Now we use Subversion, it seems excessive to have an individual $Id$
[sgt/putty] / doc / using.but
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39a938f7 1\define{versionidusing} \versionid $Id$
fc5a8711 2
3\C{using} Using PuTTY
4
5This chapter provides a general introduction to some more advanced
6features of PuTTY. For extreme detail and reference purposes,
7\k{config} is likely to contain more information.
8
9\H{using-session} During your session
10
11A lot of PuTTY's complexity and features are in the configuration
12panel. Once you have worked your way through that and started
13a session, things should be reasonably simple after that.
14Nevertheless, there are a few more useful features available.
15
16\S{using-selection} Copying and pasting text
17
6cc170f0 18\I{copy and paste}Often in a PuTTY session you will find text on
19your terminal screen which you want to type in again. Like most
20other terminal emulators, PuTTY allows you to copy and paste the
21text rather than having to type it again. Also, copy and paste uses
22the \I{Windows clipboard}Windows \i{clipboard}, so that you can
23paste (for example) URLs into a web browser, or paste from a word
24processor or spreadsheet into your terminal session.
25
26PuTTY's copy and paste works entirely with the \i{mouse}. In order
27to copy text to the clipboard, you just click the \i{left mouse
28button} in the terminal window, and drag to \I{selecting text}select
29text. When you let go of the button, the text is \e{automatically}
30copied to the clipboard. You do not need to press Ctrl-C or
31Ctrl-Ins; in fact, if you do press Ctrl-C, PuTTY will send a Ctrl-C
32character down your session to the server where it will probably
33cause a process to be interrupted.
fc5a8711 34
35Pasting is done using the right button (or the middle mouse button,
36if you have a three-button mouse and have set it up; see
6cc170f0 37\k{config-mouse}). (Pressing \i{Shift-Ins}, or selecting \q{Paste}
38from the Ctrl+right-click context menu, have the same effect.) When
39you click the \i{right mouse button}, PuTTY will read whatever is in
40the Windows clipboard and paste it into your session, \e{exactly} as
41if it had been typed at the keyboard. (Therefore, be careful of
42pasting formatted text into an editor that does automatic indenting;
43you may find that the spaces pasted from the clipboard plus the
44spaces added by the editor add up to too many spaces and ruin the
45formatting. There is nothing PuTTY can do about this.)
46
47If you \i{double-click} the left mouse button, PuTTY will select a
48whole word. If you double-click, hold down the second click, and
49drag the mouse, PuTTY will select a sequence of whole words. (You
50can adjust precisely what PuTTY considers to be part of a word; see
51\k{config-charclasses}.) If you \e{triple}-click, or
52\i{triple-click} and drag, then PuTTY will select a whole line or
53sequence of lines.
54
55If you want to select a \I{rectangular selection}rectangular region
56instead of selecting to the end of each line, you can do this by
57holding down Alt when you make your selection. (You can also
58configure rectangular selection to be the default, and then holding
59down Alt gives the normal behaviour instead. See
60\k{config-rectselect} for details.)
61
62If you have a \i{middle mouse button}, then you can use it to
63\I{adjusting a selection}adjust an existing selection if you
64selected something slightly wrong. (If you have configured the
65middle mouse button to paste, then the right mouse button does this
66instead.) Click the button on the screen, and you can pick up the
67nearest end of the selection and drag it to somewhere else.
fc5a8711 68
6cee219d 69It's possible for the server to ask to handle mouse clicks in the
70PuTTY window itself. If this happens, the mouse cursor will turn
25c22a0c 71into an arrow, and using the mouse to copy and paste will only work if
72you hold down Shift. See \k{config-features-mouse} and
73\k{config-mouseshift} for details of this feature and how to configure
74it.
6cee219d 75
6cc170f0 76\S{using-scrollback} \I{scrollback}Scrolling the screen back
fc5a8711 77
78PuTTY keeps track of text that has scrolled up off the top of the
79terminal. So if something appears on the screen that you want to
80read, but it scrolls too fast and it's gone by the time you try to
81look for it, you can use the scrollbar on the right side of the
6cc170f0 82window to look back up the session \i{history} and find it again.
fc5a8711 83
84As well as using the scrollbar, you can also page the scrollback up
6cc170f0 85and down by pressing \i{Shift-PgUp} and \i{Shift-PgDn}. You can
86scroll a line at a time using \i{Ctrl-PgUp} and \i{Ctrl-PgDn}. These
87are still available if you configure the scrollbar to be invisible.
fc5a8711 88
89By default the last 200 lines scrolled off the top are
90preserved for you to look at. You can increase (or decrease) this
91value using the configuration box; see \k{config-scrollback}.
92
6cc170f0 93\S{using-sysmenu} The \i{System menu}
fc5a8711 94
95If you click the left mouse button on the icon in the top left
1388ecb1 96corner of PuTTY's terminal window, or click the right mouse button
97on the title bar, you will see the standard Windows system menu
98containing items like Minimise, Move, Size and Close.
fc5a8711 99
100PuTTY's system menu contains extra program features in addition to
101the Windows standard options. These extra menu commands are
102described below.
103
533d533c 104(These options are also available in a context menu brought up
105by holding Ctrl and clicking with the right mouse button anywhere
106in the PuTTY window.)
107
6cc170f0 108\S2{using-eventlog} The PuTTY \i{Event Log}
fc5a8711 109
110If you choose \q{Event Log} from the system menu, a small window
111will pop up in which PuTTY logs significant events during the
112connection. Most of the events in the log will probably take place
113during session startup, but a few can occur at any point in the
114session, and one or two occur right at the end.
115
116You can use the mouse to select one or more lines of the Event Log,
6cc170f0 117and hit the Copy button to copy them to the \i{clipboard}. If you
118are reporting a bug, it's often useful to paste the contents of the
fc5a8711 119Event Log into your bug report.
120
6cc170f0 121\S2{using-specials} \ii{Special commands}
6b590f79 122
6cc170f0 123Depending on the protocol used for the current session, there may be
124a submenu of \q{special commands}. These are protocol-specific
125tokens, such as a \i{\q{break} signal}, that can be sent down a
2c51c674 126connection in addition to normal data. Their precise effect is usually
127up to the server. Currently only Telnet and SSH have special commands.
6cc170f0 128
2c51c674 129The following special commands are available in Telnet:
130
3f2ce694 131\b \I{Are You There, Telnet special command}Are You There
2c51c674 132
3f2ce694 133\b \I{Break, Telnet special command}Break
2c51c674 134
3f2ce694 135\b \I{Synch, Telnet special command}Synch
2c51c674 136
3f2ce694 137\b \I{Erase Character, Telnet special command}Erase Character
2c51c674 138
76d3d354 139\lcont{
140PuTTY can also be configured to send this when the Backspace key is
141pressed; see \k{config-telnetkey}.
142}
143
3f2ce694 144\b \I{Erase Line, Telnet special command}Erase Line
2c51c674 145
3f2ce694 146\b \I{Go Ahead, Telnet special command}Go Ahead
2c51c674 147
3f2ce694 148\b \I{No Operation, Telnet special command}No Operation
2c51c674 149
3f2ce694 150\lcont{
151Should have no effect.
152}
2c51c674 153
3f2ce694 154\b \I{Abort Process, Telnet special command}Abort Process
2c51c674 155
3f2ce694 156\b \I{Abort Output, Telnet special command}Abort Output
2c51c674 157
3f2ce694 158\b \I{Interrupt Process, Telnet special command}Interrupt Process
2c51c674 159
76d3d354 160\lcont{
161PuTTY can also be configured to send this when Ctrl-C is typed; see
162\k{config-telnetkey}.
163}
164
3f2ce694 165\b \I{Suspend Process, Telnet special command}Suspend Process
2c51c674 166
76d3d354 167\lcont{
168PuTTY can also be configured to send this when Ctrl-Z is typed; see
169\k{config-telnetkey}.
170}
171
3f2ce694 172\b \I{End Of Record, Telnet special command}End Of Record
2c51c674 173
3f2ce694 174\b \I{End Of File, Telnet special command}End Of File
2c51c674 175
176In an SSH connection, the following special commands are available:
177
6f2d0cde 178\b \I{IGNORE message, SSH special command}\I{No-op, in SSH}IGNORE message
179
180\lcont{
181Should have no effect.
182}
183
3f2ce694 184\b \I{Break, SSH special command}Break
2c51c674 185
3f2ce694 186\lcont{
6f2d0cde 187Only available in SSH-2, and only during a session. Optional
188extension; may not be supported by server. PuTTY requests the server's
189default break length.
3f2ce694 190}
2c51c674 191
6f2d0cde 192\b \I{Signal, SSH special command}Signals (SIGINT, SIGTERM etc)
2c51c674 193
3f2ce694 194\lcont{
6f2d0cde 195Only available in SSH-2, and only during a session. Sends various
196POSIX signals. Not honoured by all servers.
3f2ce694 197}
6b590f79 198
fc5a8711 199\S2{using-newsession} Starting new sessions
200
201PuTTY's system menu provides some shortcut ways to start new
202sessions:
203
6cc170f0 204\b Selecting \i{\q{New Session}} will start a completely new
205instance of PuTTY, and bring up the configuration box as normal.
fc5a8711 206
8a213300 207\b Selecting \i{\q{Duplicate Session}} will start a session in a
208new window with precisely the same options as your current one -
209connecting to the same host using the same protocol, with all the
210same terminal settings and everything.
211
212\b In an inactive window, selecting \i{\q{Restart Session}} will
213do the same as \q{Duplicate Session}, but in the current window.
fc5a8711 214
6cc170f0 215\b The \i{\q{Saved Sessions} submenu} gives you quick access to any
fc5a8711 216sets of stored session details you have previously saved. See
217\k{config-saving} for details of how to create saved sessions.
218
6cc170f0 219\S2{using-changesettings} \I{settings, changing}Changing your
220session settings
fc5a8711 221
6cc170f0 222If you select \i{\q{Change Settings}} from the system menu, PuTTY will
fc5a8711 223display a cut-down version of its initial configuration box. This
224allows you to adjust most properties of your current session. You
225can change the terminal size, the font, the actions of various
226keypresses, the colours, and so on.
227
228Some of the options that are available in the main configuration box
229are not shown in the cut-down Change Settings box. These are usually
230options which don't make sense to change in the middle of a session
231(for example, you can't switch from SSH to Telnet in mid-session).
232
6cc170f0 233\S2{using-copyall} \i{Copy All to Clipboard}
fc5a8711 234
235This system menu option provides a convenient way to copy the whole
f20523db 236contents of the terminal screen (up to the last nonempty line) and
6cc170f0 237scrollback to the \i{clipboard} in one go.
fc5a8711 238
6cc170f0 239\S2{reset-terminal} \I{scrollback, clearing}Clearing and
240\I{terminal, resetting}resetting the terminal
fc5a8711 241
6cc170f0 242The \i{\q{Clear Scrollback}} option on the system menu tells PuTTY
243to discard all the lines of text that have been kept after they
fc5a8711 244scrolled off the top of the screen. This might be useful, for
245example, if you displayed sensitive information and wanted to make
246sure nobody could look over your shoulder and see it. (Note that
247this only prevents a casual user from using the scrollbar to view
248the information; the text is not guaranteed not to still be in
249PuTTY's memory.)
250
6cc170f0 251The \i{\q{Reset Terminal}} option causes a full reset of the
252terminal emulation. A VT-series terminal is a complex piece of
253software and can easily get into a state where all the text printed
254becomes unreadable. (This can happen, for example, if you
255accidentally output a binary file to your terminal.) If this
256happens, selecting Reset Terminal should sort it out.
fc5a8711 257
6cc170f0 258\S2{using-fullscreen} \ii{Full screen} mode
fc5a8711 259
260If you find the title bar on a maximised window to be ugly or
261distracting, you can select Full Screen mode to maximise PuTTY
262\q{even more}. When you select this, PuTTY will expand to fill the
263whole screen and its borders, title bar and scrollbar will
264disappear. (You can configure the scrollbar not to disappear in
a5a6cb30 265full-screen mode if you want to keep it; see \k{config-scrollback}.)
fc5a8711 266
267When you are in full-screen mode, you can still access the system
268menu if you click the left mouse button in the \e{extreme} top left
269corner of the screen.
270
6cc170f0 271\H{using-logging} Creating a \i{log file} of your \I{session
272log}session
fc5a8711 273
274For some purposes you may find you want to log everything that
6cc170f0 275appears on your screen. You can do this using the \i{\q{Logging}
276panel} in the configuration box.
fc5a8711 277
278To begin a session log, select \q{Change Settings} from the system
279menu and go to the Logging panel. Enter a log file name, and select
280a logging mode. (You can log all session output including the
281terminal control sequences, or you can just log the printable text.
282It depends what you want the log for.) Click \q{Apply} and your log
283will be started. Later on, you can go back to the Logging panel and
284select \q{Logging turned off completely} to stop logging; then PuTTY
285will close the log file and you can safely read it.
286
287See \k{config-logging} for more details and options.
288
6cc170f0 289\H{using-translation} Altering your \i{character set} configuration
fc5a8711 290
6cc170f0 291If you find that special characters (\i{accented characters}, for
f80d4744 292example, or \i{line-drawing characters}) are not being displayed
293correctly in your PuTTY session, it may be that PuTTY is interpreting
294the characters sent by the server according to the wrong \e{character
295set}. There are a lot of different character sets available, so it's
296entirely possible for this to happen.
fc5a8711 297
6cc170f0 298If you click \q{Change Settings} and look at the \i{\q{Translation}
f80d4744 299panel}, you should see a large number of character sets which you can
300select, and other related options. Now all you need is to find out
301which of them you want! (See \k{config-translation} for more
302information.)
fc5a8711 303
6cc170f0 304\H{using-x-forwarding} Using \i{X11 forwarding} in SSH
2f8d6d43 305
306The SSH protocol has the ability to securely forward X Window System
307applications over your encrypted SSH connection, so that you can run
308an application on the SSH server machine and have it put its windows
309up on your local machine without sending any X network traffic in
310the clear.
311
312In order to use this feature, you will need an X display server for
313your Windows machine, such as X-Win32 or Exceed. This will probably
314install itself as display number 0 on your local machine; if it
6cc170f0 315doesn't, the manual for the \i{X server} should tell you what it
316does do.
2f8d6d43 317
318You should then tick the \q{Enable X11 forwarding} box in the
319Tunnels panel (see \k{config-ssh-x11}) before starting your SSH
46ed7b64 320session. The \q{X display location} box is blank by default, which
321means that PuTTY will try to use a sensible default such as \c{:0},
322which is the usual display location where your X server will be
323installed. If that needs changing, then change it.
2f8d6d43 324
325Now you should be able to log in to the SSH server as normal. To
326check that X forwarding has been successfully negotiated during
327connection startup, you can check the PuTTY Event Log (see
328\k{using-eventlog}). It should say something like this:
329
330\c 2001-12-05 17:22:01 Requesting X11 forwarding
331\c 2001-12-05 17:22:02 X11 forwarding enabled
332
333If the remote system is Unix or Unix-like, you should also be able
6cc170f0 334to see that the \i{\c{DISPLAY} environment variable} has been set to
2f8d6d43 335point at display 10 or above on the SSH server machine itself:
336
337\c fred@unixbox:~$ echo $DISPLAY
338\c unixbox:10.0
339
340If this works, you should then be able to run X applications in the
341remote session and have them display their windows on your PC.
342
343Note that if your PC X server requires authentication to connect,
344then PuTTY cannot currently support it. If this is a problem for
2b5567cf 345you, you should mail the PuTTY authors \#{FIXME} and give details
346(see \k{feedback}).
2f8d6d43 347
ee155ed5 348For more options relating to X11 forwarding, see \k{config-ssh-x11}.
349
6cc170f0 350\H{using-port-forwarding} Using \i{port forwarding} in SSH
2f8d6d43 351
352The SSH protocol has the ability to forward arbitrary network
353connections over your encrypted SSH connection, to avoid the network
354traffic being sent in clear. For example, you could use this to
355connect from your home computer to a POP-3 server on a remote
356machine without your POP-3 password being visible to network
357sniffers.
358
359In order to use port forwarding to connect from your local machine
360to a port on a remote server, you need to:
361
362\b Choose a port number on your local machine where PuTTY should
363listen for incoming connections. There are likely to be plenty of
6ee9b735 364unused port numbers above 3000. (You can also use a local loopback
dbe6c525 365address here; see below for more details.)
2f8d6d43 366
367\b Now, before you start your SSH connection, go to the Tunnels
368panel (see \k{config-ssh-portfwd}). Make sure the \q{Local} radio
369button is set. Enter the local port number into the \q{Source port}
370box. Enter the destination host name and port number into the
371\q{Destination} box, separated by a colon (for example,
372\c{popserver.example.com:110} to connect to a POP-3 server).
373
374\b Now click the \q{Add} button. The details of your port forwarding
375should appear in the list box.
376
c80f77d8 377Now start your session and log in. (Port forwarding will not be
378enabled until after you have logged in; otherwise it would be easy
379to perform completely anonymous network attacks, and gain access to
380anyone's virtual private network). To check that PuTTY has set up
381the port forwarding correctly, you can look at the PuTTY Event Log
382(see \k{using-eventlog}). It should say something like this:
2f8d6d43 383
384\c 2001-12-05 17:22:10 Local port 3110 forwarding to
385\c popserver.example.com:110
386
387Now if you connect to the source port number on your local PC, you
388should find that it answers you exactly as if it were the service
389running on the destination machine. So in this example, you could
390then configure an e-mail client to use \c{localhost:3110} as a POP-3
391server instead of \c{popserver.example.com:110}. (Of course, the
392forwarding will stop happening when your PuTTY session closes down.)
393
394You can also forward ports in the other direction: arrange for a
395particular port number on the \e{server} machine to be forwarded
396back to your PC as a connection to a service on your PC or near it.
397To do this, just select the \q{Remote} radio button instead of the
398\q{Local} one. The \q{Source port} box will now specify a port
399number on the \e{server} (note that most servers will not allow you
400to use port numbers under 1024 for this purpose).
fc5a8711 401
48b7c4b2 402An alternative way to forward local connections to remote hosts is
6cc170f0 403to use \I{dynamic port forwarding}dynamic \I{SOCKS} proxying. For
404this, you will need to select the \q{Dynamic} radio button instead
405of \q{Local}, and then you should not enter anything into the
406\q{Destination} box (it will be ignored). This will cause PuTTY to
407listen on the port you have specified, and provide a SOCKS proxy
408service to any programs which connect to that port. So, in
409particular, you can forward other PuTTY connections through it by
410setting up the Proxy control panel (see \k{config-proxy} for
411details).
48b7c4b2 412
beefa433 413The source port for a forwarded connection usually does not accept
414connections from any machine except the SSH client or server machine
415itself (for local and remote forwardings respectively). There are
416controls in the Tunnels panel to change this:
417
418\b The \q{Local ports accept connections from other hosts} option
48b7c4b2 419allows you to set up local-to-remote port forwardings (including
420dynamic port forwardings) in such a way that machines other than
421your client PC can connect to the forwarded port.
beefa433 422
423\b The \q{Remote ports do the same} option does the same thing for
424remote-to-local port forwardings (so that machines other than the
425SSH server machine can connect to the forwarded port.) Note that
426this feature is only available in the SSH 2 protocol, and not all
97e12fcd 427SSH 2 servers honour it (in OpenSSH, for example, it's usually
428disabled by default).
beefa433 429
6cc170f0 430You can also specify an \i{IP address} to listen on. Typically a
dbe6c525 431Windows machine can be asked to listen on any single IP address in
432the \cw{127.*.*.*} range, and all of these are loopback addresses
6cc170f0 433available only to the local machine. So if you forward (for example)
434\c{127.0.0.5:79} to a remote machine's \cw{finger} port, then you
435should be able to run commands such as \c{finger fred@127.0.0.5}.
436This can be useful if the program connecting to the forwarded port
437doesn't allow you to change the port number it uses. This feature is
438available for local-to-remote forwarded ports; SSH1 is unable to
439support it for remote-to-local ports, while SSH2 can support it in
440theory but servers will not necessarily cooperate.
441
85c598bf 442(Note that if you're using Windows XP Service Pack 2, you may need
443to obtain a fix from Microsoft in order to use addresses like
444\cw{127.0.0.5} - see \k{faq-alternate-localhost}.)
445
6cc170f0 446\H{using-rawprot} Making \i{raw TCP connections}
447
448A lot of \I{debugging Internet protocols}Internet protocols are
449composed of commands and responses in plain text. For example,
450\i{SMTP} (the protocol used to transfer e-mail), \i{NNTP} (the
451protocol used to transfer Usenet news), and \i{HTTP} (the protocol
452used to serve Web pages) all consist of commands in readable plain
453text.
2f8d6d43 454
455Sometimes it can be useful to connect directly to one of these
456services and speak the protocol \q{by hand}, by typing protocol
457commands and watching the responses. On Unix machines, you can do
458this using the system's \c{telnet} command to connect to the right
459port number. For example, \c{telnet mailserver.example.com 25} might
460enable you to talk directly to the SMTP service running on a mail
461server.
462
463Although the Unix \c{telnet} program provides this functionality,
464the protocol being used is not really Telnet. Really there is no
465actual protocol at all; the bytes sent down the connection are
466exactly the ones you type, and the bytes shown on the screen are
467exactly the ones sent by the server. Unix \c{telnet} will attempt to
468detect or guess whether the service it is talking to is a real
469Telnet service or not; PuTTY prefers to be told for certain.
470
471In order to make a debugging connection to a service of this type,
6cc170f0 472you simply select the fourth protocol name, \I{\q{Raw}
473protocol}\q{Raw}, from the \q{Protocol} buttons in the \q{Session}
474configuration panel. (See \k{config-hostname}.) You can then enter a
475host name and a port number, and make the connection.
a10c20dd 476
e117a742 477\H{using-cmdline} The PuTTY command line
a10c20dd 478
479PuTTY can be made to do various things without user intervention by
6cc170f0 480supplying \i{command-line arguments} (e.g., from a \i{command prompt
481window}, or a \i{Windows shortcut}).
a10c20dd 482
e117a742 483\S{using-cmdline-session} Starting a session from the command line
a10c20dd 484
6cc170f0 485\I\c{-ssh}\I\c{-telnet}\I\c{-rlogin}\I\c{-raw}These options allow
486you to bypass the configuration window and launch straight into a
487session.
a10c20dd 488
e117a742 489To start a connection to a server called \c{host}:
a10c20dd 490
e2a197cf 491\c putty.exe [-ssh | -telnet | -rlogin | -raw] [user@]host
a10c20dd 492
493If this syntax is used, settings are taken from the Default Settings
e2a197cf 494(see \k{config-saving}); \c{user} overrides these settings if
495supplied. Also, you can specify a protocol, which will override the
496default protocol (see \k{using-cmdline-protocol}).
a10c20dd 497
498For telnet sessions, the following alternative syntax is supported
6cc170f0 499(this makes PuTTY suitable for use as a URL handler for \i{telnet
500URLs} in web browsers):
a10c20dd 501
502\c putty.exe telnet://host[:port]/
503
504In order to start an existing saved session called \c{sessionname},
e117a742 505use the \c{-load} option (described in \k{using-cmdline-load}).
a10c20dd 506
e117a742 507\c putty.exe -load "session name"
a10c20dd 508
6cc170f0 509\S{using-cleanup} \i\c{-cleanup}
a10c20dd 510
511If invoked with the \c{-cleanup} option, rather than running as
512normal, PuTTY will remove its registry entries and random seed file
513from the local machine (after confirming with the user).
e117a742 514
515\S{using-general-opts} Standard command-line options
516
517PuTTY and its associated tools support a range of command-line
518options, most of which are consistent across all the tools. This
519section lists the available options in all tools. Options which are
520specific to a particular tool are covered in the chapter about that
521tool.
522
6cc170f0 523\S2{using-cmdline-load} \i\c{-load}: load a saved session
e117a742 524
6cc170f0 525\I{saved sessions, loading from command line}The \c{-load} option
526causes PuTTY to load configuration details out of a saved session.
527If these details include a host name, then this option is all you
33f07e96 528need to make PuTTY start a session.
e117a742 529
530You need double quotes around the session name if it contains spaces.
531
532If you want to create a Windows shortcut to start a PuTTY saved
533session, this is the option you should use: your shortcut should
534call something like
535
536\c d:\path\to\putty.exe -load "my session"
537
538(Note that PuTTY itself supports an alternative form of this option,
539for backwards compatibility. If you execute \c{putty @sessionname}
540it will have the same effect as \c{putty -load "sessionname"}. With
541the \c{@} form, no double quotes are required, and the \c{@} sign
542must be the very first thing on the command line. This form of the
543option is deprecated.)
544
545\S2{using-cmdline-protocol} Selecting a protocol: \c{-ssh},
546\c{-telnet}, \c{-rlogin}, \c{-raw}
547
548To choose which protocol you want to connect with, you can use one
549of these options:
550
6cc170f0 551\b \i\c{-ssh} selects the SSH protocol.
e117a742 552
6cc170f0 553\b \i\c{-telnet} selects the Telnet protocol.
e117a742 554
6cc170f0 555\b \i\c{-rlogin} selects the Rlogin protocol.
e117a742 556
6cc170f0 557\b \i\c{-raw} selects the raw protocol.
e117a742 558
559These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
560PSFTP (which only work with the SSH protocol).
561
6cc170f0 562These options are equivalent to the \i{protocol selection} buttons
563in the Session panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
e117a742 564\k{config-hostname}).
565
6cc170f0 566\S2{using-cmdline-v} \i\c{-v}: increase verbosity
e117a742 567
6cc170f0 568\I{verbose mode}Most of the PuTTY tools can be made to tell you more
569about what they are doing by supplying the \c{-v} option. If you are
570having trouble when making a connection, or you're simply curious,
571you can turn this switch on and hope to find out more about what is
572happening.
e117a742 573
6cc170f0 574\S2{using-cmdline-l} \i\c{-l}: specify a \i{login name}
e117a742 575
576You can specify the user name to log in as on the remote server
577using the \c{-l} option. For example, \c{plink login.example.com -l
578fred}.
579
580These options are equivalent to the username selection box in the
581Connection panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
582\k{config-username}).
583
b7a5df66 584\S2{using-cmdline-portfwd} \I{-L-upper}\c{-L}, \I{-R-upper}\c{-R}
585and \I{-D-upper}\c{-D}: set up \i{port forwardings}
e117a742 586
587As well as setting up port forwardings in the PuTTY configuration
588(see \k{config-ssh-portfwd}), you can also set up forwardings on the
589command line. The command-line options work just like the ones in
590Unix \c{ssh} programs.
591
592To forward a local port (say 5110) to a remote destination (say
593\cw{popserver.example.com} port 110), you can write something like
594one of these:
595
596\c putty -L 5110:popserver.example.com:110 -load mysession
597\c plink mysession -L 5110:popserver.example.com:110
598
48b7c4b2 599To forward a remote port to a local destination, just use the \c{-R}
600option instead of \c{-L}:
e117a742 601
602\c putty -R 5023:mytelnetserver.myhouse.org:23 -load mysession
603\c plink mysession -R 5023:mytelnetserver.myhouse.org:23
604
dbe6c525 605To specify an IP address for the listening end of the tunnel,
606prepend it to the argument:
607
608\c plink -L 127.0.0.5:23:localhost:23 myhost
609
48b7c4b2 610To set up SOCKS-based dynamic port forwarding on a local port, use
611the \c{-D} option. For this one you only have to pass the port
612number:
613
614\c putty -D 4096 -load mysession
615
e117a742 616For general information on port forwarding, see
617\k{using-port-forwarding}.
618
619These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
620PSFTP.
621
6cc170f0 622\S2{using-cmdline-m} \i\c{-m}: read a remote command or script from
623a file
e117a742 624
6cc170f0 625The \i\c{-m} option performs a similar function to the \q{Remote
e117a742 626command} box in the SSH panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
627\k{config-command}). However, the \c{-m} option expects to be given
6cc170f0 628a local file name, and it will read a command from that file. On
629most Unix systems, you can even put multiple lines in this file and
4e930b58 630execute more than one command in sequence, or a whole shell script;
631but this will not work on all servers (and is known not to work
632with certain \q{embedded} servers such as routers).
e117a742 633
634This option is not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
635PSFTP.
636
b7a5df66 637\S2{using-cmdline-p} \I{-P-upper}\c{-P}: specify a \i{port number}
e117a742 638
e2a197cf 639The \c{-P} option is used to specify the port number to connect to. If
640you have a Telnet server running on port 9696 of a machine instead of
641port 23, for example:
e117a742 642
e2a197cf 643\c putty -telnet -P 9696 host.name
644\c plink -telnet -P 9696 host.name
e117a742 645
646(Note that this option is more useful in Plink than in PuTTY,
647because in PuTTY you can write \c{putty -telnet host.name 9696} in
648any case.)
649
6cc170f0 650This option is equivalent to the port number control in the Session
651panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-hostname}).
e117a742 652
6cc170f0 653\S2{using-cmdline-pw} \i\c{-pw}: specify a \i{password}
e117a742 654
655A simple way to automate a remote login is to supply your password
656on the command line. This is \e{not recommended} for reasons of
657security. If you possibly can, we recommend you set up public-key
658authentication instead. See \k{pubkey} for details.
659
660Note that the \c{-pw} option only works when you are using the SSH
661protocol. Due to fundamental limitations of Telnet and Rlogin, these
662protocols do not support automated password authentication.
663
b7a5df66 664\S2{using-cmdline-agent} \I{-A-upper}\c{-A} and \i\c{-a}: control \i{agent
6cc170f0 665forwarding}
e117a742 666
667The \c{-A} option turns on SSH agent forwarding, and \c{-a} turns it
668off. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
669
6cc170f0 670See \k{pageant} for general information on \i{Pageant}, and
e117a742 671\k{pageant-forward} for information on agent forwarding. Note that
672there is a security risk involved with enabling this option; see
673\k{pageant-security} for details.
674
675These options are equivalent to the agent forwarding checkbox in the
676Auth panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-agentfwd}).
677
678These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
679PSFTP.
680
b7a5df66 681\S2{using-cmdline-x11} \I{-X-upper}\c{-X} and \i\c{-x}: control \i{X11
6cc170f0 682forwarding}
e117a742 683
684The \c{-X} option turns on X11 forwarding in SSH, and \c{-x} turns
685it off. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
686
687For information on X11 forwarding, see \k{using-x-forwarding}.
688
689These options are equivalent to the X11 forwarding checkbox in the
690Tunnels panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
691\k{config-ssh-x11}).
692
693These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
694PSFTP.
695
b7a5df66 696\S2{using-cmdline-pty} \i\c{-t} and \I{-T-upper}\c{-T}: control
6cc170f0 697\i{pseudo-terminal allocation}
e117a742 698
699The \c{-t} option ensures PuTTY attempts to allocate a
700pseudo-terminal at the server, and \c{-T} stops it from allocating
701one. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
702
703These options are equivalent to the \q{Don't allocate a
704pseudo-terminal} checkbox in the SSH panel of the PuTTY
705configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-pty}).
706
707These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
708PSFTP.
709
0ed48730 710\S2{using-cmdline-noshell} \I{-N-upper}\c{-N}: suppress starting a
711shell or command
712
713The \c{-N} option prevents PuTTY from attempting to start a shell or
714command on the remote server. You might want to use this option if
715you are only using the SSH connection for port forwarding, and your
716user account on the server does not have the ability to run a shell.
717
718This feature is only available in SSH protocol version 2 (since the
719version 1 protocol assumes you will always want to run a shell).
720
721This option is equivalent to the \q{Don't start a shell or command
722at all} checkbox in the SSH panel of the PuTTY configuration box
723(see \k{config-ssh-noshell}).
724
8a213300 725This option is not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
0ed48730 726PSFTP.
727
b7a5df66 728\S2{using-cmdline-compress} \I{-C-upper}\c{-C}: enable \i{compression}
e117a742 729
730The \c{-C} option enables compression of the data sent across the
731network. This option is only meaningful if you are using SSH.
732
733This option is equivalent to the \q{Enable compression} checkbox in
734the SSH panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
735\k{config-ssh-comp}).
736
6cc170f0 737\S2{using-cmdline-sshprot} \i\c{-1} and \i\c{-2}: specify an \i{SSH
738protocol version}
e117a742 739
6cc170f0 740The \c{-1} and \c{-2} options force PuTTY to use version \I{SSH1}1
741or version \I{SSH2}2 of the SSH protocol. These options are only
742meaningful if you are using SSH.
e117a742 743
744These options are equivalent to selecting your preferred SSH
745protocol version as \q{1 only} or \q{2 only} in the SSH panel of the
746PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-prot}).
747
6cc170f0 748\S2{using-cmdline-identity} \i\c{-i}: specify an SSH \i{private key}
e117a742 749
750The \c{-i} option allows you to specify the name of a private key
8cee3b72 751file in \c{*.PPK} format which PuTTY will use to authenticate with the
752server. This option is only meaningful if you are using SSH.
e117a742 753
6cc170f0 754For general information on \i{public-key authentication}, see
755\k{pubkey}.
e117a742 756
757This option is equivalent to the \q{Private key file for
758authentication} box in the Auth panel of the PuTTY configuration box
759(see \k{config-ssh-privkey}).