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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 ] [ -q ]
  14 \e            bb iiiiiiiiiii     bb     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 \dt \cw{\-q}
  60
  61 \dd Suppress the progress display when generating a new key.
  62
  63 In the second phase, \c{puttygen} optionally alters properties of
  64 the key it has loaded or generated. The options to control this are:
  65
  66 \dt \cw{\-C} \e{new\-comment}
  67
  68 \dd Specify a comment string to describe the key. This comment string
  69 will be used by PuTTY to identify the key to you (when asking you to
  70 enter the passphrase, for example, so that you know which passphrase
  71 to type).
  72
  73 \dt \cw{\-P}
  74
  75 \dd Indicate that you want to change the key's passphrase. This is
  76 automatic when you are generating a new key, but not when you are
  77 modifying an existing key.
  78
  79 In the third phase, \c{puttygen} saves the key or information
  80 about it. The options to control this are:
  81
  82 \dt \cw{\-O} \e{output\-type}
  83
  84 \dd Specify the type of output you want \c{puttygen} to produce.
  85 Acceptable options are:
  86
  87 \lcont{
  88
  89 \dt \cw{private}
  90
  91 \dd Save the private key in a format usable by PuTTY. This will either
  92 be the standard SSH-1 key format, or PuTTY's own SSH-2 key format.
  93
  94 \dt \cw{public}
  95
  96 \dd Save the public key only. For SSH-1 keys, the standard public key
  97 format will be used (\q{\cw{1024 37 5698745}...}). For SSH-2 keys, the
  98 public key will be output in the format specified in the IETF
  99 drafts, which is a multi-line text file beginning with the line
 100 \q{\cw{---- BEGIN SSH2 PUBLIC KEY ----}}.
 101
 102 \dt \cw{public-openssh}
 103
 104 \dd Save the public key only, in a format usable by OpenSSH. For SSH-1
 105 keys, this output format behaves identically to \c{public}. For
 106 SSH-2 keys, the public key will be output in the OpenSSH format,
 107 which is a single line (\q{\cw{ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2}...}).
 108
 109 \dt \cw{fingerprint}
 110
 111 \dd Print the fingerprint of the public key. All fingerprinting
 112 algorithms are believed compatible with OpenSSH.
 113
 114 \dt \cw{private-openssh}
 115
 116 \dd Save an SSH-2 private key in OpenSSH's format. This option is not
 117 permitted for SSH-1 keys.
 118
 119 \dt \cw{private-sshcom}
 120
 121 \dd Save an SSH-2 private key in ssh.com's format. This option is not
 122 permitted for SSH-1 keys.
 123
 124 If no output type is specified, the default is \c{private}.
 125
 126 }
 127
 128 \dt \cw{\-o} \e{output\-file}
 129
 130 \dd Specify the file where \c{puttygen} should write its output. If
 131 this option is not specified, \c{puttygen} will assume you want to
 132 overwrite the original file if the input and output file types are
 133 the same (changing a comment or passphrase), and will assume you
 134 want to output to stdout if you are asking for a public key or
 135 fingerprint. Otherwise, the \c{\-o} option is required.
 136
 137 \dt \cw{\-l}
 138
 139 \dd Synonym for \q{\cw{-O fingerprint}}.
 140
 141 \dt \cw{\-L}
 142
 143 \dd Synonym for \q{\cw{-O public-openssh}}.
 144
 145 \dt \cw{\-p}
 146
 147 \dd Synonym for \q{\cw{-O public}}.
 148
 149 The following options do not run PuTTYgen as normal, but print
 150 informational messages and then quit:
 151
 152 \dt \cw{\-h}, \cw{\-\-help}
 153
 154 \dd Display a message summarizing the available options.
 155
 156 \dt \cw{\-V}, \cw{\-\-version}
 157
 158 \dd Display the version of PuTTYgen.
 159
 160 \dt \cw{\-\-pgpfp}
 161
 162 \dd Display the fingerprints of the PuTTY PGP Master Keys, to aid
 163 in verifying new files released by the PuTTY team.
 164
 165 \S{puttygen-manpage-examples} EXAMPLES
 166
 167 To generate an SSH-2 RSA key pair and save it in PuTTY's own format
 168 (you will be prompted for the passphrase):
 169
 170 \c puttygen -t rsa -C "my home key" -o mykey.ppk
 171
 172 To generate a larger (2048-bit) key:
 173
 174 \c puttygen -t rsa -b 2048 -C "my home key" -o mykey.ppk
 175
 176 To change the passphrase on a key (you will be prompted for the old
 177 and new passphrases):
 178
 179 \c puttygen -P mykey.ppk
 180
 181 To change the comment on a key:
 182
 183 \c puttygen -C "new comment" mykey.ppk
 184
 185 To convert a key into OpenSSH's private key format:
 186
 187 \c puttygen mykey.ppk -O private-openssh -o my-openssh-key
 188
 189 To convert a key \e{from} another format (\c{puttygen} will
 190 automatically detect the input key type):
 191
 192 \c puttygen my-ssh.com-key -o mykey.ppk
 193
 194 To display the fingerprint of a key (some key types require a
 195 passphrase to extract even this much information):
 196
 197 \c puttygen -l mykey.ppk
 198
 199 To add the OpenSSH-format public half of a key to your authorised
 200 keys file:
 201
 202 \c puttygen -L mykey.ppk >> $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys
 203
 204 \S{puttygen-manpage-bugs} BUGS
 205
 206 There's currently no way to supply passphrases in batch mode, or
 207 even just to specify that you don't want a passphrase at all.