---
name: "mosquitto"
section: "7"
platform: "linux"
package: "mosquitto"
version: "2.1.2-2"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/mosquitto/7"
---

# mosquitto(7)

Project overview

## NAME

mosquitto - Project overview

## DESCRIPTION

The mosquitto project contains MQTT related programs, and comprises the mosquitto broker and applications, command line clients, and a client library for implementing custom MQTT clients. A brief description of some MQTT features is available at [**mqtt**(7)](/mqtt/7.md).

Mosquitto is an **Eclipse Foundation project**, part of the **IoT top level project**.

The project home page is at **mosquitto.org**, the github project is at **github.com/eclipse-mosquitto/mosquitto**, and the project provides a public MQTT test broker available at **test.mosquitto.org**.

Development is driven by **Cedalo**, who also provide professional support and enterprise features for mosquitto.

## MOSQUITTO BROKER

The mosquitto broker is the core of the project. Details on starting the broker, MQTT support, and feature descriptions can be found in [**mosquitto**(8)](/mosquitto/8.md). A full description of the configuration file format can be found in [**mosquitto.conf**(5)](/mosquitto.conf/5.md).

## MOSQUITTO BROKER APPLICATIONS

These command line applications directly support the running of the mosquitto broker.

### mosquitto\_ctrl

This can be used to interact with the broker MQTT APIs when the broker is running. It can run in batch mode, where all arguments are provided on the command line, or from version 2.1 onwards, in an interactive shell mode.

The batch mode is described in [**mosquitto\_ctrl**(1)](/mosquitto_ctrl/1.md), with the Dynamic Security module described in [**mosquitto\_ctrl\_dynsec**(1)](/mosquitto_ctrl_dynsec/1.md).

The interactive shell mode is described in [**mosquitto\_ctrl\_shell**(1)](/mosquitto_ctrl_shell/1.md).

### mosquitto\_passwd

This tool is used to generate and modify password files that can be used with the **mosquitto\_password\_file** plugin or **password\_file** configuration option. It is described in [**mosquitto\_passwd**(1)](/mosquitto_passwd/1.md).

### mosquitto\_signal

Available from version 2.1.

This tool is used to send signals to the broker. On POSIX systems it performs the same task as the **kill** command, but with named signals. On Windows it is the only method of sending signals to the broker. It is described in [**mosquitto\_signal**(1)](/mosquitto_signal/1.md).

## MOSQUITTO MQTT COMMAND LINE CLIENTS

These command line tools act as MQTT clients and can be useful for testing and automation of tasks related to any MQTT broker.

### mosquitto\_pub

This client can publish messages to a broker. It supports sending simple messages from the command line, reading from stdin, and sending files. It is described at [**mosquitto\_pub**(1)](/mosquitto_pub/1.md).

### mosquitto\_rr

This client operates in a request/response style by sending a single message to a broker and waiting for a response on another topic. Request/response support is an MQTT v5.0 feature, but it is not required most cases for this client. It is described at [**mosquitto\_rr**(1)](/mosquitto_rr/1.md).

### mosquitto\_sub

This client subscribes to topics on the broker and prints messages that it receives. It has a wide variety of output options. It is described at [**mosquitto\_sub**(1)](/mosquitto_sub/1.md).

## MOSQUITTO CLIENT LIBRARY

The Mosquitto client library is described at [**libmosquitto**(3)](/libmosquitto/3.md).

## AUTHOR

Roger Light \<roger@atchoo.org\>