telnet(1)

telnet1

User interface to telnet

Usage

telnet [OPTION ...] [HOST [PORT]]

Overview

Login to remote system HOST (optionally, on service port PORT)

General options:

-4, --ipv4

use only IPv4

-6, --ipv6

use only IPv6

-8, --binary

use an 8-bit data transmission

-a, --login

attempt automatic login

-b, --bind=ADDRESS

bind to specific local ADDRESS

-c, --no-rc

do not read the user's .telnetrc file

-d, --debug

turn on debugging

-e, --escape=CHAR

use CHAR as an escape character

-E, --no-escape

use no escape character

-K, --no-login

do not automatically login to the remote system

-l, --user=USER

attempt automatic login as USER

-L, --binary-output

use an 8-bit data transmission for output only

-n, --trace=FILE

record trace information into FILE

-r, --rlogin

use a user-interface similar to rlogin

-?, --help

give this help list

--usage

give a short usage message

-V, --version

print program version

Mandatory or optional arguments to long options are also mandatory or optional for any corresponding short options.

Releases

7 releases since Debian 1.1 (Buzz); the text changed 4 times.

  1. 1.1
  2. 1.2
  3. 1.3–2.1
  4. 2.2
  5. Arch

--binary since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --binary-output since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --bind since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --debug since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --escape since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --help since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --ipv4 since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --ipv6 since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --login since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --no-escape since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --no-login since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --no-rc since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --rlogin since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --trace since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --usage since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --user since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --version since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; -4 since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; -6 since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; -8 since Debian 1.2 (Rex); -? since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; -E since Debian 1.2 (Rex); -K since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; -L since Debian 1.2 (Rex); -V since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; -b since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; -c since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; -e since Debian 1.3 (Bo); -r since Debian 1.2 (Rex).

-S until Debian 2.2 (Potato); -X until Debian 1.2 (Rex); -input until Debian 2.2 (Potato); -output until Debian 2.2 (Potato); -x until Debian 1.2 (Rex).

Author

Written by many authors.

Reporting bugs

Report bugs to <[email protected]>.

From inetutils 2.8-1 in Arch Linux 2026-11-01. Parsed by carta from the page's man source.