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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 Note that generating a key requires random data (from
  41 \c{/dev/random}), which can cause \c{puttygen} to pause, possibly for
  42 some time if your system does not have much randomness available.
  43
  44 The options to control this phase are:
  45
  46 \dt \e{keyfile}
  47
  48 \dd Specify a private key file to be loaded. This private key file can
  49 be in the (de facto standard) SSH-1 key format, or in PuTTY's SSH-2
  50 key format, or in either of the SSH-2 private key formats used by
  51 OpenSSH and ssh.com's implementation.
  52
  53 \dt \cw{\-t} \e{keytype}
  54
  55 \dd Specify a type of key to generate. The acceptable values here are
  56 \c{rsa} and \c{dsa} (to generate SSH-2 keys), and \c{rsa1} (to
  57 generate SSH-1 keys).
  58
  59 \dt \cw{\-b} \e{bits}
  60
  61 \dd Specify the size of the key to generate, in bits. Default is 1024.
  62
  63 \dt \cw{\-q}
  64
  65 \dd Suppress the progress display when generating a new key.
  66
  67 In the second phase, \c{puttygen} optionally alters properties of
  68 the key it has loaded or generated. The options to control this are:
  69
  70 \dt \cw{\-C} \e{new\-comment}
  71
  72 \dd Specify a comment string to describe the key. This comment string
  73 will be used by PuTTY to identify the key to you (when asking you to
  74 enter the passphrase, for example, so that you know which passphrase
  75 to type).
  76
  77 \dt \cw{\-P}
  78
  79 \dd Indicate that you want to change the key's passphrase. This is
  80 automatic when you are generating a new key, but not when you are
  81 modifying an existing key.
  82
  83 In the third phase, \c{puttygen} saves the key or information
  84 about it. The options to control this are:
  85
  86 \dt \cw{\-O} \e{output\-type}
  87
  88 \dd Specify the type of output you want \c{puttygen} to produce.
  89 Acceptable options are:
  90
  91 \lcont{
  92
  93 \dt \cw{private}
  94
  95 \dd Save the private key in a format usable by PuTTY. This will either
  96 be the standard SSH-1 key format, or PuTTY's own SSH-2 key format.
  97
  98 \dt \cw{public}
  99
 100 \dd Save the public key only. For SSH-1 keys, the standard public key
 101 format will be used (\q{\cw{1024 37 5698745}...}). For SSH-2 keys, the
 102 public key will be output in the format specified by RFC 4716,
 103 which is a multi-line text file beginning with the line
 104 \q{\cw{---- BEGIN SSH2 PUBLIC KEY ----}}.
 105
 106 \dt \cw{public-openssh}
 107
 108 \dd Save the public key only, in a format usable by OpenSSH. For SSH-1
 109 keys, this output format behaves identically to \c{public}. For
 110 SSH-2 keys, the public key will be output in the OpenSSH format,
 111 which is a single line (\q{\cw{ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2}...}).
 112
 113 \dt \cw{fingerprint}
 114
 115 \dd Print the fingerprint of the public key. All fingerprinting
 116 algorithms are believed compatible with OpenSSH.
 117
 118 \dt \cw{private-openssh}
 119
 120 \dd Save an SSH-2 private key in OpenSSH's format. This option is not
 121 permitted for SSH-1 keys.
 122
 123 \dt \cw{private-sshcom}
 124
 125 \dd Save an SSH-2 private key in ssh.com's format. This option is not
 126 permitted for SSH-1 keys.
 127
 128 If no output type is specified, the default is \c{private}.
 129
 130 }
 131
 132 \dt \cw{\-o} \e{output\-file}
 133
 134 \dd Specify the file where \c{puttygen} should write its output. If
 135 this option is not specified, \c{puttygen} will assume you want to
 136 overwrite the original file if the input and output file types are
 137 the same (changing a comment or passphrase), and will assume you
 138 want to output to stdout if you are asking for a public key or
 139 fingerprint. Otherwise, the \c{\-o} option is required.
 140
 141 \dt \cw{\-l}
 142
 143 \dd Synonym for \q{\cw{-O fingerprint}}.
 144
 145 \dt \cw{\-L}
 146
 147 \dd Synonym for \q{\cw{-O public-openssh}}.
 148
 149 \dt \cw{\-p}
 150
 151 \dd Synonym for \q{\cw{-O public}}.
 152
 153 The following options do not run PuTTYgen as normal, but print
 154 informational messages and then quit:
 155
 156 \dt \cw{\-h}, \cw{\-\-help}
 157
 158 \dd Display a message summarizing the available options.
 159
 160 \dt \cw{\-V}, \cw{\-\-version}
 161
 162 \dd Display the version of PuTTYgen.
 163
 164 \dt \cw{\-\-pgpfp}
 165
 166 \dd Display the fingerprints of the PuTTY PGP Master Keys, to aid
 167 in verifying new files released by the PuTTY team.
 168
 169 \S{puttygen-manpage-examples} EXAMPLES
 170
 171 To generate an SSH-2 RSA key pair and save it in PuTTY's own format
 172 (you will be prompted for the passphrase):
 173
 174 \c puttygen -t rsa -C "my home key" -o mykey.ppk
 175
 176 To generate a larger (2048-bit) key:
 177
 178 \c puttygen -t rsa -b 2048 -C "my home key" -o mykey.ppk
 179
 180 To change the passphrase on a key (you will be prompted for the old
 181 and new passphrases):
 182
 183 \c puttygen -P mykey.ppk
 184
 185 To change the comment on a key:
 186
 187 \c puttygen -C "new comment" mykey.ppk
 188
 189 To convert a key into OpenSSH's private key format:
 190
 191 \c puttygen mykey.ppk -O private-openssh -o my-openssh-key
 192
 193 To convert a key \e{from} another format (\c{puttygen} will
 194 automatically detect the input key type):
 195
 196 \c puttygen my-ssh.com-key -o mykey.ppk
 197
 198 To display the fingerprint of a key (some key types require a
 199 passphrase to extract even this much information):
 200
 201 \c puttygen -l mykey.ppk
 202
 203 To add the OpenSSH-format public half of a key to your authorised
 204 keys file:
 205
 206 \c puttygen -L mykey.ppk >> $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys
 207
 208 \S{puttygen-manpage-bugs} BUGS
 209
 210 There's currently no way to supply passphrases in batch mode, or
 211 even just to specify that you don't want a passphrase at all.