nc (netcat) is one of the most useful tools around.  When
installing a new system, the first thing i always do is put an nc
binary on a floppy so i can mass-transfer other files onto the
system.  The author of the original implementation wonders why nc
wasn't part of UNIX systems already.  I often find myself
wondering that, too, so i decided to do something about it.

I soon learned is that the original nc is unmaintainable and very
crufty.  So i started from scratch.  This new implementation is
small and clean, and supports IPv6.  I didn't implement the
original nc's stranger features such as port randomization, and i
also left out UDP.  AFAIK no one actually uses these, though it
shouldn't be hard to add them if there demand were there.

I'm sure even suggesting adding a program to the base system at
this point is sacrilege, but it is very small (12315 bytes
dynamically linked).  Its usefulness more than justifies its
presence, IMHO.

Enough chatter, here's the code, ready to be dropped into
basesrc/bin, complete with a man page:

http://pretzelnet.org/~epg/nc.tar.gz

-- 
Eric Gillespie, Jr. <*> epg@pretzelnet.org

"This movie sure is gory!"
"Yeah, but that's one cute pig."