Enabling tftpd on MacOS X (Snow) Leopard

Enabling the tftp daemon in MacOS X Snow Leopard (or Leopard) is an easy task with little documentation. This is a quick reference. The manual page for tftpd in MacOS X Snow Leopard (or Leopard) recommends that tftpd is launched via launchd, so we will do it that way. First, we enter launchd% console using sudo:

sudo launchctl

After that, we enable tftpd in launchd% console:

load -F /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/tftp.plist

That’s it. Now you can put your tftp files into /private/tftpboot folder and start using tftpd.

When you are finished using the daemon, you can unload it by entering launchd% console and issuing the following command:

unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/tftp.plist

If you use tftpd a lot, you can enable it at boot time by entering the following in launchd% console:

load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/tftp.plist

And to disable it from starting up at boot time:

unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/tftp.plist