Note that this is \e{not} the feature of PuTTY which the server will
typically use to determine your terminal type. That feature is the
-\q{Terminal-type string} in the Connection panel; see
+\q{\ii{Terminal-type} string} in the Connection panel; see
\k{config-termtype} for details.
You can include control characters in the answerback string using
\H{config-keyboard} The Keyboard panel
The Keyboard configuration panel allows you to control the behaviour
-of the \i{keyboard} in PuTTY.
+of the \i{keyboard} in PuTTY. The correct state for many of these
+settings depends on what the server to which PuTTY is connecting
+expects. With a \i{Unix} server, this is likely to depend on the
+\i\c{termcap} or \i\c{terminfo} entry it uses, which in turn is likely to
+be controlled by the \q{\ii{Terminal-type} string} setting in the Connection
+panel; see \k{config-termtype} for details. If none of the settings here
+seems to help, you may find \k{faq-keyboard} to be useful.
\S{config-backspace} Changing the action of the \ii{Backspace key}
This option allows you to choose which code PuTTY generates when you
press Backspace.
-If you are connecting to a Unix system, you will probably find that
+If you are connecting over SSH, PuTTY by default tells the server
+the value of this option (see \k{config-ttymodes}), so you may find
+that the Backspace key does the right thing either way. Similarly,
+if you are connecting to a \i{Unix} system, you will probably find that
the Unix \i\c{stty} command lets you configure which the server
-expects to see, so you might not need to change which one PuTTY
+expects to see, so again you might not need to change which one PuTTY
generates. On other systems, the server's expectation might be fixed
and you might have no choice but to configure PuTTY.
(Typing \i{Shift-Backspace} will cause PuTTY to send whichever code
isn't configured here as the default.)
-\S{config-homeend} Changing the action of the \I{Home and End keys}
+\S{config-homeend} Changing the action of the \i{Home and End keys}
\cfg{winhelp-topic}{keyboard.homeend}
If you enable \q{Paste to clipboard in RTF as well as plain text},
PuTTY will write formatting information to the clipboard as well as
-the actual text you copy. Currently the only effect of this will be
+the actual text you copy. The effect of this is
that if you paste into (say) a word processor, the text will appear
-in the word processor in the same \i{font} PuTTY was using to display
-it. In future it is likely that other formatting information (bold,
-underline, colours) will be copied as well.
+in the word processor in the same \i{font}, \i{colour}, and style
+(e.g. bold, underline) PuTTY was using to display it.
This option can easily be inconvenient, so by default it is
disabled.
side doesn't believe there is an open connection any more.
Keepalives can make this sort of problem worse, because they
increase the probability that PuTTY will attempt to send data during
-a break in connectivity. Therefore, you might find they help
+a break in connectivity. (Other types of periodic network activity
+can cause this behaviour; in particular, SSH-2 re-keys can have
+this effect. See \k{config-ssh-kex-rekey}.)
+
+Therefore, you might find that keepalives help
connection loss, or you might find they make it worse, depending on
what \e{kind} of network problems you have between you and the
server.
send the right \i{control sequence}s to each one, the server will need
to know what type of terminal it is dealing with. Therefore, each of
the SSH, Telnet and Rlogin protocols allow a text string to be sent
-down the connection describing the terminal.
+down the connection describing the terminal. On a \i{Unix} server,
+this selects an entry from the \i\c{termcap} or \i\c{terminfo} database
+that tells applications what \i{control sequences} to send to the
+terminal, and what character sequences to expect the \i{keyboard}
+to generate.
PuTTY attempts to emulate the Unix \i\c{xterm} program, and by default
it reflects this by sending \c{xterm} as a terminal-type string. If
proxy without trying to look them up first.
If you set this option to \q{Auto} (the default), PuTTY will do
-something it considers appropriate for each type of proxy. Telnet
-and HTTP proxies will have host names passed straight to them; SOCKS
-proxies will not.
+something it considers appropriate for each type of proxy. Telnet,
+HTTP, and SOCKS5 proxies will have host names passed straight to
+them; SOCKS4 proxies will not.
Note that if you are doing DNS at the proxy, you should make sure
that your proxy exclusion settings (see \k{config-proxy-exclude}) do
mail user agent, for example). If you want to do this, enter the
command in the \q{\ii{Remote command}} box.
-\S{config-ssh-pty} \I{pseudo-terminal allocation}\q{Don't allocate
-a pseudo-terminal}
-
-\cfg{winhelp-topic}{ssh.nopty}
-
-When connecting to a \i{Unix} system, most \I{interactive
-connections}interactive shell sessions are run in a \e{pseudo-terminal},
-which allows the Unix system to pretend it's talking to a real physical
-terminal device but allows the SSH server to catch all the data coming
-from that fake device and send it back to the client.
-
-Occasionally you might find you have a need to run a session \e{not}
-in a pseudo-terminal. In PuTTY, this is generally only useful for
-very specialist purposes; although in Plink (see \k{plink}) it is
-the usual way of working.
+Note that most servers will close the session after executing the
+command.
\S{config-ssh-noshell} \q{Don't start a \I{remote shell}shell or
\I{remote command}command at all}
PuTTY currently supports the following algorithms:
-\b \i{AES} (Rijndael) - 256, 192, or 128-bit CBC (SSH-2 only)
+\b \i{AES} (Rijndael) - 256, 192, or 128-bit SDCTR or CBC (SSH-2 only)
+
+\b \i{Arcfour} (RC4) - 256 or 128-bit stream cipher (SSH-2 only)
-\b \i{Blowfish} - 128-bit CBC
+\b \i{Blowfish} - 256-bit SDCTR (SSH-2 only) or 128-bit CBC
-\b \ii{Triple-DES} - 168-bit CBC
+\b \ii{Triple-DES} - 168-bit SDCTR (SSH-2 only) or CBC
\b \ii{Single-DES} - 56-bit CBC (see below for SSH-2)
The Auth panel allows you to configure \i{authentication} options for
SSH sessions.
+\S{config-ssh-noauth} \q{Bypass authentication entirely}
+
+\cfg{winhelp-topic}{ssh.auth.bypass}
+
+In SSH-2, it is possible to establish a connection without using SSH's
+mechanisms to identify or authenticate oneself to the server. Some
+servers may prefer to handle authentication in the data channel, for
+instance, or may simply require no authentication whatsoever.
+
+By default, PuTTY assumes the server requires authentication (most
+do), and thus must provide a username. If you find you are getting
+unwanted username prompts, you could try checking this option.
+
+This option only affects SSH-2 connections. SSH-1 connections always
+require an authentication step.
+
+\S{config-ssh-tryagent} \q{Attempt authentication using Pageant}
+
+\cfg{winhelp-topic}{ssh.auth.pageant}
+
+If this option is enabled, then PuTTY will look for Pageant (the SSH
+private-key storage agent) and attempt to authenticate with any
+suitable public keys Pageant currently holds.
+
+This behaviour is almost always desirable, and is therefore enabled
+by default. In rare cases you might need to turn it off in order to
+force authentication by some non-public-key method such as
+passwords.
+
+This option can also be controlled using the \c{-noagent}
+command-line option. See \k{using-cmdline-agentauth}.
+
+See \k{pageant} for more information about Pageant in general.
+
\S{config-ssh-tis} \q{Attempt \I{TIS authentication}TIS or
\i{CryptoCard authentication}}
\cfg{winhelp-topic}{ssh.auth.tis}
-TIS and CryptoCard authentication are simple \I{challenge/response
-authentication}challenge/response forms of authentication available in
-SSH protocol version 1 only. You might use them if you were using \i{S/Key}
-\i{one-time passwords}, for example, or if you had a physical \i{security
-token} that generated responses to authentication challenges.
+TIS and CryptoCard authentication are (despite their names) generic
+forms of simple \I{challenge/response authentication}challenge/response
+authentication available in SSH protocol version 1 only. You might use
+them if you were using \i{S/Key} \i{one-time passwords}, for example,
+or if you had a physical \i{security token} that generated responses
+to authentication challenges.
With this switch enabled, PuTTY will attempt these forms of
authentication if the server is willing to try them. You will be
private key in another format that you want to use with PuTTY, see
\k{puttygen-conversions}.
+If a key file is specified here, and \i{Pageant} is running (see
+\k{pageant}), PuTTY will first try asking Pageant to authenticate with
+that key, and ignore any other keys Pageant may have. If that fails,
+PuTTY will ask for a passphrase as normal.
+
+\H{config-ssh-tty} The TTY panel
+
+The TTY panel lets you configure the remote pseudo-terminal.
+
+\S{config-ssh-pty} \I{pseudo-terminal allocation}\q{Don't allocate
+a pseudo-terminal}
+
+\cfg{winhelp-topic}{ssh.nopty}
+
+When connecting to a \i{Unix} system, most \I{interactive
+connections}interactive shell sessions are run in a \e{pseudo-terminal},
+which allows the Unix system to pretend it's talking to a real physical
+terminal device but allows the SSH server to catch all the data coming
+from that fake device and send it back to the client.
+
+Occasionally you might find you have a need to run a session \e{not}
+in a pseudo-terminal. In PuTTY, this is generally only useful for
+very specialist purposes; although in Plink (see \k{plink}) it is
+the usual way of working.
+
+\S{config-ttymodes} Sending \i{terminal modes}
+
+\cfg{winhelp-topic}{ssh.ttymodes}
+
+The SSH protocol allows the client to send \q{terminal modes} for
+the remote pseudo-terminal. These usually control the server's
+expectation of the local terminal's behaviour.
+
+If your server does not have sensible defaults for these modes, you
+may find that changing them here helps. If you don't understand any of
+this, it's safe to leave these settings alone.
+
+(None of these settings will have any effect if no pseudo-terminal
+is requested or allocated.)
+
+You can add or modify a mode by selecting it from the drop-down list,
+choosing whether it's set automatically or to a specific value with
+the radio buttons and edit box, and hitting \q{Add}. A mode (or
+several) can be removed from the list by selecting them and hitting
+\q{Remove}. The effect of the mode list is as follows:
+
+\b If a mode is not on the list, it will not be specified to the
+server under any circumstances.
+
+\b If a mode is on the list:
+
+\lcont{
+
+\b If the \q{Auto} option is selected, the PuTTY tools will decide
+whether to specify that mode to the server, and if so, will send
+a sensible value.
+
+\lcont{
+
+PuTTY proper will send modes that it has an opinion on (currently only
+the code for the Backspace key, \cw{ERASE}). Plink on Unix
+will propagate appropriate modes from the local terminal, if any.
+
+}
+
+\b If a value is specified, it will be sent to the server under all
+circumstances. The precise syntax of the value box depends on the
+mode.
+
+}
+
+By default, all of the available modes are listed as \q{Auto},
+which should do the right thing in most circumstances.
+
+The precise effect of each setting, if any, is up to the server. Their
+names come from \i{POSIX} and other Unix systems, and they are most
+likely to have a useful effect on such systems. (These are the same
+settings that can usually be changed using the \i\c{stty} command once
+logged in to such servers.)
+
+Some notable modes are described below; for fuller explanations, see
+your server documentation.
+
+\b \I{ERASE special character}\cw{ERASE} is the character that when typed
+by the user will delete one space to the left. When set to \q{Auto}
+(the default setting), this follows the setting of the local Backspace
+key in PuTTY (see \k{config-backspace}).
+
+\lcont{
+This and other \i{special character}s are specified using \c{^C} notation
+for Ctrl-C, and so on. Use \c{^<27>} or \c{^<0x1B>} to specify a
+character numerically, and \c{^~} to get a literal \c{^}. Other
+non-control characters are denoted by themselves. Leaving the box
+entirely blank indicates that \e{no} character should be assigned to
+the specified function, although this may not be supported by all
+servers.
+}
+
+\b \I{QUIT special character}\cw{QUIT} is a special character that
+usually forcefully ends the current process on the server
+(\cw{SIGQUIT}). On many servers its default setting is Ctrl-backslash
+(\c{^\\}), which is easy to accidentally invoke on many keyboards. If
+this is getting in your way, you may want to change it to another
+character or turn it off entirely.
+
+\b Boolean modes such as \cw{ECHO} and \cw{ICANON} can be specified in
+PuTTY in a variety of ways, such as \cw{true}/\cw{false},
+\cw{yes}/\cw{no}, and \cw{0}/\cw{1}.
+
+\b Terminal speeds are configured elsewhere; see \k{config-termspeed}.
+
\H{config-ssh-x11} The X11 panel
\cfg{winhelp-topic}{ssh.tunnels.x11}
projects / u / mdw / putty / blobdiff