How to send only one UDP packet with netcat?

Question

I want to send only one short value in a UDP packet, but running the command

echo -n \"hello\" | nc -4u localhost 8000

I can see that the serve

Answer 1

If you are using bash, you might as well write

echo -n "hello" >/dev/udp/localhost/8000

and avoid all the idiosyncrasies and incompatibilities of netcat.

This also works sending to other hosts, ex:

echo -n "hello" >/dev/udp/remotehost/8000

These are not "real" devices on the file system, but bash "special" aliases. There is additional information in the Bash Manual.