WHAT IS NETCAT6?
----------------

netcat6 is a clone of the original netcat utility.  From the netcat README:

"Netcat is a simple Unix utility which reads and writes data across network
connections.  It is designed to be a reliable "back-end" tool that can be used
directly or easily driven by other programs and scripts.  At the same time, it
is a feature-rich network debugging and exploration tool, since it can create
almost any kind of connection you would need and has several interesting
built-in capabilities.  Netcat, or "nc" as the actual program is named, should
have been supplied long ago as another one of those cryptic but standard Unix
tools."

netcat6 is a total rewrite of netcat, with several advantages:

  o It fully supports IPv6.
  o It is far more efficient, utilizing flexible buffering and minimal
    (or no) data copying or analysis.
  o The source is well structured, documented and very easy to follow.
  o One of the main objectives of netcat6 is to produce an excellent example
    of AF independant networking and efficient data transfer.  The code has
    minimal dependancy on the address family or protocol type and can be
    trivially extended to talk many layer 3 protocols.
  o Greatly improved configuration and platform indipendence.
  o Can support servers or clients that use TCP half-close.

Some features of the original netcat are not present in netcat6, either
because they haven't yet been implemented or because there exists better tools
for the job.  See the TODO file for more information.


USAGE
-----

In the simplest usage, "nc6 host port" creates a TCP connection to the given
port on the given target host (using either IPv4 or IPv6 as appropriate).
Your standard input is then sent to the host, and anything that comes back
across the connection is sent to your standard output.  This continues
indefinitely, until the network side of the connection shuts down.  Note that
this behavior is different from most applications which shut everything down
and exit after an end-of-file on standard input.

Netcat6 can also function as a server, by listening for inbound connections on
arbitrary ports and then doing the same reading and writing when a client
connects.  With minor limitations, netcat doesn't really care if it runs in
"client" or "server" mode -- it still shovels data back and forth until there
isn't any more left.

Netcat6 can also be used over UDP (using the '-u' or '--udp' option).  UDP is
an unreliable transport protocol, meaning some data can get lost, but it's a
very useful capability to have.

Some of netcat6's major features are:

  o Outbound or inbound connections, using TCP or UDP over any suitable
    transport protocol available on the system (usually IPv4 or IPv6).
  o Full DNS forward/reverse checking, with appropriate warnings.
  o Ability to use any local source port
  o Ability to use any locally-configured network source address
  o Flexible data buffering and control of MTU
  o Flexible control of connection shutdown.

Efforts have been made to have netcat6 "do the right thing" in all its various
modes.  One of the development principles is "the principle of least
surprise".  This means that netcat6 should do what you expect it to do.  If
you think it doesn't do something quite right, let us know and we'll look into
it.

Netcat6 is licensed under the GNU Public License (see COPYING).


BUILDING
--------

See the INSTALL file for specific installation instructions.  For those who
can't wait, the following should do it:

# ./configure
# make
# make install

If the build fails on your system, please let us know so that we can fix the
issue.


MAILING LIST
------------

There is a mailing list for the discussion of netcat6 and other ipv6
applications.  It is open to anyone to join, and new versions will be
announced to this list.

To join the mailing list see the webpage at http://lists.deepspace6.net/

To send mail to the list, send it to ds6@deepspace6.net


BUG REPORTS
-----------

First look at the file BUGS.  It contains some known major limitations in
netcat6.

Please send bug reports to:

  ds6-devel@deepspace6.net


CVS TREE
--------

If you want to get the very latest version of netcat6 direct from the source
code repository then you can use anonymous cvs.  You will need a recent
version of cvs and use the following commands:

$ cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.deepspace6.net:/ds6/cvs login

(just press enter at the password prompt)

$ cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.deepspace6.net:/ds6/cvs co nc6

Building from a CVS version is slightly different, so after checking out the
CVS version, read README.Maint for instructions.


AVAILABILITY
------------

The main web site for netcat6 is http://www.deepspace6.net
Source tarballs can be downloaded from:
	ftp://ftp.deepspace6.net/pub/sources/nc6/
	http://ftp.deepspace6.net:/pub/sources/nc6/


COPYRIGHT
---------

netcat6 is licensed under the GNU General Public License,
found in the file COPYING in this distribution, or at:

  http://www.fsf.org/licenses/gpl.html