Linux** 2.1 and 2.2.

- **--help**

  Display the usage of **bootpc**.

## AUTHOR

This manual page was written by Herbert Xu \<herbert@debian.org\>, for the **Debian GNU/Linux** system (but may be used by others).