MAVLink File Transfer Protocol enables file operations (read, write, list, remove) over the MAVLink channel. It encapsulates FTP opcodes inside FILE_TRANSFER_PROTOCOL messages (#110) and supports burst reads for throughput.
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FTP opcodes ──────────────────────────────────────── Opcode Name Description ────── ─────────────── ────────────────────────── 3 ListDirectory List files in a path 4 OpenFileRO Open file for reading 5 ReadFile Read a chunk (offset+size) 6 CreateFile Create / overwrite a file 7 WriteFile Write a chunk 8 RemoveFile Delete a file 15 BurstReadFile Burst-mode read for speed 128 Ack Success response 129 Nak Error response
Burst mode (opcode 15) lets the target stream sequential data chunks without waiting for an ACK per chunk. The requester only ACKs the final chunk or retransmits requests for missing sequence numbers. This dramatically improves throughput on clean links.
Common use cases
Downloading flight logs (ULog files), uploading fence / rally-point files, reading the component metadata manifest (COMPONENT_METADATA), and camera definition file retrieval.