New option to allow use of the local OS username for login to the remote side
[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
421406a4 28button} in the \i{terminal window}, and drag to \I{selecting text}select
6cc170f0 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,
421406a4 36if you have a \i{three-button mouse} and have set it up; see
6cc170f0 37\k{config-mouse}). (Pressing \i{Shift-Ins}, or selecting \q{Paste}
421406a4 38from the \I{right mouse button, with Ctrl}Ctrl+right-click
39\i{context menu}, have the same effect.) When
6cc170f0 40you click the \i{right mouse button}, PuTTY will read whatever is in
41the Windows clipboard and paste it into your session, \e{exactly} as
42if it had been typed at the keyboard. (Therefore, be careful of
43pasting formatted text into an editor that does automatic indenting;
44you may find that the spaces pasted from the clipboard plus the
45spaces added by the editor add up to too many spaces and ruin the
46formatting. There is nothing PuTTY can do about this.)
47
421406a4 48If you \i{double-click} the left mouse button, PuTTY will
49\I{selecting words}select a whole word. If you double-click, hold
50down the second click, and drag the mouse, PuTTY will select a
51sequence of whole words. (You can adjust precisely what PuTTY
52considers to be part of a word; see \k{config-charclasses}.)
53If you \e{triple}-click, or \i{triple-click} and drag, then
54PuTTY will \I{selecting lines}select a whole line or sequence of lines.
6cc170f0 55
56If you want to select a \I{rectangular selection}rectangular region
57instead of selecting to the end of each line, you can do this by
ab08725e 58holding down Alt when you make your selection. You can also
6cc170f0 59configure rectangular selection to be the default, and then holding
ab08725e 60down Alt gives the normal behaviour instead: see
61\k{config-rectselect} for details.
62
63(In some Unix environments, Alt+drag is intercepted by the window
64manager. Shift+Alt+drag should work for rectangular selection as
65well, so you could try that instead.)
6cc170f0 66
67If you have a \i{middle mouse button}, then you can use it to
68\I{adjusting a selection}adjust an existing selection if you
69selected something slightly wrong. (If you have configured the
70middle mouse button to paste, then the right mouse button does this
71instead.) Click the button on the screen, and you can pick up the
72nearest end of the selection and drag it to somewhere else.
fc5a8711 73
421406a4 74It's possible for the server to ask to \I{mouse reporting}handle mouse
75clicks in the PuTTY window itself. If this happens, the \i{mouse pointer}
76will turn into an arrow, and using the mouse to copy and paste will only
77work if you hold down Shift. See \k{config-features-mouse} and
25c22a0c 78\k{config-mouseshift} for details of this feature and how to configure
79it.
6cee219d 80
6cc170f0 81\S{using-scrollback} \I{scrollback}Scrolling the screen back
fc5a8711 82
83PuTTY keeps track of text that has scrolled up off the top of the
84terminal. So if something appears on the screen that you want to
85read, but it scrolls too fast and it's gone by the time you try to
421406a4 86look for it, you can use the \i{scrollbar} on the right side of the
6cc170f0 87window to look back up the session \i{history} and find it again.
fc5a8711 88
89As well as using the scrollbar, you can also page the scrollback up
6cc170f0 90and down by pressing \i{Shift-PgUp} and \i{Shift-PgDn}. You can
91scroll a line at a time using \i{Ctrl-PgUp} and \i{Ctrl-PgDn}. These
92are still available if you configure the scrollbar to be invisible.
fc5a8711 93
94By default the last 200 lines scrolled off the top are
95preserved for you to look at. You can increase (or decrease) this
96value using the configuration box; see \k{config-scrollback}.
97
421406a4 98\S{using-sysmenu} The \ii{System menu}
fc5a8711 99
100If you click the left mouse button on the icon in the top left
1388ecb1 101corner of PuTTY's terminal window, or click the right mouse button
102on the title bar, you will see the standard Windows system menu
103containing items like Minimise, Move, Size and Close.
fc5a8711 104
105PuTTY's system menu contains extra program features in addition to
106the Windows standard options. These extra menu commands are
107described below.
108
421406a4 109(These options are also available in a \i{context menu} brought up
533d533c 110by holding Ctrl and clicking with the right mouse button anywhere
421406a4 111in the \i{PuTTY window}.)
533d533c 112
6cc170f0 113\S2{using-eventlog} The PuTTY \i{Event Log}
fc5a8711 114
115If you choose \q{Event Log} from the system menu, a small window
116will pop up in which PuTTY logs significant events during the
117connection. Most of the events in the log will probably take place
118during session startup, but a few can occur at any point in the
119session, and one or two occur right at the end.
120
121You can use the mouse to select one or more lines of the Event Log,
6cc170f0 122and hit the Copy button to copy them to the \i{clipboard}. If you
123are reporting a bug, it's often useful to paste the contents of the
fc5a8711 124Event Log into your bug report.
125
6cc170f0 126\S2{using-specials} \ii{Special commands}
6b590f79 127
6cc170f0 128Depending on the protocol used for the current session, there may be
129a submenu of \q{special commands}. These are protocol-specific
9711106b 130tokens, such as a \q{break} signal, that can be sent down a
2c51c674 131connection in addition to normal data. Their precise effect is usually
9711106b 132up to the server. Currently only Telnet, SSH, and serial connections
133have special commands.
6cc170f0 134
58c840dc 135The \q{break} signal can also be invoked from the keyboard with
136\i{Ctrl-Break}.
137
421406a4 138The following \I{Telnet special commands}special commands are
139available in Telnet:
2c51c674 140
3f2ce694 141\b \I{Are You There, Telnet special command}Are You There
2c51c674 142
3f2ce694 143\b \I{Break, Telnet special command}Break
2c51c674 144
3f2ce694 145\b \I{Synch, Telnet special command}Synch
2c51c674 146
3f2ce694 147\b \I{Erase Character, Telnet special command}Erase Character
2c51c674 148
76d3d354 149\lcont{
150PuTTY can also be configured to send this when the Backspace key is
151pressed; see \k{config-telnetkey}.
152}
153
3f2ce694 154\b \I{Erase Line, Telnet special command}Erase Line
2c51c674 155
3f2ce694 156\b \I{Go Ahead, Telnet special command}Go Ahead
2c51c674 157
3f2ce694 158\b \I{No Operation, Telnet special command}No Operation
2c51c674 159
3f2ce694 160\lcont{
161Should have no effect.
162}
2c51c674 163
3f2ce694 164\b \I{Abort Process, Telnet special command}Abort Process
2c51c674 165
3f2ce694 166\b \I{Abort Output, Telnet special command}Abort Output
2c51c674 167
3f2ce694 168\b \I{Interrupt Process, Telnet special command}Interrupt Process
2c51c674 169
76d3d354 170\lcont{
171PuTTY can also be configured to send this when Ctrl-C is typed; see
172\k{config-telnetkey}.
173}
174
3f2ce694 175\b \I{Suspend Process, Telnet special command}Suspend Process
2c51c674 176
76d3d354 177\lcont{
178PuTTY can also be configured to send this when Ctrl-Z is typed; see
179\k{config-telnetkey}.
180}
181
3f2ce694 182\b \I{End Of Record, Telnet special command}End Of Record
2c51c674 183
3f2ce694 184\b \I{End Of File, Telnet special command}End Of File
2c51c674 185
421406a4 186In an SSH connection, the following \I{SSH special commands}special
187commands are available:
2c51c674 188
421406a4 189\b \I{IGNORE message, SSH special command}\I{No-op, in SSH}\ii{IGNORE message}
6f2d0cde 190
191\lcont{
192Should have no effect.
193}
194
155f8b88 195\b \I{Repeat key exchange, SSH special command}Repeat key exchange
196
197\lcont{
421406a4 198Only available in SSH-2. Forces a \i{repeat key exchange} immediately (and
d57f70af 199resets associated timers and counters). For more information about
200repeat key exchanges, see \k{config-ssh-kex-rekey}.
155f8b88 201}
202
3f2ce694 203\b \I{Break, SSH special command}Break
2c51c674 204
3f2ce694 205\lcont{
6f2d0cde 206Only available in SSH-2, and only during a session. Optional
207extension; may not be supported by server. PuTTY requests the server's
208default break length.
3f2ce694 209}
2c51c674 210
6f2d0cde 211\b \I{Signal, SSH special command}Signals (SIGINT, SIGTERM etc)
2c51c674 212
3f2ce694 213\lcont{
6f2d0cde 214Only available in SSH-2, and only during a session. Sends various
215POSIX signals. Not honoured by all servers.
3f2ce694 216}
6b590f79 217
9711106b 218With a serial connection, the only available special command is
219\I{Break, serial special command}\q{Break}.
220
fc5a8711 221\S2{using-newsession} Starting new sessions
222
223PuTTY's system menu provides some shortcut ways to start new
224sessions:
225
6cc170f0 226\b Selecting \i{\q{New Session}} will start a completely new
227instance of PuTTY, and bring up the configuration box as normal.
fc5a8711 228
8a213300 229\b Selecting \i{\q{Duplicate Session}} will start a session in a
230new window with precisely the same options as your current one -
231connecting to the same host using the same protocol, with all the
232same terminal settings and everything.
233
234\b In an inactive window, selecting \i{\q{Restart Session}} will
235do the same as \q{Duplicate Session}, but in the current window.
fc5a8711 236
6cc170f0 237\b The \i{\q{Saved Sessions} submenu} gives you quick access to any
fc5a8711 238sets of stored session details you have previously saved. See
239\k{config-saving} for details of how to create saved sessions.
240
6cc170f0 241\S2{using-changesettings} \I{settings, changing}Changing your
242session settings
fc5a8711 243
6cc170f0 244If you select \i{\q{Change Settings}} from the system menu, PuTTY will
fc5a8711 245display a cut-down version of its initial configuration box. This
246allows you to adjust most properties of your current session. You
247can change the terminal size, the font, the actions of various
248keypresses, the colours, and so on.
249
250Some of the options that are available in the main configuration box
251are not shown in the cut-down Change Settings box. These are usually
252options which don't make sense to change in the middle of a session
253(for example, you can't switch from SSH to Telnet in mid-session).
254
9e201f72 255You can save the current settings to a saved session for future use
256from this dialog box. See \k{config-saving} for more on saved
257sessions.
258
6cc170f0 259\S2{using-copyall} \i{Copy All to Clipboard}
fc5a8711 260
261This system menu option provides a convenient way to copy the whole
f20523db 262contents of the terminal screen (up to the last nonempty line) and
6cc170f0 263scrollback to the \i{clipboard} in one go.
fc5a8711 264
6cc170f0 265\S2{reset-terminal} \I{scrollback, clearing}Clearing and
266\I{terminal, resetting}resetting the terminal
fc5a8711 267
6cc170f0 268The \i{\q{Clear Scrollback}} option on the system menu tells PuTTY
269to discard all the lines of text that have been kept after they
fc5a8711 270scrolled off the top of the screen. This might be useful, for
271example, if you displayed sensitive information and wanted to make
272sure nobody could look over your shoulder and see it. (Note that
273this only prevents a casual user from using the scrollbar to view
274the information; the text is not guaranteed not to still be in
275PuTTY's memory.)
276
6cc170f0 277The \i{\q{Reset Terminal}} option causes a full reset of the
421406a4 278\i{terminal emulation}. A VT-series terminal is a complex piece of
6cc170f0 279software and can easily get into a state where all the text printed
280becomes unreadable. (This can happen, for example, if you
281accidentally output a binary file to your terminal.) If this
282happens, selecting Reset Terminal should sort it out.
fc5a8711 283
6cc170f0 284\S2{using-fullscreen} \ii{Full screen} mode
fc5a8711 285
286If you find the title bar on a maximised window to be ugly or
287distracting, you can select Full Screen mode to maximise PuTTY
288\q{even more}. When you select this, PuTTY will expand to fill the
289whole screen and its borders, title bar and scrollbar will
290disappear. (You can configure the scrollbar not to disappear in
a5a6cb30 291full-screen mode if you want to keep it; see \k{config-scrollback}.)
fc5a8711 292
421406a4 293When you are in full-screen mode, you can still access the \i{system
294menu} if you click the left mouse button in the \e{extreme} top left
fc5a8711 295corner of the screen.
296
6cc170f0 297\H{using-logging} Creating a \i{log file} of your \I{session
298log}session
fc5a8711 299
300For some purposes you may find you want to log everything that
421406a4 301appears on your screen. You can do this using the \q{Logging}
302panel in the configuration box.
fc5a8711 303
304To begin a session log, select \q{Change Settings} from the system
305menu and go to the Logging panel. Enter a log file name, and select
306a logging mode. (You can log all session output including the
421406a4 307terminal \i{control sequence}s, or you can just log the printable text.
fc5a8711 308It depends what you want the log for.) Click \q{Apply} and your log
309will be started. Later on, you can go back to the Logging panel and
310select \q{Logging turned off completely} to stop logging; then PuTTY
311will close the log file and you can safely read it.
312
313See \k{config-logging} for more details and options.
314
6cc170f0 315\H{using-translation} Altering your \i{character set} configuration
fc5a8711 316
6cc170f0 317If you find that special characters (\i{accented characters}, for
f80d4744 318example, or \i{line-drawing characters}) are not being displayed
319correctly in your PuTTY session, it may be that PuTTY is interpreting
320the characters sent by the server according to the wrong \e{character
321set}. There are a lot of different character sets available, so it's
322entirely possible for this to happen.
fc5a8711 323
421406a4 324If you click \q{Change Settings} and look at the \q{Translation}
325panel, you should see a large number of character sets which you can
f80d4744 326select, and other related options. Now all you need is to find out
327which of them you want! (See \k{config-translation} for more
328information.)
fc5a8711 329
6cc170f0 330\H{using-x-forwarding} Using \i{X11 forwarding} in SSH
2f8d6d43 331
332The SSH protocol has the ability to securely forward X Window System
333applications over your encrypted SSH connection, so that you can run
334an application on the SSH server machine and have it put its windows
335up on your local machine without sending any X network traffic in
336the clear.
337
338In order to use this feature, you will need an X display server for
5bbb5c6c 339your Windows machine, such as Cygwin/X, X-Win32, or Exceed. This will probably
2f8d6d43 340install itself as display number 0 on your local machine; if it
6cc170f0 341doesn't, the manual for the \i{X server} should tell you what it
342does do.
2f8d6d43 343
344You should then tick the \q{Enable X11 forwarding} box in the
b7a2b2a0 345X11 panel (see \k{config-ssh-x11}) before starting your SSH
421406a4 346session. The \i{\q{X display location}} box is blank by default, which
46ed7b64 347means that PuTTY will try to use a sensible default such as \c{:0},
348which is the usual display location where your X server will be
349installed. If that needs changing, then change it.
2f8d6d43 350
351Now you should be able to log in to the SSH server as normal. To
352check that X forwarding has been successfully negotiated during
353connection startup, you can check the PuTTY Event Log (see
354\k{using-eventlog}). It should say something like this:
355
356\c 2001-12-05 17:22:01 Requesting X11 forwarding
357\c 2001-12-05 17:22:02 X11 forwarding enabled
358
359If the remote system is Unix or Unix-like, you should also be able
6cc170f0 360to see that the \i{\c{DISPLAY} environment variable} has been set to
2f8d6d43 361point at display 10 or above on the SSH server machine itself:
362
363\c fred@unixbox:~$ echo $DISPLAY
364\c unixbox:10.0
365
366If this works, you should then be able to run X applications in the
367remote session and have them display their windows on your PC.
368
421406a4 369Note that if your PC X server requires \I{X11 authentication}authentication
370to connect, then PuTTY cannot currently support it. If this is a problem for
2b5567cf 371you, you should mail the PuTTY authors \#{FIXME} and give details
372(see \k{feedback}).
2f8d6d43 373
ee155ed5 374For more options relating to X11 forwarding, see \k{config-ssh-x11}.
375
6cc170f0 376\H{using-port-forwarding} Using \i{port forwarding} in SSH
2f8d6d43 377
421406a4 378The SSH protocol has the ability to forward arbitrary \i{network
379connection}s over your encrypted SSH connection, to avoid the network
2f8d6d43 380traffic being sent in clear. For example, you could use this to
421406a4 381connect from your home computer to a \i{POP-3} server on a remote
2f8d6d43 382machine without your POP-3 password being visible to network
383sniffers.
384
421406a4 385In order to use port forwarding to \I{local port forwarding}connect
386from your local machine to a port on a remote server, you need to:
2f8d6d43 387
421406a4 388\b Choose a \i{port number} on your local machine where PuTTY should
2f8d6d43 389listen for incoming connections. There are likely to be plenty of
6ee9b735 390unused port numbers above 3000. (You can also use a local loopback
dbe6c525 391address here; see below for more details.)
2f8d6d43 392
393\b Now, before you start your SSH connection, go to the Tunnels
394panel (see \k{config-ssh-portfwd}). Make sure the \q{Local} radio
395button is set. Enter the local port number into the \q{Source port}
396box. Enter the destination host name and port number into the
397\q{Destination} box, separated by a colon (for example,
398\c{popserver.example.com:110} to connect to a POP-3 server).
399
400\b Now click the \q{Add} button. The details of your port forwarding
401should appear in the list box.
402
c80f77d8 403Now start your session and log in. (Port forwarding will not be
404enabled until after you have logged in; otherwise it would be easy
405to perform completely anonymous network attacks, and gain access to
414ffbaa 406anyone's virtual private network.) To check that PuTTY has set up
c80f77d8 407the port forwarding correctly, you can look at the PuTTY Event Log
408(see \k{using-eventlog}). It should say something like this:
2f8d6d43 409
410\c 2001-12-05 17:22:10 Local port 3110 forwarding to
411\c popserver.example.com:110
412
413Now if you connect to the source port number on your local PC, you
414should find that it answers you exactly as if it were the service
415running on the destination machine. So in this example, you could
416then configure an e-mail client to use \c{localhost:3110} as a POP-3
417server instead of \c{popserver.example.com:110}. (Of course, the
418forwarding will stop happening when your PuTTY session closes down.)
419
420You can also forward ports in the other direction: arrange for a
421406a4 421particular port number on the \e{server} machine to be \I{remote
422port forwarding}forwarded back to your PC as a connection to a
423service on your PC or near it.
2f8d6d43 424To do this, just select the \q{Remote} radio button instead of the
425\q{Local} one. The \q{Source port} box will now specify a port
426number on the \e{server} (note that most servers will not allow you
421406a4 427to use \I{privileged port}port numbers under 1024 for this purpose).
fc5a8711 428
48b7c4b2 429An alternative way to forward local connections to remote hosts is
421406a4 430to use \I{dynamic port forwarding}dynamic SOCKS proxying. For
6cc170f0 431this, you will need to select the \q{Dynamic} radio button instead
432of \q{Local}, and then you should not enter anything into the
433\q{Destination} box (it will be ignored). This will cause PuTTY to
434listen on the port you have specified, and provide a SOCKS proxy
435service to any programs which connect to that port. So, in
436particular, you can forward other PuTTY connections through it by
437setting up the Proxy control panel (see \k{config-proxy} for
438details).
48b7c4b2 439
beefa433 440The source port for a forwarded connection usually does not accept
421406a4 441connections from any machine except the \I{localhost}SSH client or
442server machine itself (for local and remote forwardings respectively).
443There are controls in the Tunnels panel to change this:
beefa433 444
445\b The \q{Local ports accept connections from other hosts} option
48b7c4b2 446allows you to set up local-to-remote port forwardings (including
447dynamic port forwardings) in such a way that machines other than
448your client PC can connect to the forwarded port.
beefa433 449
450\b The \q{Remote ports do the same} option does the same thing for
451remote-to-local port forwardings (so that machines other than the
452SSH server machine can connect to the forwarded port.) Note that
2e85c969 453this feature is only available in the SSH-2 protocol, and not all
421406a4 454SSH-2 servers honour it (in \i{OpenSSH}, for example, it's usually
97e12fcd 455disabled by default).
beefa433 456
421406a4 457You can also specify an \i{IP address} to \I{listen address}listen
458on. Typically a Windows machine can be asked to listen on any single
459IP address in the \cw{127.*.*.*} range, and all of these are
460\i{loopback address}es available only to the local machine. So if
461you forward (for example) \c{127.0.0.5:79} to a remote machine's
462\i\cw{finger} port, then you should be able to run commands such as
463\c{finger fred@127.0.0.5}.
6cc170f0 464This can be useful if the program connecting to the forwarded port
465doesn't allow you to change the port number it uses. This feature is
2e85c969 466available for local-to-remote forwarded ports; SSH-1 is unable to
467support it for remote-to-local ports, while SSH-2 can support it in
6cc170f0 468theory but servers will not necessarily cooperate.
469
85c598bf 470(Note that if you're using Windows XP Service Pack 2, you may need
471to obtain a fix from Microsoft in order to use addresses like
472\cw{127.0.0.5} - see \k{faq-alternate-localhost}.)
473
3392ac5d 474For more options relating to port forwarding, see
475\k{config-ssh-portfwd}.
476
881da168 477If the connection you are forwarding over SSH is itself a second SSH
478connection made by another copy of PuTTY, you might find the
479\q{logical host name} configuration option useful to warn PuTTY of
480which host key it should be expecting. See \k{config-loghost} for
481details of this.
482
6cc170f0 483\H{using-rawprot} Making \i{raw TCP connections}
484
485A lot of \I{debugging Internet protocols}Internet protocols are
486composed of commands and responses in plain text. For example,
487\i{SMTP} (the protocol used to transfer e-mail), \i{NNTP} (the
488protocol used to transfer Usenet news), and \i{HTTP} (the protocol
489used to serve Web pages) all consist of commands in readable plain
490text.
2f8d6d43 491
492Sometimes it can be useful to connect directly to one of these
493services and speak the protocol \q{by hand}, by typing protocol
494commands and watching the responses. On Unix machines, you can do
495this using the system's \c{telnet} command to connect to the right
496port number. For example, \c{telnet mailserver.example.com 25} might
497enable you to talk directly to the SMTP service running on a mail
498server.
499
500Although the Unix \c{telnet} program provides this functionality,
501the protocol being used is not really Telnet. Really there is no
502actual protocol at all; the bytes sent down the connection are
503exactly the ones you type, and the bytes shown on the screen are
504exactly the ones sent by the server. Unix \c{telnet} will attempt to
505detect or guess whether the service it is talking to is a real
506Telnet service or not; PuTTY prefers to be told for certain.
507
508In order to make a debugging connection to a service of this type,
6cc170f0 509you simply select the fourth protocol name, \I{\q{Raw}
510protocol}\q{Raw}, from the \q{Protocol} buttons in the \q{Session}
511configuration panel. (See \k{config-hostname}.) You can then enter a
512host name and a port number, and make the connection.
a10c20dd 513
7374c779 514\H{using-serial} Connecting to a local serial line
515
516PuTTY can connect directly to a local serial line as an alternative
517to making a network connection. In this mode, text typed into the
518PuTTY window will be sent straight out of your computer's serial
519port, and data received through that port will be displayed in the
520PuTTY window. You might use this mode, for example, if your serial
521port is connected to another computer which has a serial connection.
522
523To make a connection of this type, simply select \q{Serial} from the
524\q{Connection type} radio buttons on the \q{Session} configuration
525panel (see \k{config-hostname}). The \q{Host Name} and \q{Port}
526boxes will transform into \q{Serial line} and \q{Speed}, allowing
527you to specify which serial line to use (if your computer has more
528than one) and what speed (baud rate) to use when transferring data.
529For further configuration options (data bits, stop bits, parity,
530flow control), you can use the \q{Serial} configuration panel (see
531\k{config-serial}).
532
533After you start up PuTTY in serial mode, you might find that you
534have to make the first move, by sending some data out of the serial
535line in order to notify the device at the other end that someone is
536there for it to talk to. This probably depends on the device. If you
537start up a PuTTY serial session and nothing appears in the window,
538try pressing Return a few times and see if that helps.
539
540A serial line provides no well defined means for one end of the
541connection to notify the other that the connection is finished.
542Therefore, PuTTY in serial mode will remain connected until you
543close the window using the close button.
544
e117a742 545\H{using-cmdline} The PuTTY command line
a10c20dd 546
547PuTTY can be made to do various things without user intervention by
6cc170f0 548supplying \i{command-line arguments} (e.g., from a \i{command prompt
549window}, or a \i{Windows shortcut}).
a10c20dd 550
e117a742 551\S{using-cmdline-session} Starting a session from the command line
a10c20dd 552
6cc170f0 553\I\c{-ssh}\I\c{-telnet}\I\c{-rlogin}\I\c{-raw}These options allow
554you to bypass the configuration window and launch straight into a
555session.
a10c20dd 556
e117a742 557To start a connection to a server called \c{host}:
a10c20dd 558
e2a197cf 559\c putty.exe [-ssh | -telnet | -rlogin | -raw] [user@]host
a10c20dd 560
421406a4 561If this syntax is used, settings are taken from the \i{Default Settings}
e2a197cf 562(see \k{config-saving}); \c{user} overrides these settings if
563supplied. Also, you can specify a protocol, which will override the
564default protocol (see \k{using-cmdline-protocol}).
a10c20dd 565
566For telnet sessions, the following alternative syntax is supported
6cc170f0 567(this makes PuTTY suitable for use as a URL handler for \i{telnet
568URLs} in web browsers):
a10c20dd 569
570\c putty.exe telnet://host[:port]/
571
572In order to start an existing saved session called \c{sessionname},
e117a742 573use the \c{-load} option (described in \k{using-cmdline-load}).
a10c20dd 574
e117a742 575\c putty.exe -load "session name"
a10c20dd 576
6cc170f0 577\S{using-cleanup} \i\c{-cleanup}
a10c20dd 578
28339579 579\cfg{winhelp-topic}{options.cleanup}
580
a10c20dd 581If invoked with the \c{-cleanup} option, rather than running as
d8bd04b9 582normal, PuTTY will remove its \I{removing registry entries}registry
9310cb7d 583entries and \i{random seed file} from the local machine (after
d8bd04b9 584confirming with the user).
e117a742 585
9310cb7d 586Note that on \i{multi-user systems}, \c{-cleanup} only removes
587registry entries and files associated with the currently logged-in
588user.
589
e117a742 590\S{using-general-opts} Standard command-line options
591
592PuTTY and its associated tools support a range of command-line
593options, most of which are consistent across all the tools. This
594section lists the available options in all tools. Options which are
595specific to a particular tool are covered in the chapter about that
596tool.
597
6cc170f0 598\S2{using-cmdline-load} \i\c{-load}: load a saved session
e117a742 599
6cc170f0 600\I{saved sessions, loading from command line}The \c{-load} option
601causes PuTTY to load configuration details out of a saved session.
602If these details include a host name, then this option is all you
33f07e96 603need to make PuTTY start a session.
e117a742 604
605You need double quotes around the session name if it contains spaces.
606
421406a4 607If you want to create a \i{Windows shortcut} to start a PuTTY saved
e117a742 608session, this is the option you should use: your shortcut should
609call something like
610
611\c d:\path\to\putty.exe -load "my session"
612
613(Note that PuTTY itself supports an alternative form of this option,
d8bd04b9 614for backwards compatibility. If you execute \i\c{putty @sessionname}
e117a742 615it will have the same effect as \c{putty -load "sessionname"}. With
616the \c{@} form, no double quotes are required, and the \c{@} sign
617must be the very first thing on the command line. This form of the
618option is deprecated.)
619
620\S2{using-cmdline-protocol} Selecting a protocol: \c{-ssh},
621\c{-telnet}, \c{-rlogin}, \c{-raw}
622
623To choose which protocol you want to connect with, you can use one
624of these options:
625
6cc170f0 626\b \i\c{-ssh} selects the SSH protocol.
e117a742 627
6cc170f0 628\b \i\c{-telnet} selects the Telnet protocol.
e117a742 629
6cc170f0 630\b \i\c{-rlogin} selects the Rlogin protocol.
e117a742 631
6cc170f0 632\b \i\c{-raw} selects the raw protocol.
e117a742 633
634These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
635PSFTP (which only work with the SSH protocol).
636
6cc170f0 637These options are equivalent to the \i{protocol selection} buttons
638in the Session panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
e117a742 639\k{config-hostname}).
640
6cc170f0 641\S2{using-cmdline-v} \i\c{-v}: increase verbosity
e117a742 642
6cc170f0 643\I{verbose mode}Most of the PuTTY tools can be made to tell you more
644about what they are doing by supplying the \c{-v} option. If you are
645having trouble when making a connection, or you're simply curious,
646you can turn this switch on and hope to find out more about what is
647happening.
e117a742 648
6cc170f0 649\S2{using-cmdline-l} \i\c{-l}: specify a \i{login name}
e117a742 650
651You can specify the user name to log in as on the remote server
652using the \c{-l} option. For example, \c{plink login.example.com -l
653fred}.
654
655These options are equivalent to the username selection box in the
656Connection panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
657\k{config-username}).
658
b7a5df66 659\S2{using-cmdline-portfwd} \I{-L-upper}\c{-L}, \I{-R-upper}\c{-R}
660and \I{-D-upper}\c{-D}: set up \i{port forwardings}
e117a742 661
662As well as setting up port forwardings in the PuTTY configuration
663(see \k{config-ssh-portfwd}), you can also set up forwardings on the
664command line. The command-line options work just like the ones in
665Unix \c{ssh} programs.
666
421406a4 667To \I{local port forwarding}forward a local port (say 5110) to a
668remote destination (say \cw{popserver.example.com} port 110), you
669can write something like one of these:
e117a742 670
671\c putty -L 5110:popserver.example.com:110 -load mysession
672\c plink mysession -L 5110:popserver.example.com:110
673
421406a4 674To forward a \I{remote port forwarding}remote port to a local
675destination, just use the \c{-R} option instead of \c{-L}:
e117a742 676
677\c putty -R 5023:mytelnetserver.myhouse.org:23 -load mysession
678\c plink mysession -R 5023:mytelnetserver.myhouse.org:23
679
421406a4 680To \I{listen address}specify an IP address for the listening end of the
681tunnel, prepend it to the argument:
dbe6c525 682
683\c plink -L 127.0.0.5:23:localhost:23 myhost
684
421406a4 685To set up \I{dynamic port forwarding}SOCKS-based dynamic port
686forwarding on a local port, use the \c{-D} option. For this one you
687only have to pass the port number:
48b7c4b2 688
689\c putty -D 4096 -load mysession
690
e117a742 691For general information on port forwarding, see
692\k{using-port-forwarding}.
693
694These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
695PSFTP.
696
421406a4 697\S2{using-cmdline-m} \i\c{-m}: \I{reading commands from a file}read
698a remote command or script from a file
e117a742 699
421406a4 700The \i\c{-m} option performs a similar function to the \q{\ii{Remote
701command}} box in the SSH panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
e117a742 702\k{config-command}). However, the \c{-m} option expects to be given
bcfb73ea 703a local file name, and it will read a command from that file.
704
705With some servers (particularly Unix systems), you can even put
706multiple lines in this file and execute more than one command in
707sequence, or a whole shell script; but this is arguably an abuse, and
708cannot be expected to work on all servers. In particular, it is known
709\e{not} to work with certain \q{embedded} servers, such as \i{Cisco}
710routers.
e117a742 711
712This option is not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
713PSFTP.
714
b7a5df66 715\S2{using-cmdline-p} \I{-P-upper}\c{-P}: specify a \i{port number}
e117a742 716
e2a197cf 717The \c{-P} option is used to specify the port number to connect to. If
718you have a Telnet server running on port 9696 of a machine instead of
719port 23, for example:
e117a742 720
e2a197cf 721\c putty -telnet -P 9696 host.name
722\c plink -telnet -P 9696 host.name
e117a742 723
724(Note that this option is more useful in Plink than in PuTTY,
725because in PuTTY you can write \c{putty -telnet host.name 9696} in
726any case.)
727
6cc170f0 728This option is equivalent to the port number control in the Session
729panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-hostname}).
e117a742 730
6cc170f0 731\S2{using-cmdline-pw} \i\c{-pw}: specify a \i{password}
e117a742 732
733A simple way to automate a remote login is to supply your password
734on the command line. This is \e{not recommended} for reasons of
735security. If you possibly can, we recommend you set up public-key
736authentication instead. See \k{pubkey} for details.
737
738Note that the \c{-pw} option only works when you are using the SSH
739protocol. Due to fundamental limitations of Telnet and Rlogin, these
740protocols do not support automated password authentication.
741
973612f5 742\S2{using-cmdline-agentauth} \i\c{-agent} and \i\c{-noagent}:
743control use of Pageant for authentication
744
745The \c{-agent} option turns on SSH authentication using Pageant, and
746\c{-noagent} turns it off. These options are only meaningful if you
747are using SSH.
748
e5708bc7 749See \k{pageant} for general information on \i{Pageant}.
973612f5 750
751These options are equivalent to the agent authentication checkbox in
752the Auth panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
753\k{config-ssh-tryagent}).
754
b7a5df66 755\S2{using-cmdline-agent} \I{-A-upper}\c{-A} and \i\c{-a}: control \i{agent
6cc170f0 756forwarding}
e117a742 757
758The \c{-A} option turns on SSH agent forwarding, and \c{-a} turns it
759off. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
760
6cc170f0 761See \k{pageant} for general information on \i{Pageant}, and
e117a742 762\k{pageant-forward} for information on agent forwarding. Note that
763there is a security risk involved with enabling this option; see
764\k{pageant-security} for details.
765
766These options are equivalent to the agent forwarding checkbox in the
767Auth panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-agentfwd}).
768
769These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
770PSFTP.
771
b7a5df66 772\S2{using-cmdline-x11} \I{-X-upper}\c{-X} and \i\c{-x}: control \i{X11
6cc170f0 773forwarding}
e117a742 774
775The \c{-X} option turns on X11 forwarding in SSH, and \c{-x} turns
776it off. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
777
778For information on X11 forwarding, see \k{using-x-forwarding}.
779
780These options are equivalent to the X11 forwarding checkbox in the
b7a2b2a0 781X11 panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-x11}).
e117a742 782
783These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
784PSFTP.
785
b7a5df66 786\S2{using-cmdline-pty} \i\c{-t} and \I{-T-upper}\c{-T}: control
6cc170f0 787\i{pseudo-terminal allocation}
e117a742 788
789The \c{-t} option ensures PuTTY attempts to allocate a
790pseudo-terminal at the server, and \c{-T} stops it from allocating
791one. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
792
793These options are equivalent to the \q{Don't allocate a
794pseudo-terminal} checkbox in the SSH panel of the PuTTY
795configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-pty}).
796
797These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
798PSFTP.
799
0ed48730 800\S2{using-cmdline-noshell} \I{-N-upper}\c{-N}: suppress starting a
d8bd04b9 801\I{suppressing remote shell}shell or command
0ed48730 802
803The \c{-N} option prevents PuTTY from attempting to start a shell or
804command on the remote server. You might want to use this option if
805you are only using the SSH connection for port forwarding, and your
806user account on the server does not have the ability to run a shell.
807
808This feature is only available in SSH protocol version 2 (since the
809version 1 protocol assumes you will always want to run a shell).
810
811This option is equivalent to the \q{Don't start a shell or command
812at all} checkbox in the SSH panel of the PuTTY configuration box
813(see \k{config-ssh-noshell}).
814
8a213300 815This option is not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
0ed48730 816PSFTP.
817
feb02b4e 818\S2{using-cmdline-ncmode} \I{-nc}\c{-nc}: make a \i{remote network
819connection} in place of a remote shell or command
820
821The \c{-nc} option prevents Plink (or PuTTY) from attempting to
822start a shell or command on the remote server. Instead, it will
823instruct the remote server to open a network connection to a host
824name and port number specified by you, and treat that network
825connection as if it were the main session.
826
827You specify a host and port as an argument to the \c{-nc} option,
828with a colon separating the host name from the port number, like
829this:
830
831\c plink host1.example.com -nc host2.example.com:1234
832
833You might want to use this feature if you needed to make an SSH
834connection to a target host which you can only reach by going
835through a proxy host, and rather than using port forwarding you
836prefer to use the local proxy feature (see \k{config-proxy-type} for
837more about local proxies). In this situation you might select
838\q{Local} proxy type, set your local proxy command to be \cq{plink
839%proxyhost -nc %host:%port}, enter the target host name on the
840Session panel, and enter the directly reachable proxy host name on
841the Proxy panel.
842
843This feature is only available in SSH protocol version 2 (since the
844version 1 protocol assumes you will always want to run a shell). It
845is not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and PSFTP. It is
846available in PuTTY itself, although it is unlikely to be very useful
847in any tool other than Plink. Also, \c{-nc} uses the same server
848functionality as port forwarding, so it will not work if your server
849administrator has disabled port forwarding.
850
851(The option is named \c{-nc} after the Unix program
852\W{http://www.vulnwatch.org/netcat/}\c{nc}, short for \q{netcat}.
853The command \cq{plink host1 -nc host2:port} is very similar in
854functionality to \cq{plink host1 nc host2 port}, which invokes
855\c{nc} on the server and tells it to connect to the specified
856destination. However, Plink's built-in \c{-nc} option does not
857depend on the \c{nc} program being installed on the server.)
858
b7a5df66 859\S2{using-cmdline-compress} \I{-C-upper}\c{-C}: enable \i{compression}
e117a742 860
861The \c{-C} option enables compression of the data sent across the
862network. This option is only meaningful if you are using SSH.
863
864This option is equivalent to the \q{Enable compression} checkbox in
865the SSH panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
866\k{config-ssh-comp}).
867
6cc170f0 868\S2{using-cmdline-sshprot} \i\c{-1} and \i\c{-2}: specify an \i{SSH
869protocol version}
e117a742 870
2e85c969 871The \c{-1} and \c{-2} options force PuTTY to use version \I{SSH-1}1
872or version \I{SSH-2}2 of the SSH protocol. These options are only
6cc170f0 873meaningful if you are using SSH.
e117a742 874
875These options are equivalent to selecting your preferred SSH
876protocol version as \q{1 only} or \q{2 only} in the SSH panel of the
877PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-prot}).
878
05581745 879\S2{using-cmdline-ipversion} \i\c{-4} and \i\c{-6}: specify an
880\i{Internet protocol version}
881
882The \c{-4} and \c{-6} options force PuTTY to use the older Internet
2e523aed 883protocol \i{IPv4} or the newer \i{IPv6} for most outgoing
884connections.
05581745 885
886These options are equivalent to selecting your preferred Internet
887protocol version as \q{IPv4} or \q{IPv6} in the Connection panel of
888the PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-address-family}).
889
6cc170f0 890\S2{using-cmdline-identity} \i\c{-i}: specify an SSH \i{private key}
e117a742 891
892The \c{-i} option allows you to specify the name of a private key
421406a4 893file in \c{*.\i{PPK}} format which PuTTY will use to authenticate with the
8cee3b72 894server. This option is only meaningful if you are using SSH.
e117a742 895
6cc170f0 896For general information on \i{public-key authentication}, see
897\k{pubkey}.
e117a742 898
899This option is equivalent to the \q{Private key file for
900authentication} box in the Auth panel of the PuTTY configuration box
901(see \k{config-ssh-privkey}).
2285d016 902
881da168 903\S2{using-cmdline-loghost} \i\c{-loghost}: specify a \i{logical host
904name}
905
906This option overrides PuTTY's normal SSH host key caching policy by
907telling it the name of the host you expect your connection to end up
908at (in cases where this differs from the location PuTTY thinks it's
909connecting to). It can be a plain host name, or a host name followed
910by a colon and a port number. See \k{config-loghost} for more detail
911on this.
912
421406a4 913\S2{using-cmdline-pgpfp} \i\c{-pgpfp}: display \i{PGP key fingerprint}s
2285d016 914
915This option causes the PuTTY tools not to run as normal, but instead
916to display the fingerprints of the PuTTY PGP Master Keys, in order to
421406a4 917aid with \i{verifying new versions}. See \k{pgpkeys} for more information.