-\versionid $Id: pageant.but,v 1.5 2001/11/25 17:32:39 simon Exp $
+\define{versionidpageant} \versionid $Id$
\C{pageant} Using Pageant for authentication
+\cfg{winhelp-topic}{pageant.general}
+
Pageant is an SSH authentication agent. It holds your private keys
in memory, already decoded, so that you can use them often without
needing to type a passphrase.
\H{pageant-start} Getting started with Pageant
-Before you run Pageant, you need to have a private key. See
-\k{pubkey} to find out how to generate and use one.
+Before you run Pageant, you need to have a private key in \c{*.PPK}
+format. See \k{pubkey} to find out how to generate and use one.
When you run Pageant, it will put an icon of a computer wearing a
-hat into the System tray. It will then sit and do nothing.
+hat into the System tray. It will then sit and do nothing, until you
+load a private key into it.
If you click the Pageant icon with the right mouse button, you will
see a menu. Select \q{View Keys} from this menu. The Pageant main
The Pageant window contains a list box. This shows the private keys
Pageant is holding. When you start Pageant, it has no keys, so the
-list box will be empty.
+list box will be empty. After you add one or more keys, they will
+show up in the list box.
To add a key to Pageant, press the \q{Add Key} button. Pageant will
bring up a file dialog, labelled \q{Select Private Key File}. Find
Pageant icon in the System tray, and select \q{Exit} from the menu.
Closing the Pageant main window does \e{not} shut down Pageant.
+\H{pageant-mainwin} The Pageant main window
+
+The Pageant main window appears when you left-click on the Pageant
+system tray icon, or alternatively right-click and select \q{View
+Keys} from the menu. You can use it to keep track of what keys are
+currently loaded into Pageant, and to add new ones or remove the
+existing keys.
+
+\S{pageant-mainwin-keylist} The key list box
+
+\cfg{winhelp-topic}{pageant.keylist}
+
+The large list box in the Pageant main window lists the private keys
+that are currently loaded into Pageant. The list might look
+something like this:
+
+\c ssh1 1024 22:c3:68:3b:09:41:36:c3:39:83:91:ae:71:b2:0f:04 k1
+\c ssh-rsa 1023 74:63:08:82:95:75:e1:7c:33:31:bb:cb:00:c0:89:8b k2
+
+For each key, the list box will tell you:
+
+\b The type of the key. Currently, this can be \c{ssh1} (an RSA key
+for use with the SSH-1 protocol), \c{ssh-rsa} (an RSA key for use
+with the SSH-2 protocol), or \c{ssh-dss} (a DSA key for use with
+the SSH-2 protocol).
+
+\b The size (in bits) of the key.
+
+\b The fingerprint for the public key. This should be the same
+fingerprint given by PuTTYgen, and (hopefully) also the same
+fingerprint shown by remote utilities such as \c{ssh-keygen} when
+applied to your \c{authorized_keys} file.
+
+\b The comment attached to the key.
+
+\S{pageant-mainwin-addkey} The \q{Add Key} button
+
+\cfg{winhelp-topic}{pageant.addkey}
+
+To add a key to Pageant by reading it out of a local disk file,
+press the \q{Add Key} button in the Pageant main window, or
+alternatively right-click on the Pageant icon in the system tray and
+select \q{Add Key} from there.
+
+Pageant will bring up a file dialog, labelled \q{Select Private Key
+File}. Find your private key file in this dialog, and press
+\q{Open}. If you want to add more than one key at once, you can
+select multiple files using Shift-click (to select several adjacent
+files) or Ctrl-click (to select non-adjacent files).
+
+Pageant will now load the private key(s). If a key is protected by a
+passphrase, Pageant will ask you to type the passphrase.
+
+(This is not the only way to add a private key to Pageant. You can
+also add one from a remote system by using agent forwarding; see
+\k{pageant-forward} for details.)
+
+\S{pageant-mainwin-remkey} The \q{Remove Key} button
+
+\cfg{winhelp-topic}{pageant.remkey}
+
+If you need to remove a key from Pageant, select that key in the
+list box, and press the \q{Remove Key} button. Pageant will remove
+the key from its memory.
+
+You can apply this to keys you added using the \q{Add Key} button,
+or to keys you added remotely using agent forwarding (see
+\k{pageant-forward}); it makes no difference.
+
+\H{pageant-cmdline} The Pageant command line
+
+Pageant can be made to do things automatically when it starts up, by
+specifying instructions on its command line. If you're starting
+Pageant from the Windows GUI, you can arrange this by editing the
+properties of the Windows shortcut that it was started from.
+
+\S{pageant-cmdline-loadkey} Making Pageant automatically load keys
+on startup
+
+Pageant can automatically load one or more private keys when it
+starts up, if you provide them on the Pageant command line. Your
+command line might then look like:
+
+\c C:\PuTTY\pageant.exe d:\main.ppk d:\secondary.ppk
+
+If the keys are stored encrypted, Pageant will request the
+passphrases on startup.
+
+\S{pageant-cmdline-command} Making Pageant run another program
+
+You can arrange for Pageant to start another program once it has
+initialised itself and loaded any keys specified on its command
+line. This program (perhaps a PuTTY, or a WinCVS making use of
+Plink, or whatever) will then be able to use the keys Pageant has
+loaded.
+
+You do this by specifying the \c{-c} option followed by the command,
+like this:
+
+\c C:\PuTTY\pageant.exe d:\main.ppk -c C:\PuTTY\putty.exe
+
\H{pageant-forward} Using agent forwarding
Agent forwarding is a mechanism that allows applications on your SSH
server machine to talk to the agent on your client machine.
-Note that at present, agent forwarding in SSH2 is only available
+Note that at present, agent forwarding in SSH-2 is only available
when your SSH server is OpenSSH. The \cw{ssh.com} server uses a
-different agent protocol which they have not published. If you would
-like PuTTY to be able to support agent forwarding to an \cw{ssh.com}
-server, please write to \cw{ssh.com} and explain to them that they
-are hurting themselves and their users by keeping their protocol
-secret.
+different agent protocol, which PuTTY does not yet support.
To enable agent forwarding, first start Pageant. Then set up a PuTTY
SSH session in which \q{Allow agent forwarding} is enabled (see
-\k{config-ssh-agentfwd}). Open the session as normal.
+\k{config-ssh-agentfwd}). Open the session as normal. (Alternatively,
+you can use the \c{-A} command line option; see
+\k{using-cmdline-agent} for details.)
If this has worked, your applications on the server should now have
access to a Unix domain socket which the SSH server will forward
projects / u / mdw / putty / blobdiff