Implement part of `ssh2-generality': introduce the ability to tell
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0ed48730 1\versionid $Id: using.but,v 1.34 2004/10/13 13:43:11 simon Exp $
fc5a8711 2
3\C{using} Using PuTTY
4
5This chapter provides a general introduction to some more advanced
6features of PuTTY. For extreme detail and reference purposes,
7\k{config} is likely to contain more information.
8
9\H{using-session} During your session
10
11A lot of PuTTY's complexity and features are in the configuration
12panel. Once you have worked your way through that and started
13a session, things should be reasonably simple after that.
14Nevertheless, there are a few more useful features available.
15
16\S{using-selection} Copying and pasting text
17
6cc170f0 18\I{copy and paste}Often in a PuTTY session you will find text on
19your terminal screen which you want to type in again. Like most
20other terminal emulators, PuTTY allows you to copy and paste the
21text rather than having to type it again. Also, copy and paste uses
22the \I{Windows clipboard}Windows \i{clipboard}, so that you can
23paste (for example) URLs into a web browser, or paste from a word
24processor or spreadsheet into your terminal session.
25
26PuTTY's copy and paste works entirely with the \i{mouse}. In order
27to copy text to the clipboard, you just click the \i{left mouse
28button} in the terminal window, and drag to \I{selecting text}select
29text. When you let go of the button, the text is \e{automatically}
30copied to the clipboard. You do not need to press Ctrl-C or
31Ctrl-Ins; in fact, if you do press Ctrl-C, PuTTY will send a Ctrl-C
32character down your session to the server where it will probably
33cause a process to be interrupted.
fc5a8711 34
35Pasting is done using the right button (or the middle mouse button,
36if you have a three-button mouse and have set it up; see
6cc170f0 37\k{config-mouse}). (Pressing \i{Shift-Ins}, or selecting \q{Paste}
38from the Ctrl+right-click context menu, have the same effect.) When
39you click the \i{right mouse button}, PuTTY will read whatever is in
40the Windows clipboard and paste it into your session, \e{exactly} as
41if it had been typed at the keyboard. (Therefore, be careful of
42pasting formatted text into an editor that does automatic indenting;
43you may find that the spaces pasted from the clipboard plus the
44spaces added by the editor add up to too many spaces and ruin the
45formatting. There is nothing PuTTY can do about this.)
46
47If you \i{double-click} the left mouse button, PuTTY will select a
48whole word. If you double-click, hold down the second click, and
49drag the mouse, PuTTY will select a sequence of whole words. (You
50can adjust precisely what PuTTY considers to be part of a word; see
51\k{config-charclasses}.) If you \e{triple}-click, or
52\i{triple-click} and drag, then PuTTY will select a whole line or
53sequence of lines.
54
55If you want to select a \I{rectangular selection}rectangular region
56instead of selecting to the end of each line, you can do this by
57holding down Alt when you make your selection. (You can also
58configure rectangular selection to be the default, and then holding
59down Alt gives the normal behaviour instead. See
60\k{config-rectselect} for details.)
61
62If you have a \i{middle mouse button}, then you can use it to
63\I{adjusting a selection}adjust an existing selection if you
64selected something slightly wrong. (If you have configured the
65middle mouse button to paste, then the right mouse button does this
66instead.) Click the button on the screen, and you can pick up the
67nearest end of the selection and drag it to somewhere else.
fc5a8711 68
6cee219d 69It's possible for the server to ask to handle mouse clicks in the
70PuTTY window itself. If this happens, the mouse cursor will turn
25c22a0c 71into an arrow, and using the mouse to copy and paste will only work if
72you hold down Shift. See \k{config-features-mouse} and
73\k{config-mouseshift} for details of this feature and how to configure
74it.
6cee219d 75
6cc170f0 76\S{using-scrollback} \I{scrollback}Scrolling the screen back
fc5a8711 77
78PuTTY keeps track of text that has scrolled up off the top of the
79terminal. So if something appears on the screen that you want to
80read, but it scrolls too fast and it's gone by the time you try to
81look for it, you can use the scrollbar on the right side of the
6cc170f0 82window to look back up the session \i{history} and find it again.
fc5a8711 83
84As well as using the scrollbar, you can also page the scrollback up
6cc170f0 85and down by pressing \i{Shift-PgUp} and \i{Shift-PgDn}. You can
86scroll a line at a time using \i{Ctrl-PgUp} and \i{Ctrl-PgDn}. These
87are still available if you configure the scrollbar to be invisible.
fc5a8711 88
89By default the last 200 lines scrolled off the top are
90preserved for you to look at. You can increase (or decrease) this
91value using the configuration box; see \k{config-scrollback}.
92
6cc170f0 93\S{using-sysmenu} The \i{System menu}
fc5a8711 94
95If you click the left mouse button on the icon in the top left
1388ecb1 96corner of PuTTY's terminal window, or click the right mouse button
97on the title bar, you will see the standard Windows system menu
98containing items like Minimise, Move, Size and Close.
fc5a8711 99
100PuTTY's system menu contains extra program features in addition to
101the Windows standard options. These extra menu commands are
102described below.
103
533d533c 104(These options are also available in a context menu brought up
105by holding Ctrl and clicking with the right mouse button anywhere
106in the PuTTY window.)
107
6cc170f0 108\S2{using-eventlog} The PuTTY \i{Event Log}
fc5a8711 109
110If you choose \q{Event Log} from the system menu, a small window
111will pop up in which PuTTY logs significant events during the
112connection. Most of the events in the log will probably take place
113during session startup, but a few can occur at any point in the
114session, and one or two occur right at the end.
115
116You can use the mouse to select one or more lines of the Event Log,
6cc170f0 117and hit the Copy button to copy them to the \i{clipboard}. If you
118are reporting a bug, it's often useful to paste the contents of the
fc5a8711 119Event Log into your bug report.
120
6cc170f0 121\S2{using-specials} \ii{Special commands}
6b590f79 122
6cc170f0 123Depending on the protocol used for the current session, there may be
124a submenu of \q{special commands}. These are protocol-specific
125tokens, such as a \i{\q{break} signal}, that can be sent down a
2c51c674 126connection in addition to normal data. Their precise effect is usually
127up to the server. Currently only Telnet and SSH have special commands.
6cc170f0 128
2c51c674 129The following special commands are available in Telnet:
130
3f2ce694 131\b \I{Are You There, Telnet special command}Are You There
2c51c674 132
3f2ce694 133\b \I{Break, Telnet special command}Break
2c51c674 134
3f2ce694 135\b \I{Synch, Telnet special command}Synch
2c51c674 136
3f2ce694 137\b \I{Erase Character, Telnet special command}Erase Character
2c51c674 138
76d3d354 139\lcont{
140PuTTY can also be configured to send this when the Backspace key is
141pressed; see \k{config-telnetkey}.
142}
143
3f2ce694 144\b \I{Erase Line, Telnet special command}Erase Line
2c51c674 145
3f2ce694 146\b \I{Go Ahead, Telnet special command}Go Ahead
2c51c674 147
3f2ce694 148\b \I{No Operation, Telnet special command}No Operation
2c51c674 149
3f2ce694 150\lcont{
151Should have no effect.
152}
2c51c674 153
3f2ce694 154\b \I{Abort Process, Telnet special command}Abort Process
2c51c674 155
3f2ce694 156\b \I{Abort Output, Telnet special command}Abort Output
2c51c674 157
3f2ce694 158\b \I{Interrupt Process, Telnet special command}Interrupt Process
2c51c674 159
76d3d354 160\lcont{
161PuTTY can also be configured to send this when Ctrl-C is typed; see
162\k{config-telnetkey}.
163}
164
3f2ce694 165\b \I{Suspend Process, Telnet special command}Suspend Process
2c51c674 166
76d3d354 167\lcont{
168PuTTY can also be configured to send this when Ctrl-Z is typed; see
169\k{config-telnetkey}.
170}
171
3f2ce694 172\b \I{End Of Record, Telnet special command}End Of Record
2c51c674 173
3f2ce694 174\b \I{End Of File, Telnet special command}End Of File
2c51c674 175
176In an SSH connection, the following special commands are available:
177
3f2ce694 178\b \I{Break, SSH special command}Break
2c51c674 179
3f2ce694 180\lcont{
181Optional extension; may not be supported by server. PuTTY requests the
182server's default break length.
183}
2c51c674 184
3f2ce694 185\b \I{IGNORE message, SSH special command}\I{No-op, in SSH}IGNORE message
2c51c674 186
3f2ce694 187\lcont{
188Should have no effect.
189}
6b590f79 190
fc5a8711 191\S2{using-newsession} Starting new sessions
192
193PuTTY's system menu provides some shortcut ways to start new
194sessions:
195
6cc170f0 196\b Selecting \i{\q{New Session}} will start a completely new
197instance of PuTTY, and bring up the configuration box as normal.
fc5a8711 198
6cc170f0 199\b Selecting \i{\q{Duplicate Session}} will start a session with
fc5a8711 200precisely the same options as your current one - connecting to the
201same host using the same protocol, with all the same terminal
202settings and everything.
203
6cc170f0 204\b The \i{\q{Saved Sessions} submenu} gives you quick access to any
fc5a8711 205sets of stored session details you have previously saved. See
206\k{config-saving} for details of how to create saved sessions.
207
6cc170f0 208\S2{using-changesettings} \I{settings, changing}Changing your
209session settings
fc5a8711 210
6cc170f0 211If you select \i{\q{Change Settings}} from the system menu, PuTTY will
fc5a8711 212display a cut-down version of its initial configuration box. This
213allows you to adjust most properties of your current session. You
214can change the terminal size, the font, the actions of various
215keypresses, the colours, and so on.
216
217Some of the options that are available in the main configuration box
218are not shown in the cut-down Change Settings box. These are usually
219options which don't make sense to change in the middle of a session
220(for example, you can't switch from SSH to Telnet in mid-session).
221
6cc170f0 222\S2{using-copyall} \i{Copy All to Clipboard}
fc5a8711 223
224This system menu option provides a convenient way to copy the whole
f20523db 225contents of the terminal screen (up to the last nonempty line) and
6cc170f0 226scrollback to the \i{clipboard} in one go.
fc5a8711 227
6cc170f0 228\S2{reset-terminal} \I{scrollback, clearing}Clearing and
229\I{terminal, resetting}resetting the terminal
fc5a8711 230
6cc170f0 231The \i{\q{Clear Scrollback}} option on the system menu tells PuTTY
232to discard all the lines of text that have been kept after they
fc5a8711 233scrolled off the top of the screen. This might be useful, for
234example, if you displayed sensitive information and wanted to make
235sure nobody could look over your shoulder and see it. (Note that
236this only prevents a casual user from using the scrollbar to view
237the information; the text is not guaranteed not to still be in
238PuTTY's memory.)
239
6cc170f0 240The \i{\q{Reset Terminal}} option causes a full reset of the
241terminal emulation. A VT-series terminal is a complex piece of
242software and can easily get into a state where all the text printed
243becomes unreadable. (This can happen, for example, if you
244accidentally output a binary file to your terminal.) If this
245happens, selecting Reset Terminal should sort it out.
fc5a8711 246
6cc170f0 247\S2{using-fullscreen} \ii{Full screen} mode
fc5a8711 248
249If you find the title bar on a maximised window to be ugly or
250distracting, you can select Full Screen mode to maximise PuTTY
251\q{even more}. When you select this, PuTTY will expand to fill the
252whole screen and its borders, title bar and scrollbar will
253disappear. (You can configure the scrollbar not to disappear in
a5a6cb30 254full-screen mode if you want to keep it; see \k{config-scrollback}.)
fc5a8711 255
256When you are in full-screen mode, you can still access the system
257menu if you click the left mouse button in the \e{extreme} top left
258corner of the screen.
259
6cc170f0 260\H{using-logging} Creating a \i{log file} of your \I{session
261log}session
fc5a8711 262
263For some purposes you may find you want to log everything that
6cc170f0 264appears on your screen. You can do this using the \i{\q{Logging}
265panel} in the configuration box.
fc5a8711 266
267To begin a session log, select \q{Change Settings} from the system
268menu and go to the Logging panel. Enter a log file name, and select
269a logging mode. (You can log all session output including the
270terminal control sequences, or you can just log the printable text.
271It depends what you want the log for.) Click \q{Apply} and your log
272will be started. Later on, you can go back to the Logging panel and
273select \q{Logging turned off completely} to stop logging; then PuTTY
274will close the log file and you can safely read it.
275
276See \k{config-logging} for more details and options.
277
6cc170f0 278\H{using-translation} Altering your \i{character set} configuration
fc5a8711 279
6cc170f0 280If you find that special characters (\i{accented characters}, for
fc5a8711 281example) are not being displayed correctly in your PuTTY session, it
282may be that PuTTY is interpreting the characters sent by the server
283according to the wrong \e{character set}. There are a lot of
284different character sets available, so it's entirely possible for
285this to happen.
286
6cc170f0 287If you click \q{Change Settings} and look at the \i{\q{Translation}
288panel}, you should see a large number of character sets which you
289can select. Now all you need is to find out which of them you want!
fc5a8711 290
6cc170f0 291\H{using-x-forwarding} Using \i{X11 forwarding} in SSH
2f8d6d43 292
293The SSH protocol has the ability to securely forward X Window System
294applications over your encrypted SSH connection, so that you can run
295an application on the SSH server machine and have it put its windows
296up on your local machine without sending any X network traffic in
297the clear.
298
299In order to use this feature, you will need an X display server for
300your Windows machine, such as X-Win32 or Exceed. This will probably
301install itself as display number 0 on your local machine; if it
6cc170f0 302doesn't, the manual for the \i{X server} should tell you what it
303does do.
2f8d6d43 304
305You should then tick the \q{Enable X11 forwarding} box in the
306Tunnels panel (see \k{config-ssh-x11}) before starting your SSH
46ed7b64 307session. The \q{X display location} box is blank by default, which
308means that PuTTY will try to use a sensible default such as \c{:0},
309which is the usual display location where your X server will be
310installed. If that needs changing, then change it.
2f8d6d43 311
312Now you should be able to log in to the SSH server as normal. To
313check that X forwarding has been successfully negotiated during
314connection startup, you can check the PuTTY Event Log (see
315\k{using-eventlog}). It should say something like this:
316
317\c 2001-12-05 17:22:01 Requesting X11 forwarding
318\c 2001-12-05 17:22:02 X11 forwarding enabled
319
320If the remote system is Unix or Unix-like, you should also be able
6cc170f0 321to see that the \i{\c{DISPLAY} environment variable} has been set to
2f8d6d43 322point at display 10 or above on the SSH server machine itself:
323
324\c fred@unixbox:~$ echo $DISPLAY
325\c unixbox:10.0
326
327If this works, you should then be able to run X applications in the
328remote session and have them display their windows on your PC.
329
330Note that if your PC X server requires authentication to connect,
331then PuTTY cannot currently support it. If this is a problem for
2b5567cf 332you, you should mail the PuTTY authors \#{FIXME} and give details
333(see \k{feedback}).
2f8d6d43 334
ee155ed5 335For more options relating to X11 forwarding, see \k{config-ssh-x11}.
336
6cc170f0 337\H{using-port-forwarding} Using \i{port forwarding} in SSH
2f8d6d43 338
339The SSH protocol has the ability to forward arbitrary network
340connections over your encrypted SSH connection, to avoid the network
341traffic being sent in clear. For example, you could use this to
342connect from your home computer to a POP-3 server on a remote
343machine without your POP-3 password being visible to network
344sniffers.
345
346In order to use port forwarding to connect from your local machine
347to a port on a remote server, you need to:
348
349\b Choose a port number on your local machine where PuTTY should
350listen for incoming connections. There are likely to be plenty of
6ee9b735 351unused port numbers above 3000. (You can also use a local loopback
dbe6c525 352address here; see below for more details.)
2f8d6d43 353
354\b Now, before you start your SSH connection, go to the Tunnels
355panel (see \k{config-ssh-portfwd}). Make sure the \q{Local} radio
356button is set. Enter the local port number into the \q{Source port}
357box. Enter the destination host name and port number into the
358\q{Destination} box, separated by a colon (for example,
359\c{popserver.example.com:110} to connect to a POP-3 server).
360
361\b Now click the \q{Add} button. The details of your port forwarding
362should appear in the list box.
363
c80f77d8 364Now start your session and log in. (Port forwarding will not be
365enabled until after you have logged in; otherwise it would be easy
366to perform completely anonymous network attacks, and gain access to
367anyone's virtual private network). To check that PuTTY has set up
368the port forwarding correctly, you can look at the PuTTY Event Log
369(see \k{using-eventlog}). It should say something like this:
2f8d6d43 370
371\c 2001-12-05 17:22:10 Local port 3110 forwarding to
372\c popserver.example.com:110
373
374Now if you connect to the source port number on your local PC, you
375should find that it answers you exactly as if it were the service
376running on the destination machine. So in this example, you could
377then configure an e-mail client to use \c{localhost:3110} as a POP-3
378server instead of \c{popserver.example.com:110}. (Of course, the
379forwarding will stop happening when your PuTTY session closes down.)
380
381You can also forward ports in the other direction: arrange for a
382particular port number on the \e{server} machine to be forwarded
383back to your PC as a connection to a service on your PC or near it.
384To do this, just select the \q{Remote} radio button instead of the
385\q{Local} one. The \q{Source port} box will now specify a port
386number on the \e{server} (note that most servers will not allow you
387to use port numbers under 1024 for this purpose).
fc5a8711 388
48b7c4b2 389An alternative way to forward local connections to remote hosts is
6cc170f0 390to use \I{dynamic port forwarding}dynamic \I{SOCKS} proxying. For
391this, you will need to select the \q{Dynamic} radio button instead
392of \q{Local}, and then you should not enter anything into the
393\q{Destination} box (it will be ignored). This will cause PuTTY to
394listen on the port you have specified, and provide a SOCKS proxy
395service to any programs which connect to that port. So, in
396particular, you can forward other PuTTY connections through it by
397setting up the Proxy control panel (see \k{config-proxy} for
398details).
48b7c4b2 399
beefa433 400The source port for a forwarded connection usually does not accept
401connections from any machine except the SSH client or server machine
402itself (for local and remote forwardings respectively). There are
403controls in the Tunnels panel to change this:
404
405\b The \q{Local ports accept connections from other hosts} option
48b7c4b2 406allows you to set up local-to-remote port forwardings (including
407dynamic port forwardings) in such a way that machines other than
408your client PC can connect to the forwarded port.
beefa433 409
410\b The \q{Remote ports do the same} option does the same thing for
411remote-to-local port forwardings (so that machines other than the
412SSH server machine can connect to the forwarded port.) Note that
413this feature is only available in the SSH 2 protocol, and not all
97e12fcd 414SSH 2 servers honour it (in OpenSSH, for example, it's usually
415disabled by default).
beefa433 416
6cc170f0 417You can also specify an \i{IP address} to listen on. Typically a
dbe6c525 418Windows machine can be asked to listen on any single IP address in
419the \cw{127.*.*.*} range, and all of these are loopback addresses
6cc170f0 420available only to the local machine. So if you forward (for example)
421\c{127.0.0.5:79} to a remote machine's \cw{finger} port, then you
422should be able to run commands such as \c{finger fred@127.0.0.5}.
423This can be useful if the program connecting to the forwarded port
424doesn't allow you to change the port number it uses. This feature is
425available for local-to-remote forwarded ports; SSH1 is unable to
426support it for remote-to-local ports, while SSH2 can support it in
427theory but servers will not necessarily cooperate.
428
85c598bf 429(Note that if you're using Windows XP Service Pack 2, you may need
430to obtain a fix from Microsoft in order to use addresses like
431\cw{127.0.0.5} - see \k{faq-alternate-localhost}.)
432
6cc170f0 433\H{using-rawprot} Making \i{raw TCP connections}
434
435A lot of \I{debugging Internet protocols}Internet protocols are
436composed of commands and responses in plain text. For example,
437\i{SMTP} (the protocol used to transfer e-mail), \i{NNTP} (the
438protocol used to transfer Usenet news), and \i{HTTP} (the protocol
439used to serve Web pages) all consist of commands in readable plain
440text.
2f8d6d43 441
442Sometimes it can be useful to connect directly to one of these
443services and speak the protocol \q{by hand}, by typing protocol
444commands and watching the responses. On Unix machines, you can do
445this using the system's \c{telnet} command to connect to the right
446port number. For example, \c{telnet mailserver.example.com 25} might
447enable you to talk directly to the SMTP service running on a mail
448server.
449
450Although the Unix \c{telnet} program provides this functionality,
451the protocol being used is not really Telnet. Really there is no
452actual protocol at all; the bytes sent down the connection are
453exactly the ones you type, and the bytes shown on the screen are
454exactly the ones sent by the server. Unix \c{telnet} will attempt to
455detect or guess whether the service it is talking to is a real
456Telnet service or not; PuTTY prefers to be told for certain.
457
458In order to make a debugging connection to a service of this type,
6cc170f0 459you simply select the fourth protocol name, \I{\q{Raw}
460protocol}\q{Raw}, from the \q{Protocol} buttons in the \q{Session}
461configuration panel. (See \k{config-hostname}.) You can then enter a
462host name and a port number, and make the connection.
a10c20dd 463
e117a742 464\H{using-cmdline} The PuTTY command line
a10c20dd 465
466PuTTY can be made to do various things without user intervention by
6cc170f0 467supplying \i{command-line arguments} (e.g., from a \i{command prompt
468window}, or a \i{Windows shortcut}).
a10c20dd 469
e117a742 470\S{using-cmdline-session} Starting a session from the command line
a10c20dd 471
6cc170f0 472\I\c{-ssh}\I\c{-telnet}\I\c{-rlogin}\I\c{-raw}These options allow
473you to bypass the configuration window and launch straight into a
474session.
a10c20dd 475
e117a742 476To start a connection to a server called \c{host}:
a10c20dd 477
e2a197cf 478\c putty.exe [-ssh | -telnet | -rlogin | -raw] [user@]host
a10c20dd 479
480If this syntax is used, settings are taken from the Default Settings
e2a197cf 481(see \k{config-saving}); \c{user} overrides these settings if
482supplied. Also, you can specify a protocol, which will override the
483default protocol (see \k{using-cmdline-protocol}).
a10c20dd 484
485For telnet sessions, the following alternative syntax is supported
6cc170f0 486(this makes PuTTY suitable for use as a URL handler for \i{telnet
487URLs} in web browsers):
a10c20dd 488
489\c putty.exe telnet://host[:port]/
490
491In order to start an existing saved session called \c{sessionname},
e117a742 492use the \c{-load} option (described in \k{using-cmdline-load}).
a10c20dd 493
e117a742 494\c putty.exe -load "session name"
a10c20dd 495
6cc170f0 496\S{using-cleanup} \i\c{-cleanup}
a10c20dd 497
498If invoked with the \c{-cleanup} option, rather than running as
499normal, PuTTY will remove its registry entries and random seed file
500from the local machine (after confirming with the user).
e117a742 501
502\S{using-general-opts} Standard command-line options
503
504PuTTY and its associated tools support a range of command-line
505options, most of which are consistent across all the tools. This
506section lists the available options in all tools. Options which are
507specific to a particular tool are covered in the chapter about that
508tool.
509
6cc170f0 510\S2{using-cmdline-load} \i\c{-load}: load a saved session
e117a742 511
6cc170f0 512\I{saved sessions, loading from command line}The \c{-load} option
513causes PuTTY to load configuration details out of a saved session.
514If these details include a host name, then this option is all you
33f07e96 515need to make PuTTY start a session.
e117a742 516
517You need double quotes around the session name if it contains spaces.
518
519If you want to create a Windows shortcut to start a PuTTY saved
520session, this is the option you should use: your shortcut should
521call something like
522
523\c d:\path\to\putty.exe -load "my session"
524
525(Note that PuTTY itself supports an alternative form of this option,
526for backwards compatibility. If you execute \c{putty @sessionname}
527it will have the same effect as \c{putty -load "sessionname"}. With
528the \c{@} form, no double quotes are required, and the \c{@} sign
529must be the very first thing on the command line. This form of the
530option is deprecated.)
531
532\S2{using-cmdline-protocol} Selecting a protocol: \c{-ssh},
533\c{-telnet}, \c{-rlogin}, \c{-raw}
534
535To choose which protocol you want to connect with, you can use one
536of these options:
537
6cc170f0 538\b \i\c{-ssh} selects the SSH protocol.
e117a742 539
6cc170f0 540\b \i\c{-telnet} selects the Telnet protocol.
e117a742 541
6cc170f0 542\b \i\c{-rlogin} selects the Rlogin protocol.
e117a742 543
6cc170f0 544\b \i\c{-raw} selects the raw protocol.
e117a742 545
546These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
547PSFTP (which only work with the SSH protocol).
548
6cc170f0 549These options are equivalent to the \i{protocol selection} buttons
550in the Session panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
e117a742 551\k{config-hostname}).
552
6cc170f0 553\S2{using-cmdline-v} \i\c{-v}: increase verbosity
e117a742 554
6cc170f0 555\I{verbose mode}Most of the PuTTY tools can be made to tell you more
556about what they are doing by supplying the \c{-v} option. If you are
557having trouble when making a connection, or you're simply curious,
558you can turn this switch on and hope to find out more about what is
559happening.
e117a742 560
6cc170f0 561\S2{using-cmdline-l} \i\c{-l}: specify a \i{login name}
e117a742 562
563You can specify the user name to log in as on the remote server
564using the \c{-l} option. For example, \c{plink login.example.com -l
565fred}.
566
567These options are equivalent to the username selection box in the
568Connection panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
569\k{config-username}).
570
b7a5df66 571\S2{using-cmdline-portfwd} \I{-L-upper}\c{-L}, \I{-R-upper}\c{-R}
572and \I{-D-upper}\c{-D}: set up \i{port forwardings}
e117a742 573
574As well as setting up port forwardings in the PuTTY configuration
575(see \k{config-ssh-portfwd}), you can also set up forwardings on the
576command line. The command-line options work just like the ones in
577Unix \c{ssh} programs.
578
579To forward a local port (say 5110) to a remote destination (say
580\cw{popserver.example.com} port 110), you can write something like
581one of these:
582
583\c putty -L 5110:popserver.example.com:110 -load mysession
584\c plink mysession -L 5110:popserver.example.com:110
585
48b7c4b2 586To forward a remote port to a local destination, just use the \c{-R}
587option instead of \c{-L}:
e117a742 588
589\c putty -R 5023:mytelnetserver.myhouse.org:23 -load mysession
590\c plink mysession -R 5023:mytelnetserver.myhouse.org:23
591
dbe6c525 592To specify an IP address for the listening end of the tunnel,
593prepend it to the argument:
594
595\c plink -L 127.0.0.5:23:localhost:23 myhost
596
48b7c4b2 597To set up SOCKS-based dynamic port forwarding on a local port, use
598the \c{-D} option. For this one you only have to pass the port
599number:
600
601\c putty -D 4096 -load mysession
602
e117a742 603For general information on port forwarding, see
604\k{using-port-forwarding}.
605
606These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
607PSFTP.
608
6cc170f0 609\S2{using-cmdline-m} \i\c{-m}: read a remote command or script from
610a file
e117a742 611
6cc170f0 612The \i\c{-m} option performs a similar function to the \q{Remote
e117a742 613command} box in the SSH panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
614\k{config-command}). However, the \c{-m} option expects to be given
6cc170f0 615a local file name, and it will read a command from that file. On
616most Unix systems, you can even put multiple lines in this file and
4e930b58 617execute more than one command in sequence, or a whole shell script;
618but this will not work on all servers (and is known not to work
619with certain \q{embedded} servers such as routers).
e117a742 620
621This option is not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
622PSFTP.
623
b7a5df66 624\S2{using-cmdline-p} \I{-P-upper}\c{-P}: specify a \i{port number}
e117a742 625
e2a197cf 626The \c{-P} option is used to specify the port number to connect to. If
627you have a Telnet server running on port 9696 of a machine instead of
628port 23, for example:
e117a742 629
e2a197cf 630\c putty -telnet -P 9696 host.name
631\c plink -telnet -P 9696 host.name
e117a742 632
633(Note that this option is more useful in Plink than in PuTTY,
634because in PuTTY you can write \c{putty -telnet host.name 9696} in
635any case.)
636
6cc170f0 637This option is equivalent to the port number control in the Session
638panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-hostname}).
e117a742 639
6cc170f0 640\S2{using-cmdline-pw} \i\c{-pw}: specify a \i{password}
e117a742 641
642A simple way to automate a remote login is to supply your password
643on the command line. This is \e{not recommended} for reasons of
644security. If you possibly can, we recommend you set up public-key
645authentication instead. See \k{pubkey} for details.
646
647Note that the \c{-pw} option only works when you are using the SSH
648protocol. Due to fundamental limitations of Telnet and Rlogin, these
649protocols do not support automated password authentication.
650
b7a5df66 651\S2{using-cmdline-agent} \I{-A-upper}\c{-A} and \i\c{-a}: control \i{agent
6cc170f0 652forwarding}
e117a742 653
654The \c{-A} option turns on SSH agent forwarding, and \c{-a} turns it
655off. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
656
6cc170f0 657See \k{pageant} for general information on \i{Pageant}, and
e117a742 658\k{pageant-forward} for information on agent forwarding. Note that
659there is a security risk involved with enabling this option; see
660\k{pageant-security} for details.
661
662These options are equivalent to the agent forwarding checkbox in the
663Auth panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-agentfwd}).
664
665These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
666PSFTP.
667
b7a5df66 668\S2{using-cmdline-x11} \I{-X-upper}\c{-X} and \i\c{-x}: control \i{X11
6cc170f0 669forwarding}
e117a742 670
671The \c{-X} option turns on X11 forwarding in SSH, and \c{-x} turns
672it off. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
673
674For information on X11 forwarding, see \k{using-x-forwarding}.
675
676These options are equivalent to the X11 forwarding checkbox in the
677Tunnels panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
678\k{config-ssh-x11}).
679
680These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
681PSFTP.
682
b7a5df66 683\S2{using-cmdline-pty} \i\c{-t} and \I{-T-upper}\c{-T}: control
6cc170f0 684\i{pseudo-terminal allocation}
e117a742 685
686The \c{-t} option ensures PuTTY attempts to allocate a
687pseudo-terminal at the server, and \c{-T} stops it from allocating
688one. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
689
690These options are equivalent to the \q{Don't allocate a
691pseudo-terminal} checkbox in the SSH panel of the PuTTY
692configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-pty}).
693
694These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
695PSFTP.
696
0ed48730 697\S2{using-cmdline-noshell} \I{-N-upper}\c{-N}: suppress starting a
698shell or command
699
700The \c{-N} option prevents PuTTY from attempting to start a shell or
701command on the remote server. You might want to use this option if
702you are only using the SSH connection for port forwarding, and your
703user account on the server does not have the ability to run a shell.
704
705This feature is only available in SSH protocol version 2 (since the
706version 1 protocol assumes you will always want to run a shell).
707
708This option is equivalent to the \q{Don't start a shell or command
709at all} checkbox in the SSH panel of the PuTTY configuration box
710(see \k{config-ssh-noshell}).
711
712These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
713PSFTP.
714
b7a5df66 715\S2{using-cmdline-compress} \I{-C-upper}\c{-C}: enable \i{compression}
e117a742 716
717The \c{-C} option enables compression of the data sent across the
718network. This option is only meaningful if you are using SSH.
719
720This option is equivalent to the \q{Enable compression} checkbox in
721the SSH panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
722\k{config-ssh-comp}).
723
6cc170f0 724\S2{using-cmdline-sshprot} \i\c{-1} and \i\c{-2}: specify an \i{SSH
725protocol version}
e117a742 726
6cc170f0 727The \c{-1} and \c{-2} options force PuTTY to use version \I{SSH1}1
728or version \I{SSH2}2 of the SSH protocol. These options are only
729meaningful if you are using SSH.
e117a742 730
731These options are equivalent to selecting your preferred SSH
732protocol version as \q{1 only} or \q{2 only} in the SSH panel of the
733PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-prot}).
734
6cc170f0 735\S2{using-cmdline-identity} \i\c{-i}: specify an SSH \i{private key}
e117a742 736
737The \c{-i} option allows you to specify the name of a private key
8cee3b72 738file in \c{*.PPK} format which PuTTY will use to authenticate with the
739server. This option is only meaningful if you are using SSH.
e117a742 740
6cc170f0 741For general information on \i{public-key authentication}, see
742\k{pubkey}.
e117a742 743
744This option is equivalent to the \q{Private key file for
745authentication} box in the Auth panel of the PuTTY configuration box
746(see \k{config-ssh-privkey}).