faq-missing-slash: the missing-slash-in-PSFTP OpenSSH bug keeps coming up.
[u/mdw/putty] / doc / using.but
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3f2ce694 1\versionid $Id: using.but,v 1.31 2004/09/20 22:10:09 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
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
3f2ce694 139\b \I{Erase Line, Telnet special command}Erase Line
2c51c674 140
3f2ce694 141\b \I{Go Ahead, Telnet special command}Go Ahead
2c51c674 142
3f2ce694 143\b \I{No Operation, Telnet special command}No Operation
2c51c674 144
3f2ce694 145\lcont{
146Should have no effect.
147}
2c51c674 148
3f2ce694 149\b \I{Abort Process, Telnet special command}Abort Process
2c51c674 150
3f2ce694 151\b \I{Abort Output, Telnet special command}Abort Output
2c51c674 152
3f2ce694 153\b \I{Interrupt Process, Telnet special command}Interrupt Process
2c51c674 154
3f2ce694 155\b \I{Suspend Process, Telnet special command}Suspend Process
2c51c674 156
3f2ce694 157\b \I{End Of Record, Telnet special command}End Of Record
2c51c674 158
3f2ce694 159\b \I{End Of File, Telnet special command}End Of File
2c51c674 160
161In an SSH connection, the following special commands are available:
162
3f2ce694 163\b \I{Break, SSH special command}Break
2c51c674 164
3f2ce694 165\lcont{
166Optional extension; may not be supported by server. PuTTY requests the
167server's default break length.
168}
2c51c674 169
3f2ce694 170\b \I{IGNORE message, SSH special command}\I{No-op, in SSH}IGNORE message
2c51c674 171
3f2ce694 172\lcont{
173Should have no effect.
174}
6b590f79 175
fc5a8711 176\S2{using-newsession} Starting new sessions
177
178PuTTY's system menu provides some shortcut ways to start new
179sessions:
180
6cc170f0 181\b Selecting \i{\q{New Session}} will start a completely new
182instance of PuTTY, and bring up the configuration box as normal.
fc5a8711 183
6cc170f0 184\b Selecting \i{\q{Duplicate Session}} will start a session with
fc5a8711 185precisely the same options as your current one - connecting to the
186same host using the same protocol, with all the same terminal
187settings and everything.
188
6cc170f0 189\b The \i{\q{Saved Sessions} submenu} gives you quick access to any
fc5a8711 190sets of stored session details you have previously saved. See
191\k{config-saving} for details of how to create saved sessions.
192
6cc170f0 193\S2{using-changesettings} \I{settings, changing}Changing your
194session settings
fc5a8711 195
6cc170f0 196If you select \i{\q{Change Settings}} from the system menu, PuTTY will
fc5a8711 197display a cut-down version of its initial configuration box. This
198allows you to adjust most properties of your current session. You
199can change the terminal size, the font, the actions of various
200keypresses, the colours, and so on.
201
202Some of the options that are available in the main configuration box
203are not shown in the cut-down Change Settings box. These are usually
204options which don't make sense to change in the middle of a session
205(for example, you can't switch from SSH to Telnet in mid-session).
206
6cc170f0 207\S2{using-copyall} \i{Copy All to Clipboard}
fc5a8711 208
209This system menu option provides a convenient way to copy the whole
f20523db 210contents of the terminal screen (up to the last nonempty line) and
6cc170f0 211scrollback to the \i{clipboard} in one go.
fc5a8711 212
6cc170f0 213\S2{reset-terminal} \I{scrollback, clearing}Clearing and
214\I{terminal, resetting}resetting the terminal
fc5a8711 215
6cc170f0 216The \i{\q{Clear Scrollback}} option on the system menu tells PuTTY
217to discard all the lines of text that have been kept after they
fc5a8711 218scrolled off the top of the screen. This might be useful, for
219example, if you displayed sensitive information and wanted to make
220sure nobody could look over your shoulder and see it. (Note that
221this only prevents a casual user from using the scrollbar to view
222the information; the text is not guaranteed not to still be in
223PuTTY's memory.)
224
6cc170f0 225The \i{\q{Reset Terminal}} option causes a full reset of the
226terminal emulation. A VT-series terminal is a complex piece of
227software and can easily get into a state where all the text printed
228becomes unreadable. (This can happen, for example, if you
229accidentally output a binary file to your terminal.) If this
230happens, selecting Reset Terminal should sort it out.
fc5a8711 231
6cc170f0 232\S2{using-fullscreen} \ii{Full screen} mode
fc5a8711 233
234If you find the title bar on a maximised window to be ugly or
235distracting, you can select Full Screen mode to maximise PuTTY
236\q{even more}. When you select this, PuTTY will expand to fill the
237whole screen and its borders, title bar and scrollbar will
238disappear. (You can configure the scrollbar not to disappear in
a5a6cb30 239full-screen mode if you want to keep it; see \k{config-scrollback}.)
fc5a8711 240
241When you are in full-screen mode, you can still access the system
242menu if you click the left mouse button in the \e{extreme} top left
243corner of the screen.
244
6cc170f0 245\H{using-logging} Creating a \i{log file} of your \I{session
246log}session
fc5a8711 247
248For some purposes you may find you want to log everything that
6cc170f0 249appears on your screen. You can do this using the \i{\q{Logging}
250panel} in the configuration box.
fc5a8711 251
252To begin a session log, select \q{Change Settings} from the system
253menu and go to the Logging panel. Enter a log file name, and select
254a logging mode. (You can log all session output including the
255terminal control sequences, or you can just log the printable text.
256It depends what you want the log for.) Click \q{Apply} and your log
257will be started. Later on, you can go back to the Logging panel and
258select \q{Logging turned off completely} to stop logging; then PuTTY
259will close the log file and you can safely read it.
260
261See \k{config-logging} for more details and options.
262
6cc170f0 263\H{using-translation} Altering your \i{character set} configuration
fc5a8711 264
6cc170f0 265If you find that special characters (\i{accented characters}, for
fc5a8711 266example) are not being displayed correctly in your PuTTY session, it
267may be that PuTTY is interpreting the characters sent by the server
268according to the wrong \e{character set}. There are a lot of
269different character sets available, so it's entirely possible for
270this to happen.
271
6cc170f0 272If you click \q{Change Settings} and look at the \i{\q{Translation}
273panel}, you should see a large number of character sets which you
274can select. Now all you need is to find out which of them you want!
fc5a8711 275
6cc170f0 276\H{using-x-forwarding} Using \i{X11 forwarding} in SSH
2f8d6d43 277
278The SSH protocol has the ability to securely forward X Window System
279applications over your encrypted SSH connection, so that you can run
280an application on the SSH server machine and have it put its windows
281up on your local machine without sending any X network traffic in
282the clear.
283
284In order to use this feature, you will need an X display server for
285your Windows machine, such as X-Win32 or Exceed. This will probably
286install itself as display number 0 on your local machine; if it
6cc170f0 287doesn't, the manual for the \i{X server} should tell you what it
288does do.
2f8d6d43 289
290You should then tick the \q{Enable X11 forwarding} box in the
291Tunnels panel (see \k{config-ssh-x11}) before starting your SSH
292session. The \q{X display location} box reads \c{localhost:0} by
293default, which is the usual display location where your X server
294will be installed. If that needs changing, then change it.
295
296Now you should be able to log in to the SSH server as normal. To
297check that X forwarding has been successfully negotiated during
298connection startup, you can check the PuTTY Event Log (see
299\k{using-eventlog}). It should say something like this:
300
301\c 2001-12-05 17:22:01 Requesting X11 forwarding
302\c 2001-12-05 17:22:02 X11 forwarding enabled
303
304If the remote system is Unix or Unix-like, you should also be able
6cc170f0 305to see that the \i{\c{DISPLAY} environment variable} has been set to
2f8d6d43 306point at display 10 or above on the SSH server machine itself:
307
308\c fred@unixbox:~$ echo $DISPLAY
309\c unixbox:10.0
310
311If this works, you should then be able to run X applications in the
312remote session and have them display their windows on your PC.
313
314Note that if your PC X server requires authentication to connect,
315then PuTTY cannot currently support it. If this is a problem for
2b5567cf 316you, you should mail the PuTTY authors \#{FIXME} and give details
317(see \k{feedback}).
2f8d6d43 318
ee155ed5 319For more options relating to X11 forwarding, see \k{config-ssh-x11}.
320
6cc170f0 321\H{using-port-forwarding} Using \i{port forwarding} in SSH
2f8d6d43 322
323The SSH protocol has the ability to forward arbitrary network
324connections over your encrypted SSH connection, to avoid the network
325traffic being sent in clear. For example, you could use this to
326connect from your home computer to a POP-3 server on a remote
327machine without your POP-3 password being visible to network
328sniffers.
329
330In order to use port forwarding to connect from your local machine
331to a port on a remote server, you need to:
332
333\b Choose a port number on your local machine where PuTTY should
334listen for incoming connections. There are likely to be plenty of
6ee9b735 335unused port numbers above 3000. (You can also use a local loopback
dbe6c525 336address here; see below for more details.)
2f8d6d43 337
338\b Now, before you start your SSH connection, go to the Tunnels
339panel (see \k{config-ssh-portfwd}). Make sure the \q{Local} radio
340button is set. Enter the local port number into the \q{Source port}
341box. Enter the destination host name and port number into the
342\q{Destination} box, separated by a colon (for example,
343\c{popserver.example.com:110} to connect to a POP-3 server).
344
345\b Now click the \q{Add} button. The details of your port forwarding
346should appear in the list box.
347
c80f77d8 348Now start your session and log in. (Port forwarding will not be
349enabled until after you have logged in; otherwise it would be easy
350to perform completely anonymous network attacks, and gain access to
351anyone's virtual private network). To check that PuTTY has set up
352the port forwarding correctly, you can look at the PuTTY Event Log
353(see \k{using-eventlog}). It should say something like this:
2f8d6d43 354
355\c 2001-12-05 17:22:10 Local port 3110 forwarding to
356\c popserver.example.com:110
357
358Now if you connect to the source port number on your local PC, you
359should find that it answers you exactly as if it were the service
360running on the destination machine. So in this example, you could
361then configure an e-mail client to use \c{localhost:3110} as a POP-3
362server instead of \c{popserver.example.com:110}. (Of course, the
363forwarding will stop happening when your PuTTY session closes down.)
364
365You can also forward ports in the other direction: arrange for a
366particular port number on the \e{server} machine to be forwarded
367back to your PC as a connection to a service on your PC or near it.
368To do this, just select the \q{Remote} radio button instead of the
369\q{Local} one. The \q{Source port} box will now specify a port
370number on the \e{server} (note that most servers will not allow you
371to use port numbers under 1024 for this purpose).
fc5a8711 372
48b7c4b2 373An alternative way to forward local connections to remote hosts is
6cc170f0 374to use \I{dynamic port forwarding}dynamic \I{SOCKS} proxying. For
375this, you will need to select the \q{Dynamic} radio button instead
376of \q{Local}, and then you should not enter anything into the
377\q{Destination} box (it will be ignored). This will cause PuTTY to
378listen on the port you have specified, and provide a SOCKS proxy
379service to any programs which connect to that port. So, in
380particular, you can forward other PuTTY connections through it by
381setting up the Proxy control panel (see \k{config-proxy} for
382details).
48b7c4b2 383
beefa433 384The source port for a forwarded connection usually does not accept
385connections from any machine except the SSH client or server machine
386itself (for local and remote forwardings respectively). There are
387controls in the Tunnels panel to change this:
388
389\b The \q{Local ports accept connections from other hosts} option
48b7c4b2 390allows you to set up local-to-remote port forwardings (including
391dynamic port forwardings) in such a way that machines other than
392your client PC can connect to the forwarded port.
beefa433 393
394\b The \q{Remote ports do the same} option does the same thing for
395remote-to-local port forwardings (so that machines other than the
396SSH server machine can connect to the forwarded port.) Note that
397this feature is only available in the SSH 2 protocol, and not all
97e12fcd 398SSH 2 servers honour it (in OpenSSH, for example, it's usually
399disabled by default).
beefa433 400
6cc170f0 401You can also specify an \i{IP address} to listen on. Typically a
dbe6c525 402Windows machine can be asked to listen on any single IP address in
403the \cw{127.*.*.*} range, and all of these are loopback addresses
6cc170f0 404available only to the local machine. So if you forward (for example)
405\c{127.0.0.5:79} to a remote machine's \cw{finger} port, then you
406should be able to run commands such as \c{finger fred@127.0.0.5}.
407This can be useful if the program connecting to the forwarded port
408doesn't allow you to change the port number it uses. This feature is
409available for local-to-remote forwarded ports; SSH1 is unable to
410support it for remote-to-local ports, while SSH2 can support it in
411theory but servers will not necessarily cooperate.
412
85c598bf 413(Note that if you're using Windows XP Service Pack 2, you may need
414to obtain a fix from Microsoft in order to use addresses like
415\cw{127.0.0.5} - see \k{faq-alternate-localhost}.)
416
6cc170f0 417\H{using-rawprot} Making \i{raw TCP connections}
418
419A lot of \I{debugging Internet protocols}Internet protocols are
420composed of commands and responses in plain text. For example,
421\i{SMTP} (the protocol used to transfer e-mail), \i{NNTP} (the
422protocol used to transfer Usenet news), and \i{HTTP} (the protocol
423used to serve Web pages) all consist of commands in readable plain
424text.
2f8d6d43 425
426Sometimes it can be useful to connect directly to one of these
427services and speak the protocol \q{by hand}, by typing protocol
428commands and watching the responses. On Unix machines, you can do
429this using the system's \c{telnet} command to connect to the right
430port number. For example, \c{telnet mailserver.example.com 25} might
431enable you to talk directly to the SMTP service running on a mail
432server.
433
434Although the Unix \c{telnet} program provides this functionality,
435the protocol being used is not really Telnet. Really there is no
436actual protocol at all; the bytes sent down the connection are
437exactly the ones you type, and the bytes shown on the screen are
438exactly the ones sent by the server. Unix \c{telnet} will attempt to
439detect or guess whether the service it is talking to is a real
440Telnet service or not; PuTTY prefers to be told for certain.
441
442In order to make a debugging connection to a service of this type,
6cc170f0 443you simply select the fourth protocol name, \I{\q{Raw}
444protocol}\q{Raw}, from the \q{Protocol} buttons in the \q{Session}
445configuration panel. (See \k{config-hostname}.) You can then enter a
446host name and a port number, and make the connection.
a10c20dd 447
e117a742 448\H{using-cmdline} The PuTTY command line
a10c20dd 449
450PuTTY can be made to do various things without user intervention by
6cc170f0 451supplying \i{command-line arguments} (e.g., from a \i{command prompt
452window}, or a \i{Windows shortcut}).
a10c20dd 453
e117a742 454\S{using-cmdline-session} Starting a session from the command line
a10c20dd 455
6cc170f0 456\I\c{-ssh}\I\c{-telnet}\I\c{-rlogin}\I\c{-raw}These options allow
457you to bypass the configuration window and launch straight into a
458session.
a10c20dd 459
e117a742 460To start a connection to a server called \c{host}:
a10c20dd 461
e2a197cf 462\c putty.exe [-ssh | -telnet | -rlogin | -raw] [user@]host
a10c20dd 463
464If this syntax is used, settings are taken from the Default Settings
e2a197cf 465(see \k{config-saving}); \c{user} overrides these settings if
466supplied. Also, you can specify a protocol, which will override the
467default protocol (see \k{using-cmdline-protocol}).
a10c20dd 468
469For telnet sessions, the following alternative syntax is supported
6cc170f0 470(this makes PuTTY suitable for use as a URL handler for \i{telnet
471URLs} in web browsers):
a10c20dd 472
473\c putty.exe telnet://host[:port]/
474
475In order to start an existing saved session called \c{sessionname},
e117a742 476use the \c{-load} option (described in \k{using-cmdline-load}).
a10c20dd 477
e117a742 478\c putty.exe -load "session name"
a10c20dd 479
6cc170f0 480\S{using-cleanup} \i\c{-cleanup}
a10c20dd 481
482If invoked with the \c{-cleanup} option, rather than running as
483normal, PuTTY will remove its registry entries and random seed file
484from the local machine (after confirming with the user).
e117a742 485
486\S{using-general-opts} Standard command-line options
487
488PuTTY and its associated tools support a range of command-line
489options, most of which are consistent across all the tools. This
490section lists the available options in all tools. Options which are
491specific to a particular tool are covered in the chapter about that
492tool.
493
6cc170f0 494\S2{using-cmdline-load} \i\c{-load}: load a saved session
e117a742 495
6cc170f0 496\I{saved sessions, loading from command line}The \c{-load} option
497causes PuTTY to load configuration details out of a saved session.
498If these details include a host name, then this option is all you
33f07e96 499need to make PuTTY start a session.
e117a742 500
501You need double quotes around the session name if it contains spaces.
502
503If you want to create a Windows shortcut to start a PuTTY saved
504session, this is the option you should use: your shortcut should
505call something like
506
507\c d:\path\to\putty.exe -load "my session"
508
509(Note that PuTTY itself supports an alternative form of this option,
510for backwards compatibility. If you execute \c{putty @sessionname}
511it will have the same effect as \c{putty -load "sessionname"}. With
512the \c{@} form, no double quotes are required, and the \c{@} sign
513must be the very first thing on the command line. This form of the
514option is deprecated.)
515
516\S2{using-cmdline-protocol} Selecting a protocol: \c{-ssh},
517\c{-telnet}, \c{-rlogin}, \c{-raw}
518
519To choose which protocol you want to connect with, you can use one
520of these options:
521
6cc170f0 522\b \i\c{-ssh} selects the SSH protocol.
e117a742 523
6cc170f0 524\b \i\c{-telnet} selects the Telnet protocol.
e117a742 525
6cc170f0 526\b \i\c{-rlogin} selects the Rlogin protocol.
e117a742 527
6cc170f0 528\b \i\c{-raw} selects the raw protocol.
e117a742 529
530These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
531PSFTP (which only work with the SSH protocol).
532
6cc170f0 533These options are equivalent to the \i{protocol selection} buttons
534in the Session panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
e117a742 535\k{config-hostname}).
536
6cc170f0 537\S2{using-cmdline-v} \i\c{-v}: increase verbosity
e117a742 538
6cc170f0 539\I{verbose mode}Most of the PuTTY tools can be made to tell you more
540about what they are doing by supplying the \c{-v} option. If you are
541having trouble when making a connection, or you're simply curious,
542you can turn this switch on and hope to find out more about what is
543happening.
e117a742 544
6cc170f0 545\S2{using-cmdline-l} \i\c{-l}: specify a \i{login name}
e117a742 546
547You can specify the user name to log in as on the remote server
548using the \c{-l} option. For example, \c{plink login.example.com -l
549fred}.
550
551These options are equivalent to the username selection box in the
552Connection panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
553\k{config-username}).
554
b7a5df66 555\S2{using-cmdline-portfwd} \I{-L-upper}\c{-L}, \I{-R-upper}\c{-R}
556and \I{-D-upper}\c{-D}: set up \i{port forwardings}
e117a742 557
558As well as setting up port forwardings in the PuTTY configuration
559(see \k{config-ssh-portfwd}), you can also set up forwardings on the
560command line. The command-line options work just like the ones in
561Unix \c{ssh} programs.
562
563To forward a local port (say 5110) to a remote destination (say
564\cw{popserver.example.com} port 110), you can write something like
565one of these:
566
567\c putty -L 5110:popserver.example.com:110 -load mysession
568\c plink mysession -L 5110:popserver.example.com:110
569
48b7c4b2 570To forward a remote port to a local destination, just use the \c{-R}
571option instead of \c{-L}:
e117a742 572
573\c putty -R 5023:mytelnetserver.myhouse.org:23 -load mysession
574\c plink mysession -R 5023:mytelnetserver.myhouse.org:23
575
dbe6c525 576To specify an IP address for the listening end of the tunnel,
577prepend it to the argument:
578
579\c plink -L 127.0.0.5:23:localhost:23 myhost
580
48b7c4b2 581To set up SOCKS-based dynamic port forwarding on a local port, use
582the \c{-D} option. For this one you only have to pass the port
583number:
584
585\c putty -D 4096 -load mysession
586
e117a742 587For general information on port forwarding, see
588\k{using-port-forwarding}.
589
590These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
591PSFTP.
592
6cc170f0 593\S2{using-cmdline-m} \i\c{-m}: read a remote command or script from
594a file
e117a742 595
6cc170f0 596The \i\c{-m} option performs a similar function to the \q{Remote
e117a742 597command} box in the SSH panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
598\k{config-command}). However, the \c{-m} option expects to be given
6cc170f0 599a local file name, and it will read a command from that file. On
600most Unix systems, you can even put multiple lines in this file and
4e930b58 601execute more than one command in sequence, or a whole shell script;
602but this will not work on all servers (and is known not to work
603with certain \q{embedded} servers such as routers).
e117a742 604
605This option is not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
606PSFTP.
607
b7a5df66 608\S2{using-cmdline-p} \I{-P-upper}\c{-P}: specify a \i{port number}
e117a742 609
e2a197cf 610The \c{-P} option is used to specify the port number to connect to. If
611you have a Telnet server running on port 9696 of a machine instead of
612port 23, for example:
e117a742 613
e2a197cf 614\c putty -telnet -P 9696 host.name
615\c plink -telnet -P 9696 host.name
e117a742 616
617(Note that this option is more useful in Plink than in PuTTY,
618because in PuTTY you can write \c{putty -telnet host.name 9696} in
619any case.)
620
6cc170f0 621This option is equivalent to the port number control in the Session
622panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-hostname}).
e117a742 623
6cc170f0 624\S2{using-cmdline-pw} \i\c{-pw}: specify a \i{password}
e117a742 625
626A simple way to automate a remote login is to supply your password
627on the command line. This is \e{not recommended} for reasons of
628security. If you possibly can, we recommend you set up public-key
629authentication instead. See \k{pubkey} for details.
630
631Note that the \c{-pw} option only works when you are using the SSH
632protocol. Due to fundamental limitations of Telnet and Rlogin, these
633protocols do not support automated password authentication.
634
b7a5df66 635\S2{using-cmdline-agent} \I{-A-upper}\c{-A} and \i\c{-a}: control \i{agent
6cc170f0 636forwarding}
e117a742 637
638The \c{-A} option turns on SSH agent forwarding, and \c{-a} turns it
639off. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
640
6cc170f0 641See \k{pageant} for general information on \i{Pageant}, and
e117a742 642\k{pageant-forward} for information on agent forwarding. Note that
643there is a security risk involved with enabling this option; see
644\k{pageant-security} for details.
645
646These options are equivalent to the agent forwarding checkbox in the
647Auth panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-agentfwd}).
648
649These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
650PSFTP.
651
b7a5df66 652\S2{using-cmdline-x11} \I{-X-upper}\c{-X} and \i\c{-x}: control \i{X11
6cc170f0 653forwarding}
e117a742 654
655The \c{-X} option turns on X11 forwarding in SSH, and \c{-x} turns
656it off. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
657
658For information on X11 forwarding, see \k{using-x-forwarding}.
659
660These options are equivalent to the X11 forwarding checkbox in the
661Tunnels panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
662\k{config-ssh-x11}).
663
664These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
665PSFTP.
666
b7a5df66 667\S2{using-cmdline-pty} \i\c{-t} and \I{-T-upper}\c{-T}: control
6cc170f0 668\i{pseudo-terminal allocation}
e117a742 669
670The \c{-t} option ensures PuTTY attempts to allocate a
671pseudo-terminal at the server, and \c{-T} stops it from allocating
672one. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
673
674These options are equivalent to the \q{Don't allocate a
675pseudo-terminal} checkbox in the SSH panel of the PuTTY
676configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-pty}).
677
678These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
679PSFTP.
680
b7a5df66 681\S2{using-cmdline-compress} \I{-C-upper}\c{-C}: enable \i{compression}
e117a742 682
683The \c{-C} option enables compression of the data sent across the
684network. This option is only meaningful if you are using SSH.
685
686This option is equivalent to the \q{Enable compression} checkbox in
687the SSH panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
688\k{config-ssh-comp}).
689
6cc170f0 690\S2{using-cmdline-sshprot} \i\c{-1} and \i\c{-2}: specify an \i{SSH
691protocol version}
e117a742 692
6cc170f0 693The \c{-1} and \c{-2} options force PuTTY to use version \I{SSH1}1
694or version \I{SSH2}2 of the SSH protocol. These options are only
695meaningful if you are using SSH.
e117a742 696
697These options are equivalent to selecting your preferred SSH
698protocol version as \q{1 only} or \q{2 only} in the SSH panel of the
699PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-prot}).
700
6cc170f0 701\S2{using-cmdline-identity} \i\c{-i}: specify an SSH \i{private key}
e117a742 702
703The \c{-i} option allows you to specify the name of a private key
8cee3b72 704file in \c{*.PPK} format which PuTTY will use to authenticate with the
705server. This option is only meaningful if you are using SSH.
e117a742 706
6cc170f0 707For general information on \i{public-key authentication}, see
708\k{pubkey}.
e117a742 709
710This option is equivalent to the \q{Private key file for
711authentication} box in the Auth panel of the PuTTY configuration box
712(see \k{config-ssh-privkey}).