Consistently use a single notation to refer to SSH protocol versions, as
[u/mdw/putty] / doc / using.but
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39a938f7 1\define{versionidusing} \versionid $Id$
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
6f2d0cde 178\b \I{IGNORE message, SSH special command}\I{No-op, in SSH}IGNORE message
179
180\lcont{
181Should have no effect.
182}
183
155f8b88 184\b \I{Repeat key exchange, SSH special command}Repeat key exchange
185
186\lcont{
187Only available in SSH-2. Forces a repeat key exchange immediately (and
d57f70af 188resets associated timers and counters). For more information about
189repeat key exchanges, see \k{config-ssh-kex-rekey}.
155f8b88 190}
191
3f2ce694 192\b \I{Break, SSH special command}Break
2c51c674 193
3f2ce694 194\lcont{
6f2d0cde 195Only available in SSH-2, and only during a session. Optional
196extension; may not be supported by server. PuTTY requests the server's
197default break length.
3f2ce694 198}
2c51c674 199
6f2d0cde 200\b \I{Signal, SSH special command}Signals (SIGINT, SIGTERM etc)
2c51c674 201
3f2ce694 202\lcont{
6f2d0cde 203Only available in SSH-2, and only during a session. Sends various
204POSIX signals. Not honoured by all servers.
3f2ce694 205}
6b590f79 206
fc5a8711 207\S2{using-newsession} Starting new sessions
208
209PuTTY's system menu provides some shortcut ways to start new
210sessions:
211
6cc170f0 212\b Selecting \i{\q{New Session}} will start a completely new
213instance of PuTTY, and bring up the configuration box as normal.
fc5a8711 214
8a213300 215\b Selecting \i{\q{Duplicate Session}} will start a session in a
216new window with precisely the same options as your current one -
217connecting to the same host using the same protocol, with all the
218same terminal settings and everything.
219
220\b In an inactive window, selecting \i{\q{Restart Session}} will
221do the same as \q{Duplicate Session}, but in the current window.
fc5a8711 222
6cc170f0 223\b The \i{\q{Saved Sessions} submenu} gives you quick access to any
fc5a8711 224sets of stored session details you have previously saved. See
225\k{config-saving} for details of how to create saved sessions.
226
6cc170f0 227\S2{using-changesettings} \I{settings, changing}Changing your
228session settings
fc5a8711 229
6cc170f0 230If you select \i{\q{Change Settings}} from the system menu, PuTTY will
fc5a8711 231display a cut-down version of its initial configuration box. This
232allows you to adjust most properties of your current session. You
233can change the terminal size, the font, the actions of various
234keypresses, the colours, and so on.
235
236Some of the options that are available in the main configuration box
237are not shown in the cut-down Change Settings box. These are usually
238options which don't make sense to change in the middle of a session
239(for example, you can't switch from SSH to Telnet in mid-session).
240
6cc170f0 241\S2{using-copyall} \i{Copy All to Clipboard}
fc5a8711 242
243This system menu option provides a convenient way to copy the whole
f20523db 244contents of the terminal screen (up to the last nonempty line) and
6cc170f0 245scrollback to the \i{clipboard} in one go.
fc5a8711 246
6cc170f0 247\S2{reset-terminal} \I{scrollback, clearing}Clearing and
248\I{terminal, resetting}resetting the terminal
fc5a8711 249
6cc170f0 250The \i{\q{Clear Scrollback}} option on the system menu tells PuTTY
251to discard all the lines of text that have been kept after they
fc5a8711 252scrolled off the top of the screen. This might be useful, for
253example, if you displayed sensitive information and wanted to make
254sure nobody could look over your shoulder and see it. (Note that
255this only prevents a casual user from using the scrollbar to view
256the information; the text is not guaranteed not to still be in
257PuTTY's memory.)
258
6cc170f0 259The \i{\q{Reset Terminal}} option causes a full reset of the
260terminal emulation. A VT-series terminal is a complex piece of
261software and can easily get into a state where all the text printed
262becomes unreadable. (This can happen, for example, if you
263accidentally output a binary file to your terminal.) If this
264happens, selecting Reset Terminal should sort it out.
fc5a8711 265
6cc170f0 266\S2{using-fullscreen} \ii{Full screen} mode
fc5a8711 267
268If you find the title bar on a maximised window to be ugly or
269distracting, you can select Full Screen mode to maximise PuTTY
270\q{even more}. When you select this, PuTTY will expand to fill the
271whole screen and its borders, title bar and scrollbar will
272disappear. (You can configure the scrollbar not to disappear in
a5a6cb30 273full-screen mode if you want to keep it; see \k{config-scrollback}.)
fc5a8711 274
275When you are in full-screen mode, you can still access the system
276menu if you click the left mouse button in the \e{extreme} top left
277corner of the screen.
278
6cc170f0 279\H{using-logging} Creating a \i{log file} of your \I{session
280log}session
fc5a8711 281
282For some purposes you may find you want to log everything that
6cc170f0 283appears on your screen. You can do this using the \i{\q{Logging}
284panel} in the configuration box.
fc5a8711 285
286To begin a session log, select \q{Change Settings} from the system
287menu and go to the Logging panel. Enter a log file name, and select
288a logging mode. (You can log all session output including the
289terminal control sequences, or you can just log the printable text.
290It depends what you want the log for.) Click \q{Apply} and your log
291will be started. Later on, you can go back to the Logging panel and
292select \q{Logging turned off completely} to stop logging; then PuTTY
293will close the log file and you can safely read it.
294
295See \k{config-logging} for more details and options.
296
6cc170f0 297\H{using-translation} Altering your \i{character set} configuration
fc5a8711 298
6cc170f0 299If you find that special characters (\i{accented characters}, for
f80d4744 300example, or \i{line-drawing characters}) are not being displayed
301correctly in your PuTTY session, it may be that PuTTY is interpreting
302the characters sent by the server according to the wrong \e{character
303set}. There are a lot of different character sets available, so it's
304entirely possible for this to happen.
fc5a8711 305
6cc170f0 306If you click \q{Change Settings} and look at the \i{\q{Translation}
f80d4744 307panel}, you should see a large number of character sets which you can
308select, and other related options. Now all you need is to find out
309which of them you want! (See \k{config-translation} for more
310information.)
fc5a8711 311
6cc170f0 312\H{using-x-forwarding} Using \i{X11 forwarding} in SSH
2f8d6d43 313
314The SSH protocol has the ability to securely forward X Window System
315applications over your encrypted SSH connection, so that you can run
316an application on the SSH server machine and have it put its windows
317up on your local machine without sending any X network traffic in
318the clear.
319
320In order to use this feature, you will need an X display server for
5bbb5c6c 321your Windows machine, such as Cygwin/X, X-Win32, or Exceed. This will probably
2f8d6d43 322install itself as display number 0 on your local machine; if it
6cc170f0 323doesn't, the manual for the \i{X server} should tell you what it
324does do.
2f8d6d43 325
326You should then tick the \q{Enable X11 forwarding} box in the
327Tunnels panel (see \k{config-ssh-x11}) before starting your SSH
46ed7b64 328session. The \q{X display location} box is blank by default, which
329means that PuTTY will try to use a sensible default such as \c{:0},
330which is the usual display location where your X server will be
331installed. If that needs changing, then change it.
2f8d6d43 332
333Now you should be able to log in to the SSH server as normal. To
334check that X forwarding has been successfully negotiated during
335connection startup, you can check the PuTTY Event Log (see
336\k{using-eventlog}). It should say something like this:
337
338\c 2001-12-05 17:22:01 Requesting X11 forwarding
339\c 2001-12-05 17:22:02 X11 forwarding enabled
340
341If the remote system is Unix or Unix-like, you should also be able
6cc170f0 342to see that the \i{\c{DISPLAY} environment variable} has been set to
2f8d6d43 343point at display 10 or above on the SSH server machine itself:
344
345\c fred@unixbox:~$ echo $DISPLAY
346\c unixbox:10.0
347
348If this works, you should then be able to run X applications in the
349remote session and have them display their windows on your PC.
350
351Note that if your PC X server requires authentication to connect,
352then PuTTY cannot currently support it. If this is a problem for
2b5567cf 353you, you should mail the PuTTY authors \#{FIXME} and give details
354(see \k{feedback}).
2f8d6d43 355
ee155ed5 356For more options relating to X11 forwarding, see \k{config-ssh-x11}.
357
6cc170f0 358\H{using-port-forwarding} Using \i{port forwarding} in SSH
2f8d6d43 359
360The SSH protocol has the ability to forward arbitrary network
361connections over your encrypted SSH connection, to avoid the network
362traffic being sent in clear. For example, you could use this to
363connect from your home computer to a POP-3 server on a remote
364machine without your POP-3 password being visible to network
365sniffers.
366
367In order to use port forwarding to connect from your local machine
368to a port on a remote server, you need to:
369
370\b Choose a port number on your local machine where PuTTY should
371listen for incoming connections. There are likely to be plenty of
6ee9b735 372unused port numbers above 3000. (You can also use a local loopback
dbe6c525 373address here; see below for more details.)
2f8d6d43 374
375\b Now, before you start your SSH connection, go to the Tunnels
376panel (see \k{config-ssh-portfwd}). Make sure the \q{Local} radio
377button is set. Enter the local port number into the \q{Source port}
378box. Enter the destination host name and port number into the
379\q{Destination} box, separated by a colon (for example,
380\c{popserver.example.com:110} to connect to a POP-3 server).
381
382\b Now click the \q{Add} button. The details of your port forwarding
383should appear in the list box.
384
c80f77d8 385Now start your session and log in. (Port forwarding will not be
386enabled until after you have logged in; otherwise it would be easy
387to perform completely anonymous network attacks, and gain access to
388anyone's virtual private network). To check that PuTTY has set up
389the port forwarding correctly, you can look at the PuTTY Event Log
390(see \k{using-eventlog}). It should say something like this:
2f8d6d43 391
392\c 2001-12-05 17:22:10 Local port 3110 forwarding to
393\c popserver.example.com:110
394
395Now if you connect to the source port number on your local PC, you
396should find that it answers you exactly as if it were the service
397running on the destination machine. So in this example, you could
398then configure an e-mail client to use \c{localhost:3110} as a POP-3
399server instead of \c{popserver.example.com:110}. (Of course, the
400forwarding will stop happening when your PuTTY session closes down.)
401
402You can also forward ports in the other direction: arrange for a
403particular port number on the \e{server} machine to be forwarded
404back to your PC as a connection to a service on your PC or near it.
405To do this, just select the \q{Remote} radio button instead of the
406\q{Local} one. The \q{Source port} box will now specify a port
407number on the \e{server} (note that most servers will not allow you
408to use port numbers under 1024 for this purpose).
fc5a8711 409
48b7c4b2 410An alternative way to forward local connections to remote hosts is
6cc170f0 411to use \I{dynamic port forwarding}dynamic \I{SOCKS} proxying. For
412this, you will need to select the \q{Dynamic} radio button instead
413of \q{Local}, and then you should not enter anything into the
414\q{Destination} box (it will be ignored). This will cause PuTTY to
415listen on the port you have specified, and provide a SOCKS proxy
416service to any programs which connect to that port. So, in
417particular, you can forward other PuTTY connections through it by
418setting up the Proxy control panel (see \k{config-proxy} for
419details).
48b7c4b2 420
beefa433 421The source port for a forwarded connection usually does not accept
422connections from any machine except the SSH client or server machine
423itself (for local and remote forwardings respectively). There are
424controls in the Tunnels panel to change this:
425
426\b The \q{Local ports accept connections from other hosts} option
48b7c4b2 427allows you to set up local-to-remote port forwardings (including
428dynamic port forwardings) in such a way that machines other than
429your client PC can connect to the forwarded port.
beefa433 430
431\b The \q{Remote ports do the same} option does the same thing for
432remote-to-local port forwardings (so that machines other than the
433SSH server machine can connect to the forwarded port.) Note that
2e85c969 434this feature is only available in the SSH-2 protocol, and not all
435SSH-2 servers honour it (in OpenSSH, for example, it's usually
97e12fcd 436disabled by default).
beefa433 437
6cc170f0 438You can also specify an \i{IP address} to listen on. Typically a
dbe6c525 439Windows machine can be asked to listen on any single IP address in
440the \cw{127.*.*.*} range, and all of these are loopback addresses
6cc170f0 441available only to the local machine. So if you forward (for example)
442\c{127.0.0.5:79} to a remote machine's \cw{finger} port, then you
443should be able to run commands such as \c{finger fred@127.0.0.5}.
444This can be useful if the program connecting to the forwarded port
445doesn't allow you to change the port number it uses. This feature is
2e85c969 446available for local-to-remote forwarded ports; SSH-1 is unable to
447support it for remote-to-local ports, while SSH-2 can support it in
6cc170f0 448theory but servers will not necessarily cooperate.
449
85c598bf 450(Note that if you're using Windows XP Service Pack 2, you may need
451to obtain a fix from Microsoft in order to use addresses like
452\cw{127.0.0.5} - see \k{faq-alternate-localhost}.)
453
6cc170f0 454\H{using-rawprot} Making \i{raw TCP connections}
455
456A lot of \I{debugging Internet protocols}Internet protocols are
457composed of commands and responses in plain text. For example,
458\i{SMTP} (the protocol used to transfer e-mail), \i{NNTP} (the
459protocol used to transfer Usenet news), and \i{HTTP} (the protocol
460used to serve Web pages) all consist of commands in readable plain
461text.
2f8d6d43 462
463Sometimes it can be useful to connect directly to one of these
464services and speak the protocol \q{by hand}, by typing protocol
465commands and watching the responses. On Unix machines, you can do
466this using the system's \c{telnet} command to connect to the right
467port number. For example, \c{telnet mailserver.example.com 25} might
468enable you to talk directly to the SMTP service running on a mail
469server.
470
471Although the Unix \c{telnet} program provides this functionality,
472the protocol being used is not really Telnet. Really there is no
473actual protocol at all; the bytes sent down the connection are
474exactly the ones you type, and the bytes shown on the screen are
475exactly the ones sent by the server. Unix \c{telnet} will attempt to
476detect or guess whether the service it is talking to is a real
477Telnet service or not; PuTTY prefers to be told for certain.
478
479In order to make a debugging connection to a service of this type,
6cc170f0 480you simply select the fourth protocol name, \I{\q{Raw}
481protocol}\q{Raw}, from the \q{Protocol} buttons in the \q{Session}
482configuration panel. (See \k{config-hostname}.) You can then enter a
483host name and a port number, and make the connection.
a10c20dd 484
e117a742 485\H{using-cmdline} The PuTTY command line
a10c20dd 486
487PuTTY can be made to do various things without user intervention by
6cc170f0 488supplying \i{command-line arguments} (e.g., from a \i{command prompt
489window}, or a \i{Windows shortcut}).
a10c20dd 490
e117a742 491\S{using-cmdline-session} Starting a session from the command line
a10c20dd 492
6cc170f0 493\I\c{-ssh}\I\c{-telnet}\I\c{-rlogin}\I\c{-raw}These options allow
494you to bypass the configuration window and launch straight into a
495session.
a10c20dd 496
e117a742 497To start a connection to a server called \c{host}:
a10c20dd 498
e2a197cf 499\c putty.exe [-ssh | -telnet | -rlogin | -raw] [user@]host
a10c20dd 500
501If this syntax is used, settings are taken from the Default Settings
e2a197cf 502(see \k{config-saving}); \c{user} overrides these settings if
503supplied. Also, you can specify a protocol, which will override the
504default protocol (see \k{using-cmdline-protocol}).
a10c20dd 505
506For telnet sessions, the following alternative syntax is supported
6cc170f0 507(this makes PuTTY suitable for use as a URL handler for \i{telnet
508URLs} in web browsers):
a10c20dd 509
510\c putty.exe telnet://host[:port]/
511
512In order to start an existing saved session called \c{sessionname},
e117a742 513use the \c{-load} option (described in \k{using-cmdline-load}).
a10c20dd 514
e117a742 515\c putty.exe -load "session name"
a10c20dd 516
6cc170f0 517\S{using-cleanup} \i\c{-cleanup}
a10c20dd 518
28339579 519\cfg{winhelp-topic}{options.cleanup}
520
a10c20dd 521If invoked with the \c{-cleanup} option, rather than running as
d8bd04b9 522normal, PuTTY will remove its \I{removing registry entries}registry
9310cb7d 523entries and \i{random seed file} from the local machine (after
d8bd04b9 524confirming with the user).
e117a742 525
9310cb7d 526Note that on \i{multi-user systems}, \c{-cleanup} only removes
527registry entries and files associated with the currently logged-in
528user.
529
e117a742 530\S{using-general-opts} Standard command-line options
531
532PuTTY and its associated tools support a range of command-line
533options, most of which are consistent across all the tools. This
534section lists the available options in all tools. Options which are
535specific to a particular tool are covered in the chapter about that
536tool.
537
6cc170f0 538\S2{using-cmdline-load} \i\c{-load}: load a saved session
e117a742 539
6cc170f0 540\I{saved sessions, loading from command line}The \c{-load} option
541causes PuTTY to load configuration details out of a saved session.
542If these details include a host name, then this option is all you
33f07e96 543need to make PuTTY start a session.
e117a742 544
545You need double quotes around the session name if it contains spaces.
546
547If you want to create a Windows shortcut to start a PuTTY saved
548session, this is the option you should use: your shortcut should
549call something like
550
551\c d:\path\to\putty.exe -load "my session"
552
553(Note that PuTTY itself supports an alternative form of this option,
d8bd04b9 554for backwards compatibility. If you execute \i\c{putty @sessionname}
e117a742 555it will have the same effect as \c{putty -load "sessionname"}. With
556the \c{@} form, no double quotes are required, and the \c{@} sign
557must be the very first thing on the command line. This form of the
558option is deprecated.)
559
560\S2{using-cmdline-protocol} Selecting a protocol: \c{-ssh},
561\c{-telnet}, \c{-rlogin}, \c{-raw}
562
563To choose which protocol you want to connect with, you can use one
564of these options:
565
6cc170f0 566\b \i\c{-ssh} selects the SSH protocol.
e117a742 567
6cc170f0 568\b \i\c{-telnet} selects the Telnet protocol.
e117a742 569
6cc170f0 570\b \i\c{-rlogin} selects the Rlogin protocol.
e117a742 571
6cc170f0 572\b \i\c{-raw} selects the raw protocol.
e117a742 573
574These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
575PSFTP (which only work with the SSH protocol).
576
6cc170f0 577These options are equivalent to the \i{protocol selection} buttons
578in the Session panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
e117a742 579\k{config-hostname}).
580
6cc170f0 581\S2{using-cmdline-v} \i\c{-v}: increase verbosity
e117a742 582
6cc170f0 583\I{verbose mode}Most of the PuTTY tools can be made to tell you more
584about what they are doing by supplying the \c{-v} option. If you are
585having trouble when making a connection, or you're simply curious,
586you can turn this switch on and hope to find out more about what is
587happening.
e117a742 588
6cc170f0 589\S2{using-cmdline-l} \i\c{-l}: specify a \i{login name}
e117a742 590
591You can specify the user name to log in as on the remote server
592using the \c{-l} option. For example, \c{plink login.example.com -l
593fred}.
594
595These options are equivalent to the username selection box in the
596Connection panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
597\k{config-username}).
598
b7a5df66 599\S2{using-cmdline-portfwd} \I{-L-upper}\c{-L}, \I{-R-upper}\c{-R}
600and \I{-D-upper}\c{-D}: set up \i{port forwardings}
e117a742 601
602As well as setting up port forwardings in the PuTTY configuration
603(see \k{config-ssh-portfwd}), you can also set up forwardings on the
604command line. The command-line options work just like the ones in
605Unix \c{ssh} programs.
606
607To forward a local port (say 5110) to a remote destination (say
608\cw{popserver.example.com} port 110), you can write something like
609one of these:
610
611\c putty -L 5110:popserver.example.com:110 -load mysession
612\c plink mysession -L 5110:popserver.example.com:110
613
48b7c4b2 614To forward a remote port to a local destination, just use the \c{-R}
615option instead of \c{-L}:
e117a742 616
617\c putty -R 5023:mytelnetserver.myhouse.org:23 -load mysession
618\c plink mysession -R 5023:mytelnetserver.myhouse.org:23
619
dbe6c525 620To specify an IP address for the listening end of the tunnel,
621prepend it to the argument:
622
623\c plink -L 127.0.0.5:23:localhost:23 myhost
624
48b7c4b2 625To set up SOCKS-based dynamic port forwarding on a local port, use
626the \c{-D} option. For this one you only have to pass the port
627number:
628
629\c putty -D 4096 -load mysession
630
e117a742 631For general information on port forwarding, see
632\k{using-port-forwarding}.
633
634These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
635PSFTP.
636
6cc170f0 637\S2{using-cmdline-m} \i\c{-m}: read a remote command or script from
638a file
e117a742 639
6cc170f0 640The \i\c{-m} option performs a similar function to the \q{Remote
e117a742 641command} box in the SSH panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
642\k{config-command}). However, the \c{-m} option expects to be given
6cc170f0 643a local file name, and it will read a command from that file. On
644most Unix systems, you can even put multiple lines in this file and
4e930b58 645execute more than one command in sequence, or a whole shell script;
646but this will not work on all servers (and is known not to work
647with certain \q{embedded} servers such as routers).
e117a742 648
649This option is not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
650PSFTP.
651
b7a5df66 652\S2{using-cmdline-p} \I{-P-upper}\c{-P}: specify a \i{port number}
e117a742 653
e2a197cf 654The \c{-P} option is used to specify the port number to connect to. If
655you have a Telnet server running on port 9696 of a machine instead of
656port 23, for example:
e117a742 657
e2a197cf 658\c putty -telnet -P 9696 host.name
659\c plink -telnet -P 9696 host.name
e117a742 660
661(Note that this option is more useful in Plink than in PuTTY,
662because in PuTTY you can write \c{putty -telnet host.name 9696} in
663any case.)
664
6cc170f0 665This option is equivalent to the port number control in the Session
666panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-hostname}).
e117a742 667
6cc170f0 668\S2{using-cmdline-pw} \i\c{-pw}: specify a \i{password}
e117a742 669
670A simple way to automate a remote login is to supply your password
671on the command line. This is \e{not recommended} for reasons of
672security. If you possibly can, we recommend you set up public-key
673authentication instead. See \k{pubkey} for details.
674
675Note that the \c{-pw} option only works when you are using the SSH
676protocol. Due to fundamental limitations of Telnet and Rlogin, these
677protocols do not support automated password authentication.
678
b7a5df66 679\S2{using-cmdline-agent} \I{-A-upper}\c{-A} and \i\c{-a}: control \i{agent
6cc170f0 680forwarding}
e117a742 681
682The \c{-A} option turns on SSH agent forwarding, and \c{-a} turns it
683off. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
684
6cc170f0 685See \k{pageant} for general information on \i{Pageant}, and
e117a742 686\k{pageant-forward} for information on agent forwarding. Note that
687there is a security risk involved with enabling this option; see
688\k{pageant-security} for details.
689
690These options are equivalent to the agent forwarding checkbox in the
691Auth panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-agentfwd}).
692
693These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
694PSFTP.
695
b7a5df66 696\S2{using-cmdline-x11} \I{-X-upper}\c{-X} and \i\c{-x}: control \i{X11
6cc170f0 697forwarding}
e117a742 698
699The \c{-X} option turns on X11 forwarding in SSH, and \c{-x} turns
700it off. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
701
702For information on X11 forwarding, see \k{using-x-forwarding}.
703
704These options are equivalent to the X11 forwarding checkbox in the
705Tunnels panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
706\k{config-ssh-x11}).
707
708These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
709PSFTP.
710
b7a5df66 711\S2{using-cmdline-pty} \i\c{-t} and \I{-T-upper}\c{-T}: control
6cc170f0 712\i{pseudo-terminal allocation}
e117a742 713
714The \c{-t} option ensures PuTTY attempts to allocate a
715pseudo-terminal at the server, and \c{-T} stops it from allocating
716one. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
717
718These options are equivalent to the \q{Don't allocate a
719pseudo-terminal} checkbox in the SSH panel of the PuTTY
720configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-pty}).
721
722These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
723PSFTP.
724
0ed48730 725\S2{using-cmdline-noshell} \I{-N-upper}\c{-N}: suppress starting a
d8bd04b9 726\I{suppressing remote shell}shell or command
0ed48730 727
728The \c{-N} option prevents PuTTY from attempting to start a shell or
729command on the remote server. You might want to use this option if
730you are only using the SSH connection for port forwarding, and your
731user account on the server does not have the ability to run a shell.
732
733This feature is only available in SSH protocol version 2 (since the
734version 1 protocol assumes you will always want to run a shell).
735
736This option is equivalent to the \q{Don't start a shell or command
737at all} checkbox in the SSH panel of the PuTTY configuration box
738(see \k{config-ssh-noshell}).
739
8a213300 740This option is not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
0ed48730 741PSFTP.
742
b7a5df66 743\S2{using-cmdline-compress} \I{-C-upper}\c{-C}: enable \i{compression}
e117a742 744
745The \c{-C} option enables compression of the data sent across the
746network. This option is only meaningful if you are using SSH.
747
748This option is equivalent to the \q{Enable compression} checkbox in
749the SSH panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
750\k{config-ssh-comp}).
751
6cc170f0 752\S2{using-cmdline-sshprot} \i\c{-1} and \i\c{-2}: specify an \i{SSH
753protocol version}
e117a742 754
2e85c969 755The \c{-1} and \c{-2} options force PuTTY to use version \I{SSH-1}1
756or version \I{SSH-2}2 of the SSH protocol. These options are only
6cc170f0 757meaningful if you are using SSH.
e117a742 758
759These options are equivalent to selecting your preferred SSH
760protocol version as \q{1 only} or \q{2 only} in the SSH panel of the
761PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-prot}).
762
05581745 763\S2{using-cmdline-ipversion} \i\c{-4} and \i\c{-6}: specify an
764\i{Internet protocol version}
765
766The \c{-4} and \c{-6} options force PuTTY to use the older Internet
767protocol \i{IPv4} or the newer \i{IPv6}.
768
769These options are equivalent to selecting your preferred Internet
770protocol version as \q{IPv4} or \q{IPv6} in the Connection panel of
771the PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-address-family}).
772
6cc170f0 773\S2{using-cmdline-identity} \i\c{-i}: specify an SSH \i{private key}
e117a742 774
775The \c{-i} option allows you to specify the name of a private key
8cee3b72 776file in \c{*.PPK} format which PuTTY will use to authenticate with the
777server. This option is only meaningful if you are using SSH.
e117a742 778
6cc170f0 779For general information on \i{public-key authentication}, see
780\k{pubkey}.
e117a742 781
782This option is equivalent to the \q{Private key file for
783authentication} box in the Auth panel of the PuTTY configuration box
784(see \k{config-ssh-privkey}).