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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:
1200
AT90S1200
2313
AT90S2313
2333
AT90S2333
2343
AT90S2343 (*)
4414
AT90S4414
4433
AT90S4433
4434
AT90S4434
8515
AT90S8515
8535
AT90S8535
m103
ATMEGA103
m128
ATMEGA128
m16
ATMEGA16
m161
ATMEGA161
m162
ATMEGA162
m163
ATMEGA163
m169
ATMEGA169
m32
ATMEGA32
m48
ATMEGA48
m64
ATMEGA64
m8
ATMEGA8
m8515
ATMEGA8515
m8535
ATMEGA8535
m88
ATMEGA88
t12
ATtiny12
t15
ATtiny15
t26
ATTINY26
(*) The AT90S2323 uses the same algorithm.
-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
ABCmini Board, aka Dick Smith HOTCHIP
alf
Nightshade ALF-PgmAVR, http://nightshade.homeip.net/
avr910
Atmel Low Cost Serial Programmer
avrisp
Atmel AVR ISP
bascom
Bascom SAMPLE programming cable
bsd
Brian Dean's Programmer, http://www.bsdhome.com/avrdude/
butterfly
Atmel Butterfly Development Board
dt006
Dontronics DT006
pavr
Jason Kyle's pAVR Serial Programmer
picoweb
Picoweb Programming Cable, http://www.picoweb.net/
pony-stk200
Pony Prog STK200
sp12
Steve Bolt's Programmer
stk200
STK200
stk500
Atmel STK500
-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.
-n
No-write - disables actually writing data to the MCU (useful for debugging AVRDUDE).
-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.
-q
Disable (or quell) output of the progress bar while reading or writing to the device.
-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 @option{-m}, @option{-i} or @option{-o}, and @option{-f} options, except that multiple @option{-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 @option{-v} option on the command line or the part command from terminal mode to display all the memory types supported by a particular device. 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 @option{-i}, @option{-o}, or @option{-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.
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.
-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 @option{-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.


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