Introduce a new checkbox and command-line option to inhibit use of
[u/mdw/putty] / doc / using.but
CommitLineData
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
58holding down Alt when you make your selection. (You can also
59configure rectangular selection to be the default, and then holding
60down Alt gives the normal behaviour instead. See
61\k{config-rectselect} for details.)
62
63If you have a \i{middle mouse button}, then you can use it to
64\I{adjusting a selection}adjust an existing selection if you
65selected something slightly wrong. (If you have configured the
66middle mouse button to paste, then the right mouse button does this
67instead.) Click the button on the screen, and you can pick up the
68nearest end of the selection and drag it to somewhere else.
fc5a8711 69
421406a4 70It's possible for the server to ask to \I{mouse reporting}handle mouse
71clicks in the PuTTY window itself. If this happens, the \i{mouse pointer}
72will turn into an arrow, and using the mouse to copy and paste will only
73work if you hold down Shift. See \k{config-features-mouse} and
25c22a0c 74\k{config-mouseshift} for details of this feature and how to configure
75it.
6cee219d 76
6cc170f0 77\S{using-scrollback} \I{scrollback}Scrolling the screen back
fc5a8711 78
79PuTTY keeps track of text that has scrolled up off the top of the
80terminal. So if something appears on the screen that you want to
81read, but it scrolls too fast and it's gone by the time you try to
421406a4 82look for it, you can use the \i{scrollbar} on the right side of the
6cc170f0 83window to look back up the session \i{history} and find it again.
fc5a8711 84
85As well as using the scrollbar, you can also page the scrollback up
6cc170f0 86and down by pressing \i{Shift-PgUp} and \i{Shift-PgDn}. You can
87scroll a line at a time using \i{Ctrl-PgUp} and \i{Ctrl-PgDn}. These
88are still available if you configure the scrollbar to be invisible.
fc5a8711 89
90By default the last 200 lines scrolled off the top are
91preserved for you to look at. You can increase (or decrease) this
92value using the configuration box; see \k{config-scrollback}.
93
421406a4 94\S{using-sysmenu} The \ii{System menu}
fc5a8711 95
96If you click the left mouse button on the icon in the top left
1388ecb1 97corner of PuTTY's terminal window, or click the right mouse button
98on the title bar, you will see the standard Windows system menu
99containing items like Minimise, Move, Size and Close.
fc5a8711 100
101PuTTY's system menu contains extra program features in addition to
102the Windows standard options. These extra menu commands are
103described below.
104
421406a4 105(These options are also available in a \i{context menu} brought up
533d533c 106by holding Ctrl and clicking with the right mouse button anywhere
421406a4 107in the \i{PuTTY window}.)
533d533c 108
6cc170f0 109\S2{using-eventlog} The PuTTY \i{Event Log}
fc5a8711 110
111If you choose \q{Event Log} from the system menu, a small window
112will pop up in which PuTTY logs significant events during the
113connection. Most of the events in the log will probably take place
114during session startup, but a few can occur at any point in the
115session, and one or two occur right at the end.
116
117You can use the mouse to select one or more lines of the Event Log,
6cc170f0 118and hit the Copy button to copy them to the \i{clipboard}. If you
119are reporting a bug, it's often useful to paste the contents of the
fc5a8711 120Event Log into your bug report.
121
6cc170f0 122\S2{using-specials} \ii{Special commands}
6b590f79 123
6cc170f0 124Depending on the protocol used for the current session, there may be
125a submenu of \q{special commands}. These are protocol-specific
126tokens, such as a \i{\q{break} signal}, that can be sent down a
2c51c674 127connection in addition to normal data. Their precise effect is usually
128up to the server. Currently only Telnet and SSH have special commands.
6cc170f0 129
421406a4 130The following \I{Telnet special commands}special commands are
131available in Telnet:
2c51c674 132
3f2ce694 133\b \I{Are You There, Telnet special command}Are You There
2c51c674 134
3f2ce694 135\b \I{Break, Telnet special command}Break
2c51c674 136
3f2ce694 137\b \I{Synch, Telnet special command}Synch
2c51c674 138
3f2ce694 139\b \I{Erase Character, Telnet special command}Erase Character
2c51c674 140
76d3d354 141\lcont{
142PuTTY can also be configured to send this when the Backspace key is
143pressed; see \k{config-telnetkey}.
144}
145
3f2ce694 146\b \I{Erase Line, Telnet special command}Erase Line
2c51c674 147
3f2ce694 148\b \I{Go Ahead, Telnet special command}Go Ahead
2c51c674 149
3f2ce694 150\b \I{No Operation, Telnet special command}No Operation
2c51c674 151
3f2ce694 152\lcont{
153Should have no effect.
154}
2c51c674 155
3f2ce694 156\b \I{Abort Process, Telnet special command}Abort Process
2c51c674 157
3f2ce694 158\b \I{Abort Output, Telnet special command}Abort Output
2c51c674 159
3f2ce694 160\b \I{Interrupt Process, Telnet special command}Interrupt Process
2c51c674 161
76d3d354 162\lcont{
163PuTTY can also be configured to send this when Ctrl-C is typed; see
164\k{config-telnetkey}.
165}
166
3f2ce694 167\b \I{Suspend Process, Telnet special command}Suspend Process
2c51c674 168
76d3d354 169\lcont{
170PuTTY can also be configured to send this when Ctrl-Z is typed; see
171\k{config-telnetkey}.
172}
173
3f2ce694 174\b \I{End Of Record, Telnet special command}End Of Record
2c51c674 175
3f2ce694 176\b \I{End Of File, Telnet special command}End Of File
2c51c674 177
421406a4 178In an SSH connection, the following \I{SSH special commands}special
179commands are available:
2c51c674 180
421406a4 181\b \I{IGNORE message, SSH special command}\I{No-op, in SSH}\ii{IGNORE message}
6f2d0cde 182
183\lcont{
184Should have no effect.
185}
186
155f8b88 187\b \I{Repeat key exchange, SSH special command}Repeat key exchange
188
189\lcont{
421406a4 190Only available in SSH-2. Forces a \i{repeat key exchange} immediately (and
d57f70af 191resets associated timers and counters). For more information about
192repeat key exchanges, see \k{config-ssh-kex-rekey}.
155f8b88 193}
194
3f2ce694 195\b \I{Break, SSH special command}Break
2c51c674 196
3f2ce694 197\lcont{
6f2d0cde 198Only available in SSH-2, and only during a session. Optional
199extension; may not be supported by server. PuTTY requests the server's
200default break length.
3f2ce694 201}
2c51c674 202
6f2d0cde 203\b \I{Signal, SSH special command}Signals (SIGINT, SIGTERM etc)
2c51c674 204
3f2ce694 205\lcont{
6f2d0cde 206Only available in SSH-2, and only during a session. Sends various
207POSIX signals. Not honoured by all servers.
3f2ce694 208}
6b590f79 209
fc5a8711 210\S2{using-newsession} Starting new sessions
211
212PuTTY's system menu provides some shortcut ways to start new
213sessions:
214
6cc170f0 215\b Selecting \i{\q{New Session}} will start a completely new
216instance of PuTTY, and bring up the configuration box as normal.
fc5a8711 217
8a213300 218\b Selecting \i{\q{Duplicate Session}} will start a session in a
219new window with precisely the same options as your current one -
220connecting to the same host using the same protocol, with all the
221same terminal settings and everything.
222
223\b In an inactive window, selecting \i{\q{Restart Session}} will
224do the same as \q{Duplicate Session}, but in the current window.
fc5a8711 225
6cc170f0 226\b The \i{\q{Saved Sessions} submenu} gives you quick access to any
fc5a8711 227sets of stored session details you have previously saved. See
228\k{config-saving} for details of how to create saved sessions.
229
6cc170f0 230\S2{using-changesettings} \I{settings, changing}Changing your
231session settings
fc5a8711 232
6cc170f0 233If you select \i{\q{Change Settings}} from the system menu, PuTTY will
fc5a8711 234display a cut-down version of its initial configuration box. This
235allows you to adjust most properties of your current session. You
236can change the terminal size, the font, the actions of various
237keypresses, the colours, and so on.
238
239Some of the options that are available in the main configuration box
240are not shown in the cut-down Change Settings box. These are usually
241options which don't make sense to change in the middle of a session
242(for example, you can't switch from SSH to Telnet in mid-session).
243
9e201f72 244You can save the current settings to a saved session for future use
245from this dialog box. See \k{config-saving} for more on saved
246sessions.
247
6cc170f0 248\S2{using-copyall} \i{Copy All to Clipboard}
fc5a8711 249
250This system menu option provides a convenient way to copy the whole
f20523db 251contents of the terminal screen (up to the last nonempty line) and
6cc170f0 252scrollback to the \i{clipboard} in one go.
fc5a8711 253
6cc170f0 254\S2{reset-terminal} \I{scrollback, clearing}Clearing and
255\I{terminal, resetting}resetting the terminal
fc5a8711 256
6cc170f0 257The \i{\q{Clear Scrollback}} option on the system menu tells PuTTY
258to discard all the lines of text that have been kept after they
fc5a8711 259scrolled off the top of the screen. This might be useful, for
260example, if you displayed sensitive information and wanted to make
261sure nobody could look over your shoulder and see it. (Note that
262this only prevents a casual user from using the scrollbar to view
263the information; the text is not guaranteed not to still be in
264PuTTY's memory.)
265
6cc170f0 266The \i{\q{Reset Terminal}} option causes a full reset of the
421406a4 267\i{terminal emulation}. A VT-series terminal is a complex piece of
6cc170f0 268software and can easily get into a state where all the text printed
269becomes unreadable. (This can happen, for example, if you
270accidentally output a binary file to your terminal.) If this
271happens, selecting Reset Terminal should sort it out.
fc5a8711 272
6cc170f0 273\S2{using-fullscreen} \ii{Full screen} mode
fc5a8711 274
275If you find the title bar on a maximised window to be ugly or
276distracting, you can select Full Screen mode to maximise PuTTY
277\q{even more}. When you select this, PuTTY will expand to fill the
278whole screen and its borders, title bar and scrollbar will
279disappear. (You can configure the scrollbar not to disappear in
a5a6cb30 280full-screen mode if you want to keep it; see \k{config-scrollback}.)
fc5a8711 281
421406a4 282When you are in full-screen mode, you can still access the \i{system
283menu} if you click the left mouse button in the \e{extreme} top left
fc5a8711 284corner of the screen.
285
6cc170f0 286\H{using-logging} Creating a \i{log file} of your \I{session
287log}session
fc5a8711 288
289For some purposes you may find you want to log everything that
421406a4 290appears on your screen. You can do this using the \q{Logging}
291panel in the configuration box.
fc5a8711 292
293To begin a session log, select \q{Change Settings} from the system
294menu and go to the Logging panel. Enter a log file name, and select
295a logging mode. (You can log all session output including the
421406a4 296terminal \i{control sequence}s, or you can just log the printable text.
fc5a8711 297It depends what you want the log for.) Click \q{Apply} and your log
298will be started. Later on, you can go back to the Logging panel and
299select \q{Logging turned off completely} to stop logging; then PuTTY
300will close the log file and you can safely read it.
301
302See \k{config-logging} for more details and options.
303
6cc170f0 304\H{using-translation} Altering your \i{character set} configuration
fc5a8711 305
6cc170f0 306If you find that special characters (\i{accented characters}, for
f80d4744 307example, or \i{line-drawing characters}) are not being displayed
308correctly in your PuTTY session, it may be that PuTTY is interpreting
309the characters sent by the server according to the wrong \e{character
310set}. There are a lot of different character sets available, so it's
311entirely possible for this to happen.
fc5a8711 312
421406a4 313If you click \q{Change Settings} and look at the \q{Translation}
314panel, you should see a large number of character sets which you can
f80d4744 315select, and other related options. Now all you need is to find out
316which of them you want! (See \k{config-translation} for more
317information.)
fc5a8711 318
6cc170f0 319\H{using-x-forwarding} Using \i{X11 forwarding} in SSH
2f8d6d43 320
321The SSH protocol has the ability to securely forward X Window System
322applications over your encrypted SSH connection, so that you can run
323an application on the SSH server machine and have it put its windows
324up on your local machine without sending any X network traffic in
325the clear.
326
327In order to use this feature, you will need an X display server for
5bbb5c6c 328your Windows machine, such as Cygwin/X, X-Win32, or Exceed. This will probably
2f8d6d43 329install itself as display number 0 on your local machine; if it
6cc170f0 330doesn't, the manual for the \i{X server} should tell you what it
331does do.
2f8d6d43 332
333You should then tick the \q{Enable X11 forwarding} box in the
334Tunnels panel (see \k{config-ssh-x11}) before starting your SSH
421406a4 335session. The \i{\q{X display location}} box is blank by default, which
46ed7b64 336means that PuTTY will try to use a sensible default such as \c{:0},
337which is the usual display location where your X server will be
338installed. If that needs changing, then change it.
2f8d6d43 339
340Now you should be able to log in to the SSH server as normal. To
341check that X forwarding has been successfully negotiated during
342connection startup, you can check the PuTTY Event Log (see
343\k{using-eventlog}). It should say something like this:
344
345\c 2001-12-05 17:22:01 Requesting X11 forwarding
346\c 2001-12-05 17:22:02 X11 forwarding enabled
347
348If the remote system is Unix or Unix-like, you should also be able
6cc170f0 349to see that the \i{\c{DISPLAY} environment variable} has been set to
2f8d6d43 350point at display 10 or above on the SSH server machine itself:
351
352\c fred@unixbox:~$ echo $DISPLAY
353\c unixbox:10.0
354
355If this works, you should then be able to run X applications in the
356remote session and have them display their windows on your PC.
357
421406a4 358Note that if your PC X server requires \I{X11 authentication}authentication
359to connect, then PuTTY cannot currently support it. If this is a problem for
2b5567cf 360you, you should mail the PuTTY authors \#{FIXME} and give details
361(see \k{feedback}).
2f8d6d43 362
ee155ed5 363For more options relating to X11 forwarding, see \k{config-ssh-x11}.
364
6cc170f0 365\H{using-port-forwarding} Using \i{port forwarding} in SSH
2f8d6d43 366
421406a4 367The SSH protocol has the ability to forward arbitrary \i{network
368connection}s over your encrypted SSH connection, to avoid the network
2f8d6d43 369traffic being sent in clear. For example, you could use this to
421406a4 370connect from your home computer to a \i{POP-3} server on a remote
2f8d6d43 371machine without your POP-3 password being visible to network
372sniffers.
373
421406a4 374In order to use port forwarding to \I{local port forwarding}connect
375from your local machine to a port on a remote server, you need to:
2f8d6d43 376
421406a4 377\b Choose a \i{port number} on your local machine where PuTTY should
2f8d6d43 378listen for incoming connections. There are likely to be plenty of
6ee9b735 379unused port numbers above 3000. (You can also use a local loopback
dbe6c525 380address here; see below for more details.)
2f8d6d43 381
382\b Now, before you start your SSH connection, go to the Tunnels
383panel (see \k{config-ssh-portfwd}). Make sure the \q{Local} radio
384button is set. Enter the local port number into the \q{Source port}
385box. Enter the destination host name and port number into the
386\q{Destination} box, separated by a colon (for example,
387\c{popserver.example.com:110} to connect to a POP-3 server).
388
389\b Now click the \q{Add} button. The details of your port forwarding
390should appear in the list box.
391
c80f77d8 392Now start your session and log in. (Port forwarding will not be
393enabled until after you have logged in; otherwise it would be easy
394to perform completely anonymous network attacks, and gain access to
414ffbaa 395anyone's virtual private network.) To check that PuTTY has set up
c80f77d8 396the port forwarding correctly, you can look at the PuTTY Event Log
397(see \k{using-eventlog}). It should say something like this:
2f8d6d43 398
399\c 2001-12-05 17:22:10 Local port 3110 forwarding to
400\c popserver.example.com:110
401
402Now if you connect to the source port number on your local PC, you
403should find that it answers you exactly as if it were the service
404running on the destination machine. So in this example, you could
405then configure an e-mail client to use \c{localhost:3110} as a POP-3
406server instead of \c{popserver.example.com:110}. (Of course, the
407forwarding will stop happening when your PuTTY session closes down.)
408
409You can also forward ports in the other direction: arrange for a
421406a4 410particular port number on the \e{server} machine to be \I{remote
411port forwarding}forwarded back to your PC as a connection to a
412service on your PC or near it.
2f8d6d43 413To do this, just select the \q{Remote} radio button instead of the
414\q{Local} one. The \q{Source port} box will now specify a port
415number on the \e{server} (note that most servers will not allow you
421406a4 416to use \I{privileged port}port numbers under 1024 for this purpose).
fc5a8711 417
48b7c4b2 418An alternative way to forward local connections to remote hosts is
421406a4 419to use \I{dynamic port forwarding}dynamic SOCKS proxying. For
6cc170f0 420this, you will need to select the \q{Dynamic} radio button instead
421of \q{Local}, and then you should not enter anything into the
422\q{Destination} box (it will be ignored). This will cause PuTTY to
423listen on the port you have specified, and provide a SOCKS proxy
424service to any programs which connect to that port. So, in
425particular, you can forward other PuTTY connections through it by
426setting up the Proxy control panel (see \k{config-proxy} for
427details).
48b7c4b2 428
beefa433 429The source port for a forwarded connection usually does not accept
421406a4 430connections from any machine except the \I{localhost}SSH client or
431server machine itself (for local and remote forwardings respectively).
432There are controls in the Tunnels panel to change this:
beefa433 433
434\b The \q{Local ports accept connections from other hosts} option
48b7c4b2 435allows you to set up local-to-remote port forwardings (including
436dynamic port forwardings) in such a way that machines other than
437your client PC can connect to the forwarded port.
beefa433 438
439\b The \q{Remote ports do the same} option does the same thing for
440remote-to-local port forwardings (so that machines other than the
441SSH server machine can connect to the forwarded port.) Note that
2e85c969 442this feature is only available in the SSH-2 protocol, and not all
421406a4 443SSH-2 servers honour it (in \i{OpenSSH}, for example, it's usually
97e12fcd 444disabled by default).
beefa433 445
421406a4 446You can also specify an \i{IP address} to \I{listen address}listen
447on. Typically a Windows machine can be asked to listen on any single
448IP address in the \cw{127.*.*.*} range, and all of these are
449\i{loopback address}es available only to the local machine. So if
450you forward (for example) \c{127.0.0.5:79} to a remote machine's
451\i\cw{finger} port, then you should be able to run commands such as
452\c{finger fred@127.0.0.5}.
6cc170f0 453This can be useful if the program connecting to the forwarded port
454doesn't allow you to change the port number it uses. This feature is
2e85c969 455available for local-to-remote forwarded ports; SSH-1 is unable to
456support it for remote-to-local ports, while SSH-2 can support it in
6cc170f0 457theory but servers will not necessarily cooperate.
458
85c598bf 459(Note that if you're using Windows XP Service Pack 2, you may need
460to obtain a fix from Microsoft in order to use addresses like
461\cw{127.0.0.5} - see \k{faq-alternate-localhost}.)
462
6cc170f0 463\H{using-rawprot} Making \i{raw TCP connections}
464
465A lot of \I{debugging Internet protocols}Internet protocols are
466composed of commands and responses in plain text. For example,
467\i{SMTP} (the protocol used to transfer e-mail), \i{NNTP} (the
468protocol used to transfer Usenet news), and \i{HTTP} (the protocol
469used to serve Web pages) all consist of commands in readable plain
470text.
2f8d6d43 471
472Sometimes it can be useful to connect directly to one of these
473services and speak the protocol \q{by hand}, by typing protocol
474commands and watching the responses. On Unix machines, you can do
475this using the system's \c{telnet} command to connect to the right
476port number. For example, \c{telnet mailserver.example.com 25} might
477enable you to talk directly to the SMTP service running on a mail
478server.
479
480Although the Unix \c{telnet} program provides this functionality,
481the protocol being used is not really Telnet. Really there is no
482actual protocol at all; the bytes sent down the connection are
483exactly the ones you type, and the bytes shown on the screen are
484exactly the ones sent by the server. Unix \c{telnet} will attempt to
485detect or guess whether the service it is talking to is a real
486Telnet service or not; PuTTY prefers to be told for certain.
487
488In order to make a debugging connection to a service of this type,
6cc170f0 489you simply select the fourth protocol name, \I{\q{Raw}
490protocol}\q{Raw}, from the \q{Protocol} buttons in the \q{Session}
491configuration panel. (See \k{config-hostname}.) You can then enter a
492host name and a port number, and make the connection.
a10c20dd 493
e117a742 494\H{using-cmdline} The PuTTY command line
a10c20dd 495
496PuTTY can be made to do various things without user intervention by
6cc170f0 497supplying \i{command-line arguments} (e.g., from a \i{command prompt
498window}, or a \i{Windows shortcut}).
a10c20dd 499
e117a742 500\S{using-cmdline-session} Starting a session from the command line
a10c20dd 501
6cc170f0 502\I\c{-ssh}\I\c{-telnet}\I\c{-rlogin}\I\c{-raw}These options allow
503you to bypass the configuration window and launch straight into a
504session.
a10c20dd 505
e117a742 506To start a connection to a server called \c{host}:
a10c20dd 507
e2a197cf 508\c putty.exe [-ssh | -telnet | -rlogin | -raw] [user@]host
a10c20dd 509
421406a4 510If this syntax is used, settings are taken from the \i{Default Settings}
e2a197cf 511(see \k{config-saving}); \c{user} overrides these settings if
512supplied. Also, you can specify a protocol, which will override the
513default protocol (see \k{using-cmdline-protocol}).
a10c20dd 514
515For telnet sessions, the following alternative syntax is supported
6cc170f0 516(this makes PuTTY suitable for use as a URL handler for \i{telnet
517URLs} in web browsers):
a10c20dd 518
519\c putty.exe telnet://host[:port]/
520
521In order to start an existing saved session called \c{sessionname},
e117a742 522use the \c{-load} option (described in \k{using-cmdline-load}).
a10c20dd 523
e117a742 524\c putty.exe -load "session name"
a10c20dd 525
6cc170f0 526\S{using-cleanup} \i\c{-cleanup}
a10c20dd 527
28339579 528\cfg{winhelp-topic}{options.cleanup}
529
a10c20dd 530If invoked with the \c{-cleanup} option, rather than running as
d8bd04b9 531normal, PuTTY will remove its \I{removing registry entries}registry
9310cb7d 532entries and \i{random seed file} from the local machine (after
d8bd04b9 533confirming with the user).
e117a742 534
9310cb7d 535Note that on \i{multi-user systems}, \c{-cleanup} only removes
536registry entries and files associated with the currently logged-in
537user.
538
e117a742 539\S{using-general-opts} Standard command-line options
540
541PuTTY and its associated tools support a range of command-line
542options, most of which are consistent across all the tools. This
543section lists the available options in all tools. Options which are
544specific to a particular tool are covered in the chapter about that
545tool.
546
6cc170f0 547\S2{using-cmdline-load} \i\c{-load}: load a saved session
e117a742 548
6cc170f0 549\I{saved sessions, loading from command line}The \c{-load} option
550causes PuTTY to load configuration details out of a saved session.
551If these details include a host name, then this option is all you
33f07e96 552need to make PuTTY start a session.
e117a742 553
554You need double quotes around the session name if it contains spaces.
555
421406a4 556If you want to create a \i{Windows shortcut} to start a PuTTY saved
e117a742 557session, this is the option you should use: your shortcut should
558call something like
559
560\c d:\path\to\putty.exe -load "my session"
561
562(Note that PuTTY itself supports an alternative form of this option,
d8bd04b9 563for backwards compatibility. If you execute \i\c{putty @sessionname}
e117a742 564it will have the same effect as \c{putty -load "sessionname"}. With
565the \c{@} form, no double quotes are required, and the \c{@} sign
566must be the very first thing on the command line. This form of the
567option is deprecated.)
568
569\S2{using-cmdline-protocol} Selecting a protocol: \c{-ssh},
570\c{-telnet}, \c{-rlogin}, \c{-raw}
571
572To choose which protocol you want to connect with, you can use one
573of these options:
574
6cc170f0 575\b \i\c{-ssh} selects the SSH protocol.
e117a742 576
6cc170f0 577\b \i\c{-telnet} selects the Telnet protocol.
e117a742 578
6cc170f0 579\b \i\c{-rlogin} selects the Rlogin protocol.
e117a742 580
6cc170f0 581\b \i\c{-raw} selects the raw protocol.
e117a742 582
583These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
584PSFTP (which only work with the SSH protocol).
585
6cc170f0 586These options are equivalent to the \i{protocol selection} buttons
587in the Session panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
e117a742 588\k{config-hostname}).
589
6cc170f0 590\S2{using-cmdline-v} \i\c{-v}: increase verbosity
e117a742 591
6cc170f0 592\I{verbose mode}Most of the PuTTY tools can be made to tell you more
593about what they are doing by supplying the \c{-v} option. If you are
594having trouble when making a connection, or you're simply curious,
595you can turn this switch on and hope to find out more about what is
596happening.
e117a742 597
6cc170f0 598\S2{using-cmdline-l} \i\c{-l}: specify a \i{login name}
e117a742 599
600You can specify the user name to log in as on the remote server
601using the \c{-l} option. For example, \c{plink login.example.com -l
602fred}.
603
604These options are equivalent to the username selection box in the
605Connection panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
606\k{config-username}).
607
b7a5df66 608\S2{using-cmdline-portfwd} \I{-L-upper}\c{-L}, \I{-R-upper}\c{-R}
609and \I{-D-upper}\c{-D}: set up \i{port forwardings}
e117a742 610
611As well as setting up port forwardings in the PuTTY configuration
612(see \k{config-ssh-portfwd}), you can also set up forwardings on the
613command line. The command-line options work just like the ones in
614Unix \c{ssh} programs.
615
421406a4 616To \I{local port forwarding}forward a local port (say 5110) to a
617remote destination (say \cw{popserver.example.com} port 110), you
618can write something like one of these:
e117a742 619
620\c putty -L 5110:popserver.example.com:110 -load mysession
621\c plink mysession -L 5110:popserver.example.com:110
622
421406a4 623To forward a \I{remote port forwarding}remote port to a local
624destination, just use the \c{-R} option instead of \c{-L}:
e117a742 625
626\c putty -R 5023:mytelnetserver.myhouse.org:23 -load mysession
627\c plink mysession -R 5023:mytelnetserver.myhouse.org:23
628
421406a4 629To \I{listen address}specify an IP address for the listening end of the
630tunnel, prepend it to the argument:
dbe6c525 631
632\c plink -L 127.0.0.5:23:localhost:23 myhost
633
421406a4 634To set up \I{dynamic port forwarding}SOCKS-based dynamic port
635forwarding on a local port, use the \c{-D} option. For this one you
636only have to pass the port number:
48b7c4b2 637
638\c putty -D 4096 -load mysession
639
e117a742 640For general information on port forwarding, see
641\k{using-port-forwarding}.
642
643These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
644PSFTP.
645
421406a4 646\S2{using-cmdline-m} \i\c{-m}: \I{reading commands from a file}read
647a remote command or script from a file
e117a742 648
421406a4 649The \i\c{-m} option performs a similar function to the \q{\ii{Remote
650command}} box in the SSH panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
e117a742 651\k{config-command}). However, the \c{-m} option expects to be given
6cc170f0 652a local file name, and it will read a command from that file. On
653most Unix systems, you can even put multiple lines in this file and
4e930b58 654execute more than one command in sequence, or a whole shell script;
655but this will not work on all servers (and is known not to work
656with certain \q{embedded} servers such as routers).
e117a742 657
658This option is not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
659PSFTP.
660
b7a5df66 661\S2{using-cmdline-p} \I{-P-upper}\c{-P}: specify a \i{port number}
e117a742 662
e2a197cf 663The \c{-P} option is used to specify the port number to connect to. If
664you have a Telnet server running on port 9696 of a machine instead of
665port 23, for example:
e117a742 666
e2a197cf 667\c putty -telnet -P 9696 host.name
668\c plink -telnet -P 9696 host.name
e117a742 669
670(Note that this option is more useful in Plink than in PuTTY,
671because in PuTTY you can write \c{putty -telnet host.name 9696} in
672any case.)
673
6cc170f0 674This option is equivalent to the port number control in the Session
675panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-hostname}).
e117a742 676
6cc170f0 677\S2{using-cmdline-pw} \i\c{-pw}: specify a \i{password}
e117a742 678
679A simple way to automate a remote login is to supply your password
680on the command line. This is \e{not recommended} for reasons of
681security. If you possibly can, we recommend you set up public-key
682authentication instead. See \k{pubkey} for details.
683
684Note that the \c{-pw} option only works when you are using the SSH
685protocol. Due to fundamental limitations of Telnet and Rlogin, these
686protocols do not support automated password authentication.
687
973612f5 688\S2{using-cmdline-agentauth} \i\c{-agent} and \i\c{-noagent}:
689control use of Pageant for authentication
690
691The \c{-agent} option turns on SSH authentication using Pageant, and
692\c{-noagent} turns it off. These options are only meaningful if you
693are using SSH.
694
695See \k{pageant} for general information on \i{Pageant}
696
697These options are equivalent to the agent authentication checkbox in
698the Auth panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
699\k{config-ssh-tryagent}).
700
701These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
702PSFTP.
703
b7a5df66 704\S2{using-cmdline-agent} \I{-A-upper}\c{-A} and \i\c{-a}: control \i{agent
6cc170f0 705forwarding}
e117a742 706
707The \c{-A} option turns on SSH agent forwarding, and \c{-a} turns it
708off. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
709
6cc170f0 710See \k{pageant} for general information on \i{Pageant}, and
e117a742 711\k{pageant-forward} for information on agent forwarding. Note that
712there is a security risk involved with enabling this option; see
713\k{pageant-security} for details.
714
715These options are equivalent to the agent forwarding checkbox in the
716Auth panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-agentfwd}).
717
718These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
719PSFTP.
720
b7a5df66 721\S2{using-cmdline-x11} \I{-X-upper}\c{-X} and \i\c{-x}: control \i{X11
6cc170f0 722forwarding}
e117a742 723
724The \c{-X} option turns on X11 forwarding in SSH, and \c{-x} turns
725it off. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
726
727For information on X11 forwarding, see \k{using-x-forwarding}.
728
729These options are equivalent to the X11 forwarding checkbox in the
730Tunnels panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
731\k{config-ssh-x11}).
732
733These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
734PSFTP.
735
b7a5df66 736\S2{using-cmdline-pty} \i\c{-t} and \I{-T-upper}\c{-T}: control
6cc170f0 737\i{pseudo-terminal allocation}
e117a742 738
739The \c{-t} option ensures PuTTY attempts to allocate a
740pseudo-terminal at the server, and \c{-T} stops it from allocating
741one. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
742
743These options are equivalent to the \q{Don't allocate a
744pseudo-terminal} checkbox in the SSH panel of the PuTTY
745configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-pty}).
746
747These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
748PSFTP.
749
0ed48730 750\S2{using-cmdline-noshell} \I{-N-upper}\c{-N}: suppress starting a
d8bd04b9 751\I{suppressing remote shell}shell or command
0ed48730 752
753The \c{-N} option prevents PuTTY from attempting to start a shell or
754command on the remote server. You might want to use this option if
755you are only using the SSH connection for port forwarding, and your
756user account on the server does not have the ability to run a shell.
757
758This feature is only available in SSH protocol version 2 (since the
759version 1 protocol assumes you will always want to run a shell).
760
761This option is equivalent to the \q{Don't start a shell or command
762at all} checkbox in the SSH panel of the PuTTY configuration box
763(see \k{config-ssh-noshell}).
764
8a213300 765This option is not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
0ed48730 766PSFTP.
767
b7a5df66 768\S2{using-cmdline-compress} \I{-C-upper}\c{-C}: enable \i{compression}
e117a742 769
770The \c{-C} option enables compression of the data sent across the
771network. This option is only meaningful if you are using SSH.
772
773This option is equivalent to the \q{Enable compression} checkbox in
774the SSH panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
775\k{config-ssh-comp}).
776
6cc170f0 777\S2{using-cmdline-sshprot} \i\c{-1} and \i\c{-2}: specify an \i{SSH
778protocol version}
e117a742 779
2e85c969 780The \c{-1} and \c{-2} options force PuTTY to use version \I{SSH-1}1
781or version \I{SSH-2}2 of the SSH protocol. These options are only
6cc170f0 782meaningful if you are using SSH.
e117a742 783
784These options are equivalent to selecting your preferred SSH
785protocol version as \q{1 only} or \q{2 only} in the SSH panel of the
786PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-prot}).
787
05581745 788\S2{using-cmdline-ipversion} \i\c{-4} and \i\c{-6}: specify an
789\i{Internet protocol version}
790
791The \c{-4} and \c{-6} options force PuTTY to use the older Internet
792protocol \i{IPv4} or the newer \i{IPv6}.
793
794These options are equivalent to selecting your preferred Internet
795protocol version as \q{IPv4} or \q{IPv6} in the Connection panel of
796the PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-address-family}).
797
6cc170f0 798\S2{using-cmdline-identity} \i\c{-i}: specify an SSH \i{private key}
e117a742 799
800The \c{-i} option allows you to specify the name of a private key
421406a4 801file in \c{*.\i{PPK}} format which PuTTY will use to authenticate with the
8cee3b72 802server. This option is only meaningful if you are using SSH.
e117a742 803
6cc170f0 804For general information on \i{public-key authentication}, see
805\k{pubkey}.
e117a742 806
807This option is equivalent to the \q{Private key file for
808authentication} box in the Auth panel of the PuTTY configuration box
809(see \k{config-ssh-privkey}).
2285d016 810
421406a4 811\S2{using-cmdline-pgpfp} \i\c{-pgpfp}: display \i{PGP key fingerprint}s
2285d016 812
813This option causes the PuTTY tools not to run as normal, but instead
814to display the fingerprints of the PuTTY PGP Master Keys, in order to
421406a4 815aid with \i{verifying new versions}. See \k{pgpkeys} for more information.