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   1 \cfg{man-identity}{puttygen}{1}{2004-03-24}{PuTTY tool suite}{PuTTY tool suite}
   2
   3 \H{puttygen-manpage} Man page for PuTTYgen
   4
   5 \S{puttygen-manpage-name} NAME
   6
   7 \cw{puttygen} - public-key generator for the PuTTY tools
   8
   9 \S{puttygen-manpage-synopsis} SYNOPSIS
  10
  11 \c puttygen ( keyfile | -t keytype [ -b bits ] )
  12 \e bbbbbbbb   iiiiiii   bb iiiiiii   bb iiii
  13 \c          [ -C new-comment ] [ -P ]
  14 \e            bb iiiiiiiiiii     bb
  15 \c          [ -O output-type | -l | -L | -p ]
  16 \e            bb iiiiiiiiiii   bb   bb   bb
  17 \c          [ -o output-file ]
  18 \e            bb iiiiiiiiiii
  19
  20 \S{puttygen-manpage-description} DESCRIPTION
  21
  22 \c{puttygen} is a tool to generate and manipulate SSH public and
  23 private key pairs. It is part of the PuTTY suite, although it can
  24 also interoperate with the private key formats used by some other
  25 SSH clients.
  26
  27 When you run \c{puttygen}, it does three things. Firstly, it either
  28 loads an existing key file (if you specified \e{keyfile}), or
  29 generates a new key (if you specified \e{keytype}). Then, it
  30 optionally makes modifications to the key (changing the comment
  31 and/or the passphrase); finally, it outputs the key, or some
  32 information about the key, to a file.
  33
  34 All three of these phases are controlled by the options described in
  35 the following section.
  36
  37 \S{puttygen-manpage-options} OPTIONS
  38
  39 In the first phase, \c{puttygen} either loads or generates a key.
  40 The options to control this are:
  41
  42 \dt \e{keyfile}
  43
  44 \dd Specify a private key file to be loaded. This private key file can
  45 be in the (de facto standard) SSH-1 key format, or in PuTTY's SSH-2
  46 key format, or in either of the SSH-2 private key formats used by
  47 OpenSSH and ssh.com's implementation.
  48
  49 \dt \cw{\-t} \e{keytype}
  50
  51 \dd Specify a type of key to generate. The acceptable values here are
  52 \c{rsa} and \c{dsa} (to generate SSH-2 keys), and \c{rsa1} (to
  53 generate SSH-1 keys).
  54
  55 \dt \cw{\-b} \e{bits}
  56
  57 \dd Specify the size of the key to generate, in bits. Default is 1024.
  58
  59 In the second phase, \c{puttygen} optionally alters properties of
  60 the key it has loaded or generated. The options to control this are:
  61
  62 \dt \cw{\-C} \e{new\-comment}
  63
  64 \dd Specify a comment string to describe the key. This comment string
  65 will be used by PuTTY to identify the key to you (when asking you to
  66 enter the passphrase, for example, so that you know which passphrase
  67 to type).
  68
  69 \dt \cw{\-P}
  70
  71 \dd Indicate that you want to change the key's passphrase. This is
  72 automatic when you are generating a new key, but not when you are
  73 modifying an existing key.
  74
  75 In the third phase, \c{puttygen} saves the key or information
  76 about it. The options to control this are:
  77
  78 \dt \cw{\-O} \e{output\-type}
  79
  80 \dd Specify the type of output you want \c{puttygen} to produce.
  81 Acceptable options are:
  82
  83 \lcont{
  84
  85 \dt \cw{private}
  86
  87 \dd Save the private key in a format usable by PuTTY. This will either
  88 be the standard SSH-1 key format, or PuTTY's own SSH-2 key format.
  89
  90 \dt \cw{public}
  91
  92 \dd Save the public key only. For SSH-1 keys, the standard public key
  93 format will be used (\q{\cw{1024 37 5698745}...}). For SSH-2 keys, the
  94 public key will be output in the format specified in the IETF
  95 drafts, which is a multi-line text file beginning with the line
  96 \q{\cw{---- BEGIN SSH2 PUBLIC KEY ----}}.
  97
  98 \dt \cw{public-openssh}
  99
 100 \dd Save the public key only, in a format usable by OpenSSH. For SSH-1
 101 keys, this output format behaves identically to \c{public}. For
 102 SSH-2 keys, the public key will be output in the OpenSSH format,
 103 which is a single line (\q{\cw{ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2}...}).
 104
 105 \dt \cw{fingerprint}
 106
 107 \dd Print the fingerprint of the public key. All fingerprinting
 108 algorithms are believed compatible with OpenSSH.
 109
 110 \dt \cw{private-openssh}
 111
 112 \dd Save an SSH-2 private key in OpenSSH's format. This option is not
 113 permitted for SSH-1 keys.
 114
 115 \dt \cw{private-sshcom}
 116
 117 \dd Save an SSH-2 private key in ssh.com's format. This option is not
 118 permitted for SSH-1 keys.
 119
 120 If no output type is specified, the default is \c{private}.
 121
 122 }
 123
 124 \dt \cw{\-o} \e{output\-file}
 125
 126 \dd Specify the file where \c{puttygen} should write its output. If
 127 this option is not specified, \c{puttygen} will assume you want to
 128 overwrite the original file if the input and output file types are
 129 the same (changing a comment or passphrase), and will assume you
 130 want to output to stdout if you are asking for a public key or
 131 fingerprint. Otherwise, the \c{\-o} option is required.
 132
 133 \dt \cw{\-l}
 134
 135 \dd Synonym for \q{\cw{-O fingerprint}}.
 136
 137 \dt \cw{\-L}
 138
 139 \dd Synonym for \q{\cw{-O public-openssh}}.
 140
 141 \dt \cw{\-p}
 142
 143 \dd Synonym for \q{\cw{-O public}}.
 144
 145 The following options do not run PuTTYgen as normal, but print
 146 informational messages and then quit:
 147
 148 \dt \cw{\-\-help}
 149
 150 \dd Display a message summarizing the available options.
 151
 152 \dt \cw{\-\-pgpfp}
 153
 154 \dd Display the fingerprints of the PuTTY PGP Master Keys, to aid
 155 in verifying new files released by the PuTTY team.
 156
 157 \S{puttygen-manpage-examples} EXAMPLES
 158
 159 To generate an SSH-2 RSA key pair and save it in PuTTY's own format
 160 (you will be prompted for the passphrase):
 161
 162 \c puttygen -t rsa -C "my home key" -o mykey.ppk
 163
 164 To generate a larger (2048-bit) key:
 165
 166 \c puttygen -t rsa -b 2048 -C "my home key" -o mykey.ppk
 167
 168 To change the passphrase on a key (you will be prompted for the old
 169 and new passphrases):
 170
 171 \c puttygen -P mykey.ppk
 172
 173 To change the comment on a key:
 174
 175 \c puttygen -C "new comment" mykey.ppk
 176
 177 To convert a key into OpenSSH's private key format:
 178
 179 \c puttygen mykey.ppk -O private-openssh -o my-openssh-key
 180
 181 To convert a key \e{from} another format (\c{puttygen} will
 182 automatically detect the input key type):
 183
 184 \c puttygen my-ssh.com-key -o mykey.ppk
 185
 186 To display the fingerprint of a key (some key types require a
 187 passphrase to extract even this much information):
 188
 189 \c puttygen -l mykey.ppk
 190
 191 To add the OpenSSH-format public half of a key to your authorised
 192 keys file:
 193
 194 \c puttygen -L mykey.ppk >> $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys
 195
 196 \S{puttygen-manpage-bugs} BUGS
 197
 198 There's currently no way to supply passphrases in batch mode, or
 199 even just to specify that you don't want a passphrase at all.