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I am having problem with nc command, I cannot use a proxy, because there is no -x option, which should be there.

 nc -h
[v1.10-41]
connect to somewhere:   nc [-options] hostname port[s] [ports] ...
listen for inbound:     nc -l -p port [-options] [hostname] [port]
options:
        -c shell commands       as `-e'; use /bin/sh to exec [dangerous!!]
        -e filename             program to exec after connect [dangerous!!]
        -b                      allow broadcasts
        -g gateway              source-routing hop point[s], up to 8
        -G num                  source-routing pointer: 4, 8, 12, ...
        -h                      this cruft
        -i secs                 delay interval for lines sent, ports scanned
        -k                      set keepalive option on socket
        -l                      listen mode, for inbound connects
        -n                      numeric-only IP addresses, no DNS
        -o file                 hex dump of traffic
        -p port                 local port number
        -r                      randomize local and remote ports
        -q secs                 quit after EOF on stdin and delay of secs
        -s addr                 local source address
        -T tos                  set Type Of Service
        -t                      answer TELNET negotiation
        -u                      UDP mode
        -v                      verbose [use twice to be more verbose]
        -w secs                 timeout for connects and final net reads
        -C                      Send CRLF as line-ending
        -z                      zero-I/O mode [used for scanning]
port numbers can be individual or ranges: lo-hi [inclusive];
hyphens in port names must be backslash escaped (e.g. 'ftp\-data').

Is my netcat outdated? How do I update it? Thanks for help.

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  • 1
    If you are going to (re)install something, I suggest you also look at socat. It provides even more combinations of options.
    – Jan Hudec
    Nov 16, 2020 at 17:55

2 Answers 2

8

Looks like you have the "traditional" netcat (netcat-traditional) installed. The -x option is available in the OpenBSD netcat (netcat-openbsd). See also: What are the differences between netcat-traditional and netcat-openbsd? on Ask Ubuntu.

4

There are multiple implementations of netcat, you probably want the BSD one, because it provides the -x option. In Ubuntu it is available in the netcat-openbsd package.

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