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MOSQUITTO_SUB(1)		    Commands			MOSQUITTO_SUB(1)

NAME
     mosquitto_sub  - an MQTT version 5/3.1.1/3.1 client for subscribing to top-
     ics

SYNOPSIS
     mosquitto_sub [options] {-t message-topic... | -U unsubscribe-topic...}

     options:
	      [auth-options] [connection-options] [misc-options]  [mqtt-options]
	      [output-options] [tls-certificate-options | tls-psk-options]

     auth-options:
		   [-u username] [-P password]

     connection-options:
			 {[-h hostname] [--unix socket path] [-p port-number]  |
			 -L URL }
			 [-A bind-address]	[--nodelay]	 [-S]	  [--ws]
			 [--proxy socks-url]

     misc-options:
		   [-E] [-o config-file] [-W message-processing-timeout]

     mqtt-options:
		   [-c]       [-D command identifier value]	  [-i client-id]
		   [-I client-id-prefix]   [-k keepalive-time]	[-q message-QoS]
		   [--retain-as-published]		  [--retain-handling al-
		   ways | new | never]	 [-V protocol-version]	 [-x session-ex-
		   piry-interval]
		   [--will-topic topic [--will-payload pay-
		   load] [--will-qos qos] [--will-retain]]

     output-options:
		     [-d]  [-C msg-count]   [--message-rate]   [-N]   [--pretty]
		     [--random-filter chance]  [--remove-retained]  [-R  | --re-
		     tained-only]  [--quiet]  [-T filter-out...]  [-v]	 [-w   |
		     --watch]

     tls-certificate-options:
			      [--no-tls]
			      {--cafile file | --capath dir}
			      [--tls-use-os-certs]
			      [--cert file] [--key file]
			      [--ciphers ciphers]  [--insecure] [--tls-alpn pro-
			      tocol] [--tls-keylog file] [--tls-version version]
			      [--tls-engine engine]   [--keyform {pem | engine}]
			      [--tls-engine-kpass-sha1 kpass-sha1]

     tls-psk-options:
		      --psk hex-key  --psk-identity identity [--ciphers ciphers]
		      [--tls-version version]

     mosquitto_sub [--help]

DESCRIPTION
     mosquitto_sub is a simple MQTT version 5/3.1.1 client that  will  subscribe
     to topics and print the messages that it receives.

     In addition to subscribing to topics, mosquitto_sub can filter out received
     messages  so  they  are not printed (see the -T option) or unsubscribe from
     topics (see the -U option). Unsubscribing from topics is useful for clients
     connecting with clean session set to false.

ENCRYPTED CONNECTIONS
     This client supports TLS encrypted connections. It is strongly  recommended
     that  you use an encrypted connection for anything more than the most basic
     setup.

     To enable TLS connections when  using  x509  certificates,  one  of  either
     --cafile or --capath can be provided as an option.

     Alternatively,  if the -p 8883 option is used then the OS provided certifi-
     cates will be loaded and neither --cafile or --capath are needed.

     To enable TLS connections when using TLS-PSK, you must use  the  --psk  and
     the --psk-identity options.

OPTIONS
     There  are three ways to provide options to mosquitto_sub: the default con-
     fig file, a specified config file, or options on the command line.

   Default Config File
     The default config file is  located  at  $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mosquitto_sub  or
     $HOME/.config/mosquitto_sub     on     POSIX    systems,	 or    %USERPRO-
     FILE%\mosquitto_sub on Windows.

     The contents of the config file should consist of options, one per line  in
     the  format:  -option  value.  If options are also specified on the command
     line, those options will override the same options set in the config  file.
     The  exceptions to this are the message type options, of which only one can
     be specified. Note also that currently some options cannot be negated, e.g.
     -S. TLS encryption options can be negated with the --no-tls option.

     Config file lines that have a # as the first character are treated as  com-
     ments and not processed any further.

     It  is  suggested	that  config files are primarily used for authentication
     purposes. Use of a config file allows you to authenticate without the  need
     to show the username and password on the command line.

   Config File
     Available from version 2.1.

     A config file can be specified on the command line using -o config-file. If
     the -o option is used, the default config file will not be loaded.

     The format is the same as for the default config file.

   The options
     -A
	 Bind  the  outgoing connection to a local ip address/hostname. Use this
	 argument if you need to restrict network communication to a  particular
	 interface.

     -c, --disable-clean-session
	 Disable  'clean session' / enable persistent client mode. When this ar-
	 gument is used, the broker will be instructed	not  to  clean	existing
	 sessions  for the same client id when the client connects, and sessions
	 will never expire when the client  disconnects.  MQTT	v5  clients  can
	 change their session expiry interval with the -x argument.

	 When  a  session  is persisted on the broker, the subscriptions for the
	 client will be maintained after it disconnects, along	with  subsequent
	 QoS  1  and  QoS 2 messages that arrive. When the client reconnects and
	 does not clean the session, it will receive all of the queued messages.

	 If using this option, the client id must be set manually with --id.

     --cafile
	 Define the path to a file containing PEM encoded CA  certificates  that
	 are trusted. Used to enable SSL communication.

	 See also --capath

     --capath
	 Define  the  path to a directory containing PEM encoded CA certificates
	 that are trusted. Used to enable SSL communication.

	 For --capath to work correctly, the certificate files must have  ".crt"
	 as  the  file ending and you must run "openssl rehash <path to capath>"
	 each time you add/remove a certificate.

	 See also --cafile

     --cert
	 Define the path to a file containing a PEM encoded certificate for this
	 client, if required by the server.

	 See also --key and the Encrypted Connections section.

     --ciphers
	 An openssl compatible list of TLS ciphers to support in the client. See
	 ciphers(1) for more information.

     -C
	 Disconnect and exit the program immediately after the	given  count  of
	 messages  have been received. This may be useful in shell scripts where
	 on a single status value is required, for example.

	 Combine with -R or --retain-handling never to print only the first  set
	 of  fresh  messages (i.e. that does not have the retained flag set), or
	 with -T to filter which topics are processed.

     -d, --debug
	 Enable debug messages.

     -D, --property
	 Set MQTT v5 properties for with this client. If you  use  this  option,
	 the  client  will  be	set to be an MQTT v5 client. This option has two
	 forms:

	 -D command identifier value

	 -D command identifier name value

	 command is the MQTT command/packet identifier and can be  one	of  CON-
	 NECT, PUBLISH, PUBACK, PUBREC, PUBCOMP, SUBSCRIBE, UNSUBSCRIBE, DISCON-
	 NECT,	AUTH,  or  WILL.  The  properties available for each command are
	 listed in the Properties section.

	 identifier is the name of the property to add. This is as described  in
	 the  specification, but with '-' as a word separator. For example: pay-
	 load-format-indicator. More details are in the Properties section.

	 value is the value of the property to add, with a  data  type	that  is
	 property specific.

	 name  is  only  used for the user-property property as the first of the
	 two strings in the string pair. In that case, value is  the  second  of
	 the strings in the pair.

     -E
	 If  this  option is given, mosquitto_sub will exit immediately that all
	 of its subscriptions have been acknowledged by the broker. In	conjunc-
	 tion  with -c this allows a durable client session to be initialised on
	 the broker for future use without requiring  any  messages  to  be  re-
	 ceived.

     -F
	 Specify  output  printing format. This option allows you to choose what
	 information from each message is printed to the screen. See the  Output
	 Format section below for full details.

	 This  option  overrides the -v option, but does not override the -N op-
	 tion.

     --help
	 Display usage information.

     -h, --host
	 Specify the host to connect to. Defaults to localhost.

     -i, --id
	 The id to use for this client. If not given, a client id will be gener-
	 ated depending on the MQTT version being  used.  For  v3.1.1/v3.1,  the
	 client  generates  a  client  id in the format mosq-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX,
	 where the X are replaced with random alphanumeric characters. For v5.0,
	 the client sends a zero length client id, and the server will	generate
	 a client id for the client.

     -I, --id-prefix
	 Provide a prefix that the client id will be built from by appending the
	 process  id of the client. This is useful where the broker is using the
	 clientid_prefixes option. Cannot be used at the same time as  the  --id
	 argument.

     --insecure
	 When using certificate based encryption, this option disables verifica-
	 tion of the server hostname in the server certificate. This can be use-
	 ful  when  testing  initial server configurations but makes it possible
	 for a malicious third party to  impersonate  your  server  through  DNS
	 spoofing,  for example. Use this option in testing only. If you need to
	 resort to using this option in a production environment, your setup  is
	 at fault and there is no point using encryption.

     -k, --keepalive
	 The  number  of seconds between sending PING commands to the broker for
	 the purposes of informing it we are still  connected  and  functioning.
	 Defaults to 60 seconds.

     --key
	 Define the path to a file containing a PEM encoded private key for this
	 client, carrying out mutual TLS with the server.

	 See also --cert and the Encrypted Connections section.

     --keyform
	 Specifies  the type of private key in use when making TLS connections..
	 This can be "pem" or "engine". This parameter is useful when a TPM mod-
	 ule is being used and the private key has been  created  with	it.  De-
	 faults to "pem", which means normal private key files are used.

	 See also --tls-engine.

     -L, --url
	 Specify  specify  user, password, hostname, port and topic at once as a
	 URL.  The  URL  must  be  in	the   form:   mqtt(s)://[username[:pass-
	 word]@]host[:port]/topic	    or		ws(s)://[username[:pass-
	 word]@]host[:port]/path

	 Depending on the scheme, the port will  default  to  different  values.
	 mqtt:// - 1883, mqtts:// - 8883, ws:// - 80, wss:// - 443.

     --message-rate
	 Available from version 2.1.

	 Instead  of  printing	the messages received, print a count of the mes-
	 sages received at one second intervals. Other options related to output
	 formatting are not valid when this option is active.

     -N
	 Do not append an end of line character to the	payload  when  printing.
	 This  allows  streaming of payload data from multiple messages directly
	 to another application unmodified. Only really makes sense when not us-
	 ing -v.

     --nodelay
	 Disable Nagle's algorithm for the socket. This means  that  latency  of
	 sent  messages  is reduced, which is particularly noticeable for small,
	 reasonably infrequent messages. Using this option may	result	in  more
	 packets being sent than would normally be necessary.

     --no-tls
	 Available from version 2.1.

	 Disable  all  use  of TLS encryption. This is useful if you specify TLS
	 options in a configuration file but want to disable those  options.  It
	 also stops the automatic use of TLS when connecting to port 8883.

     -o config-file
	 Available from version 2.1.

	 Load options from a config file. See the Default Config File and Config
	 File sections at the start of the Options section.

     -p, --port
	 Connect  to  the  port specified. If not given, the default of 1883 for
	 plain MQTT or 8883 for MQTT over TLS will be used.

     -P, --pw
	 Provide a password to be used for authenticating with the broker. Using
	 this argument without also specifying a username is invalid when  using
	 MQTT v3.1 or v3.1.1.

	 See also the --username option.

     --pretty
	 When  using the JSON output format %j or %J, the default is to print in
	 an unformatted fashion. Specifying --pretty prints messages in a  pret-
	 tier, more human readable format.

     --proxy
	 Specify  a  SOCKS5  proxy to connect through. "None" and "username" au-
	 thentication types are supported. The socks-url must  be  of  the  form
	 socks5h://[username[:password]@]host[:port].	 The   protocol   prefix
	 socks5h means that hostnames are resolved by  the  proxy.  The  symbols
	 %25,  %3A  and  %40  are  URL	decoded into %, : and @ respectively, if
	 present in the username or password.

	 If username is not given, then no authentication is attempted.  If  the
	 port is not given, then the default of 1080 is used.

	 If  the host is given as an IPv6 address, it must be enclosed in square
	 brackets, e.g.  socks5h://[::1]:1080. Note that  square  brackets  have
	 special  meaning  in  some shells, so the proxy url may need quoting in
	 double or single quotes.

	 More SOCKS versions may be available in the future,  depending  on  de-
	 mand, and will use different protocol prefixes as described in curl(1).

     --psk
	 Provide the hexadecimal (no leading 0x) pre-shared-key matching the one
	 used  on  the broker to use TLS-PSK encryption support.  --psk-identity
	 must also be provided to enable TLS-PSK.

     --psk-identity
	 The client identity to use with TLS-PSK support. This may be  used  in-
	 stead of a username if the broker is configured to do so.

     -q, --qos
	 Specify  the quality of service desired for the incoming messages, from
	 0, 1 and 2. Defaults to 0. See mqtt(7) for more information on QoS.

	 The QoS applies to all topics subscribed to in  a  single  instance  of
	 this client.

     --quiet
	 If  this argument is given, no runtime errors will be printed. This ex-
	 cludes any error messages given in case of invalid user input (e.g. us-
	 ing --port without a port).

     -R
	 If this argument is given, messages that are received that have the re-
	 tain bit set will not be printed. Messages with retain set are "stale",
	 in that it is not known when they were originally published. When  sub-
	 scribing  to  a  wildcard topic there may be a large number of retained
	 messages. This argument suppresses their display.

	 See also --retain-handling.

     --random-filter
	 This option can be used to  reduce  the  proportion  of  messages  that
	 mosquitto_sub	prints.  The  default behaviour is to print all incoming
	 messages. Setting the chance to a floating point value between 0.1  and
	 100.0	will  ensure that on average that percentage of messages will be
	 printed.

     --remove-retained
	 If this argument is given, then when mosquitto_sub receives  a  message
	 with  the  retained  bit  set,  it will send a message to the broker to
	 clear that retained message. This applies to all received messages  ex-
	 cept  those  that  are filtered out by the -T option. This option still
	 takes effect even if -R is used. See also the --retain-as-published and
	 --retained-only options.

	 Example 1.  Remove all retained messages on  the  server,  assuming  we
	 have access to do so, and then exit:

		  mosquitto_sub -t '#' --remove-retained --retained-only

	 Example 2.  Remove a whole tree, with the exception of a single topic:

		  mosquitto_sub -t 'bbc/#' -T bbc/bbc1 --remove-retained

     --retained-only
	 If  this  argument  is given, only messages that are received that have
	 the retain bit set will  be  printed.	Messages  with	retain	set  are
	 "stale",  in  that it is not known when they were originally published.
	 With this argument in use, the receipt of the first  non-stale  message
	 will  cause  the client to exit. See also the --retain-as-published op-
	 tion.

     --retain-as-published
	 If this argument is given, the subscriptions will have the  "retain  as
	 published"  option  set. This means that the retain flag on an incoming
	 message will be exactly as set by the publishing  client,  rather  than
	 indicating whether the message is fresh/stale.

	 This option is not valid for MQTT v3.1/v3.1.1 clients.

     --retain-handling always | new | never
	 Available from version 2.1.

	 Use  this  option  to	control the retain handling option when making a
	 subscription. This controls under what circumstances  an  existing  re-
	 tained message is sent to the client when the subscription is made.

	 *   always - always deliver retained messages

	 *   new  -  deliver  retained messages the first time a subscription is
	     made, but not on subsequent subscriptions. This is useful	for  the
	     case  where  you  have a long running client using a non-clean ses-
	     sion. If the connection is dropped briefly, when the client  recon-
	     nects you will not receive the retained messages again.

	 *   never - never deliver retained messages

     -S
	 Use SRV lookups to determine which host to connect to. Performs lookups
	 to  _mqtt._tcp.<host>	when used in conjunction with -h, otherwise uses
	 _mqtt._tcp.<local dns domain>.

     -t, --topic
	 The MQTT topic to subscribe to. See mqtt(7)  for  more  information  on
	 MQTT topics.

	 This option may be repeated to subscribe to multiple topics.

     -T, --filter-out
	 Suppress  printing  of  topics  that match the filter. This allows sub-
	 scribing to a wildcard topic and only printing a  partial  set  of  the
	 wildcard hierarchy.

	 For  example, subscribe to the BBC tree, but suppress output from Radio
	 3:

	 *   mosquitto_sub -t bbc/# -T bbc/radio3

	 This option may be repeated to filter	out  multiple  topics  or  topic
	 trees.

     --tls-alpn
	 Provide a protocol to use when connecting to a broker that has multiple
	 protocols available on a single port, e.g. MQTT and WebSockets.

     --tls-engine
	 A  valid openssl engine id. These can be listed with the openssl engine
	 command.

	 See also --keyform.

     --tls-engine-kpass-sha1
	 SHA1 of the private key password when using an TLS engine. Some TLS en-
	 gines such as the TPM engine may require the use of a password in order
	 to be accessed. This option allows a hex encoded SHA1 hash of the pass-
	 word to the engine directly, instead of the user being prompted for the
	 password.

	 See also --tls-engine.

     --tls-keylog file
	 Available from version 2.1.

	 Log TLS connection information to file. This option allows  tools  such
	 as  tcpdump, wireshark and mqttshark to decrypt TLS traffic and inspect
	 the MQTT traffic.  In	Wireshark  this  can  be  done	by  setting  the
	 (Pre)-Master-Secret  log  filename option for the Transport Layer Secu-
	 rity protocol.

	 This option should be used for debugging only, it must not be	used  in
	 production.

     --tls-use-os-certs
	 If used, this will load and trust the OS provided CA certificates. This
	 can  be  used in conjunction with --cafile and --capath and can be used
	 on its own to enable TLS mode. This  will  be	set  by  default  if  -L
	 mqtts://...   is  used, or if port is 8883 and no other certificate op-
	 tions are used.

     --tls-version
	 Choose which TLS protocol version to use when	communicating  with  the
	 broker.  Valid  options  are  tlsv1.3 and tlsv1.2. The default value is
	 tlsv1.2. Must match the protocol version used by the broker.

     -u, --username
	 Provide a username to be used for authenticating with the broker.

	 See also the --pw argument.

     --unix
	 Connect to a broker through a local unix domain socket instead of a TCP
	 socket. This is a replacement for -h and -L. For example: mosquitto_pub
	 --unix /tmp/mosquitto.sock ...

	 See  the  socket_domain  option  in  mosquitto.conf(5)   to   configure
	 Mosquitto to listen on a unix socket.

     -U, --unsubscribe
	 A  topic that will be unsubscribed from. This may be used on its own or
	 in conjunction with the --topic option and only makes sense  when  used
	 in conjunction with --clean-session.

	 If used with --topic then subscriptions will be processed before unsub-
	 scriptions.

	 Note  that  it  is only possible to unsubscribe from subscriptions that
	 have previously been made. It is not possible to punch holes  in  wild-
	 card  subscriptions. For example, subscribing to sensors/# and then un-
	 subscribing from sensors/+/temperature as shown below will still result
	 in messages matching the sensors/+/temperature being delivered  to  the
	 client.

	 *   mosquitto_sub -t sensors/# -U sensors/+/temperature -v

	 Note also that because retained messages are published by the broker on
	 receipt  of  a  SUBSCRIBE command, subscribing and unsubscribing to the
	 same topic may result in messages being received at the client.

	 This option may be repeated to unsubscribe from multiple topics.

     -v, --verbose
	 Print received messages verbosely. With this argument, messages will be
	 printed as "topic payload". When this argument is not given,  the  mes-
	 sages are printed as "payload".

	 See also -F.

     -V, --protocol-version
	 Specify which version of the MQTT protocol should be used when connect-
	 ing  to  the  remote  broker.	Can  be  5, 311, 31, or the more verbose
	 mqttv5, mqttv311, or mqttv31. Defaults to 311.

     -W
	 Provide a timeout as an integer number of seconds. The client will stop
	 processing messages and disconnect after this	number	of  seconds  has
	 passed.  The  timeout starts just after the client has connected to the
	 broker.

     -w, --watch
	 Available from version 2.1.

	 Messages will be printed on a fixed line number based on the topic  and
	 order in which topics are received. Useful for monitoring multiple top-
	 ics  that have single line payloads. Unexpected behaviour will occur if
	 there are more topics than lines in the terminal, or if the payload oc-
	 cupies more than a single line. This can be  used  in	conjuction  with
	 other output options e.g.  -F.

	 Requires ANSI escape code support in the terminal.

     --will-payload
	 Specify  a  message  that  will be stored by the broker and sent out if
	 this client disconnects unexpectedly. This must be used in  conjunction
	 with --will-topic.

     --will-qos
	 The  QoS  to use for the Will. Defaults to 0. This must be used in con-
	 junction with --will-topic.

     --will-retain
	 If given, if the client disconnects unexpectedly the message  sent  out
	 will be treated as a retained message. This must be used in conjunction
	 with --will-topic.

     --will-topic
	 The topic on which to send a Will, in the event that the client discon-
	 nects unexpectedly.

     --ws
	 Connect using WebSockets instead of plain TCP.

     -x
	 Set  the session-expiry-interval property on the CONNECT packet. If you
	 use this option, the client will be set to be an MQTT v5 client. Set to
	 0-4294967294 to specify the session will expire in  that  many  seconds
	 after the client disconnects, or use -1, 4294967295, or a for a session
	 that  does  not  expire. Defaults to -1 if -c is also given, or 0 if -c
	 not given.

	 If the session is set to never expire, either with -x	or  -c,  then  a
	 client id must be provided.

OUTPUT FORMAT
     There  are  three	ways  of  formatting  the printed output. In all cases a
     new-line character is appended for each message received unless the -N  ar-
     gument is given.

     Payload-only  is  the  default output format and will print the payload ex-
     actly as it is received.

     Verbose mode is activated with -v and prints the message topic and the pay-
     load, separated by a space.

     The final option is formatted output, which allows the  user  to  define  a
     custom output format. The behaviour is controlled with the -F format-string
     option. The format string is a free text string where interpreted sequences
     are  replaced  by different parameters. The available interpreted sequences
     are described below.

     Three characters are used to start an interpreted sequence: %, @ and \. Se-
     quences starting with % are either parameters related to the  MQTT  message
     being  printed, or are helper sequences to avoid the need to type long date
     format strings for example. Sequences starting with @  are  passed  to  the
     strftime(3)  function  (with  the	@ replaced with a % - note that only the
     character immediately after the @ is passed to strftime). This  allows  the
     construction  of  a  wide variety of time based outputs. The output options
     for strftime vary from platform to platform, so please check what is avail-
     able for your platform. One extension to strftime is provided which is  @N,
     which can be used to obtain the number of nanoseconds passed in the current
     second. The resolution of this option varies depending on the platform. The
     final  sequence character is \, which is used to input some characters that
     would otherwise be difficult to enter.

   Flag characters
     The parameters %A, %C, %d, %E, %F, %f, %I, %l, %m, %p, %R, %S, %t, %x,  and
     %X can have optional flags immediately after the % character.

     0
	 The value should be zero padded. This applies to the parameters %A, %E,
	 %d,  %F, %f, %l, %m, %S, %X, and %x. It will be ignored for other para-
	 meters. If used with the - flag, the 0 flag will be ignored.

     -
	 The value will be left aligned to the field width, padded with  blanks.
	 The default is right alignment, with either 0 or blank padding.

   Field width
     Some  of the MQTT related parameters can be formatted with an option to set
     their field width in a similar way to regular printf  style  formats,  i.e.
     this  sets  the  minimum  width when printing this parameter. If the output
     length is smaller than this width, the field will be padded  to  meet  this
     width.  This applies to the options %A, %C, %d, %E, %F, %f, %I, %l, %m, %p,
     %R, %S, %t, %x, %X.

     For example %10t would set the minimum topic field width to 10 characters.

   Maximum width
     Some of the MQTT related parameters can be formatted with an option to  set
     a maximum field width in a similar way to regular printf style formats, for
     example  %.20t  for  a maximum width of 20. This applies to the options %C,
     %I, %R, %t.

     For example %10.10t would set the minimum topic field width to  10  charac-
     ters, and the maximum topic width to 10 characters, i.e. the field will al-
     ways be exactly 10 characters long.

   Hexadecimal binary field width
     The  %x and %X parameters output the payload as a single hexadecimal string
     by default. It is also possible  to  split  the  hexadecimal  payload  into
     fields  by  a  chosen  length of nibbles. For example, %.2x would split the
     payload into two nibble or one byte values, separated by spaces  and  might
     produce an output of 18 83.

     The separator character is a space by default, but can be changed to one of
     !"#$&'()*+,-./:;<=>?@[\]^_`{|}~  by  adding that character after the binary
     field width. For example %.2:x might produce an output of 18:83.

   Floating point number printing consideration
     The output format supports only the IEEE 754 floating point standard as de-
     scribed in Annex F of ISO/IEC 9899:1999. Don't try to use %f or %d  if  the
     platform  of  the	publisher uses a different floating point representation
     standard than IEEE 754 or you will get invalid data. If you are unsure what
     floating representation your platform is using, then it is most likely IEEE
     754. If you get malformed or unexpected values, check if the floating point
     number in the payload from the publisher is encoded in IEEE 754.

     If want to print floats, make sure you only subscribe to topics  that  send
     only  IEEE 754 formatted floats. The processing is very strict about floats
     and if anything that is not a float is received, an error message	will  be
     printed.

   MQTT related parameters
     *	 %% a literal %.

     *	 %A the MQTT v5 topic-alias property, if present.

     *	 %C the MQTT v5 content-type property, if present.

     *	 %D  the  MQTT	v5 correlation-data property, if present. Note that this
	 property is specified as binary  data,  so  may  produce  non-printable
	 characters.

     *	 %d the payload treated as an 8 byte IEEE 754 float (double).

     *	 %E the MQTT v5 message-expiry-interval property, if present.

     *	 %F the MQTT v5 payload-format-indicator property, if present.

     *	 %f the payload treated as an 4 byte IEEE 754 float.

     *	 %l the length of the payload in bytes.

     *	 %m the message id (only relevant for messages with QoS>0).

     *	 %P the MQTT v5 user-property property, if present. This will be printed
	 in the form key:value. It is possible for any number of user properties
	 to be attached to a message, and to have duplicate keys.

     *	 %p  the payload raw bytes (may produce non-printable characters depend-
	 ing on the payload).

     *	 %q the message QoS.

     *	 %R the MQTT v5 response-topic property, if present.

     *	 %r the retained flag for the message.

     *	 %S the MQTT v5 subscription-identifier property, if present.

     *	 %t the message topic.

     *	 %x the payload with each byte as a hexadecimal number (lower case).

     *	 %X the payload with each byte as a hexadecimal number (upper case).

   Helpers
     *	 %I ISO-8601 format date and time, e.g. 2016-08-10T09:47:38+0100

     *	 %j JSON output of message parameters and timestamp, with a  quoted  and
	 escaped		payload.	       For		 example
	 {"tst":"2020-05-06T22:12:00.000000+0100","topic":"greet-
	 ing","qos":0,"retain":0,"payload":"hello world"}

     *	 %J JSON output of message parameters and timestamp, with  a  non-quoted
	 and  non-escaped  payload - this means the payload must itself be valid
	 JSON.				 For				example:
	 {"tst":"2020-05-06T22:12:00.000000+0100","topic":"foo","qos":0,"re-
	 tain":0,"payload":{"temperature":27.0,"humidity":57}}.

	 If  the  payload is not valid JSON, then the error message "Error: Mes-
	 sage payload is not valid JSON on topic <topic>"  will  be  printed  to
	 stderr.

     *	 %U Unix timestamp with nanoseconds, e.g. 1470818943.786368637

   Time related parameters
     *	 @@ a literal @.

     *	 @X  pass the character represented by X to the strftime function as %X.
	 The options supported are platform dependent.

     *	 @N the number of nanoseconds that have passed in  the	current  second,
	 with varying timing resolution depending on platform.

   Escape characters
     *	 \\ a literal \.

     *	 \0  a null character. Can be used to separate different parameters that
	 may contain spaces (e.g. topic, payload) so that processing with  tools
	 such as xargs(1) is easier.

     *	 \a alert/bell.

     *	 \e  the  escape  sequence,  which can be used with ANSI colour codes to
	 provide coloured output for example.

     *	 \n end of line.

     *	 \r carriage return.

     *	 \t horizontal tab.

     *	 \v vertical tab.

WILLS
     The client can register a message with the broker that will be sent out  if
     it disconnects unexpectedly. See mqtt(7) for more information.

     The  minimum  requirement	for this is to use --will-topic to specify which
     topic the will should be sent out on. This will result in	a  non-retained,
     zero length message with QoS 0.

     Use  the  --will-retain,  --will-payload and --will-qos arguments to modify
     the other will parameters.

PROPERTIES
     The -D / --property option allows adding properties to different stages  of
     the  mosquitto_sub  run.  The  properties supported for each command are as
     follows:

   Connect
     *	 authentication-data (binary data - note treated as a string)

     *	 authentication-method (UTF-8 string pair)

     *	 maximum-packet-size (32-bit unsigned integer)

     *	 receive-maximum (16-bit unsigned integer)

     *	 request-problem-information (8-bit unsigned integer)

     *	 request-response-information (8-bit unsigned integer)

     *	 session-expiry-interval (32-bit unsigned integer, note use -x instead)

     *	 topic-alias-maximum (16-bit unsigned integer)

     *	 user-property (UTF-8 string pair)

   Subscribe
     *	 user-property (UTF-8 string pair)

   Unsubscribe
     *	 user-property (UTF-8 string pair)

   Disconnect
     *	 session-expiry-interval (32-bit unsigned integer)

     *	 user-property (UTF-8 string pair)

   Will properties
     *	 content-type (UTF-8 string)

     *	 correlation-data (binary data - note treated as a string)

     *	 message-expiry-interval (32-bit unsigned integer)

     *	 payload-format-indicator (8-bit unsigned integer)

     *	 response-topic (UTF-8 string)

     *	 user-property (UTF-8 string pair)

     *	 will-delay-interval (32-bit unsigned integer)

EXIT STATUS
     Zero on success, or non-zero on error. If the connection is refused by  the
     broker at the MQTT level, then the exit code is the CONNACK reason code. If
     another error occurs, the exit code is a libmosquitto return value.

     MQTT v3.1.1 CONNACK codes:

     *	 0 Success

     *	 1 Connection refused: Bad protocol version

     *	 2 Connection refused: Identifier rejected

     *	 3 Connection refused: Server unavailable

     *	 4 Connection refused: Bad username/password

     *	 5 Connection refused: Not authorized

     MQTT v5 CONNACK codes:

     *	 0 Success

     *	 128 Unspecified error

     *	 129 Malformed packet

     *	 130 Protocol error

     *	 131 Implementation specific error

     *	 132 Unsupported protocol version

     *	 133 Client ID not valid

     *	 134 Bad username or password

     *	 135 Not authorized

     *	 136 Server unavailable

     *	 137 Server busy

     *	 138 Banned

     *	 139 Server shutting down

     *	 140 Bad authentication method

     *	 141 Keep alive timeout

     *	 142 Session taken over

     *	 143 Topic filter invalid

     *	 144 Topic name invalid

     *	 147 Receive maximum exceeded

     *	 148 Topic alias invalid

     *	 149 Packet too large

     *	 148 Message rate too high

     *	 151 Quota exceeded

     *	 152 Administrative action

     *	 153 Payload format invalid

     *	 154 Retain not supported

     *	 155 QoS not supported

     *	 156 Use another server

     *	 157 Server moved

     *	 158 Shared subscriptions not supported

     *	 159 Connection rate exceeded

     *	 160 Maximum connect time

     *	 161 Subscription IDs not supported

     *	 162 Wildcard subscriptions not supported

     Other codes:

     *	 27 Timed out waiting for message

EXAMPLES
     Note  that  these	really are examples - the subscriptions will work if you
     run them as shown, but there must be something publishing messages on those
     topics for you to receive anything.

     Subscribe to temperature information on localhost with QoS 1:

     *	 mosquitto_sub -t sensors/temperature -q 1

     Subscribe to hard drive temperature updates on multiple machines/hard  dri-
     ves.  This expects each machine to be publishing its hard drive temperature
     to sensors/machines/HOSTNAME/temperature/HD_NAME.

     *	 mosquitto_sub -t sensors/machines/+/temperature/+

     Subscribe to all broker status messages:

     *	 mosquitto_sub -v -t \$SYS/#

     Specify the output format as "ISO-8601 date : topic : payload in hex"

     *	 mosquitto_sub -F '@Y-@m-@dT@H:@M:@S@z : %t : %x' -t '#'

     Specify the output format as "seconds since  epoch.nanoseconds  :	retained
     flag : qos : mid : payload length"

     *	 mosquitto_sub -F '%@s.@N : %r : %q : %m : %l' -q 2 -t '#'

     Topic and payload output, but with colour where supported.

     *	 mosquitto_sub -F '\e[92m%t \e[96m%p\e[0m' -q 2 -t '#'

FILES
     $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mosquitto_sub,		    $HOME/.config/mosquitto_sub,
     $HOME/snap/mosquitto/current/.config/mosquitto_sub (for snap installs)
	 Configuration file for default options.

BUGS
     mosquitto	    bug      information       can	 be	  found       at
     https://github.com/eclipse-mosquitto/mosquitto/issues

SEE ALSO
     mosquitto(7),  mqtt(7),  mosquitto_pub(1),  mosquitto_rr(1),  mosquitto(8),
     libmosquitto(3), mosquitto-tls(7)

AUTHOR
     Roger Light <roger@atchoo.org>

Mosquitto Project		   07/30/2026			MOSQUITTO_SUB(1)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
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