0c7fcf8894514f67162cf0782a6a74a81abdcaf0
[u/mdw/putty] / doc / using.but
1 \define{versionidusing} \versionid $Id$
2
3 \C{using} Using PuTTY
4
5 This chapter provides a general introduction to some more advanced
6 features 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
11 A lot of PuTTY's complexity and features are in the configuration
12 panel. Once you have worked your way through that and started
13 a session, things should be reasonably simple after that.
14 Nevertheless, 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
19 your terminal screen which you want to type in again. Like most
20 other terminal emulators, PuTTY allows you to copy and paste the
21 text rather than having to type it again. Also, copy and paste uses
22 the \I{Windows clipboard}Windows \i{clipboard}, so that you can
23 paste (for example) URLs into a web browser, or paste from a word
24 processor or spreadsheet into your terminal session.
25
26 PuTTY's copy and paste works entirely with the \i{mouse}. In order
27 to copy text to the clipboard, you just click the \i{left mouse
28 button} in the \i{terminal window}, and drag to \I{selecting text}select
29 text. When you let go of the button, the text is \e{automatically}
30 copied to the clipboard. You do not need to press Ctrl-C or
31 Ctrl-Ins; in fact, if you do press Ctrl-C, PuTTY will send a Ctrl-C
32 character down your session to the server where it will probably
33 cause a process to be interrupted.
34
35 Pasting is done using the right button (or the middle mouse button,
36 if 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}
38 from the \I{right mouse button, with Ctrl}Ctrl+right-click
39 \i{context menu}, have the same effect.) When
40 you click the \i{right mouse button}, PuTTY will read whatever is in
41 the Windows clipboard and paste it into your session, \e{exactly} as
42 if it had been typed at the keyboard. (Therefore, be careful of
43 pasting formatted text into an editor that does automatic indenting;
44 you may find that the spaces pasted from the clipboard plus the
45 spaces added by the editor add up to too many spaces and ruin the
46 formatting. There is nothing PuTTY can do about this.)
47
48 If you \i{double-click} the left mouse button, PuTTY will
49 \I{selecting words}select a whole word. If you double-click, hold
50 down the second click, and drag the mouse, PuTTY will select a
51 sequence of whole words. (You can adjust precisely what PuTTY
52 considers to be part of a word; see \k{config-charclasses}.)
53 If you \e{triple}-click, or \i{triple-click} and drag, then
54 PuTTY will \I{selecting lines}select a whole line or sequence of lines.
55
56 If you want to select a \I{rectangular selection}rectangular region
57 instead of selecting to the end of each line, you can do this by
58 holding down Alt when you make your selection. (You can also
59 configure rectangular selection to be the default, and then holding
60 down Alt gives the normal behaviour instead. See
61 \k{config-rectselect} for details.)
62
63 If you have a \i{middle mouse button}, then you can use it to
64 \I{adjusting a selection}adjust an existing selection if you
65 selected something slightly wrong. (If you have configured the
66 middle mouse button to paste, then the right mouse button does this
67 instead.) Click the button on the screen, and you can pick up the
68 nearest end of the selection and drag it to somewhere else.
69
70 It's possible for the server to ask to \I{mouse reporting}handle mouse
71 clicks in the PuTTY window itself. If this happens, the \i{mouse pointer}
72 will turn into an arrow, and using the mouse to copy and paste will only
73 work if you hold down Shift. See \k{config-features-mouse} and
74 \k{config-mouseshift} for details of this feature and how to configure
75 it.
76
77 \S{using-scrollback} \I{scrollback}Scrolling the screen back
78
79 PuTTY keeps track of text that has scrolled up off the top of the
80 terminal. So if something appears on the screen that you want to
81 read, but it scrolls too fast and it's gone by the time you try to
82 look for it, you can use the \i{scrollbar} on the right side of the
83 window to look back up the session \i{history} and find it again.
84
85 As well as using the scrollbar, you can also page the scrollback up
86 and down by pressing \i{Shift-PgUp} and \i{Shift-PgDn}. You can
87 scroll a line at a time using \i{Ctrl-PgUp} and \i{Ctrl-PgDn}. These
88 are still available if you configure the scrollbar to be invisible.
89
90 By default the last 200 lines scrolled off the top are
91 preserved for you to look at. You can increase (or decrease) this
92 value using the configuration box; see \k{config-scrollback}.
93
94 \S{using-sysmenu} The \ii{System menu}
95
96 If you click the left mouse button on the icon in the top left
97 corner of PuTTY's terminal window, or click the right mouse button
98 on the title bar, you will see the standard Windows system menu
99 containing items like Minimise, Move, Size and Close.
100
101 PuTTY's system menu contains extra program features in addition to
102 the Windows standard options. These extra menu commands are
103 described below.
104
105 (These options are also available in a \i{context menu} brought up
106 by holding Ctrl and clicking with the right mouse button anywhere
107 in the \i{PuTTY window}.)
108
109 \S2{using-eventlog} The PuTTY \i{Event Log}
110
111 If you choose \q{Event Log} from the system menu, a small window
112 will pop up in which PuTTY logs significant events during the
113 connection. Most of the events in the log will probably take place
114 during session startup, but a few can occur at any point in the
115 session, and one or two occur right at the end.
116
117 You can use the mouse to select one or more lines of the Event Log,
118 and hit the Copy button to copy them to the \i{clipboard}. If you
119 are reporting a bug, it's often useful to paste the contents of the
120 Event Log into your bug report.
121
122 \S2{using-specials} \ii{Special commands}
123
124 Depending on the protocol used for the current session, there may be
125 a submenu of \q{special commands}. These are protocol-specific
126 tokens, such as a \q{break} signal, that can be sent down a
127 connection in addition to normal data. Their precise effect is usually
128 up to the server. Currently only Telnet, SSH, and serial connections
129 have special commands.
130
131 The \q{break} signal can also be invoked from the keyboard with
132 \i{Ctrl-Break}.
133
134 The following \I{Telnet special commands}special commands are
135 available in Telnet:
136
137 \b \I{Are You There, Telnet special command}Are You There
138
139 \b \I{Break, Telnet special command}Break
140
141 \b \I{Synch, Telnet special command}Synch
142
143 \b \I{Erase Character, Telnet special command}Erase Character
144
145 \lcont{
146 PuTTY can also be configured to send this when the Backspace key is
147 pressed; see \k{config-telnetkey}.
148 }
149
150 \b \I{Erase Line, Telnet special command}Erase Line
151
152 \b \I{Go Ahead, Telnet special command}Go Ahead
153
154 \b \I{No Operation, Telnet special command}No Operation
155
156 \lcont{
157 Should have no effect.
158 }
159
160 \b \I{Abort Process, Telnet special command}Abort Process
161
162 \b \I{Abort Output, Telnet special command}Abort Output
163
164 \b \I{Interrupt Process, Telnet special command}Interrupt Process
165
166 \lcont{
167 PuTTY can also be configured to send this when Ctrl-C is typed; see
168 \k{config-telnetkey}.
169 }
170
171 \b \I{Suspend Process, Telnet special command}Suspend Process
172
173 \lcont{
174 PuTTY can also be configured to send this when Ctrl-Z is typed; see
175 \k{config-telnetkey}.
176 }
177
178 \b \I{End Of Record, Telnet special command}End Of Record
179
180 \b \I{End Of File, Telnet special command}End Of File
181
182 In an SSH connection, the following \I{SSH special commands}special
183 commands are available:
184
185 \b \I{IGNORE message, SSH special command}\I{No-op, in SSH}\ii{IGNORE message}
186
187 \lcont{
188 Should have no effect.
189 }
190
191 \b \I{Repeat key exchange, SSH special command}Repeat key exchange
192
193 \lcont{
194 Only available in SSH-2. Forces a \i{repeat key exchange} immediately (and
195 resets associated timers and counters). For more information about
196 repeat key exchanges, see \k{config-ssh-kex-rekey}.
197 }
198
199 \b \I{Break, SSH special command}Break
200
201 \lcont{
202 Only available in SSH-2, and only during a session. Optional
203 extension; may not be supported by server. PuTTY requests the server's
204 default break length.
205 }
206
207 \b \I{Signal, SSH special command}Signals (SIGINT, SIGTERM etc)
208
209 \lcont{
210 Only available in SSH-2, and only during a session. Sends various
211 POSIX signals. Not honoured by all servers.
212 }
213
214 With a serial connection, the only available special command is
215 \I{Break, serial special command}\q{Break}.
216
217 \S2{using-newsession} Starting new sessions
218
219 PuTTY's system menu provides some shortcut ways to start new
220 sessions:
221
222 \b Selecting \i{\q{New Session}} will start a completely new
223 instance of PuTTY, and bring up the configuration box as normal.
224
225 \b Selecting \i{\q{Duplicate Session}} will start a session in a
226 new window with precisely the same options as your current one -
227 connecting to the same host using the same protocol, with all the
228 same terminal settings and everything.
229
230 \b In an inactive window, selecting \i{\q{Restart Session}} will
231 do the same as \q{Duplicate Session}, but in the current window.
232
233 \b The \i{\q{Saved Sessions} submenu} gives you quick access to any
234 sets of stored session details you have previously saved. See
235 \k{config-saving} for details of how to create saved sessions.
236
237 \S2{using-changesettings} \I{settings, changing}Changing your
238 session settings
239
240 If you select \i{\q{Change Settings}} from the system menu, PuTTY will
241 display a cut-down version of its initial configuration box. This
242 allows you to adjust most properties of your current session. You
243 can change the terminal size, the font, the actions of various
244 keypresses, the colours, and so on.
245
246 Some of the options that are available in the main configuration box
247 are not shown in the cut-down Change Settings box. These are usually
248 options which don't make sense to change in the middle of a session
249 (for example, you can't switch from SSH to Telnet in mid-session).
250
251 You can save the current settings to a saved session for future use
252 from this dialog box. See \k{config-saving} for more on saved
253 sessions.
254
255 \S2{using-copyall} \i{Copy All to Clipboard}
256
257 This system menu option provides a convenient way to copy the whole
258 contents of the terminal screen (up to the last nonempty line) and
259 scrollback to the \i{clipboard} in one go.
260
261 \S2{reset-terminal} \I{scrollback, clearing}Clearing and
262 \I{terminal, resetting}resetting the terminal
263
264 The \i{\q{Clear Scrollback}} option on the system menu tells PuTTY
265 to discard all the lines of text that have been kept after they
266 scrolled off the top of the screen. This might be useful, for
267 example, if you displayed sensitive information and wanted to make
268 sure nobody could look over your shoulder and see it. (Note that
269 this only prevents a casual user from using the scrollbar to view
270 the information; the text is not guaranteed not to still be in
271 PuTTY's memory.)
272
273 The \i{\q{Reset Terminal}} option causes a full reset of the
274 \i{terminal emulation}. A VT-series terminal is a complex piece of
275 software and can easily get into a state where all the text printed
276 becomes unreadable. (This can happen, for example, if you
277 accidentally output a binary file to your terminal.) If this
278 happens, selecting Reset Terminal should sort it out.
279
280 \S2{using-fullscreen} \ii{Full screen} mode
281
282 If you find the title bar on a maximised window to be ugly or
283 distracting, you can select Full Screen mode to maximise PuTTY
284 \q{even more}. When you select this, PuTTY will expand to fill the
285 whole screen and its borders, title bar and scrollbar will
286 disappear. (You can configure the scrollbar not to disappear in
287 full-screen mode if you want to keep it; see \k{config-scrollback}.)
288
289 When you are in full-screen mode, you can still access the \i{system
290 menu} if you click the left mouse button in the \e{extreme} top left
291 corner of the screen.
292
293 \H{using-logging} Creating a \i{log file} of your \I{session
294 log}session
295
296 For some purposes you may find you want to log everything that
297 appears on your screen. You can do this using the \q{Logging}
298 panel in the configuration box.
299
300 To begin a session log, select \q{Change Settings} from the system
301 menu and go to the Logging panel. Enter a log file name, and select
302 a logging mode. (You can log all session output including the
303 terminal \i{control sequence}s, or you can just log the printable text.
304 It depends what you want the log for.) Click \q{Apply} and your log
305 will be started. Later on, you can go back to the Logging panel and
306 select \q{Logging turned off completely} to stop logging; then PuTTY
307 will close the log file and you can safely read it.
308
309 See \k{config-logging} for more details and options.
310
311 \H{using-translation} Altering your \i{character set} configuration
312
313 If you find that special characters (\i{accented characters}, for
314 example, or \i{line-drawing characters}) are not being displayed
315 correctly in your PuTTY session, it may be that PuTTY is interpreting
316 the characters sent by the server according to the wrong \e{character
317 set}. There are a lot of different character sets available, so it's
318 entirely possible for this to happen.
319
320 If you click \q{Change Settings} and look at the \q{Translation}
321 panel, you should see a large number of character sets which you can
322 select, and other related options. Now all you need is to find out
323 which of them you want! (See \k{config-translation} for more
324 information.)
325
326 \H{using-x-forwarding} Using \i{X11 forwarding} in SSH
327
328 The SSH protocol has the ability to securely forward X Window System
329 applications over your encrypted SSH connection, so that you can run
330 an application on the SSH server machine and have it put its windows
331 up on your local machine without sending any X network traffic in
332 the clear.
333
334 In order to use this feature, you will need an X display server for
335 your Windows machine, such as Cygwin/X, X-Win32, or Exceed. This will probably
336 install itself as display number 0 on your local machine; if it
337 doesn't, the manual for the \i{X server} should tell you what it
338 does do.
339
340 You should then tick the \q{Enable X11 forwarding} box in the
341 X11 panel (see \k{config-ssh-x11}) before starting your SSH
342 session. The \i{\q{X display location}} box is blank by default, which
343 means that PuTTY will try to use a sensible default such as \c{:0},
344 which is the usual display location where your X server will be
345 installed. If that needs changing, then change it.
346
347 Now you should be able to log in to the SSH server as normal. To
348 check that X forwarding has been successfully negotiated during
349 connection startup, you can check the PuTTY Event Log (see
350 \k{using-eventlog}). It should say something like this:
351
352 \c 2001-12-05 17:22:01 Requesting X11 forwarding
353 \c 2001-12-05 17:22:02 X11 forwarding enabled
354
355 If the remote system is Unix or Unix-like, you should also be able
356 to see that the \i{\c{DISPLAY} environment variable} has been set to
357 point at display 10 or above on the SSH server machine itself:
358
359 \c fred@unixbox:~$ echo $DISPLAY
360 \c unixbox:10.0
361
362 If this works, you should then be able to run X applications in the
363 remote session and have them display their windows on your PC.
364
365 Note that if your PC X server requires \I{X11 authentication}authentication
366 to connect, then PuTTY cannot currently support it. If this is a problem for
367 you, you should mail the PuTTY authors \#{FIXME} and give details
368 (see \k{feedback}).
369
370 For more options relating to X11 forwarding, see \k{config-ssh-x11}.
371
372 \H{using-port-forwarding} Using \i{port forwarding} in SSH
373
374 The SSH protocol has the ability to forward arbitrary \i{network
375 connection}s over your encrypted SSH connection, to avoid the network
376 traffic being sent in clear. For example, you could use this to
377 connect from your home computer to a \i{POP-3} server on a remote
378 machine without your POP-3 password being visible to network
379 sniffers.
380
381 In order to use port forwarding to \I{local port forwarding}connect
382 from your local machine to a port on a remote server, you need to:
383
384 \b Choose a \i{port number} on your local machine where PuTTY should
385 listen for incoming connections. There are likely to be plenty of
386 unused port numbers above 3000. (You can also use a local loopback
387 address here; see below for more details.)
388
389 \b Now, before you start your SSH connection, go to the Tunnels
390 panel (see \k{config-ssh-portfwd}). Make sure the \q{Local} radio
391 button is set. Enter the local port number into the \q{Source port}
392 box. Enter the destination host name and port number into the
393 \q{Destination} box, separated by a colon (for example,
394 \c{popserver.example.com:110} to connect to a POP-3 server).
395
396 \b Now click the \q{Add} button. The details of your port forwarding
397 should appear in the list box.
398
399 Now start your session and log in. (Port forwarding will not be
400 enabled until after you have logged in; otherwise it would be easy
401 to perform completely anonymous network attacks, and gain access to
402 anyone's virtual private network.) To check that PuTTY has set up
403 the port forwarding correctly, you can look at the PuTTY Event Log
404 (see \k{using-eventlog}). It should say something like this:
405
406 \c 2001-12-05 17:22:10 Local port 3110 forwarding to
407 \c popserver.example.com:110
408
409 Now if you connect to the source port number on your local PC, you
410 should find that it answers you exactly as if it were the service
411 running on the destination machine. So in this example, you could
412 then configure an e-mail client to use \c{localhost:3110} as a POP-3
413 server instead of \c{popserver.example.com:110}. (Of course, the
414 forwarding will stop happening when your PuTTY session closes down.)
415
416 You can also forward ports in the other direction: arrange for a
417 particular port number on the \e{server} machine to be \I{remote
418 port forwarding}forwarded back to your PC as a connection to a
419 service on your PC or near it.
420 To do this, just select the \q{Remote} radio button instead of the
421 \q{Local} one. The \q{Source port} box will now specify a port
422 number on the \e{server} (note that most servers will not allow you
423 to use \I{privileged port}port numbers under 1024 for this purpose).
424
425 An alternative way to forward local connections to remote hosts is
426 to use \I{dynamic port forwarding}dynamic SOCKS proxying. For
427 this, you will need to select the \q{Dynamic} radio button instead
428 of \q{Local}, and then you should not enter anything into the
429 \q{Destination} box (it will be ignored). This will cause PuTTY to
430 listen on the port you have specified, and provide a SOCKS proxy
431 service to any programs which connect to that port. So, in
432 particular, you can forward other PuTTY connections through it by
433 setting up the Proxy control panel (see \k{config-proxy} for
434 details).
435
436 The source port for a forwarded connection usually does not accept
437 connections from any machine except the \I{localhost}SSH client or
438 server machine itself (for local and remote forwardings respectively).
439 There are controls in the Tunnels panel to change this:
440
441 \b The \q{Local ports accept connections from other hosts} option
442 allows you to set up local-to-remote port forwardings (including
443 dynamic port forwardings) in such a way that machines other than
444 your client PC can connect to the forwarded port.
445
446 \b The \q{Remote ports do the same} option does the same thing for
447 remote-to-local port forwardings (so that machines other than the
448 SSH server machine can connect to the forwarded port.) Note that
449 this feature is only available in the SSH-2 protocol, and not all
450 SSH-2 servers honour it (in \i{OpenSSH}, for example, it's usually
451 disabled by default).
452
453 You can also specify an \i{IP address} to \I{listen address}listen
454 on. Typically a Windows machine can be asked to listen on any single
455 IP address in the \cw{127.*.*.*} range, and all of these are
456 \i{loopback address}es available only to the local machine. So if
457 you forward (for example) \c{127.0.0.5:79} to a remote machine's
458 \i\cw{finger} port, then you should be able to run commands such as
459 \c{finger fred@127.0.0.5}.
460 This can be useful if the program connecting to the forwarded port
461 doesn't allow you to change the port number it uses. This feature is
462 available for local-to-remote forwarded ports; SSH-1 is unable to
463 support it for remote-to-local ports, while SSH-2 can support it in
464 theory but servers will not necessarily cooperate.
465
466 (Note that if you're using Windows XP Service Pack 2, you may need
467 to obtain a fix from Microsoft in order to use addresses like
468 \cw{127.0.0.5} - see \k{faq-alternate-localhost}.)
469
470 For more options relating to port forwarding, see
471 \k{config-ssh-portfwd}.
472
473 \H{using-rawprot} Making \i{raw TCP connections}
474
475 A lot of \I{debugging Internet protocols}Internet protocols are
476 composed of commands and responses in plain text. For example,
477 \i{SMTP} (the protocol used to transfer e-mail), \i{NNTP} (the
478 protocol used to transfer Usenet news), and \i{HTTP} (the protocol
479 used to serve Web pages) all consist of commands in readable plain
480 text.
481
482 Sometimes it can be useful to connect directly to one of these
483 services and speak the protocol \q{by hand}, by typing protocol
484 commands and watching the responses. On Unix machines, you can do
485 this using the system's \c{telnet} command to connect to the right
486 port number. For example, \c{telnet mailserver.example.com 25} might
487 enable you to talk directly to the SMTP service running on a mail
488 server.
489
490 Although the Unix \c{telnet} program provides this functionality,
491 the protocol being used is not really Telnet. Really there is no
492 actual protocol at all; the bytes sent down the connection are
493 exactly the ones you type, and the bytes shown on the screen are
494 exactly the ones sent by the server. Unix \c{telnet} will attempt to
495 detect or guess whether the service it is talking to is a real
496 Telnet service or not; PuTTY prefers to be told for certain.
497
498 In order to make a debugging connection to a service of this type,
499 you simply select the fourth protocol name, \I{\q{Raw}
500 protocol}\q{Raw}, from the \q{Protocol} buttons in the \q{Session}
501 configuration panel. (See \k{config-hostname}.) You can then enter a
502 host name and a port number, and make the connection.
503
504 \H{using-serial} Connecting to a local serial line
505
506 PuTTY can connect directly to a local serial line as an alternative
507 to making a network connection. In this mode, text typed into the
508 PuTTY window will be sent straight out of your computer's serial
509 port, and data received through that port will be displayed in the
510 PuTTY window. You might use this mode, for example, if your serial
511 port is connected to another computer which has a serial connection.
512
513 To make a connection of this type, simply select \q{Serial} from the
514 \q{Connection type} radio buttons on the \q{Session} configuration
515 panel (see \k{config-hostname}). The \q{Host Name} and \q{Port}
516 boxes will transform into \q{Serial line} and \q{Speed}, allowing
517 you to specify which serial line to use (if your computer has more
518 than one) and what speed (baud rate) to use when transferring data.
519 For further configuration options (data bits, stop bits, parity,
520 flow control), you can use the \q{Serial} configuration panel (see
521 \k{config-serial}).
522
523 After you start up PuTTY in serial mode, you might find that you
524 have to make the first move, by sending some data out of the serial
525 line in order to notify the device at the other end that someone is
526 there for it to talk to. This probably depends on the device. If you
527 start up a PuTTY serial session and nothing appears in the window,
528 try pressing Return a few times and see if that helps.
529
530 A serial line provides no well defined means for one end of the
531 connection to notify the other that the connection is finished.
532 Therefore, PuTTY in serial mode will remain connected until you
533 close the window using the close button.
534
535 \H{using-cmdline} The PuTTY command line
536
537 PuTTY can be made to do various things without user intervention by
538 supplying \i{command-line arguments} (e.g., from a \i{command prompt
539 window}, or a \i{Windows shortcut}).
540
541 \S{using-cmdline-session} Starting a session from the command line
542
543 \I\c{-ssh}\I\c{-telnet}\I\c{-rlogin}\I\c{-raw}These options allow
544 you to bypass the configuration window and launch straight into a
545 session.
546
547 To start a connection to a server called \c{host}:
548
549 \c putty.exe [-ssh | -telnet | -rlogin | -raw] [user@]host
550
551 If this syntax is used, settings are taken from the \i{Default Settings}
552 (see \k{config-saving}); \c{user} overrides these settings if
553 supplied. Also, you can specify a protocol, which will override the
554 default protocol (see \k{using-cmdline-protocol}).
555
556 For telnet sessions, the following alternative syntax is supported
557 (this makes PuTTY suitable for use as a URL handler for \i{telnet
558 URLs} in web browsers):
559
560 \c putty.exe telnet://host[:port]/
561
562 In order to start an existing saved session called \c{sessionname},
563 use the \c{-load} option (described in \k{using-cmdline-load}).
564
565 \c putty.exe -load "session name"
566
567 \S{using-cleanup} \i\c{-cleanup}
568
569 \cfg{winhelp-topic}{options.cleanup}
570
571 If invoked with the \c{-cleanup} option, rather than running as
572 normal, PuTTY will remove its \I{removing registry entries}registry
573 entries and \i{random seed file} from the local machine (after
574 confirming with the user).
575
576 Note that on \i{multi-user systems}, \c{-cleanup} only removes
577 registry entries and files associated with the currently logged-in
578 user.
579
580 \S{using-general-opts} Standard command-line options
581
582 PuTTY and its associated tools support a range of command-line
583 options, most of which are consistent across all the tools. This
584 section lists the available options in all tools. Options which are
585 specific to a particular tool are covered in the chapter about that
586 tool.
587
588 \S2{using-cmdline-load} \i\c{-load}: load a saved session
589
590 \I{saved sessions, loading from command line}The \c{-load} option
591 causes PuTTY to load configuration details out of a saved session.
592 If these details include a host name, then this option is all you
593 need to make PuTTY start a session.
594
595 You need double quotes around the session name if it contains spaces.
596
597 If you want to create a \i{Windows shortcut} to start a PuTTY saved
598 session, this is the option you should use: your shortcut should
599 call something like
600
601 \c d:\path\to\putty.exe -load "my session"
602
603 (Note that PuTTY itself supports an alternative form of this option,
604 for backwards compatibility. If you execute \i\c{putty @sessionname}
605 it will have the same effect as \c{putty -load "sessionname"}. With
606 the \c{@} form, no double quotes are required, and the \c{@} sign
607 must be the very first thing on the command line. This form of the
608 option is deprecated.)
609
610 \S2{using-cmdline-protocol} Selecting a protocol: \c{-ssh},
611 \c{-telnet}, \c{-rlogin}, \c{-raw}
612
613 To choose which protocol you want to connect with, you can use one
614 of these options:
615
616 \b \i\c{-ssh} selects the SSH protocol.
617
618 \b \i\c{-telnet} selects the Telnet protocol.
619
620 \b \i\c{-rlogin} selects the Rlogin protocol.
621
622 \b \i\c{-raw} selects the raw protocol.
623
624 These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
625 PSFTP (which only work with the SSH protocol).
626
627 These options are equivalent to the \i{protocol selection} buttons
628 in the Session panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
629 \k{config-hostname}).
630
631 \S2{using-cmdline-v} \i\c{-v}: increase verbosity
632
633 \I{verbose mode}Most of the PuTTY tools can be made to tell you more
634 about what they are doing by supplying the \c{-v} option. If you are
635 having trouble when making a connection, or you're simply curious,
636 you can turn this switch on and hope to find out more about what is
637 happening.
638
639 \S2{using-cmdline-l} \i\c{-l}: specify a \i{login name}
640
641 You can specify the user name to log in as on the remote server
642 using the \c{-l} option. For example, \c{plink login.example.com -l
643 fred}.
644
645 These options are equivalent to the username selection box in the
646 Connection panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
647 \k{config-username}).
648
649 \S2{using-cmdline-portfwd} \I{-L-upper}\c{-L}, \I{-R-upper}\c{-R}
650 and \I{-D-upper}\c{-D}: set up \i{port forwardings}
651
652 As well as setting up port forwardings in the PuTTY configuration
653 (see \k{config-ssh-portfwd}), you can also set up forwardings on the
654 command line. The command-line options work just like the ones in
655 Unix \c{ssh} programs.
656
657 To \I{local port forwarding}forward a local port (say 5110) to a
658 remote destination (say \cw{popserver.example.com} port 110), you
659 can write something like one of these:
660
661 \c putty -L 5110:popserver.example.com:110 -load mysession
662 \c plink mysession -L 5110:popserver.example.com:110
663
664 To forward a \I{remote port forwarding}remote port to a local
665 destination, just use the \c{-R} option instead of \c{-L}:
666
667 \c putty -R 5023:mytelnetserver.myhouse.org:23 -load mysession
668 \c plink mysession -R 5023:mytelnetserver.myhouse.org:23
669
670 To \I{listen address}specify an IP address for the listening end of the
671 tunnel, prepend it to the argument:
672
673 \c plink -L 127.0.0.5:23:localhost:23 myhost
674
675 To set up \I{dynamic port forwarding}SOCKS-based dynamic port
676 forwarding on a local port, use the \c{-D} option. For this one you
677 only have to pass the port number:
678
679 \c putty -D 4096 -load mysession
680
681 For general information on port forwarding, see
682 \k{using-port-forwarding}.
683
684 These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
685 PSFTP.
686
687 \S2{using-cmdline-m} \i\c{-m}: \I{reading commands from a file}read
688 a remote command or script from a file
689
690 The \i\c{-m} option performs a similar function to the \q{\ii{Remote
691 command}} box in the SSH panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
692 \k{config-command}). However, the \c{-m} option expects to be given
693 a local file name, and it will read a command from that file.
694
695 With some servers (particularly Unix systems), you can even put
696 multiple lines in this file and execute more than one command in
697 sequence, or a whole shell script; but this is arguably an abuse, and
698 cannot be expected to work on all servers. In particular, it is known
699 \e{not} to work with certain \q{embedded} servers, such as \i{Cisco}
700 routers.
701
702 This option is not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
703 PSFTP.
704
705 \S2{using-cmdline-p} \I{-P-upper}\c{-P}: specify a \i{port number}
706
707 The \c{-P} option is used to specify the port number to connect to. If
708 you have a Telnet server running on port 9696 of a machine instead of
709 port 23, for example:
710
711 \c putty -telnet -P 9696 host.name
712 \c plink -telnet -P 9696 host.name
713
714 (Note that this option is more useful in Plink than in PuTTY,
715 because in PuTTY you can write \c{putty -telnet host.name 9696} in
716 any case.)
717
718 This option is equivalent to the port number control in the Session
719 panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-hostname}).
720
721 \S2{using-cmdline-pw} \i\c{-pw}: specify a \i{password}
722
723 A simple way to automate a remote login is to supply your password
724 on the command line. This is \e{not recommended} for reasons of
725 security. If you possibly can, we recommend you set up public-key
726 authentication instead. See \k{pubkey} for details.
727
728 Note that the \c{-pw} option only works when you are using the SSH
729 protocol. Due to fundamental limitations of Telnet and Rlogin, these
730 protocols do not support automated password authentication.
731
732 \S2{using-cmdline-agentauth} \i\c{-agent} and \i\c{-noagent}:
733 control use of Pageant for authentication
734
735 The \c{-agent} option turns on SSH authentication using Pageant, and
736 \c{-noagent} turns it off. These options are only meaningful if you
737 are using SSH.
738
739 See \k{pageant} for general information on \i{Pageant}.
740
741 These options are equivalent to the agent authentication checkbox in
742 the Auth panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
743 \k{config-ssh-tryagent}).
744
745 \S2{using-cmdline-agent} \I{-A-upper}\c{-A} and \i\c{-a}: control \i{agent
746 forwarding}
747
748 The \c{-A} option turns on SSH agent forwarding, and \c{-a} turns it
749 off. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
750
751 See \k{pageant} for general information on \i{Pageant}, and
752 \k{pageant-forward} for information on agent forwarding. Note that
753 there is a security risk involved with enabling this option; see
754 \k{pageant-security} for details.
755
756 These options are equivalent to the agent forwarding checkbox in the
757 Auth panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-agentfwd}).
758
759 These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
760 PSFTP.
761
762 \S2{using-cmdline-x11} \I{-X-upper}\c{-X} and \i\c{-x}: control \i{X11
763 forwarding}
764
765 The \c{-X} option turns on X11 forwarding in SSH, and \c{-x} turns
766 it off. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
767
768 For information on X11 forwarding, see \k{using-x-forwarding}.
769
770 These options are equivalent to the X11 forwarding checkbox in the
771 X11 panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-x11}).
772
773 These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
774 PSFTP.
775
776 \S2{using-cmdline-pty} \i\c{-t} and \I{-T-upper}\c{-T}: control
777 \i{pseudo-terminal allocation}
778
779 The \c{-t} option ensures PuTTY attempts to allocate a
780 pseudo-terminal at the server, and \c{-T} stops it from allocating
781 one. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
782
783 These options are equivalent to the \q{Don't allocate a
784 pseudo-terminal} checkbox in the SSH panel of the PuTTY
785 configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-pty}).
786
787 These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
788 PSFTP.
789
790 \S2{using-cmdline-noshell} \I{-N-upper}\c{-N}: suppress starting a
791 \I{suppressing remote shell}shell or command
792
793 The \c{-N} option prevents PuTTY from attempting to start a shell or
794 command on the remote server. You might want to use this option if
795 you are only using the SSH connection for port forwarding, and your
796 user account on the server does not have the ability to run a shell.
797
798 This feature is only available in SSH protocol version 2 (since the
799 version 1 protocol assumes you will always want to run a shell).
800
801 This option is equivalent to the \q{Don't start a shell or command
802 at all} checkbox in the SSH panel of the PuTTY configuration box
803 (see \k{config-ssh-noshell}).
804
805 This option is not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
806 PSFTP.
807
808 \S2{using-cmdline-ncmode} \I{-nc}\c{-nc}: make a \i{remote network
809 connection} in place of a remote shell or command
810
811 The \c{-nc} option prevents Plink (or PuTTY) from attempting to
812 start a shell or command on the remote server. Instead, it will
813 instruct the remote server to open a network connection to a host
814 name and port number specified by you, and treat that network
815 connection as if it were the main session.
816
817 You specify a host and port as an argument to the \c{-nc} option,
818 with a colon separating the host name from the port number, like
819 this:
820
821 \c plink host1.example.com -nc host2.example.com:1234
822
823 You might want to use this feature if you needed to make an SSH
824 connection to a target host which you can only reach by going
825 through a proxy host, and rather than using port forwarding you
826 prefer to use the local proxy feature (see \k{config-proxy-type} for
827 more about local proxies). In this situation you might select
828 \q{Local} proxy type, set your local proxy command to be \cq{plink
829 %proxyhost -nc %host:%port}, enter the target host name on the
830 Session panel, and enter the directly reachable proxy host name on
831 the Proxy panel.
832
833 This feature is only available in SSH protocol version 2 (since the
834 version 1 protocol assumes you will always want to run a shell). It
835 is not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and PSFTP. It is
836 available in PuTTY itself, although it is unlikely to be very useful
837 in any tool other than Plink. Also, \c{-nc} uses the same server
838 functionality as port forwarding, so it will not work if your server
839 administrator has disabled port forwarding.
840
841 (The option is named \c{-nc} after the Unix program
842 \W{http://www.vulnwatch.org/netcat/}\c{nc}, short for \q{netcat}.
843 The command \cq{plink host1 -nc host2:port} is very similar in
844 functionality to \cq{plink host1 nc host2 port}, which invokes
845 \c{nc} on the server and tells it to connect to the specified
846 destination. However, Plink's built-in \c{-nc} option does not
847 depend on the \c{nc} program being installed on the server.)
848
849 \S2{using-cmdline-compress} \I{-C-upper}\c{-C}: enable \i{compression}
850
851 The \c{-C} option enables compression of the data sent across the
852 network. This option is only meaningful if you are using SSH.
853
854 This option is equivalent to the \q{Enable compression} checkbox in
855 the SSH panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
856 \k{config-ssh-comp}).
857
858 \S2{using-cmdline-sshprot} \i\c{-1} and \i\c{-2}: specify an \i{SSH
859 protocol version}
860
861 The \c{-1} and \c{-2} options force PuTTY to use version \I{SSH-1}1
862 or version \I{SSH-2}2 of the SSH protocol. These options are only
863 meaningful if you are using SSH.
864
865 These options are equivalent to selecting your preferred SSH
866 protocol version as \q{1 only} or \q{2 only} in the SSH panel of the
867 PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-prot}).
868
869 \S2{using-cmdline-ipversion} \i\c{-4} and \i\c{-6}: specify an
870 \i{Internet protocol version}
871
872 The \c{-4} and \c{-6} options force PuTTY to use the older Internet
873 protocol \i{IPv4} or the newer \i{IPv6} for most outgoing
874 connections.
875
876 These options are equivalent to selecting your preferred Internet
877 protocol version as \q{IPv4} or \q{IPv6} in the Connection panel of
878 the PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-address-family}).
879
880 \S2{using-cmdline-identity} \i\c{-i}: specify an SSH \i{private key}
881
882 The \c{-i} option allows you to specify the name of a private key
883 file in \c{*.\i{PPK}} format which PuTTY will use to authenticate with the
884 server. This option is only meaningful if you are using SSH.
885
886 For general information on \i{public-key authentication}, see
887 \k{pubkey}.
888
889 This option is equivalent to the \q{Private key file for
890 authentication} box in the Auth panel of the PuTTY configuration box
891 (see \k{config-ssh-privkey}).
892
893 \S2{using-cmdline-pgpfp} \i\c{-pgpfp}: display \i{PGP key fingerprint}s
894
895 This option causes the PuTTY tools not to run as normal, but instead
896 to display the fingerprints of the PuTTY PGP Master Keys, in order to
897 aid with \i{verifying new versions}. See \k{pgpkeys} for more information.