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