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 is the only mandatory option and it tells AVRDUDE what type of part (MCU) that is connected to the programmer. The partno parameter is the part's id listed in the configuration file. Specify -p ? to list all parts in the configuration file. 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. Currently, the following MCU types are understood:

c128	AT90CAN128
pwm2	AT90PWM2
pwm3	AT90PWM3
1200	AT90S1200
2313	AT90S2313
2333	AT90S2333
2343	AT90S2343 (*)
4414	AT90S4414
4433	AT90S4433
4434	AT90S4434
8515	AT90S8515
8535	AT90S8535
m103	ATmega103
m128	ATmega128
m1280	ATmega1280
m1281	ATmega1281
m16	ATmega16
m161	ATmega161
m162	ATmega162
m163	ATmega163
m164	ATmega164
m169	ATmega169
m2560	ATmega2560 (**)
m2561	ATmega2561 (**)
m32	ATmega32
m324	ATmega324
m329	ATmega329
m3290	ATmega3290
m48	ATmega48
m64	ATmega64
m640	ATmega640
m644	ATmega644
m649	ATmega649
m6490	ATmega6490
m8	ATmega8
m8515	ATmega8515
m8535	ATmega8535
m88	ATmega88
t12	ATtiny12
t13	ATtiny13
t15	ATtiny15
t2313	ATtiny2313
t25	ATtiny25
t26	ATtiny26
t45	ATtiny45
t85	ATtiny85

(*) 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.

-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 interface or the ISP clock (JTAG ICE only). The value is a floating-point number in microseconds. The default value of the JTAG ICE results in about 1 microsecond bit clock period, suitable for target MCUs running at 4 MHz clock and above. Unlike certain parameters in the STK500, the JTAG ICE resets all its parameters to default values when the programming software signs off from the ICE, so for MCUs running at lower clock speeds, this parameter must be specified on the command-line.

-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. Currently, the following programmer ids are understood and supported:

ABCmini Board, aka Dick Smith HOTCHIP Nightshade ALF-PgmAVR,
http://nightshade.homeip.net/ Atmel AppNote AVR109 Boot Loader Atmel Low Cost Serial Programmer Atmel AppNote AVR911 AVROSP (an alias for avr109) Atmel AVR ISP (an alias for stk500) Atmel AVR ISP, running a version 2.x firmware (an alias for stk500v2) Atmel AVR ISP mkII (alias for stk500v2) Atmel AVR ISP mkII (alias for stk500v2) Bascom SAMPLE programming cable Brian Dean's Programmer,
http://www.bsdhome.com/avrdude/ Atmel Butterfly Development Board Dontronics DT006 AVR Dragon in debugWire mode AVR Dragon in high-voltage serial programming mode AVR Dragon in ISP mode AVR Dragon in JTAG mode AVR Dragon in (high-voltage) parallel programming mode Frank's STK200 clone, http://electropol.free.fr/spip/spip.php?article15 Atmel JTAG ICE mkI, running at 115200 Bd Same as before. Atmel JTAG ICE mkI, running at 19200 Bd Atmel JTAG ICE mkII (default speed 19200 Bd) Same as before. Atmel JTAG ICE mkII, running at 115200 Bd Same as before. Atmel JTAG ICE mkII in ISP mode. Atmel JTAG ICE mkII in debugWire mode. Jason Kyle's pAVR Serial Programmer Picoweb Programming Cable,
http://www.picoweb.net/ Pony Prog STK200 Steve Bolt's Programmer STK200 Atmel STK500, probing for either version 1.x or 2.x firmware Atmel STK500, running a version 1.x firmware Atmel STK500 in high-voltage serial programming mode(version 2.x firmware only) Atmel STK500 in parallel programming mode (version 2.xfirmware only) Atmel STK500, running a version 2.x firmware

abcmini
alf
avr109
avr910
avr911
avrisp
avrispv2
avrispmkII
avrispmk2
bascom
bsd
butterfly
dt006
dragon_dw
dragon_hvsp
dragon_isp
dragon_jtag
dragon_pp
frank-stk200
jtagmkI
jtag1
jtag1slow
jtagmkII
jtag2slow
jtag2fast
jtag2
jtag2isp
jtag2dw
pavr
picoweb
pony-stk200
sp12
stk200
stk500
stk500v1
stk500hvsp
stk500pp
stk500v2

-C config-file

Use the specified config file for configuration data. This file contains all programmer and part definitions that AVRDUDE knows about. If you have a programmer or part that AVRDUDE does not know about, you can add it to the config file (be sure and submit a patch back to the author so that it can be incorporated for the next version). If not specified, AVRDUDE reads the configuration file from /usr/local/etc/avrdude.conf (FreeBSD and Linux). See Appendix A for the method of searching for the configuration file for Windows.

-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. However, to remain backward compatible, the -i, and -m options automatically disable the auto erase feature.

-e

Causes a chip erase to be executed. This will reset the contents of the flash ROM and EEPROM to the value `0xff', and 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.

noreset

The `/RESET' line will be deactivated at program exit, thus allowing the MCU target program to run while the programming hardware remains connected.

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.

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.

-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.

-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.

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 2.2 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. Libusb support is required on Unix but not on Windows. For more information about AVR-Doper see http://www.obdev.at/avrusb/avrdoper.html.

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. 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.

This feature is currently not implemented for Win32 systems.

-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.

-u

Disables the default behaviour of reading out the fuses three times before programming, then verifying at the end of programming that the fuses have not changed. If you want to change fuses you will need to specify this option, as avrdude will see the fuses have changed (even though you wanted to) and will change them back for your "saftey". This option was designed to prevent cases of fuse bits magically changing (usually called safemode).

-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, equivalent to specifing the `-m', `-i' or `-o', and `-f' options, except that multiple `-U' optins can be specified in order to operate on mulitple 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).

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

s

Motorola S-record

r

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

m

immediate mode; actual byte values specified on the command line, seperated by commas or spaces in place of the filename field of the `-i', `-o', or `-U' options. 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.

o

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

b

binary; each value will get the string 0b prepended.

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.

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.

-V

Disable automatic verify check when uploading data.

-y

Tells AVRDUDE to use the last four bytes of the connected parts' EEPROM memory to track the number of times the device has been erased. When this option is used and the `-e' flag is specified to generate a chip erase, the previous counter will be saved before the chip erase, it is then incremented, and written back after the erase cycle completes. Presumably, the device would only be erased just before being programmed, and thus, this can be utilized to give an indication of how many erase-rewrite cycles the part has undergone. Since the FLASH memory can only endure a finite number of erase-rewrite cycles, one can use this option to track when a part is nearing the limit. The typical limit for Atmel AVR FLASH is 1000 cycles. Of course, if the application needs the last four bytes of EEPROM memory, this option should not be used.

-Y cycles

Instructs AVRDUDE to initialize the erase-rewrite cycle counter residing at the last four bytes of EEPROM memory to the specified value. If the application needs the last four bytes of EEPROM memory, this option should not be used.