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:

uc3a0512	AT32UC3A0512
c128	AT90CAN128
c32	AT90CAN32
c64	AT90CAN64
pwm2	AT90PWM2
pwm216	AT90PWM216
pwm2b	AT90PWM2B
pwm3	AT90PWM3
pwm316	AT90PWM316
pwm3b	AT90PWM3B
1200	AT90S1200 (****)
2313	AT90S2313
2333	AT90S2333
2343	AT90S2343 (*)
4414	AT90S4414
4433	AT90S4433
4434	AT90S4434
8515	AT90S8515
8535	AT90S8535
usb1286	AT90USB1286
usb1287	AT90USB1287
usb162	AT90USB162
usb646	AT90USB646
usb647	AT90USB647
usb82	AT90USB82
m103	ATmega103
m128	ATmega128
m1280	ATmega1280
m1281	ATmega1281
m1284	ATmega1284
m1284p	ATmega1284P
m1284rfr2	ATmega1284RFR2
m128a	ATmega128A
m128rfa1	ATmega128RFA1
m128rfr2	ATmega128RFR2
m16	ATmega16
m1608	ATmega1608
m1609	ATmega1609
m161	ATmega161
m162	ATmega162
m163	ATmega163
m164a	ATmega164A
m164p	ATmega164P
m164pa	ATmega164PA
m165	ATmega165
m165a	ATmega165A
m165p	ATmega165P
m165pa	ATmega165PA
m168	ATmega168
m168a	ATmega168A
m168p	ATmega168P
m168pa	ATmega168PA
m168pb	ATmega168PB
m169	ATmega169
m169a	ATmega169A
m169p	ATmega169P
m169pa	ATmega169PA
m16a	ATmega16A
m16u2	ATmega16U2
m16u4	ATmega16U4
m2560	ATmega2560 (**)
m2561	ATmega2561 (**)
m2564rfr2	ATmega2564RFR2
m256rfr2	ATmega256RFR2
m32	ATmega32
m3208	ATmega3208
m3209	ATmega3209
m324a	ATmega324A
m324p	ATmega324P
m324pa	ATmega324PA
m324pb	ATmega324PB
m325	ATmega325
m3250	ATmega3250
m3250a	ATmega3250A
m3250p	ATmega3250P
m3250pa	ATmega3250PA
m325a	ATmega325A
m325p	ATmega325P
m325pa	ATmega325PA
m328	ATmega328
m328p	ATmega328P
m328pb	ATmega328PB
m329	ATmega329
m3290	ATmega3290
m3290a	ATmega3290A
m3290p	ATmega3290P
m3290pa	ATmega3290PA
m329a	ATmega329A
m329p	ATmega329P
m329pa	ATmega329PA
m32a	ATmega32A
m32m1	ATmega32M1
m32u2	ATmega32U2
m32u4	ATmega32U4
m406	ATmega406
m48	ATmega48
m4808	ATmega4808
m4809	ATmega4809
m48a	ATmega48A
m48p	ATmega48P
m48pa	ATmega48PA
m48pb	ATmega48PB
m64	ATmega64
m640	ATmega640
m644	ATmega644
m644a	ATmega644A
m644p	ATmega644P
m644pa	ATmega644PA
m644rfr2	ATmega644RFR2
m645	ATmega645
m6450	ATmega6450
m6450a	ATmega6450A
m6450p	ATmega6450P
m645a	ATmega645A
m645p	ATmega645P
m649	ATmega649
m6490	ATmega6490
m6490a	ATmega6490A
m6490p	ATmega6490P
m649a	ATmega649A
m649p	ATmega649P
m64a	ATmega64A
m64m1	ATmega64M1
m64rfr2	ATmega64RFR2
m8	ATmega8
m808	ATmega808
m809	ATmega809
m8515	ATmega8515
m8535	ATmega8535
m88	ATmega88
m88a	ATmega88A
m88p	ATmega88P
m88pa	ATmega88PA
m88pb	ATmega88PB
m8a	ATmega8A
m8u2	ATmega8U2
t10	ATtiny10
t102	ATtiny102
t104	ATtiny104
t11	ATtiny11 (***)
t12	ATtiny12
t13	ATtiny13
t13a	ATtiny13A
t15	ATtiny15
t1604	ATtiny1604
t1606	ATtiny1606
t1607	ATtiny1607
t1614	ATtiny1614
t1616	ATtiny1616
t1617	ATtiny1617
t1624	ATtiny1624
t1626	ATtiny1626
t1627	ATtiny1627
t1634	ATtiny1634
t1634r	ATtiny1634R
t167	ATtiny167
t20	ATtiny20
t202	ATtiny202
t204	ATtiny204
t212	ATtiny212
t214	ATtiny214
t2313	ATtiny2313
t2313a	ATtiny2313A
t24	ATtiny24
t24a	ATtiny24A
t25	ATtiny25
t26	ATtiny26
t261	ATtiny261
t261a	ATtiny261A
t28	ATtiny28
t3216	ATtiny3216
t3217	ATtiny3217
t3224	ATtiny3224
t3226	ATtiny3226
t3227	ATtiny3227
t4	ATtiny4
t40	ATtiny40
t402	ATtiny402
t404	ATtiny404
t406	ATtiny406
t412	ATtiny412
t414	ATtiny414
t416	ATtiny416
t417	ATtiny417
t424	ATtiny424
t426	ATtiny426
t427	ATtiny427
t4313	ATtiny4313
t43u	ATtiny43U
t44	ATtiny44
t441	ATtiny441
t44a	ATtiny44A
t45	ATtiny45
t461	ATtiny461
t461a	ATtiny461A
t48	ATtiny48
t5	ATtiny5
t804	ATtiny804
t806	ATtiny806
t807	ATtiny807
t814	ATtiny814
t816	ATtiny816
t817	ATtiny817
t824	ATtiny824
t826	ATtiny826
t827	ATtiny827
t828	ATtiny828
t828r	ATtiny828R
t84	ATtiny84
t841	ATtiny841
t84a	ATtiny84A
t85	ATtiny85
t861	ATtiny861
t861a	ATtiny861A
t87	ATtiny87
t88	ATtiny88
t9	ATtiny9
x128a1	ATxmega128A1
x128a1d	ATxmega128A1revD
x128a1u	ATxmega128A1U
x128a3	ATxmega128A3
x128a3u	ATxmega128A3U
x128a4	ATxmega128A4
x128a4u	ATxmega128A4U
x128b1	ATxmega128B1
x128b3	ATxmega128B3
x128c3	ATxmega128C3
x128d3	ATxmega128D3
x128d4	ATxmega128D4
x16a4	ATxmega16A4
x16a4u	ATxmega16A4U
x16c4	ATxmega16C4
x16d4	ATxmega16D4
x16e5	ATxmega16E5
x192a1	ATxmega192A1
x192a3	ATxmega192A3
x192a3u	ATxmega192A3U
x192c3	ATxmega192C3
x192d3	ATxmega192D3
x256a1	ATxmega256A1
x256a3	ATxmega256A3
x256a3b	ATxmega256A3B
x256a3bu	ATxmega256A3BU
x256a3u	ATxmega256A3U
x256c3	ATxmega256C3
x256d3	ATxmega256D3
x32a4	ATxmega32A4
x32a4u	ATxmega32A4U
x32c4	ATxmega32C4
x32d4	ATxmega32D4
x32e5	ATxmega32E5
x384c3	ATxmega384C3
x384d3	ATxmega384D3
x64a1	ATxmega64A1
x64a1u	ATxmega64A1U
x64a3	ATxmega64A3
x64a3u	ATxmega64A3U
x64a4	ATxmega64A4
x64a4u	ATxmega64A4U
x64b1	ATxmega64B1
x64b3	ATxmega64B3
x64c3	ATxmega64C3
x64d3	ATxmega64D3
x64d4	ATxmega64D4
x8e5	ATxmega8E5
avr128da28	AVR128DA28
avr128da32	AVR128DA32
avr128da48	AVR128DA48
avr128da64	AVR128DA64
avr128db28	AVR128DB28
avr128db32	AVR128DB32
avr128db48	AVR128DB48
avr128db64	AVR128DB64
avr16dd14	AVR16DD14
avr16dd20	AVR16DD20
avr16dd28	AVR16DD28
avr16dd32	AVR16DD32
avr16ea28	AVR16EA28
avr16ea32	AVR16EA32
avr16ea48	AVR16EA48
avr32da28	AVR32DA28
avr32da32	AVR32DA32
avr32da48	AVR32DA48
avr32db28	AVR32DB28
avr32db32	AVR32DB32
avr32db48	AVR32DB48
avr32dd14	AVR32DD14
avr32dd20	AVR32DD20
avr32dd28	AVR32DD28
avr32dd32	AVR32DD32
avr32ea28	AVR32EA28
avr32ea32	AVR32EA32
avr32ea48	AVR32EA48
avr64da28	AVR64DA28
avr64da32	AVR64DA32
avr64da48	AVR64DA48
avr64da64	AVR64DA64
avr64db28	AVR64DB28
avr64db32	AVR64DB32
avr64db48	AVR64DB48
avr64db64	AVR64DB64
avr64dd14	AVR64DD14
avr64dd20	AVR64DD20
avr64dd28	AVR64DD28
avr64dd32	AVR64DD32
avr64ea28	AVR64EA28
avr64ea32	AVR64EA32
avr64ea48	AVR64EA48
avr8ea28	AVR8EA28
avr8ea32	AVR8EA32
ucr2	deprecated,
lgt8f168p	LGT8F168P
lgt8f328p	LGT8F328P
lgt8f88p	LGT8F88P

(*) 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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