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1\define{versionidusing} \versionid $Id$
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
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 \i{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.
34
35Pasting is done using the right button (or the middle mouse button,
36if you have a \i{three-button mouse} and have set it up; see
37\k{config-mouse}). (Pressing \i{Shift-Ins}, or selecting \q{Paste}
38from the \I{right mouse button, with Ctrl}Ctrl+right-click
39\i{context menu}, have the same effect.) When
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
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.
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.
69
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
74\k{config-mouseshift} for details of this feature and how to configure
75it.
76
77\S{using-scrollback} \I{scrollback}Scrolling the screen back
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
82look for it, you can use the \i{scrollbar} on the right side of the
83window to look back up the session \i{history} and find it again.
84
85As well as using the scrollbar, you can also page the scrollback up
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.
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
94\S{using-sysmenu} The \ii{System menu}
95
96If you click the left mouse button on the icon in the top left
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.
100
101PuTTY's system menu contains extra program features in addition to
102the Windows standard options. These extra menu commands are
103described below.
104
105(These options are also available in a \i{context menu} brought up
106by holding Ctrl and clicking with the right mouse button anywhere
107in the \i{PuTTY window}.)
108
109\S2{using-eventlog} The PuTTY \i{Event Log}
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,
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
120Event Log into your bug report.
121
122\S2{using-specials} \ii{Special commands}
123
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 \q{break} signal, that can be sent down a
127connection in addition to normal data. Their precise effect is usually
128up to the server. Currently only Telnet, SSH, and serial connections
129have special commands.
130
131The following \I{Telnet special commands}special commands are
132available in Telnet:
133
134\b \I{Are You There, Telnet special command}Are You There
135
136\b \I{Break, Telnet special command}Break
137
138\b \I{Synch, Telnet special command}Synch
139
140\b \I{Erase Character, Telnet special command}Erase Character
141
142\lcont{
143PuTTY can also be configured to send this when the Backspace key is
144pressed; see \k{config-telnetkey}.
145}
146
147\b \I{Erase Line, Telnet special command}Erase Line
148
149\b \I{Go Ahead, Telnet special command}Go Ahead
150
151\b \I{No Operation, Telnet special command}No Operation
152
153\lcont{
154Should have no effect.
155}
156
157\b \I{Abort Process, Telnet special command}Abort Process
158
159\b \I{Abort Output, Telnet special command}Abort Output
160
161\b \I{Interrupt Process, Telnet special command}Interrupt Process
162
163\lcont{
164PuTTY can also be configured to send this when Ctrl-C is typed; see
165\k{config-telnetkey}.
166}
167
168\b \I{Suspend Process, Telnet special command}Suspend Process
169
170\lcont{
171PuTTY can also be configured to send this when Ctrl-Z is typed; see
172\k{config-telnetkey}.
173}
174
175\b \I{End Of Record, Telnet special command}End Of Record
176
177\b \I{End Of File, Telnet special command}End Of File
178
179In an SSH connection, the following \I{SSH special commands}special
180commands are available:
181
182\b \I{IGNORE message, SSH special command}\I{No-op, in SSH}\ii{IGNORE message}
183
184\lcont{
185Should have no effect.
186}
187
188\b \I{Repeat key exchange, SSH special command}Repeat key exchange
189
190\lcont{
191Only available in SSH-2. Forces a \i{repeat key exchange} immediately (and
192resets associated timers and counters). For more information about
193repeat key exchanges, see \k{config-ssh-kex-rekey}.
194}
195
196\b \I{Break, SSH special command}Break
197
198\lcont{
199Only available in SSH-2, and only during a session. Optional
200extension; may not be supported by server. PuTTY requests the server's
201default break length.
202}
203
204\b \I{Signal, SSH special command}Signals (SIGINT, SIGTERM etc)
205
206\lcont{
207Only available in SSH-2, and only during a session. Sends various
208POSIX signals. Not honoured by all servers.
209}
210
211With a serial connection, the only available special command is
212\I{Break, serial special command}\q{Break}.
213
214\S2{using-newsession} Starting new sessions
215
216PuTTY's system menu provides some shortcut ways to start new
217sessions:
218
219\b Selecting \i{\q{New Session}} will start a completely new
220instance of PuTTY, and bring up the configuration box as normal.
221
222\b Selecting \i{\q{Duplicate Session}} will start a session in a
223new window with precisely the same options as your current one -
224connecting to the same host using the same protocol, with all the
225same terminal settings and everything.
226
227\b In an inactive window, selecting \i{\q{Restart Session}} will
228do the same as \q{Duplicate Session}, but in the current window.
229
230\b The \i{\q{Saved Sessions} submenu} gives you quick access to any
231sets of stored session details you have previously saved. See
232\k{config-saving} for details of how to create saved sessions.
233
234\S2{using-changesettings} \I{settings, changing}Changing your
235session settings
236
237If you select \i{\q{Change Settings}} from the system menu, PuTTY will
238display a cut-down version of its initial configuration box. This
239allows you to adjust most properties of your current session. You
240can change the terminal size, the font, the actions of various
241keypresses, the colours, and so on.
242
243Some of the options that are available in the main configuration box
244are not shown in the cut-down Change Settings box. These are usually
245options which don't make sense to change in the middle of a session
246(for example, you can't switch from SSH to Telnet in mid-session).
247
248You can save the current settings to a saved session for future use
249from this dialog box. See \k{config-saving} for more on saved
250sessions.
251
252\S2{using-copyall} \i{Copy All to Clipboard}
253
254This system menu option provides a convenient way to copy the whole
255contents of the terminal screen (up to the last nonempty line) and
256scrollback to the \i{clipboard} in one go.
257
258\S2{reset-terminal} \I{scrollback, clearing}Clearing and
259\I{terminal, resetting}resetting the terminal
260
261The \i{\q{Clear Scrollback}} option on the system menu tells PuTTY
262to discard all the lines of text that have been kept after they
263scrolled off the top of the screen. This might be useful, for
264example, if you displayed sensitive information and wanted to make
265sure nobody could look over your shoulder and see it. (Note that
266this only prevents a casual user from using the scrollbar to view
267the information; the text is not guaranteed not to still be in
268PuTTY's memory.)
269
270The \i{\q{Reset Terminal}} option causes a full reset of the
271\i{terminal emulation}. A VT-series terminal is a complex piece of
272software and can easily get into a state where all the text printed
273becomes unreadable. (This can happen, for example, if you
274accidentally output a binary file to your terminal.) If this
275happens, selecting Reset Terminal should sort it out.
276
277\S2{using-fullscreen} \ii{Full screen} mode
278
279If you find the title bar on a maximised window to be ugly or
280distracting, you can select Full Screen mode to maximise PuTTY
281\q{even more}. When you select this, PuTTY will expand to fill the
282whole screen and its borders, title bar and scrollbar will
283disappear. (You can configure the scrollbar not to disappear in
284full-screen mode if you want to keep it; see \k{config-scrollback}.)
285
286When you are in full-screen mode, you can still access the \i{system
287menu} if you click the left mouse button in the \e{extreme} top left
288corner of the screen.
289
290\H{using-logging} Creating a \i{log file} of your \I{session
291log}session
292
293For some purposes you may find you want to log everything that
294appears on your screen. You can do this using the \q{Logging}
295panel in the configuration box.
296
297To begin a session log, select \q{Change Settings} from the system
298menu and go to the Logging panel. Enter a log file name, and select
299a logging mode. (You can log all session output including the
300terminal \i{control sequence}s, or you can just log the printable text.
301It depends what you want the log for.) Click \q{Apply} and your log
302will be started. Later on, you can go back to the Logging panel and
303select \q{Logging turned off completely} to stop logging; then PuTTY
304will close the log file and you can safely read it.
305
306See \k{config-logging} for more details and options.
307
308\H{using-translation} Altering your \i{character set} configuration
309
310If you find that special characters (\i{accented characters}, for
311example, or \i{line-drawing characters}) are not being displayed
312correctly in your PuTTY session, it may be that PuTTY is interpreting
313the characters sent by the server according to the wrong \e{character
314set}. There are a lot of different character sets available, so it's
315entirely possible for this to happen.
316
317If you click \q{Change Settings} and look at the \q{Translation}
318panel, you should see a large number of character sets which you can
319select, and other related options. Now all you need is to find out
320which of them you want! (See \k{config-translation} for more
321information.)
322
323\H{using-x-forwarding} Using \i{X11 forwarding} in SSH
324
325The SSH protocol has the ability to securely forward X Window System
326applications over your encrypted SSH connection, so that you can run
327an application on the SSH server machine and have it put its windows
328up on your local machine without sending any X network traffic in
329the clear.
330
331In order to use this feature, you will need an X display server for
332your Windows machine, such as Cygwin/X, X-Win32, or Exceed. This will probably
333install itself as display number 0 on your local machine; if it
334doesn't, the manual for the \i{X server} should tell you what it
335does do.
336
337You should then tick the \q{Enable X11 forwarding} box in the
338Tunnels panel (see \k{config-ssh-x11}) before starting your SSH
339session. The \i{\q{X display location}} box is blank by default, which
340means that PuTTY will try to use a sensible default such as \c{:0},
341which is the usual display location where your X server will be
342installed. If that needs changing, then change it.
343
344Now you should be able to log in to the SSH server as normal. To
345check that X forwarding has been successfully negotiated during
346connection startup, you can check the PuTTY Event Log (see
347\k{using-eventlog}). It should say something like this:
348
349\c 2001-12-05 17:22:01 Requesting X11 forwarding
350\c 2001-12-05 17:22:02 X11 forwarding enabled
351
352If the remote system is Unix or Unix-like, you should also be able
353to see that the \i{\c{DISPLAY} environment variable} has been set to
354point at display 10 or above on the SSH server machine itself:
355
356\c fred@unixbox:~$ echo $DISPLAY
357\c unixbox:10.0
358
359If this works, you should then be able to run X applications in the
360remote session and have them display their windows on your PC.
361
362Note that if your PC X server requires \I{X11 authentication}authentication
363to connect, then PuTTY cannot currently support it. If this is a problem for
364you, you should mail the PuTTY authors \#{FIXME} and give details
365(see \k{feedback}).
366
367For more options relating to X11 forwarding, see \k{config-ssh-x11}.
368
369\H{using-port-forwarding} Using \i{port forwarding} in SSH
370
371The SSH protocol has the ability to forward arbitrary \i{network
372connection}s over your encrypted SSH connection, to avoid the network
373traffic being sent in clear. For example, you could use this to
374connect from your home computer to a \i{POP-3} server on a remote
375machine without your POP-3 password being visible to network
376sniffers.
377
378In order to use port forwarding to \I{local port forwarding}connect
379from your local machine to a port on a remote server, you need to:
380
381\b Choose a \i{port number} on your local machine where PuTTY should
382listen for incoming connections. There are likely to be plenty of
383unused port numbers above 3000. (You can also use a local loopback
384address here; see below for more details.)
385
386\b Now, before you start your SSH connection, go to the Tunnels
387panel (see \k{config-ssh-portfwd}). Make sure the \q{Local} radio
388button is set. Enter the local port number into the \q{Source port}
389box. Enter the destination host name and port number into the
390\q{Destination} box, separated by a colon (for example,
391\c{popserver.example.com:110} to connect to a POP-3 server).
392
393\b Now click the \q{Add} button. The details of your port forwarding
394should appear in the list box.
395
396Now start your session and log in. (Port forwarding will not be
397enabled until after you have logged in; otherwise it would be easy
398to perform completely anonymous network attacks, and gain access to
399anyone's virtual private network.) To check that PuTTY has set up
400the port forwarding correctly, you can look at the PuTTY Event Log
401(see \k{using-eventlog}). It should say something like this:
402
403\c 2001-12-05 17:22:10 Local port 3110 forwarding to
404\c popserver.example.com:110
405
406Now if you connect to the source port number on your local PC, you
407should find that it answers you exactly as if it were the service
408running on the destination machine. So in this example, you could
409then configure an e-mail client to use \c{localhost:3110} as a POP-3
410server instead of \c{popserver.example.com:110}. (Of course, the
411forwarding will stop happening when your PuTTY session closes down.)
412
413You can also forward ports in the other direction: arrange for a
414particular port number on the \e{server} machine to be \I{remote
415port forwarding}forwarded back to your PC as a connection to a
416service on your PC or near it.
417To do this, just select the \q{Remote} radio button instead of the
418\q{Local} one. The \q{Source port} box will now specify a port
419number on the \e{server} (note that most servers will not allow you
420to use \I{privileged port}port numbers under 1024 for this purpose).
421
422An alternative way to forward local connections to remote hosts is
423to use \I{dynamic port forwarding}dynamic SOCKS proxying. For
424this, you will need to select the \q{Dynamic} radio button instead
425of \q{Local}, and then you should not enter anything into the
426\q{Destination} box (it will be ignored). This will cause PuTTY to
427listen on the port you have specified, and provide a SOCKS proxy
428service to any programs which connect to that port. So, in
429particular, you can forward other PuTTY connections through it by
430setting up the Proxy control panel (see \k{config-proxy} for
431details).
432
433The source port for a forwarded connection usually does not accept
434connections from any machine except the \I{localhost}SSH client or
435server machine itself (for local and remote forwardings respectively).
436There are controls in the Tunnels panel to change this:
437
438\b The \q{Local ports accept connections from other hosts} option
439allows you to set up local-to-remote port forwardings (including
440dynamic port forwardings) in such a way that machines other than
441your client PC can connect to the forwarded port.
442
443\b The \q{Remote ports do the same} option does the same thing for
444remote-to-local port forwardings (so that machines other than the
445SSH server machine can connect to the forwarded port.) Note that
446this feature is only available in the SSH-2 protocol, and not all
447SSH-2 servers honour it (in \i{OpenSSH}, for example, it's usually
448disabled by default).
449
450You can also specify an \i{IP address} to \I{listen address}listen
451on. Typically a Windows machine can be asked to listen on any single
452IP address in the \cw{127.*.*.*} range, and all of these are
453\i{loopback address}es available only to the local machine. So if
454you forward (for example) \c{127.0.0.5:79} to a remote machine's
455\i\cw{finger} port, then you should be able to run commands such as
456\c{finger fred@127.0.0.5}.
457This can be useful if the program connecting to the forwarded port
458doesn't allow you to change the port number it uses. This feature is
459available for local-to-remote forwarded ports; SSH-1 is unable to
460support it for remote-to-local ports, while SSH-2 can support it in
461theory but servers will not necessarily cooperate.
462
463(Note that if you're using Windows XP Service Pack 2, you may need
464to obtain a fix from Microsoft in order to use addresses like
465\cw{127.0.0.5} - see \k{faq-alternate-localhost}.)
466
467\H{using-rawprot} Making \i{raw TCP connections}
468
469A lot of \I{debugging Internet protocols}Internet protocols are
470composed of commands and responses in plain text. For example,
471\i{SMTP} (the protocol used to transfer e-mail), \i{NNTP} (the
472protocol used to transfer Usenet news), and \i{HTTP} (the protocol
473used to serve Web pages) all consist of commands in readable plain
474text.
475
476Sometimes it can be useful to connect directly to one of these
477services and speak the protocol \q{by hand}, by typing protocol
478commands and watching the responses. On Unix machines, you can do
479this using the system's \c{telnet} command to connect to the right
480port number. For example, \c{telnet mailserver.example.com 25} might
481enable you to talk directly to the SMTP service running on a mail
482server.
483
484Although the Unix \c{telnet} program provides this functionality,
485the protocol being used is not really Telnet. Really there is no
486actual protocol at all; the bytes sent down the connection are
487exactly the ones you type, and the bytes shown on the screen are
488exactly the ones sent by the server. Unix \c{telnet} will attempt to
489detect or guess whether the service it is talking to is a real
490Telnet service or not; PuTTY prefers to be told for certain.
491
492In order to make a debugging connection to a service of this type,
493you simply select the fourth protocol name, \I{\q{Raw}
494protocol}\q{Raw}, from the \q{Protocol} buttons in the \q{Session}
495configuration panel. (See \k{config-hostname}.) You can then enter a
496host name and a port number, and make the connection.
497
498\H{using-serial} Connecting to a local serial line
499
500PuTTY can connect directly to a local serial line as an alternative
501to making a network connection. In this mode, text typed into the
502PuTTY window will be sent straight out of your computer's serial
503port, and data received through that port will be displayed in the
504PuTTY window. You might use this mode, for example, if your serial
505port is connected to another computer which has a serial connection.
506
507To make a connection of this type, simply select \q{Serial} from the
508\q{Connection type} radio buttons on the \q{Session} configuration
509panel (see \k{config-hostname}). The \q{Host Name} and \q{Port}
510boxes will transform into \q{Serial line} and \q{Speed}, allowing
511you to specify which serial line to use (if your computer has more
512than one) and what speed (baud rate) to use when transferring data.
513For further configuration options (data bits, stop bits, parity,
514flow control), you can use the \q{Serial} configuration panel (see
515\k{config-serial}).
516
517After you start up PuTTY in serial mode, you might find that you
518have to make the first move, by sending some data out of the serial
519line in order to notify the device at the other end that someone is
520there for it to talk to. This probably depends on the device. If you
521start up a PuTTY serial session and nothing appears in the window,
522try pressing Return a few times and see if that helps.
523
524A serial line provides no well defined means for one end of the
525connection to notify the other that the connection is finished.
526Therefore, PuTTY in serial mode will remain connected until you
527close the window using the close button.
528
529\H{using-cmdline} The PuTTY command line
530
531PuTTY can be made to do various things without user intervention by
532supplying \i{command-line arguments} (e.g., from a \i{command prompt
533window}, or a \i{Windows shortcut}).
534
535\S{using-cmdline-session} Starting a session from the command line
536
537\I\c{-ssh}\I\c{-telnet}\I\c{-rlogin}\I\c{-raw}These options allow
538you to bypass the configuration window and launch straight into a
539session.
540
541To start a connection to a server called \c{host}:
542
543\c putty.exe [-ssh | -telnet | -rlogin | -raw] [user@]host
544
545If this syntax is used, settings are taken from the \i{Default Settings}
546(see \k{config-saving}); \c{user} overrides these settings if
547supplied. Also, you can specify a protocol, which will override the
548default protocol (see \k{using-cmdline-protocol}).
549
550For telnet sessions, the following alternative syntax is supported
551(this makes PuTTY suitable for use as a URL handler for \i{telnet
552URLs} in web browsers):
553
554\c putty.exe telnet://host[:port]/
555
556In order to start an existing saved session called \c{sessionname},
557use the \c{-load} option (described in \k{using-cmdline-load}).
558
559\c putty.exe -load "session name"
560
561\S{using-cleanup} \i\c{-cleanup}
562
563\cfg{winhelp-topic}{options.cleanup}
564
565If invoked with the \c{-cleanup} option, rather than running as
566normal, PuTTY will remove its \I{removing registry entries}registry
567entries and \i{random seed file} from the local machine (after
568confirming with the user).
569
570Note that on \i{multi-user systems}, \c{-cleanup} only removes
571registry entries and files associated with the currently logged-in
572user.
573
574\S{using-general-opts} Standard command-line options
575
576PuTTY and its associated tools support a range of command-line
577options, most of which are consistent across all the tools. This
578section lists the available options in all tools. Options which are
579specific to a particular tool are covered in the chapter about that
580tool.
581
582\S2{using-cmdline-load} \i\c{-load}: load a saved session
583
584\I{saved sessions, loading from command line}The \c{-load} option
585causes PuTTY to load configuration details out of a saved session.
586If these details include a host name, then this option is all you
587need to make PuTTY start a session.
588
589You need double quotes around the session name if it contains spaces.
590
591If you want to create a \i{Windows shortcut} to start a PuTTY saved
592session, this is the option you should use: your shortcut should
593call something like
594
595\c d:\path\to\putty.exe -load "my session"
596
597(Note that PuTTY itself supports an alternative form of this option,
598for backwards compatibility. If you execute \i\c{putty @sessionname}
599it will have the same effect as \c{putty -load "sessionname"}. With
600the \c{@} form, no double quotes are required, and the \c{@} sign
601must be the very first thing on the command line. This form of the
602option is deprecated.)
603
604\S2{using-cmdline-protocol} Selecting a protocol: \c{-ssh},
605\c{-telnet}, \c{-rlogin}, \c{-raw}
606
607To choose which protocol you want to connect with, you can use one
608of these options:
609
610\b \i\c{-ssh} selects the SSH protocol.
611
612\b \i\c{-telnet} selects the Telnet protocol.
613
614\b \i\c{-rlogin} selects the Rlogin protocol.
615
616\b \i\c{-raw} selects the raw protocol.
617
618These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
619PSFTP (which only work with the SSH protocol).
620
621These options are equivalent to the \i{protocol selection} buttons
622in the Session panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
623\k{config-hostname}).
624
625\S2{using-cmdline-v} \i\c{-v}: increase verbosity
626
627\I{verbose mode}Most of the PuTTY tools can be made to tell you more
628about what they are doing by supplying the \c{-v} option. If you are
629having trouble when making a connection, or you're simply curious,
630you can turn this switch on and hope to find out more about what is
631happening.
632
633\S2{using-cmdline-l} \i\c{-l}: specify a \i{login name}
634
635You can specify the user name to log in as on the remote server
636using the \c{-l} option. For example, \c{plink login.example.com -l
637fred}.
638
639These options are equivalent to the username selection box in the
640Connection panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
641\k{config-username}).
642
643\S2{using-cmdline-portfwd} \I{-L-upper}\c{-L}, \I{-R-upper}\c{-R}
644and \I{-D-upper}\c{-D}: set up \i{port forwardings}
645
646As well as setting up port forwardings in the PuTTY configuration
647(see \k{config-ssh-portfwd}), you can also set up forwardings on the
648command line. The command-line options work just like the ones in
649Unix \c{ssh} programs.
650
651To \I{local port forwarding}forward a local port (say 5110) to a
652remote destination (say \cw{popserver.example.com} port 110), you
653can write something like one of these:
654
655\c putty -L 5110:popserver.example.com:110 -load mysession
656\c plink mysession -L 5110:popserver.example.com:110
657
658To forward a \I{remote port forwarding}remote port to a local
659destination, just use the \c{-R} option instead of \c{-L}:
660
661\c putty -R 5023:mytelnetserver.myhouse.org:23 -load mysession
662\c plink mysession -R 5023:mytelnetserver.myhouse.org:23
663
664To \I{listen address}specify an IP address for the listening end of the
665tunnel, prepend it to the argument:
666
667\c plink -L 127.0.0.5:23:localhost:23 myhost
668
669To set up \I{dynamic port forwarding}SOCKS-based dynamic port
670forwarding on a local port, use the \c{-D} option. For this one you
671only have to pass the port number:
672
673\c putty -D 4096 -load mysession
674
675For general information on port forwarding, see
676\k{using-port-forwarding}.
677
678These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
679PSFTP.
680
681\S2{using-cmdline-m} \i\c{-m}: \I{reading commands from a file}read
682a remote command or script from a file
683
684The \i\c{-m} option performs a similar function to the \q{\ii{Remote
685command}} box in the SSH panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
686\k{config-command}). However, the \c{-m} option expects to be given
687a local file name, and it will read a command from that file.
688
689With some servers (particularly Unix systems), you can even put
690multiple lines in this file and execute more than one command in
691sequence, or a whole shell script; but this is arguably an abuse, and
692cannot be expected to work on all servers. In particular, it is known
693\e{not} to work with certain \q{embedded} servers, such as \i{Cisco}
694routers.
695
696This option is not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
697PSFTP.
698
699\S2{using-cmdline-p} \I{-P-upper}\c{-P}: specify a \i{port number}
700
701The \c{-P} option is used to specify the port number to connect to. If
702you have a Telnet server running on port 9696 of a machine instead of
703port 23, for example:
704
705\c putty -telnet -P 9696 host.name
706\c plink -telnet -P 9696 host.name
707
708(Note that this option is more useful in Plink than in PuTTY,
709because in PuTTY you can write \c{putty -telnet host.name 9696} in
710any case.)
711
712This option is equivalent to the port number control in the Session
713panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-hostname}).
714
715\S2{using-cmdline-pw} \i\c{-pw}: specify a \i{password}
716
717A simple way to automate a remote login is to supply your password
718on the command line. This is \e{not recommended} for reasons of
719security. If you possibly can, we recommend you set up public-key
720authentication instead. See \k{pubkey} for details.
721
722Note that the \c{-pw} option only works when you are using the SSH
723protocol. Due to fundamental limitations of Telnet and Rlogin, these
724protocols do not support automated password authentication.
725
726\S2{using-cmdline-agentauth} \i\c{-agent} and \i\c{-noagent}:
727control use of Pageant for authentication
728
729The \c{-agent} option turns on SSH authentication using Pageant, and
730\c{-noagent} turns it off. These options are only meaningful if you
731are using SSH.
732
733See \k{pageant} for general information on \i{Pageant}.
734
735These options are equivalent to the agent authentication checkbox in
736the Auth panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
737\k{config-ssh-tryagent}).
738
739\S2{using-cmdline-agent} \I{-A-upper}\c{-A} and \i\c{-a}: control \i{agent
740forwarding}
741
742The \c{-A} option turns on SSH agent forwarding, and \c{-a} turns it
743off. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
744
745See \k{pageant} for general information on \i{Pageant}, and
746\k{pageant-forward} for information on agent forwarding. Note that
747there is a security risk involved with enabling this option; see
748\k{pageant-security} for details.
749
750These options are equivalent to the agent forwarding checkbox in the
751Auth panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-agentfwd}).
752
753These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
754PSFTP.
755
756\S2{using-cmdline-x11} \I{-X-upper}\c{-X} and \i\c{-x}: control \i{X11
757forwarding}
758
759The \c{-X} option turns on X11 forwarding in SSH, and \c{-x} turns
760it off. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
761
762For information on X11 forwarding, see \k{using-x-forwarding}.
763
764These options are equivalent to the X11 forwarding checkbox in the
765Tunnels panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
766\k{config-ssh-x11}).
767
768These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
769PSFTP.
770
771\S2{using-cmdline-pty} \i\c{-t} and \I{-T-upper}\c{-T}: control
772\i{pseudo-terminal allocation}
773
774The \c{-t} option ensures PuTTY attempts to allocate a
775pseudo-terminal at the server, and \c{-T} stops it from allocating
776one. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
777
778These options are equivalent to the \q{Don't allocate a
779pseudo-terminal} checkbox in the SSH panel of the PuTTY
780configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-pty}).
781
782These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
783PSFTP.
784
785\S2{using-cmdline-noshell} \I{-N-upper}\c{-N}: suppress starting a
786\I{suppressing remote shell}shell or command
787
788The \c{-N} option prevents PuTTY from attempting to start a shell or
789command on the remote server. You might want to use this option if
790you are only using the SSH connection for port forwarding, and your
791user account on the server does not have the ability to run a shell.
792
793This feature is only available in SSH protocol version 2 (since the
794version 1 protocol assumes you will always want to run a shell).
795
796This option is equivalent to the \q{Don't start a shell or command
797at all} checkbox in the SSH panel of the PuTTY configuration box
798(see \k{config-ssh-noshell}).
799
800This option is not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
801PSFTP.
802
803\S2{using-cmdline-ncmode} \I{-nc}\c{-nc}: make a \i{remote network
804connection} in place of a remote shell or command
805
806The \c{-nc} option prevents Plink (or PuTTY) from attempting to
807start a shell or command on the remote server. Instead, it will
808instruct the remote server to open a network connection to a host
809name and port number specified by you, and treat that network
810connection as if it were the main session.
811
812You specify a host and port as an argument to the \c{-nc} option,
813with a colon separating the host name from the port number, like
814this:
815
816\c plink host1.example.com -nc host2.example.com:1234
817
818You might want to use this feature if you needed to make an SSH
819connection to a target host which you can only reach by going
820through a proxy host, and rather than using port forwarding you
821prefer to use the local proxy feature (see \k{config-proxy-type} for
822more about local proxies). In this situation you might select
823\q{Local} proxy type, set your local proxy command to be \cq{plink
824%proxyhost -nc %host:%port}, enter the target host name on the
825Session panel, and enter the directly reachable proxy host name on
826the Proxy panel.
827
828This feature is only available in SSH protocol version 2 (since the
829version 1 protocol assumes you will always want to run a shell). It
830is not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and PSFTP. It is
831available in PuTTY itself, although it is unlikely to be very useful
832in any tool other than Plink. Also, \c{-nc} uses the same server
833functionality as port forwarding, so it will not work if your server
834administrator has disabled port forwarding.
835
836(The option is named \c{-nc} after the Unix program
837\W{http://www.vulnwatch.org/netcat/}\c{nc}, short for \q{netcat}.
838The command \cq{plink host1 -nc host2:port} is very similar in
839functionality to \cq{plink host1 nc host2 port}, which invokes
840\c{nc} on the server and tells it to connect to the specified
841destination. However, Plink's built-in \c{-nc} option does not
842depend on the \c{nc} program being installed on the server.)
843
844\S2{using-cmdline-compress} \I{-C-upper}\c{-C}: enable \i{compression}
845
846The \c{-C} option enables compression of the data sent across the
847network. This option is only meaningful if you are using SSH.
848
849This option is equivalent to the \q{Enable compression} checkbox in
850the SSH panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
851\k{config-ssh-comp}).
852
853\S2{using-cmdline-sshprot} \i\c{-1} and \i\c{-2}: specify an \i{SSH
854protocol version}
855
856The \c{-1} and \c{-2} options force PuTTY to use version \I{SSH-1}1
857or version \I{SSH-2}2 of the SSH protocol. These options are only
858meaningful if you are using SSH.
859
860These options are equivalent to selecting your preferred SSH
861protocol version as \q{1 only} or \q{2 only} in the SSH panel of the
862PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-prot}).
863
864\S2{using-cmdline-ipversion} \i\c{-4} and \i\c{-6}: specify an
865\i{Internet protocol version}
866
867The \c{-4} and \c{-6} options force PuTTY to use the older Internet
868protocol \i{IPv4} or the newer \i{IPv6}.
869
870These options are equivalent to selecting your preferred Internet
871protocol version as \q{IPv4} or \q{IPv6} in the Connection panel of
872the PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-address-family}).
873
874\S2{using-cmdline-identity} \i\c{-i}: specify an SSH \i{private key}
875
876The \c{-i} option allows you to specify the name of a private key
877file in \c{*.\i{PPK}} format which PuTTY will use to authenticate with the
878server. This option is only meaningful if you are using SSH.
879
880For general information on \i{public-key authentication}, see
881\k{pubkey}.
882
883This option is equivalent to the \q{Private key file for
884authentication} box in the Auth panel of the PuTTY configuration box
885(see \k{config-ssh-privkey}).
886
887\S2{using-cmdline-pgpfp} \i\c{-pgpfp}: display \i{PGP key fingerprint}s
888
889This option causes the PuTTY tools not to run as normal, but instead
890to display the fingerprints of the PuTTY PGP Master Keys, in order to
891aid with \i{verifying new versions}. See \k{pgpkeys} for more information.