The Trivial File Transfer Protocol, TFTP for short, is a very simple client-server protocol, which manages file transfers in computer networks. The TFTP’s original specification was published in June 1981 in RFC 783. The current standard was published in RFC 1350 in 1992. By default, the TFTP protocol is based on the similarly simplified transport protocol UDP (User Datagram Protocol) which enables data to be sent between communication partners without sharing a fixed connection. It is also possible to implement the TFTP based on other protocols.
The packet-oriented File Transfer Protocol, which is part of the TCP/IP protocol family, was specially designed to be as small and easy to implement as possible. As a result, it only covers methods for reading/writing files or mail to or from a server. Unlike its better-known counterpart FTP (File Transfer Protocol), TFTP cannot list directories or permissions via chmod. TFTP uses port 69 for requests. Subsequently, communication is established via individually assigned port numbers (between 1024 and 65535), which the TFTP server sends to the requesting client in the form of TIDs (Transfer Identifiers).