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2.1 Option Descriptions

AVRDUDE is a command line tool, used as follows:

 
avrdude -p partno options

Command line options are used to control AVRDUDE’s behaviour. The following options are recognized:

-p partno

This option tells AVRDUDE what part (MCU) is connected to the programmer. The partno parameter is the part’s id listed in the configuration file. For currently supported MCU types use ? as partno, which will print a list of partno ids and official part names on the terminal. Both can be used with the -p option. If a part is unknown to AVRDUDE, it means that there is no config file entry for that part, but it can be added to the configuration file if you have the Atmel datasheet so that you can enter the programming specifications. If -p ? is specified with a specific programmer, see -c below, then only those parts are output that the programmer expects to be able to handle, together with the programming interface(s) that can be used in that combination. In reality there can be deviations from this list, particularly if programming is directly via a bootloader. Currently, the following MCU types are understood:

uc3a0512AT32UC3A0512
c128AT90CAN128
c32AT90CAN32
c64AT90CAN64
pwm2AT90PWM2
pwm216AT90PWM216
pwm2bAT90PWM2B
pwm3AT90PWM3
pwm316AT90PWM316
pwm3bAT90PWM3B
1200AT90S1200 (****)
2313AT90S2313
2333AT90S2333
2343AT90S2343 (*)
4414AT90S4414
4433AT90S4433
4434AT90S4434
8515AT90S8515
8535AT90S8535
usb1286AT90USB1286
usb1287AT90USB1287
usb162AT90USB162
usb646AT90USB646
usb647AT90USB647
usb82AT90USB82
m103ATmega103
m128ATmega128
m1280ATmega1280
m1281ATmega1281
m1284ATmega1284
m1284pATmega1284P
m1284rfr2ATmega1284RFR2
m128aATmega128A
m128rfa1ATmega128RFA1
m128rfr2ATmega128RFR2
m16ATmega16
m1608ATmega1608
m1609ATmega1609
m161ATmega161
m162ATmega162
m163ATmega163
m164aATmega164A
m164pATmega164P
m164paATmega164PA
m165ATmega165
m165aATmega165A
m165pATmega165P
m165paATmega165PA
m168ATmega168
m168aATmega168A
m168pATmega168P
m168paATmega168PA
m168pbATmega168PB
m169ATmega169
m169aATmega169A
m169pATmega169P
m169paATmega169PA
m16aATmega16A
m16u2ATmega16U2
m16u4ATmega16U4
m2560ATmega2560 (**)
m2561ATmega2561 (**)
m2564rfr2ATmega2564RFR2
m256rfr2ATmega256RFR2
m32ATmega32
m3208ATmega3208
m3209ATmega3209
m324aATmega324A
m324pATmega324P
m324paATmega324PA
m324pbATmega324PB
m325ATmega325
m3250ATmega3250
m3250aATmega3250A
m3250pATmega3250P
m3250paATmega3250PA
m325aATmega325A
m325pATmega325P
m325paATmega325PA
m328ATmega328
m328pATmega328P
m328pbATmega328PB
m329ATmega329
m3290ATmega3290
m3290aATmega3290A
m3290pATmega3290P
m3290paATmega3290PA
m329aATmega329A
m329pATmega329P
m329paATmega329PA
m32aATmega32A
m32m1ATmega32M1
m32u2ATmega32U2
m32u4ATmega32U4
m406ATmega406
m48ATmega48
m4808ATmega4808
m4809ATmega4809
m48aATmega48A
m48pATmega48P
m48paATmega48PA
m48pbATmega48PB
m64ATmega64
m640ATmega640
m644ATmega644
m644aATmega644A
m644pATmega644P
m644paATmega644PA
m644rfr2ATmega644RFR2
m645ATmega645
m6450ATmega6450
m6450aATmega6450A
m6450pATmega6450P
m645aATmega645A
m645pATmega645P
m649ATmega649
m6490ATmega6490
m6490aATmega6490A
m6490pATmega6490P
m649aATmega649A
m649pATmega649P
m64aATmega64A
m64m1ATmega64M1
m64rfr2ATmega64RFR2
m8ATmega8
m808ATmega808
m809ATmega809
m8515ATmega8515
m8535ATmega8535
m88ATmega88
m88aATmega88A
m88pATmega88P
m88paATmega88PA
m88pbATmega88PB
m8aATmega8A
m8u2ATmega8U2
t10ATtiny10
t102ATtiny102
t104ATtiny104
t11ATtiny11 (***)
t12ATtiny12
t13ATtiny13
t13aATtiny13A
t15ATtiny15
t1604ATtiny1604
t1606ATtiny1606
t1607ATtiny1607
t1614ATtiny1614
t1616ATtiny1616
t1617ATtiny1617
t1624ATtiny1624
t1626ATtiny1626
t1627ATtiny1627
t1634ATtiny1634
t1634rATtiny1634R
t167ATtiny167
t20ATtiny20
t202ATtiny202
t204ATtiny204
t212ATtiny212
t214ATtiny214
t2313ATtiny2313
t2313aATtiny2313A
t24ATtiny24
t24aATtiny24A
t25ATtiny25
t26ATtiny26
t261ATtiny261
t261aATtiny261A
t28ATtiny28
t3216ATtiny3216
t3217ATtiny3217
t3224ATtiny3224
t3226ATtiny3226
t3227ATtiny3227
t4ATtiny4
t40ATtiny40
t402ATtiny402
t404ATtiny404
t406ATtiny406
t412ATtiny412
t414ATtiny414
t416ATtiny416
t417ATtiny417
t424ATtiny424
t426ATtiny426
t427ATtiny427
t4313ATtiny4313
t43uATtiny43U
t44ATtiny44
t441ATtiny441
t44aATtiny44A
t45ATtiny45
t461ATtiny461
t461aATtiny461A
t48ATtiny48
t5ATtiny5
t804ATtiny804
t806ATtiny806
t807ATtiny807
t814ATtiny814
t816ATtiny816
t817ATtiny817
t824ATtiny824
t826ATtiny826
t827ATtiny827
t828ATtiny828
t828rATtiny828R
t84ATtiny84
t841ATtiny841
t84aATtiny84A
t85ATtiny85
t861ATtiny861
t861aATtiny861A
t87ATtiny87
t88ATtiny88
t9ATtiny9
x128a1ATxmega128A1
x128a1dATxmega128A1revD
x128a1uATxmega128A1U
x128a3ATxmega128A3
x128a3uATxmega128A3U
x128a4ATxmega128A4
x128a4uATxmega128A4U
x128b1ATxmega128B1
x128b3ATxmega128B3
x128c3ATxmega128C3
x128d3ATxmega128D3
x128d4ATxmega128D4
x16a4ATxmega16A4
x16a4uATxmega16A4U
x16c4ATxmega16C4
x16d4ATxmega16D4
x16e5ATxmega16E5
x192a1ATxmega192A1
x192a3ATxmega192A3
x192a3uATxmega192A3U
x192c3ATxmega192C3
x192d3ATxmega192D3
x256a1ATxmega256A1
x256a3ATxmega256A3
x256a3bATxmega256A3B
x256a3buATxmega256A3BU
x256a3uATxmega256A3U
x256c3ATxmega256C3
x256d3ATxmega256D3
x32a4ATxmega32A4
x32a4uATxmega32A4U
x32c4ATxmega32C4
x32d4ATxmega32D4
x32e5ATxmega32E5
x384c3ATxmega384C3
x384d3ATxmega384D3
x64a1ATxmega64A1
x64a1uATxmega64A1U
x64a3ATxmega64A3
x64a3uATxmega64A3U
x64a4ATxmega64A4
x64a4uATxmega64A4U
x64b1ATxmega64B1
x64b3ATxmega64B3
x64c3ATxmega64C3
x64d3ATxmega64D3
x64d4ATxmega64D4
x8e5ATxmega8E5
avr128da28AVR128DA28
avr128da32AVR128DA32
avr128da48AVR128DA48
avr128da64AVR128DA64
avr128db28AVR128DB28
avr128db32AVR128DB32
avr128db48AVR128DB48
avr128db64AVR128DB64
avr16dd14AVR16DD14
avr16dd20AVR16DD20
avr16dd28AVR16DD28
avr16dd32AVR16DD32
avr16ea28AVR16EA28
avr16ea32AVR16EA32
avr16ea48AVR16EA48
avr32da28AVR32DA28
avr32da32AVR32DA32
avr32da48AVR32DA48
avr32db28AVR32DB28
avr32db32AVR32DB32
avr32db48AVR32DB48
avr32dd14AVR32DD14
avr32dd20AVR32DD20
avr32dd28AVR32DD28
avr32dd32AVR32DD32
avr32ea28AVR32EA28
avr32ea32AVR32EA32
avr32ea48AVR32EA48
avr64da28AVR64DA28
avr64da32AVR64DA32
avr64da48AVR64DA48
avr64da64AVR64DA64
avr64db28AVR64DB28
avr64db32AVR64DB32
avr64db48AVR64DB48
avr64db64AVR64DB64
avr64dd14AVR64DD14
avr64dd20AVR64DD20
avr64dd28AVR64DD28
avr64dd32AVR64DD32
avr64ea28AVR64EA28
avr64ea32AVR64EA32
avr64ea48AVR64EA48
avr8ea28AVR8EA28
avr8ea32AVR8EA32
ucr2deprecated,
lgt8f168pLGT8F168P
lgt8f328pLGT8F328P
lgt8f88pLGT8F88P

(*) The AT90S2323 and ATtiny22 use the same algorithm.

(**) Flash addressing above 128 KB is not supported by all programming hardware. Known to work are jtag2, stk500v2, and bit-bang programmers.

(***) The ATtiny11 can only be programmed in high-voltage serial mode.

(****) The ISP programming protocol of the AT90S1200 differs in subtle ways from that of other AVRs. Thus, not all programmers support this device. Known to work are all direct bitbang programmers, and all programmers talking the STK500v2 protocol.

-p wildcard/flags

Run developer options for MCUs that are matched by wildcard. Whilst their main use is for developers some flags can be of utility for users, e.g., avrdude -p m328p/S outputs AVRDUDE’s understanding of ATmega328P MCU properties; for more information run avrdude -p x/h.

-b baudrate

Override the RS-232 connection baud rate specified in the respective programmer’s entry of the configuration file.

-B bitclock

Specify the bit clock period for the JTAG, PDI, TPI, UPDI, or ISP interface. The value is a floating-point number in microseconds. Alternatively, the value might be suffixed with "Hz", "kHz" or "MHz" in order to specify the bit clock frequency rather than a period. Some programmers default their bit clock value to a 1 microsecond bit clock period, suitable for target MCUs running at 4 MHz clock and above. Slower MCUs need a correspondingly higher bit clock period. Some programmers reset their bit clock value to the default value when the programming software signs off, whilst others store the last used bit clock value. It is recommended to always specify the bit clock if read/write speed is important. You can use the ’default_bitclock’ keyword in your ~/.config/avrdude/avrdude.rc or ~/.avrduderc configuration file to assign a default value to keep from having to specify this option on every invocation.

-c programmer-id

Specify the programmer to be used. AVRDUDE knows about several common programmers. Use this option to specify which one to use. The programmer-id parameter is the programmer’s id listed in the configuration file. Specify -c ? to list all programmers in the configuration file. If you have a programmer that is unknown to AVRDUDE, and the programmer is controlled via the PC parallel port, there’s a good chance that it can be easily added to the configuration file without any code changes to AVRDUDE. Simply copy an existing entry and change the pin definitions to match that of the unknown programmer. If -c ? is specified with a specific part, see -p above, then only those programmers are output that expect to be able to handle this part, together with the programming interface(s) that can be used in that combination. In reality there can be deviations from this list, particularly if programming is directly via a bootloader. Currently, the following programmer ids are understood and supported:

-c wildcard/flags

Run developer options for programmers that are matched by wildcard. Whilst their main use is for developers some flags can be of utility for users, e.g., avrdude -c usbtiny/S shows AVRDUDE’s understanding of usbtiny’s properties; for more information run avrdude -c x/h.

-C config-file

Use the specified config file for configuration data. This file contains all programmer and part definitions that AVRDUDE knows about. If not specified, AVRDUDE looks for the configuration file in the following two locations:

  1. <directory from which application loaded>/../etc/avrdude.conf
  2. <directory from which application loaded>/avrdude.conf

If not found there, the lookup procedure becomes platform dependent. On FreeBSD and Linux, AVRDUDE looks at /usr/local/etc/avrdude.conf. See Appendix A for the method of searching on Windows.

If config-file is written as +filename then this file is read after the system wide and user configuration files. This can be used to add entries to the configuration without patching your system wide configuration file. It can be used several times, the files are read in same order as given on the command line.

-A

Disable the automatic removal of trailing-0xFF sequences in file input that is to be programmed to flash and in AVR reads from flash memory. Normally, trailing 0xFFs can be discarded, as flash programming requires the memory be erased to 0xFF beforehand. -A should be used when the programmer hardware, or bootloader software for that matter, does not carry out chip erase and instead handles the memory erase on a page level. The popular Arduino bootloader exhibits this behaviour; for this reason -A is engaged by default when specifying -c arduino.

-D

Disable auto erase for flash. When the -U option with flash memory is specified, avrdude will perform a chip erase before starting any of the programming operations, since it generally is a mistake to program the flash without performing an erase first. This option disables that. Auto erase is not used for ATxmega devices as these devices can use page erase before writing each page so no explicit chip erase is required. Note however that any page not affected by the current operation will retain its previous contents. Setting -D implies -A.

-e

Causes a chip erase to be executed. This will reset the contents of the flash ROM and EEPROM to the value ‘0xff’, and clear all lock bits. Except for ATxmega devices which can use page erase, it is basically a prerequisite command before the flash ROM can be reprogrammed again. The only exception would be if the new contents would exclusively cause bits to be programmed from the value ‘1’ to ‘0’. Note that in order to reprogram EERPOM cells, no explicit prior chip erase is required since the MCU provides an auto-erase cycle in that case before programming the cell.

-E exitspec[,…]

By default, AVRDUDE leaves the parallel port in the same state at exit as it has been found at startup. This option modifies the state of the ‘/RESET’ and ‘Vcc’ lines the parallel port is left at, according to the exitspec arguments provided, as follows:

reset

The ‘/RESET’ signal will be left activated at program exit, that is it will be held low, in order to keep the MCU in reset state afterwards. Note in particular that the programming algorithm for the AT90S1200 device mandates that the ‘/RESET’ signal is active before powering up the MCU, so in case an external power supply is used for this MCU type, a previous invocation of AVRDUDE with this option specified is one of the possible ways to guarantee this condition. reset is supported by the linuxspi and flip2 programmer options, as well as all parallel port based programmers.

noreset

The ‘/RESET’ line will be deactivated at program exit, thus allowing the MCU target program to run while the programming hardware remains connected. noreset is supported by the linuxspi and flip2 programmer options, as well as all parallel port based programmers.

vcc

This option will leave those parallel port pins active (i. e. high) that can be used to supply ‘Vcc’ power to the MCU.

novcc

This option will pull the ‘Vcc’ pins of the parallel port down at program exit.

d_high

This option will leave the 8 data pins on the parallel port active (i. e. high).

d_low

This option will leave the 8 data pins on the parallel port inactive (i. e. low).

Multiple exitspec arguments can be separated with commas.

-F

Normally, AVRDUDE tries to verify that the device signature read from the part is reasonable before continuing. Since it can happen from time to time that a device has a broken (erased or overwritten) device signature but is otherwise operating normally, this options is provided to override the check. Also, for programmers like the Atmel STK500 and STK600 which can adjust parameters local to the programming tool (independent of an actual connection to a target controller), this option can be used together with ‘-t’ to continue in terminal mode. Moreover, the option allows to continue despite failed initialization of connection between a programmer and a target.

-i delay

For bitbang-type programmers, delay for approximately delay microseconds between each bit state change. If the host system is very fast, or the target runs off a slow clock (like a 32 kHz crystal, or the 128 kHz internal RC oscillator), this can become necessary to satisfy the requirement that the ISP clock frequency must not be higher than 1/4 of the CPU clock frequency. This is implemented as a spin-loop delay to allow even for very short delays. On Unix-style operating systems, the spin loop is initially calibrated against a system timer, so the number of microseconds might be rather realistic, assuming a constant system load while AVRDUDE is running. On Win32 operating systems, a preconfigured number of cycles per microsecond is assumed that might be off a bit for very fast or very slow machines.

-l logfile

Use logfile rather than stderr for diagnostics output. Note that initial diagnostic messages (during option parsing) are still written to stderr anyway.

-n

No-write - disables actually writing data to the MCU (useful for debugging AVRDUDE).

-O

Perform a RC oscillator run-time calibration according to Atmel application note AVR053. This is only supported on the STK500v2, AVRISP mkII, and JTAG ICE mkII hardware. Note that the result will be stored in the EEPROM cell at address 0.

-P port

Use port to identify the device to which the programmer is attached. Normally, the default parallel port is used, but if the programmer type normally connects to the serial port, the default serial port will be used. See Appendix A, Platform Dependent Information, to find out the default port names for your platform. If you need to use a different parallel or serial port, use this option to specify the alternate port name.

On Win32 operating systems, the parallel ports are referred to as lpt1 through lpt3, referring to the addresses 0x378, 0x278, and 0x3BC, respectively. If the parallel port can be accessed through a different address, this address can be specified directly, using the common C language notation (i. e., hexadecimal values are prefixed by 0x).

For the JTAG ICE mkII, if AVRDUDE has been built with libusb support, port may alternatively be specified as usb[:serialno]. In that case, the JTAG ICE mkII will be looked up on USB. If serialno is also specified, it will be matched against the serial number read from any JTAG ICE mkII found on USB. The match is done after stripping any existing colons from the given serial number, and right-to-left, so only the least significant bytes from the serial number need to be given. For a trick how to find out the serial numbers of all JTAG ICEs attached to USB, see Example Command Line Invocations.

As the AVRISP mkII device can only be talked to over USB, the very same method of specifying the port is required there.

For the USB programmer "AVR-Doper" running in HID mode, the port must be specified as avrdoper. Libhidapi support is required on Unix and Mac OS but not on Windows. For more information about AVR-Doper see http://www.obdev.at/avrusb/avrdoper.html.

For the USBtinyISP, which is a simplistic device not implementing serial numbers, multiple devices can be distinguished by their location in the USB hierarchy. See the respective See section Troubleshooting entry for examples.

For the XBee programmer the target MCU is to be programmed wirelessly over a ZigBee mesh using the XBeeBoot bootloader. The ZigBee 64-bit address for the target MCU’s own XBee device must be supplied as a 16-character hexadecimal value as a port prefix, followed by the @ character, and the serial device to connect to a second directly contactable XBee device associated with the same mesh (with a default baud rate of 9600). This may look similar to: 0013a20000000001dev/tty.serial.

For diagnostic purposes, if the target MCU with an XBeeBoot bootloader is connected directly to the serial port, the 64-bit address field can be omitted. In this mode the default baud rate will be 19200.

For programmers that attach to a serial port using some kind of higher level protocol (as opposed to bit-bang style programmers), port can be specified as net:host:port. In this case, instead of trying to open a local device, a TCP network connection to (TCP) port on host is established. Square brackets may be placed around host to improve readability for numeric IPv6 addresses (e.g. net:[2001:db8::42]:1337). The remote endpoint is assumed to be a terminal or console server that connects the network stream to a local serial port where the actual programmer has been attached to. The port is assumed to be properly configured, for example using a transparent 8-bit data connection without parity at 115200 Baud for a STK500.

Note: The ability to handle IPv6 hostnames and addresses is limited to Posix systems (by now).

-q

Disable (or quell) output of the progress bar while reading or writing to the device. Specify it a second time for even quieter operation.

-s, -u

These options used to control the obsolete "safemode" feature which is no longer present. They are silently ignored for backwards compatibility.

-t

Tells AVRDUDE to enter the interactive “terminal” mode instead of up- or downloading files. See below for a detailed description of the terminal mode.

-U memtype:op:filename[:format]

Perform a memory operation. Multiple ‘-U’ options can be specified in order to operate on multiple memories on the same command-line invocation. The memtype field specifies the memory type to operate on. Use the ‘-v’ option on the command line or the part command from terminal mode to display all the memory types supported by a particular device. Typically, a device’s memory configuration at least contains the memory types flash and eeprom. All memory types currently known are:

calibration

One or more bytes of RC oscillator calibration data.

eeprom

The EEPROM of the device.

efuse

The extended fuse byte.

flash

The flash ROM of the device.

fuse

The fuse byte in devices that have only a single fuse byte.

hfuse

The high fuse byte.

lfuse

The low fuse byte.

lock

The lock byte.

signature

The three device signature bytes (device ID).

fuseN

The fuse bytes of ATxmega devices, N is an integer number for each fuse supported by the device.

application

The application flash area of ATxmega devices.

apptable

The application table flash area of ATxmega devices.

boot

The boot flash area of ATxmega devices.

prodsig

The production signature (calibration) area of ATxmega devices.

usersig

The user signature area of ATxmega devices.

The op field specifies what operation to perform:

r

read the specified device memory and write to the specified file

w

read the specified file and write it to the specified device memory

v

read the specified device memory and the specified file and perform a verify operation

The filename field indicates the name of the file to read or write. The format field is optional and contains the format of the file to read or write. Possible values are:

i

Intel Hex

I

Intel Hex with comments on download and tolerance of checksum errors on upload

s

Motorola S-record

r

raw binary; little-endian byte order, in the case of the flash ROM data

e

ELF (Executable and Linkable Format), the final output file from the linker; currently only accepted as an input file

m

immediate mode; actual byte values specified on the command line, separated by commas or spaces in place of the filename field of the ‘-U’ option. This is useful for programming fuse bytes without having to create a single-byte file or enter terminal mode. If the number specified begins with 0x, it is treated as a hex value. If the number otherwise begins with a leading zero (0) it is treated as octal. Otherwise, the value is treated as decimal.

a

auto detect; valid for input only, and only if the input is not provided at stdin.

d

decimal; this and the following formats are only valid on output. They generate one line of output for the respective memory section, forming a comma-separated list of the values. This can be particularly useful for subsequent processing, like for fuse bit settings.

h

hexadecimal; each value will get the string 0x prepended. Only valid on output.

o

octal; each value will get a 0 prepended unless it is less than 8 in which case it gets no prefix. Only valid on output.

b

binary; each value will get the string 0b prepended. Only valid on output.

The default is to use auto detection for input files, and raw binary format for output files.

Note that if filename contains a colon, the format field is no longer optional since the filename part following the colon would otherwise be misinterpreted as format.

When reading any kind of flash memory area (including the various sub-areas in Xmega devices), the resulting output file will be truncated to not contain trailing 0xFF bytes which indicate unprogrammed (erased) memory. Thus, if the entire memory is unprogrammed, this will result in an output file that has no contents at all.

As an abbreviation, the form -U filename is equivalent to specifying -U flash:w:filename:a. This will only work if filename does not have a colon in it.

-v

Enable verbose output. More -v options increase verbosity level.

-V

Disable automatic verify check when uploading data.

-x extended_param

Pass extended_param to the chosen programmer implementation as an extended parameter. The interpretation of the extended parameter depends on the programmer itself. See below for a list of programmers accepting extended parameters.


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