radclient reads radius attribute/value pairs from it standard input, or from a file specified on the command line. It then encodes these attribute/value pairs using the dictionary, and sends them to the remote server.

The User-Password and CHAP-Password attributes are automatically encrypted before the packet is sent to the server.

-c count

Send each packet count times.

-d raddb_directory

The directory that contains the RADIUS dictionary files. Defaults to /etc/raddb.

-f file

File to read the attribute/value pairs from. If this is not specified, they are read from stdin. This option can be specified multiple times, in which case packets are sent in order by file, and within each file, by first packet to last packet. A blank line separates logical packets within a file.

-i id

Use id as the RADIUS request Id.

-n num_requests_per_second

Send num_requests_per_second, evenly spaced over time. By default, the requests are sent as fast as possible. This option allows you to slow down the rate at which radclient sends requests.

-p num_requests_in_parallel

Send num_requests_in_parallel, without waiting for a response for each one. By default, radclient sends the first request it has read, waits for the response, and once the response is received, sends the second request in its list. This option allows you to send many requests at simultaneously. Once num_requests_in_parallel are sent, radclient waits for all of the responses to arrive (or for the requests to time out), before sending any more packets.

-q

Go to quiet mode, and do not print out anything.

-r num_retries

Try to send each packet num_retries times, before giving up on it. The default is 10.

-s

Print out some summaries of packets sent and received.

-S shared_secret_file

Rather than reading the shared secret from the command-line (where it can be seen by others on the local system), read it instead from shared_secret_file.

-t timeout

Wait timeout seconds before deciding that the NAS has not responded to a request, and re-sending the packet. The default timeout is 3.

-v

Print out version information.

-x

Print out debugging information.

server[:port]

The hostname or IP address of the remote server. Optionally a UDP port can be specified. If no UDP port is specified, it is looked up in /etc/services. The service name looked for is radacct for accounting packets, and radius for all other requests. If a service is not found in /etc/services, 1813 and 1812 are used respectively.

acct | auth | status | disconnect

Use auth to send an authentication packet (Access-Request), acct to send an accounting packet (Accounting-Request), status to send an status packet (Status-Server), or disconnect to send a disconnection request. Instead of these values, you can also use a decimal code here. For example, code 12 is also Status-Server.

secret

The shared secret for this client. It needs to be defined on the radius server side too, for the IP address you are sending the radius packets from.

A sample session that queries the remote server for Status-Server (not all servers support this, but FreeRADIUS has configurable support for it).

$ echo "User-Name = fnord" | radclient 192.168.1.42 12 s3cr3t
Sending request to server 192.168.1.42, port 1812.
radrecv: Packet from host 192.168.1.42 code=2, id=140, length=54
    Reply-Message = "FreeRADIUS up 21 days, 02:05"