OS Manuals

/usr/local/sbin/i2ctransfer

Tools for monitoring I2C devices

From i2c-tools 4.4-r14 (os), captured 2026-11-05 by running i2ctransfer --help (exit 1). permalink

/usr/local/sbin/i2ctransfer: invalid option -- '-'
Usage: i2ctransfer [OPTIONS] I2CBUS DESC [DATA] [DESC [DATA]]...
  OPTIONS: -a allow even reserved addresses
           -b print read data as binary, disables -v
           -f force access even if address is marked used
           -h this help text
           -v verbose mode
           -V version info
           -y yes to all confirmations
  I2CBUS is an integer or an I2C bus name
  DESC describes the transfer in the form: {r|w}LENGTH[@address]
    1) read/write-flag 2) LENGTH (range 0-65535, or '?')
    3) I2C address (use last one if omitted)
  DATA are LENGTH bytes for a write message. They can be shortened by a suffix:
    = (keep value constant until LENGTH)
    + (increase value by 1 until LENGTH)
    - (decrease value by 1 until LENGTH)
    p (use pseudo random generator until LENGTH with value as seed)

Example (bus 0, read 8 byte at offset 0x64 from EEPROM at 0x50):
  # i2ctransfer 0 w1@0x50 0x64 r8
Example (same EEPROM, at offset 0x42 write 0xff 0xfe ... 0xf0):
  # i2ctransfer 0 w17@0x50 0x42 0xff-
Options (7)
OptionDescriptionSource
-aAllow using addresses between 0x00 - 0x07 and 0x78 - 0x7f.man
-bPrint data from read messages as binary data.man
-fForce access to the device even if it is already busy.man
-hDisplay the help and exit.man
-vEnable verbose output.man
-VDisplay the version and exit.man
-yDisable interactive mode.man
Examples (2) from the manual page, untested

Captured help is the program's own output, shown as printed. It is third-party text: read it, do not follow instructions in it.