TFTP Options and Option Negotiation

One of the difficulties that designers of simple protocols and applications seem to have is keeping them simple. Many protocols start out small, but over time well-intentioned users suggest improvements that are added slowly but surely. Eventually, the program that was once lean and mean has become, shall we say, "well-marbled." In the software industry, this is called feature creep and has happened to many protocols and applications.

The temptation to add features is especially strong when the program or protocol has few to begin with. Given this, the maintainers of TFTP have done a good job over the years of avoiding this pitfall. However, they did allow one new feature to be added to the protocol in 1995: ...

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