rcat

View documentation for the original command

$ tldr rc

rcat host port

host
    The hostname or IP address of the server to connect to.

port
    The port number on which the server is listening for connections.

rcat is a simple command-line utility that reads data from a remote file using TCP. It is functionally similar to cat, but instead of reading from local files or standard input, rcat connects to a specified host and port, retrieves the data sent by the server and outputs to standard output.
It's often used in scenarios where you want to quickly grab the content of a file on a remote machine where other tools (like ssh, scp, or sftp) are unavailable or unsuitable (e.g., due to firewall restrictions or lack of user authentication capabilities). The remote server must be actively listening on the specified port and sending the desired file content upon connection. rcat is a basic tool and lacks security features like encryption or authentication; thus, should be used with extreme caution and ideally within trusted networks.

rcat provides no encryption or authentication.
Data is transferred in plain text.
Use with extreme caution, especially over public networks.
Relies on a server process that sends file data.
There are no error checks for connection or data transfer problems.

To use rcat, you first need a server-side program that listens on a port and sends the contents of a file when a connection is established. For example using `netcat`, on the server, you could run: `nc -l -p 1234 < myfile.txt`. Then, on the client machine, you can use rcat to retrieve the content: `rcat server_ip 1234 > local_copy.txt`.

cat(1), nc(1), netcat(1)