How do I update NetCat?

[MacMan988]

Hi, how do I check which version of NetCat is installed with OS X and how do I update it if it is not a recent release?

 

[MacUser2525]

Hi, how do I check which version of NetCat is installed with OS X and how do I update it if it is not a recent release?

In the Terminal.app.

MacUser2525:~$ netcat
-bash: netcat: command not found

So it is not installed though if you were to install MacPorts or most likely similar options like Fink or Homebrew you can get it.

MacUser2525:~$ locate netcat
/opt/local/var/macports/sources/rsync.macports.org/release/tarballs/ports/net/gnetcat
/opt/local/var/macports/sources/rsync.macports.org/release/tarballs/ports/net/gnetcat/Portfile
/opt/local/var/macports/sources/rsync.macports.org/release/tarballs/ports/net/netcat
/opt/local/var/macports/sources/rsync.macports.org/release/tarballs/ports/net/netcat/Portfile

 

[ElectricSheep]

The command for netcat is nc, not netcat. It should be in /usr/bin/.

There are many clones of netcat around; you can probably find some via homebrew or macports, or build them yourself from sources.

 

[MacUser2525]

The command for netcat is nc, not netcat. It should be in /usr/bin/.

There are many clones of netcat around; you can probably find some via homebrew or macports, or build them yourself from sources.

And so it is.

MacUser2525:~$ nc --version
nc: illegal option -- -
usage: nc [-46AcCDdFhklMnOortUuvz] [-K tc] [-b boundif] [-i interval] [-p source_port]
	  [-s source_ip_address] [-w timeout] [-X proxy_version]
	  [-x proxy_address[:port]] [hostname] [port[s]]

Don't want to tell you its version for some reason.

 

[cerberusss]

Don't want to tell you its version for some reason.

What does a "man nc" do? (On the iPad right now, but that's what I would do, generally the man pages are pretty okay)

 

[MacUser2525]

What does a "man nc" do? (On the iPad right now, but that's what I would do, generally the man pages are pretty okay)

Not much no version number there page last updated June 25, 2001 so its been a while.

 

[cerberusss]

With Homebrew, I got version 0.7.1

$ brew install netcat
==> Downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/netcat/netcat-0.7.1.tar.bz2

This fetches the GNU version:

$ netcat --version
netcat (The GNU Netcat) 0.7.1

 

[MacMan988]

Thans for all replies and sorry for the delayed response as I've been having some issues with my computer. I will try the homebrew method. Btw, once its installed through home-brew, which installation comes up when you type "which nc" in terminal?

 

[MacUser2525]

Thans for all replies and sorry for the delayed response as I've been having some issues with my computer. I will try the homebrew method. Btw, once its installed through home-brew, which installation comes up when you type "which nc" in terminal?

That would depend on how your path is set when using homebrew with MacPorts and rsync I get.

MacUser2525:~$ which rsync
/opt/local/bin/rsync

Whatever shows up in the path first is the program that will be used.

 

[cerberusss]

Thans for all replies and sorry for the delayed response as I've been having some issues with my computer. I will try the homebrew method. Btw, once its installed through home-brew, which installation comes up when you type "which nc" in terminal?

$ which nc
/usr/bin/nc
$ which netcat
/usr/local/bin/netcat

Apparently, brew installs the GNU version, which has "netcat", and not "nc" as the binary name:

$ netcat --version
netcat (The GNU Netcat) 0.7.1