X-Git-Url: https://git.distorted.org.uk/u/mdw/putty/blobdiff_plain/39a938f7a5e16b4be9bee493251238710fbff396..3e64ff651d32ecd89237218e8c26c8d064c73b31:/doc/faq.but diff --git a/doc/faq.but b/doc/faq.but index 52f7c038..da0e2fc4 100644 --- a/doc/faq.but +++ b/doc/faq.but @@ -292,11 +292,17 @@ testing in this area would be very welcome! \S{faq-mac-port}{Question} Will there be a port to the Mac? -There is a port to the Mac OS in progress. It's just about usable, but -has an awful lot of gaps and rough edges that will need cleaning up -before release (such as useful random numbers). +There are several answers to this question: -A separate port to Mac OS X is also underway. +\b The Unix/Gtk port is already fully working under Mac OS X as an X11 +application. + +\b A native (Cocoa) Mac OS X port is in progress. It's just about +usable, but is of nowhere near release quality yet, and is likely to +behave in unexpected ways. + +\b A separate port to the classic Mac OS (pre-OSX) is also in +progress; it too is not ready yet. \S{faq-epoc}{Question} Will there be a port to EPOC? @@ -387,6 +393,38 @@ On Unix, PuTTY stores all of this data in a directory \cw{~/.putty}. \H{faq-howto} HOWTO questions +\S{faq-commands}{Question} What commands can I type into my PuTTY +terminal window? + +This is not a question you should be asking \e{us}. You need to read +the manuals, or ask the administrator, of \e{the computer you have +connected to}. + +PuTTY does not process the commands you type into it. It's only a +communications tool. It makes a connection to another computer; it +passes the commands you type to that other computer; and it passes +the other computer's responses back to you. Therefore, the precise +range of commands you can use will not depend on PuTTY, but on what +kind of computer you have connected to and what software is running +on it. The PuTTY team cannot help you with that. + +(Think of PuTTY as being a bit like a telephone. If you phone +somebody up and you don't know what language to speak to make them +understand you, it isn't \e{the telephone company}'s job to find +that out for you. We just provide the means for you to get in touch; +making yourself understood is somebody else's problem.) + +If you are unsure of where to start looking for the administrator of +your server, a good place to start might be to remember how you +found out the host name in the PuTTY configuration. If you were +given that host name by e-mail, for example, you could try asking +the person who sent you that e-mail. If your company's IT department +provided you with ready-made PuTTY saved sessions, then that IT +department can probably also tell you something about what commands +you can type during those sessions. But the PuTTY maintainer team +does not administer any server you are likely to be connecting to, +and cannot help you with questions of this type. + \S{faq-startmax}{Question} How can I make PuTTY start up maximised? Create a Windows shortcut to start PuTTY from, and set it as \q{Run @@ -623,12 +661,17 @@ SCP backend did not suffer from this performance issue because SCP is a much simpler protocol.) \S{faq-bce}{Question} When I run full-colour applications, I see -areas of black space where colour ought to be. +areas of black space where colour ought to be, or vice versa. + +You almost certainly need to change the \q{Use background colour to +erase screen} setting in the Terminal panel. If there is too much +black space (the commoner situation), you should enable it, while if +there is too much colour, you should disable it. (See \k{config-erase}.) -You almost certainly need to enable the \q{Use background colour to -erase screen} setting in the Terminal panel. Note that if you do -this in mid-session, in versions before 0.54, it may not take effect -until you reset the terminal (see \k{faq-resetterm}). +In old versions of PuTTY, this was disabled by default, and would not +take effect until you reset the terminal (see \k{faq-resetterm}). +Since 0.54, it is enabled by default, and changes take effect +immediately. \S{faq-resetterm}{Question} When I change some terminal settings, nothing happens. @@ -700,7 +743,7 @@ Set the key's value to something like 10. This will cause Windows to try harder to keep connections alive instead of abandoning them. \S{faq-puttyputty}{Question} When I \cw{cat} a binary file, I get -`PuTTYPuTTYPuTTY' on my command line. +\q{PuTTYPuTTYPuTTY} on my command line. Don't do that, then. @@ -861,6 +904,11 @@ screen, but it's still usually helpful to have PuTTY's scrollback continue working. The simplest solution is to go to the Features control panel and tick \q{Disable switching to alternate terminal screen}. (See \k{config-features-altscreen} for more details.) +Alternatively, you can tell \c{screen} itself not to use the +alternate screen: the +\W{http://www4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/~jnweiger/screen-faq.html}{\c{screen} +FAQ} suggests adding the line \cq{termcapinfo xterm ti@:te@} to your +\cw{.screenrc} file. The reason why this only started to be a problem in 0.54 is because \c{screen} typically uses an unusual control sequence to switch to @@ -907,6 +955,16 @@ reported to us). There is a patch for OpenSSH attached to that bug; it's also fixed in recent versions of portable OpenSSH (from around 3.8). +\S{faq-connaborted}{Question} Do you want to hear about \q{Software +caused connection abort}? + +In the documentation for PuTTY 0.53 and 0.53b, we mentioned that we'd +like to hear about any occurrences of this error. Since the release +of PuTTY 0.54, however, we've been convinced that this error doesn't +indicate that PuTTY's doing anything wrong, and we don't need to hear +about further occurrences. See \k{errors-connaborted} for our current +documentation of this error. + \H{faq-secure} Security questions \S{faq-publicpc}{Question} Is it safe for me to download PuTTY and @@ -931,7 +989,12 @@ PuTTY will leave some Registry entries, and a random seed file, on the PC (see \k{faq-settings}). If you are using PuTTY on a public PC, or somebody else's PC, you might want to clean these up when you leave. You can do that automatically, by running the command -\c{putty -cleanup}. +\c{putty -cleanup}. (Note that this only removes settings for +the currently logged-in user on \i{multi-user systems}.) + +If PuTTY was installed from the installer package, it will also +appear in \q{Add/Remove Programs}. Uninstallation does not currently +remove the above-mentioned registry entries and file. \S{faq-dsa}{Question} How come PuTTY now supports DSA, when the website used to say how insecure it was?