Explicitly list all the special commands supported by PuTTY.
[u/mdw/putty] / doc / using.but
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2c51c674 1\versionid $Id: using.but,v 1.30 2004/09/20 22:06:29 jacob 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
131\dt \I{Are You There, Telnet special command}Are You There
132
133\dt \I{Break, Telnet special command}Break
134
135\dt \I{Synch, Telnet special command}Synch
136
137\dt \I{Erase Character, Telnet special command}Erase Character
138
139\dt \I{Erase Line, Telnet special command}Erase Line
140
141\dt \I{Go Ahead, Telnet special command}Go Ahead
142
143\dt \I{No Operation, Telnet special command}No Operation
144
145\dd Should have no effect.
146
147\dt \I{Abort Process, Telnet special command}Abort Process
148
149\dt \I{Abort Output, Telnet special command}Abort Output
150
151\dt \I{Interrupt Process, Telnet special command}Interrupt Process
152
153\dt \I{Suspend Process, Telnet special command}Suspend Process
154
155\dt \I{End Of Record, Telnet special command}End Of Record
156
157\dt \I{End Of File, Telnet special command}End Of File
158
159In an SSH connection, the following special commands are available:
160
161\dt \I{Break, SSH special command}Break
162
163\dd Optional extension; may not be supported by server. PuTTY requests
164the server's default break length.
165
166\dt \I{IGNORE message, SSH special command}\I{No-op, in SSH}IGNORE message
167
168\dd Should have no effect.
6b590f79 169
fc5a8711 170\S2{using-newsession} Starting new sessions
171
172PuTTY's system menu provides some shortcut ways to start new
173sessions:
174
6cc170f0 175\b Selecting \i{\q{New Session}} will start a completely new
176instance of PuTTY, and bring up the configuration box as normal.
fc5a8711 177
6cc170f0 178\b Selecting \i{\q{Duplicate Session}} will start a session with
fc5a8711 179precisely the same options as your current one - connecting to the
180same host using the same protocol, with all the same terminal
181settings and everything.
182
6cc170f0 183\b The \i{\q{Saved Sessions} submenu} gives you quick access to any
fc5a8711 184sets of stored session details you have previously saved. See
185\k{config-saving} for details of how to create saved sessions.
186
6cc170f0 187\S2{using-changesettings} \I{settings, changing}Changing your
188session settings
fc5a8711 189
6cc170f0 190If you select \i{\q{Change Settings}} from the system menu, PuTTY will
fc5a8711 191display a cut-down version of its initial configuration box. This
192allows you to adjust most properties of your current session. You
193can change the terminal size, the font, the actions of various
194keypresses, the colours, and so on.
195
196Some of the options that are available in the main configuration box
197are not shown in the cut-down Change Settings box. These are usually
198options which don't make sense to change in the middle of a session
199(for example, you can't switch from SSH to Telnet in mid-session).
200
6cc170f0 201\S2{using-copyall} \i{Copy All to Clipboard}
fc5a8711 202
203This system menu option provides a convenient way to copy the whole
f20523db 204contents of the terminal screen (up to the last nonempty line) and
6cc170f0 205scrollback to the \i{clipboard} in one go.
fc5a8711 206
6cc170f0 207\S2{reset-terminal} \I{scrollback, clearing}Clearing and
208\I{terminal, resetting}resetting the terminal
fc5a8711 209
6cc170f0 210The \i{\q{Clear Scrollback}} option on the system menu tells PuTTY
211to discard all the lines of text that have been kept after they
fc5a8711 212scrolled off the top of the screen. This might be useful, for
213example, if you displayed sensitive information and wanted to make
214sure nobody could look over your shoulder and see it. (Note that
215this only prevents a casual user from using the scrollbar to view
216the information; the text is not guaranteed not to still be in
217PuTTY's memory.)
218
6cc170f0 219The \i{\q{Reset Terminal}} option causes a full reset of the
220terminal emulation. A VT-series terminal is a complex piece of
221software and can easily get into a state where all the text printed
222becomes unreadable. (This can happen, for example, if you
223accidentally output a binary file to your terminal.) If this
224happens, selecting Reset Terminal should sort it out.
fc5a8711 225
6cc170f0 226\S2{using-fullscreen} \ii{Full screen} mode
fc5a8711 227
228If you find the title bar on a maximised window to be ugly or
229distracting, you can select Full Screen mode to maximise PuTTY
230\q{even more}. When you select this, PuTTY will expand to fill the
231whole screen and its borders, title bar and scrollbar will
232disappear. (You can configure the scrollbar not to disappear in
a5a6cb30 233full-screen mode if you want to keep it; see \k{config-scrollback}.)
fc5a8711 234
235When you are in full-screen mode, you can still access the system
236menu if you click the left mouse button in the \e{extreme} top left
237corner of the screen.
238
6cc170f0 239\H{using-logging} Creating a \i{log file} of your \I{session
240log}session
fc5a8711 241
242For some purposes you may find you want to log everything that
6cc170f0 243appears on your screen. You can do this using the \i{\q{Logging}
244panel} in the configuration box.
fc5a8711 245
246To begin a session log, select \q{Change Settings} from the system
247menu and go to the Logging panel. Enter a log file name, and select
248a logging mode. (You can log all session output including the
249terminal control sequences, or you can just log the printable text.
250It depends what you want the log for.) Click \q{Apply} and your log
251will be started. Later on, you can go back to the Logging panel and
252select \q{Logging turned off completely} to stop logging; then PuTTY
253will close the log file and you can safely read it.
254
255See \k{config-logging} for more details and options.
256
6cc170f0 257\H{using-translation} Altering your \i{character set} configuration
fc5a8711 258
6cc170f0 259If you find that special characters (\i{accented characters}, for
fc5a8711 260example) are not being displayed correctly in your PuTTY session, it
261may be that PuTTY is interpreting the characters sent by the server
262according to the wrong \e{character set}. There are a lot of
263different character sets available, so it's entirely possible for
264this to happen.
265
6cc170f0 266If you click \q{Change Settings} and look at the \i{\q{Translation}
267panel}, you should see a large number of character sets which you
268can select. Now all you need is to find out which of them you want!
fc5a8711 269
6cc170f0 270\H{using-x-forwarding} Using \i{X11 forwarding} in SSH
2f8d6d43 271
272The SSH protocol has the ability to securely forward X Window System
273applications over your encrypted SSH connection, so that you can run
274an application on the SSH server machine and have it put its windows
275up on your local machine without sending any X network traffic in
276the clear.
277
278In order to use this feature, you will need an X display server for
279your Windows machine, such as X-Win32 or Exceed. This will probably
280install itself as display number 0 on your local machine; if it
6cc170f0 281doesn't, the manual for the \i{X server} should tell you what it
282does do.
2f8d6d43 283
284You should then tick the \q{Enable X11 forwarding} box in the
285Tunnels panel (see \k{config-ssh-x11}) before starting your SSH
286session. The \q{X display location} box reads \c{localhost:0} by
287default, which is the usual display location where your X server
288will be installed. If that needs changing, then change it.
289
290Now you should be able to log in to the SSH server as normal. To
291check that X forwarding has been successfully negotiated during
292connection startup, you can check the PuTTY Event Log (see
293\k{using-eventlog}). It should say something like this:
294
295\c 2001-12-05 17:22:01 Requesting X11 forwarding
296\c 2001-12-05 17:22:02 X11 forwarding enabled
297
298If the remote system is Unix or Unix-like, you should also be able
6cc170f0 299to see that the \i{\c{DISPLAY} environment variable} has been set to
2f8d6d43 300point at display 10 or above on the SSH server machine itself:
301
302\c fred@unixbox:~$ echo $DISPLAY
303\c unixbox:10.0
304
305If this works, you should then be able to run X applications in the
306remote session and have them display their windows on your PC.
307
308Note that if your PC X server requires authentication to connect,
309then PuTTY cannot currently support it. If this is a problem for
2b5567cf 310you, you should mail the PuTTY authors \#{FIXME} and give details
311(see \k{feedback}).
2f8d6d43 312
ee155ed5 313For more options relating to X11 forwarding, see \k{config-ssh-x11}.
314
6cc170f0 315\H{using-port-forwarding} Using \i{port forwarding} in SSH
2f8d6d43 316
317The SSH protocol has the ability to forward arbitrary network
318connections over your encrypted SSH connection, to avoid the network
319traffic being sent in clear. For example, you could use this to
320connect from your home computer to a POP-3 server on a remote
321machine without your POP-3 password being visible to network
322sniffers.
323
324In order to use port forwarding to connect from your local machine
325to a port on a remote server, you need to:
326
327\b Choose a port number on your local machine where PuTTY should
328listen for incoming connections. There are likely to be plenty of
6ee9b735 329unused port numbers above 3000. (You can also use a local loopback
dbe6c525 330address here; see below for more details.)
2f8d6d43 331
332\b Now, before you start your SSH connection, go to the Tunnels
333panel (see \k{config-ssh-portfwd}). Make sure the \q{Local} radio
334button is set. Enter the local port number into the \q{Source port}
335box. Enter the destination host name and port number into the
336\q{Destination} box, separated by a colon (for example,
337\c{popserver.example.com:110} to connect to a POP-3 server).
338
339\b Now click the \q{Add} button. The details of your port forwarding
340should appear in the list box.
341
c80f77d8 342Now start your session and log in. (Port forwarding will not be
343enabled until after you have logged in; otherwise it would be easy
344to perform completely anonymous network attacks, and gain access to
345anyone's virtual private network). To check that PuTTY has set up
346the port forwarding correctly, you can look at the PuTTY Event Log
347(see \k{using-eventlog}). It should say something like this:
2f8d6d43 348
349\c 2001-12-05 17:22:10 Local port 3110 forwarding to
350\c popserver.example.com:110
351
352Now if you connect to the source port number on your local PC, you
353should find that it answers you exactly as if it were the service
354running on the destination machine. So in this example, you could
355then configure an e-mail client to use \c{localhost:3110} as a POP-3
356server instead of \c{popserver.example.com:110}. (Of course, the
357forwarding will stop happening when your PuTTY session closes down.)
358
359You can also forward ports in the other direction: arrange for a
360particular port number on the \e{server} machine to be forwarded
361back to your PC as a connection to a service on your PC or near it.
362To do this, just select the \q{Remote} radio button instead of the
363\q{Local} one. The \q{Source port} box will now specify a port
364number on the \e{server} (note that most servers will not allow you
365to use port numbers under 1024 for this purpose).
fc5a8711 366
48b7c4b2 367An alternative way to forward local connections to remote hosts is
6cc170f0 368to use \I{dynamic port forwarding}dynamic \I{SOCKS} proxying. For
369this, you will need to select the \q{Dynamic} radio button instead
370of \q{Local}, and then you should not enter anything into the
371\q{Destination} box (it will be ignored). This will cause PuTTY to
372listen on the port you have specified, and provide a SOCKS proxy
373service to any programs which connect to that port. So, in
374particular, you can forward other PuTTY connections through it by
375setting up the Proxy control panel (see \k{config-proxy} for
376details).
48b7c4b2 377
beefa433 378The source port for a forwarded connection usually does not accept
379connections from any machine except the SSH client or server machine
380itself (for local and remote forwardings respectively). There are
381controls in the Tunnels panel to change this:
382
383\b The \q{Local ports accept connections from other hosts} option
48b7c4b2 384allows you to set up local-to-remote port forwardings (including
385dynamic port forwardings) in such a way that machines other than
386your client PC can connect to the forwarded port.
beefa433 387
388\b The \q{Remote ports do the same} option does the same thing for
389remote-to-local port forwardings (so that machines other than the
390SSH server machine can connect to the forwarded port.) Note that
391this feature is only available in the SSH 2 protocol, and not all
97e12fcd 392SSH 2 servers honour it (in OpenSSH, for example, it's usually
393disabled by default).
beefa433 394
6cc170f0 395You can also specify an \i{IP address} to listen on. Typically a
dbe6c525 396Windows machine can be asked to listen on any single IP address in
397the \cw{127.*.*.*} range, and all of these are loopback addresses
6cc170f0 398available only to the local machine. So if you forward (for example)
399\c{127.0.0.5:79} to a remote machine's \cw{finger} port, then you
400should be able to run commands such as \c{finger fred@127.0.0.5}.
401This can be useful if the program connecting to the forwarded port
402doesn't allow you to change the port number it uses. This feature is
403available for local-to-remote forwarded ports; SSH1 is unable to
404support it for remote-to-local ports, while SSH2 can support it in
405theory but servers will not necessarily cooperate.
406
85c598bf 407(Note that if you're using Windows XP Service Pack 2, you may need
408to obtain a fix from Microsoft in order to use addresses like
409\cw{127.0.0.5} - see \k{faq-alternate-localhost}.)
410
6cc170f0 411\H{using-rawprot} Making \i{raw TCP connections}
412
413A lot of \I{debugging Internet protocols}Internet protocols are
414composed of commands and responses in plain text. For example,
415\i{SMTP} (the protocol used to transfer e-mail), \i{NNTP} (the
416protocol used to transfer Usenet news), and \i{HTTP} (the protocol
417used to serve Web pages) all consist of commands in readable plain
418text.
2f8d6d43 419
420Sometimes it can be useful to connect directly to one of these
421services and speak the protocol \q{by hand}, by typing protocol
422commands and watching the responses. On Unix machines, you can do
423this using the system's \c{telnet} command to connect to the right
424port number. For example, \c{telnet mailserver.example.com 25} might
425enable you to talk directly to the SMTP service running on a mail
426server.
427
428Although the Unix \c{telnet} program provides this functionality,
429the protocol being used is not really Telnet. Really there is no
430actual protocol at all; the bytes sent down the connection are
431exactly the ones you type, and the bytes shown on the screen are
432exactly the ones sent by the server. Unix \c{telnet} will attempt to
433detect or guess whether the service it is talking to is a real
434Telnet service or not; PuTTY prefers to be told for certain.
435
436In order to make a debugging connection to a service of this type,
6cc170f0 437you simply select the fourth protocol name, \I{\q{Raw}
438protocol}\q{Raw}, from the \q{Protocol} buttons in the \q{Session}
439configuration panel. (See \k{config-hostname}.) You can then enter a
440host name and a port number, and make the connection.
a10c20dd 441
e117a742 442\H{using-cmdline} The PuTTY command line
a10c20dd 443
444PuTTY can be made to do various things without user intervention by
6cc170f0 445supplying \i{command-line arguments} (e.g., from a \i{command prompt
446window}, or a \i{Windows shortcut}).
a10c20dd 447
e117a742 448\S{using-cmdline-session} Starting a session from the command line
a10c20dd 449
6cc170f0 450\I\c{-ssh}\I\c{-telnet}\I\c{-rlogin}\I\c{-raw}These options allow
451you to bypass the configuration window and launch straight into a
452session.
a10c20dd 453
e117a742 454To start a connection to a server called \c{host}:
a10c20dd 455
e2a197cf 456\c putty.exe [-ssh | -telnet | -rlogin | -raw] [user@]host
a10c20dd 457
458If this syntax is used, settings are taken from the Default Settings
e2a197cf 459(see \k{config-saving}); \c{user} overrides these settings if
460supplied. Also, you can specify a protocol, which will override the
461default protocol (see \k{using-cmdline-protocol}).
a10c20dd 462
463For telnet sessions, the following alternative syntax is supported
6cc170f0 464(this makes PuTTY suitable for use as a URL handler for \i{telnet
465URLs} in web browsers):
a10c20dd 466
467\c putty.exe telnet://host[:port]/
468
469In order to start an existing saved session called \c{sessionname},
e117a742 470use the \c{-load} option (described in \k{using-cmdline-load}).
a10c20dd 471
e117a742 472\c putty.exe -load "session name"
a10c20dd 473
6cc170f0 474\S{using-cleanup} \i\c{-cleanup}
a10c20dd 475
476If invoked with the \c{-cleanup} option, rather than running as
477normal, PuTTY will remove its registry entries and random seed file
478from the local machine (after confirming with the user).
e117a742 479
480\S{using-general-opts} Standard command-line options
481
482PuTTY and its associated tools support a range of command-line
483options, most of which are consistent across all the tools. This
484section lists the available options in all tools. Options which are
485specific to a particular tool are covered in the chapter about that
486tool.
487
6cc170f0 488\S2{using-cmdline-load} \i\c{-load}: load a saved session
e117a742 489
6cc170f0 490\I{saved sessions, loading from command line}The \c{-load} option
491causes PuTTY to load configuration details out of a saved session.
492If these details include a host name, then this option is all you
33f07e96 493need to make PuTTY start a session.
e117a742 494
495You need double quotes around the session name if it contains spaces.
496
497If you want to create a Windows shortcut to start a PuTTY saved
498session, this is the option you should use: your shortcut should
499call something like
500
501\c d:\path\to\putty.exe -load "my session"
502
503(Note that PuTTY itself supports an alternative form of this option,
504for backwards compatibility. If you execute \c{putty @sessionname}
505it will have the same effect as \c{putty -load "sessionname"}. With
506the \c{@} form, no double quotes are required, and the \c{@} sign
507must be the very first thing on the command line. This form of the
508option is deprecated.)
509
510\S2{using-cmdline-protocol} Selecting a protocol: \c{-ssh},
511\c{-telnet}, \c{-rlogin}, \c{-raw}
512
513To choose which protocol you want to connect with, you can use one
514of these options:
515
6cc170f0 516\b \i\c{-ssh} selects the SSH protocol.
e117a742 517
6cc170f0 518\b \i\c{-telnet} selects the Telnet protocol.
e117a742 519
6cc170f0 520\b \i\c{-rlogin} selects the Rlogin protocol.
e117a742 521
6cc170f0 522\b \i\c{-raw} selects the raw protocol.
e117a742 523
524These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
525PSFTP (which only work with the SSH protocol).
526
6cc170f0 527These options are equivalent to the \i{protocol selection} buttons
528in the Session panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
e117a742 529\k{config-hostname}).
530
6cc170f0 531\S2{using-cmdline-v} \i\c{-v}: increase verbosity
e117a742 532
6cc170f0 533\I{verbose mode}Most of the PuTTY tools can be made to tell you more
534about what they are doing by supplying the \c{-v} option. If you are
535having trouble when making a connection, or you're simply curious,
536you can turn this switch on and hope to find out more about what is
537happening.
e117a742 538
6cc170f0 539\S2{using-cmdline-l} \i\c{-l}: specify a \i{login name}
e117a742 540
541You can specify the user name to log in as on the remote server
542using the \c{-l} option. For example, \c{plink login.example.com -l
543fred}.
544
545These options are equivalent to the username selection box in the
546Connection panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
547\k{config-username}).
548
b7a5df66 549\S2{using-cmdline-portfwd} \I{-L-upper}\c{-L}, \I{-R-upper}\c{-R}
550and \I{-D-upper}\c{-D}: set up \i{port forwardings}
e117a742 551
552As well as setting up port forwardings in the PuTTY configuration
553(see \k{config-ssh-portfwd}), you can also set up forwardings on the
554command line. The command-line options work just like the ones in
555Unix \c{ssh} programs.
556
557To forward a local port (say 5110) to a remote destination (say
558\cw{popserver.example.com} port 110), you can write something like
559one of these:
560
561\c putty -L 5110:popserver.example.com:110 -load mysession
562\c plink mysession -L 5110:popserver.example.com:110
563
48b7c4b2 564To forward a remote port to a local destination, just use the \c{-R}
565option instead of \c{-L}:
e117a742 566
567\c putty -R 5023:mytelnetserver.myhouse.org:23 -load mysession
568\c plink mysession -R 5023:mytelnetserver.myhouse.org:23
569
dbe6c525 570To specify an IP address for the listening end of the tunnel,
571prepend it to the argument:
572
573\c plink -L 127.0.0.5:23:localhost:23 myhost
574
48b7c4b2 575To set up SOCKS-based dynamic port forwarding on a local port, use
576the \c{-D} option. For this one you only have to pass the port
577number:
578
579\c putty -D 4096 -load mysession
580
e117a742 581For general information on port forwarding, see
582\k{using-port-forwarding}.
583
584These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
585PSFTP.
586
6cc170f0 587\S2{using-cmdline-m} \i\c{-m}: read a remote command or script from
588a file
e117a742 589
6cc170f0 590The \i\c{-m} option performs a similar function to the \q{Remote
e117a742 591command} box in the SSH panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
592\k{config-command}). However, the \c{-m} option expects to be given
6cc170f0 593a local file name, and it will read a command from that file. On
594most Unix systems, you can even put multiple lines in this file and
4e930b58 595execute more than one command in sequence, or a whole shell script;
596but this will not work on all servers (and is known not to work
597with certain \q{embedded} servers such as routers).
e117a742 598
599This option is not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
600PSFTP.
601
b7a5df66 602\S2{using-cmdline-p} \I{-P-upper}\c{-P}: specify a \i{port number}
e117a742 603
e2a197cf 604The \c{-P} option is used to specify the port number to connect to. If
605you have a Telnet server running on port 9696 of a machine instead of
606port 23, for example:
e117a742 607
e2a197cf 608\c putty -telnet -P 9696 host.name
609\c plink -telnet -P 9696 host.name
e117a742 610
611(Note that this option is more useful in Plink than in PuTTY,
612because in PuTTY you can write \c{putty -telnet host.name 9696} in
613any case.)
614
6cc170f0 615This option is equivalent to the port number control in the Session
616panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-hostname}).
e117a742 617
6cc170f0 618\S2{using-cmdline-pw} \i\c{-pw}: specify a \i{password}
e117a742 619
620A simple way to automate a remote login is to supply your password
621on the command line. This is \e{not recommended} for reasons of
622security. If you possibly can, we recommend you set up public-key
623authentication instead. See \k{pubkey} for details.
624
625Note that the \c{-pw} option only works when you are using the SSH
626protocol. Due to fundamental limitations of Telnet and Rlogin, these
627protocols do not support automated password authentication.
628
b7a5df66 629\S2{using-cmdline-agent} \I{-A-upper}\c{-A} and \i\c{-a}: control \i{agent
6cc170f0 630forwarding}
e117a742 631
632The \c{-A} option turns on SSH agent forwarding, and \c{-a} turns it
633off. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
634
6cc170f0 635See \k{pageant} for general information on \i{Pageant}, and
e117a742 636\k{pageant-forward} for information on agent forwarding. Note that
637there is a security risk involved with enabling this option; see
638\k{pageant-security} for details.
639
640These options are equivalent to the agent forwarding checkbox in the
641Auth panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-agentfwd}).
642
643These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
644PSFTP.
645
b7a5df66 646\S2{using-cmdline-x11} \I{-X-upper}\c{-X} and \i\c{-x}: control \i{X11
6cc170f0 647forwarding}
e117a742 648
649The \c{-X} option turns on X11 forwarding in SSH, and \c{-x} turns
650it off. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
651
652For information on X11 forwarding, see \k{using-x-forwarding}.
653
654These options are equivalent to the X11 forwarding checkbox in the
655Tunnels panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
656\k{config-ssh-x11}).
657
658These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
659PSFTP.
660
b7a5df66 661\S2{using-cmdline-pty} \i\c{-t} and \I{-T-upper}\c{-T}: control
6cc170f0 662\i{pseudo-terminal allocation}
e117a742 663
664The \c{-t} option ensures PuTTY attempts to allocate a
665pseudo-terminal at the server, and \c{-T} stops it from allocating
666one. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
667
668These options are equivalent to the \q{Don't allocate a
669pseudo-terminal} checkbox in the SSH panel of the PuTTY
670configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-pty}).
671
672These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
673PSFTP.
674
b7a5df66 675\S2{using-cmdline-compress} \I{-C-upper}\c{-C}: enable \i{compression}
e117a742 676
677The \c{-C} option enables compression of the data sent across the
678network. This option is only meaningful if you are using SSH.
679
680This option is equivalent to the \q{Enable compression} checkbox in
681the SSH panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
682\k{config-ssh-comp}).
683
6cc170f0 684\S2{using-cmdline-sshprot} \i\c{-1} and \i\c{-2}: specify an \i{SSH
685protocol version}
e117a742 686
6cc170f0 687The \c{-1} and \c{-2} options force PuTTY to use version \I{SSH1}1
688or version \I{SSH2}2 of the SSH protocol. These options are only
689meaningful if you are using SSH.
e117a742 690
691These options are equivalent to selecting your preferred SSH
692protocol version as \q{1 only} or \q{2 only} in the SSH panel of the
693PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-prot}).
694
6cc170f0 695\S2{using-cmdline-identity} \i\c{-i}: specify an SSH \i{private key}
e117a742 696
697The \c{-i} option allows you to specify the name of a private key
8cee3b72 698file in \c{*.PPK} format which PuTTY will use to authenticate with the
699server. This option is only meaningful if you are using SSH.
e117a742 700
6cc170f0 701For general information on \i{public-key authentication}, see
702\k{pubkey}.
e117a742 703
704This option is equivalent to the \q{Private key file for
705authentication} box in the Auth panel of the PuTTY configuration box
706(see \k{config-ssh-privkey}).