| 1 | \define{versionidplink} \versionid $Id$ |
| 2 | |
| 3 | \C{plink} Using the command-line connection tool \i{Plink} |
| 4 | |
| 5 | \i{Plink} (PuTTY Link) is a command-line connection tool similar to |
| 6 | UNIX \c{ssh}. It is mostly used for \i{automated operations}, such as |
| 7 | making CVS access a repository on a remote server. |
| 8 | |
| 9 | Plink is probably not what you want if you want to run an |
| 10 | \i{interactive session} in a console window. |
| 11 | |
| 12 | \H{plink-starting} Starting Plink |
| 13 | |
| 14 | Plink is a command line application. This means that you cannot just |
| 15 | double-click on its icon to run it and instead you have to bring up |
| 16 | a \i{console window}. In Windows 95, 98, and ME, this is called an |
| 17 | \q{MS-DOS Prompt}, and in Windows NT, 2000, and XP, it is called a |
| 18 | \q{Command Prompt}. It should be available from the Programs section |
| 19 | of your Start Menu. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | In order to use Plink, the file \c{plink.exe} will need either to be |
| 22 | on your \i{\c{PATH}} or in your current directory. To add the |
| 23 | directory containing Plink to your \c{PATH} environment variable, |
| 24 | type into the console window: |
| 25 | |
| 26 | \c set PATH=C:\path\to\putty\directory;%PATH% |
| 27 | |
| 28 | This will only work for the lifetime of that particular console |
| 29 | window. To set your \c{PATH} more permanently on Windows NT, 2000, |
| 30 | and XP, use the Environment tab of the System Control Panel. On |
| 31 | Windows 95, 98, and ME, you will need to edit your \i\c{AUTOEXEC.BAT} |
| 32 | to include a \c{set} command like the one above. |
| 33 | |
| 34 | \H{plink-usage} Using Plink |
| 35 | |
| 36 | This section describes the basics of how to use Plink for |
| 37 | interactive logins and for automated processes. |
| 38 | |
| 39 | Once you've got a console window to type into, you can just type |
| 40 | \c{plink} on its own to bring up a usage message. This tells you the |
| 41 | version of Plink you're using, and gives you a brief summary of how to |
| 42 | use Plink: |
| 43 | |
| 44 | \c Z:\sysosd>plink |
| 45 | \c PuTTY Link: command-line connection utility |
| 46 | \c Release 0.60 |
| 47 | \c Usage: plink [options] [user@]host [command] |
| 48 | \c ("host" can also be a PuTTY saved session name) |
| 49 | \c Options: |
| 50 | \c -V print version information and exit |
| 51 | \c -pgpfp print PGP key fingerprints and exit |
| 52 | \c -v show verbose messages |
| 53 | \c -load sessname Load settings from saved session |
| 54 | \c -ssh -telnet -rlogin -raw |
| 55 | \c force use of a particular protocol |
| 56 | \c -P port connect to specified port |
| 57 | \c -l user connect with specified username |
| 58 | \c -batch disable all interactive prompts |
| 59 | \c The following options only apply to SSH connections: |
| 60 | \c -pw passw login with specified password |
| 61 | \c -D [listen-IP:]listen-port |
| 62 | \c Dynamic SOCKS-based port forwarding |
| 63 | \c -L [listen-IP:]listen-port:host:port |
| 64 | \c Forward local port to remote address |
| 65 | \c -R [listen-IP:]listen-port:host:port |
| 66 | \c Forward remote port to local address |
| 67 | \c -X -x enable / disable X11 forwarding |
| 68 | \c -A -a enable / disable agent forwarding |
| 69 | \c -t -T enable / disable pty allocation |
| 70 | \c -1 -2 force use of particular protocol version |
| 71 | \c -4 -6 force use of IPv4 or IPv6 |
| 72 | \c -C enable compression |
| 73 | \c -i key private key file for authentication |
| 74 | \c -noagent disable use of Pageant |
| 75 | \c -agent enable use of Pageant |
| 76 | \c -m file read remote command(s) from file |
| 77 | \c -s remote command is an SSH subsystem (SSH-2 only) |
| 78 | \c -N don't start a shell/command (SSH-2 only) |
| 79 | \c -nc host:port |
| 80 | \c open tunnel in place of session (SSH-2 only) |
| 81 | |
| 82 | Once this works, you are ready to use Plink. |
| 83 | |
| 84 | \S{plink-usage-interactive} Using Plink for interactive logins |
| 85 | |
| 86 | To make a simple interactive connection to a remote server, just |
| 87 | type \c{plink} and then the host name: |
| 88 | |
| 89 | \c Z:\sysosd>plink login.example.com |
| 90 | \c |
| 91 | \c Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 flunky.example.com |
| 92 | \c flunky login: |
| 93 | |
| 94 | You should then be able to log in as normal and run a session. The |
| 95 | output sent by the server will be written straight to your command |
| 96 | prompt window, which will most likely not interpret terminal \i{control |
| 97 | codes} in the way the server expects it to. So if you run any |
| 98 | full-screen applications, for example, you can expect to see strange |
| 99 | characters appearing in your window. Interactive connections like |
| 100 | this are not the main point of Plink. |
| 101 | |
| 102 | In order to connect with a different protocol, you can give the |
| 103 | command line options \c{-ssh}, \c{-telnet}, \c{-rlogin} or \c{-raw}. |
| 104 | To make an SSH connection, for example: |
| 105 | |
| 106 | \c Z:\sysosd>plink -ssh login.example.com |
| 107 | \c login as: |
| 108 | |
| 109 | If you have already set up a PuTTY saved session, then instead of |
| 110 | supplying a host name, you can give the saved session name. This |
| 111 | allows you to use public-key authentication, specify a user name, |
| 112 | and use most of the other features of PuTTY: |
| 113 | |
| 114 | \c Z:\sysosd>plink my-ssh-session |
| 115 | \c Sent username "fred" |
| 116 | \c Authenticating with public key "fred@winbox" |
| 117 | \c Last login: Thu Dec 6 19:25:33 2001 from :0.0 |
| 118 | \c fred@flunky:~$ |
| 119 | |
| 120 | (You can also use the \c{-load} command-line option to load a saved |
| 121 | session; see \k{using-cmdline-load}. If you use \c{-load}, the saved |
| 122 | session exists, and it specifies a hostname, you cannot also specify a |
| 123 | \c{host} or \c{user@host} argument - it will be treated as part of the |
| 124 | remote command.) |
| 125 | |
| 126 | \S{plink-usage-batch} Using Plink for automated connections |
| 127 | |
| 128 | More typically Plink is used with the SSH protocol, to enable you to |
| 129 | talk directly to a program running on the server. To do this you |
| 130 | have to ensure Plink is \e{using} the SSH protocol. You can do this |
| 131 | in several ways: |
| 132 | |
| 133 | \b Use the \c{-ssh} option as described in |
| 134 | \k{plink-usage-interactive}. |
| 135 | |
| 136 | \b Set up a PuTTY saved session that describes the server you are |
| 137 | connecting to, and that also specifies the protocol as SSH. |
| 138 | |
| 139 | \b Set the Windows environment variable \i\c{PLINK_PROTOCOL} to the |
| 140 | word \c{ssh}. |
| 141 | |
| 142 | Usually Plink is not invoked directly by a user, but run |
| 143 | automatically by another process. Therefore you typically do not |
| 144 | want Plink to prompt you for a user name or a password. |
| 145 | |
| 146 | Next, you are likely to need to avoid the various interactive |
| 147 | prompts Plink can produce. You might be prompted to verify the host |
| 148 | key of the server you're connecting to, to enter a user name, or to |
| 149 | enter a password. |
| 150 | |
| 151 | To avoid being prompted for the server host key when using Plink for |
| 152 | an automated connection, you should first make a \e{manual} |
| 153 | connection (using either of PuTTY or Plink) to the same server, |
| 154 | verify the host key (see \k{gs-hostkey} for more information), and |
| 155 | select Yes to add the host key to the Registry. After that, Plink |
| 156 | commands connecting to that server should not give a host key prompt |
| 157 | unless the host key changes. |
| 158 | |
| 159 | To avoid being prompted for a user name, you can: |
| 160 | |
| 161 | \b Use the \c{-l} option to specify a user name on the command line. |
| 162 | For example, \c{plink login.example.com -l fred}. |
| 163 | |
| 164 | \b Set up a PuTTY saved session that describes the server you are |
| 165 | connecting to, and that also specifies the username to log in as |
| 166 | (see \k{config-username}). |
| 167 | |
| 168 | To avoid being prompted for a password, you should almost certainly |
| 169 | set up \i{public-key authentication}. (See \k{pubkey} for a general |
| 170 | introduction to public-key authentication.) Again, you can do this |
| 171 | in two ways: |
| 172 | |
| 173 | \b Set up a PuTTY saved session that describes the server you are |
| 174 | connecting to, and that also specifies a private key file (see |
| 175 | \k{config-ssh-privkey}). For this to work without prompting, your |
| 176 | private key will need to have no passphrase. |
| 177 | |
| 178 | \b Store the private key in Pageant. See \k{pageant} for further |
| 179 | information. |
| 180 | |
| 181 | Once you have done all this, you should be able to run a remote |
| 182 | command on the SSH server machine and have it execute automatically |
| 183 | with no prompting: |
| 184 | |
| 185 | \c Z:\sysosd>plink login.example.com -l fred echo hello, world |
| 186 | \c hello, world |
| 187 | \c |
| 188 | \c Z:\sysosd> |
| 189 | |
| 190 | Or, if you have set up a saved session with all the connection |
| 191 | details: |
| 192 | |
| 193 | \c Z:\sysosd>plink mysession echo hello, world |
| 194 | \c hello, world |
| 195 | \c |
| 196 | \c Z:\sysosd> |
| 197 | |
| 198 | Then you can set up other programs to run this Plink command and |
| 199 | talk to it as if it were a process on the server machine. |
| 200 | |
| 201 | \S{plink-options} Plink command line options |
| 202 | |
| 203 | Plink accepts all the general command line options supported by the |
| 204 | PuTTY tools. See \k{using-general-opts} for a description of these |
| 205 | options. |
| 206 | |
| 207 | Plink also supports some of its own options. The following sections |
| 208 | describe Plink's specific command-line options. |
| 209 | |
| 210 | \S2{plink-option-batch} \I{-batch-plink}\c{-batch}: disable all |
| 211 | interactive prompts |
| 212 | |
| 213 | If you use the \c{-batch} option, Plink will never give an |
| 214 | interactive prompt while establishing the connection. If the |
| 215 | server's host key is invalid, for example (see \k{gs-hostkey}), then |
| 216 | the connection will simply be abandoned instead of asking you what |
| 217 | to do next. |
| 218 | |
| 219 | This may help Plink's behaviour when it is used in automated |
| 220 | scripts: using \c{-batch}, if something goes wrong at connection |
| 221 | time, the batch job will fail rather than hang. |
| 222 | |
| 223 | \S2{plink-option-s} \I{-s-plink}\c{-s}: remote command is SSH subsystem |
| 224 | |
| 225 | If you specify the \c{-s} option, Plink passes the specified command |
| 226 | as the name of an SSH \q{\i{subsystem}} rather than an ordinary command |
| 227 | line. |
| 228 | |
| 229 | (This option is only meaningful with the SSH-2 protocol.) |
| 230 | |
| 231 | \H{plink-batch} Using Plink in \i{batch files} and \i{scripts} |
| 232 | |
| 233 | Once you have set up Plink to be able to log in to a remote server |
| 234 | without any interactive prompting (see \k{plink-usage-batch}), you |
| 235 | can use it for lots of scripting and batch purposes. For example, to |
| 236 | start a backup on a remote machine, you might use a command like: |
| 237 | |
| 238 | \c plink root@myserver /etc/backups/do-backup.sh |
| 239 | |
| 240 | Or perhaps you want to fetch all system log lines relating to a |
| 241 | particular web area: |
| 242 | |
| 243 | \c plink mysession grep /~fred/ /var/log/httpd/access.log > fredlog |
| 244 | |
| 245 | Any non-interactive command you could usefully run on the server |
| 246 | command line, you can run in a batch file using Plink in this way. |
| 247 | |
| 248 | \H{plink-cvs} Using Plink with \i{CVS} |
| 249 | |
| 250 | To use Plink with CVS, you need to set the environment variable |
| 251 | \i\c{CVS_RSH} to point to Plink: |
| 252 | |
| 253 | \c set CVS_RSH=\path\to\plink.exe |
| 254 | |
| 255 | You also need to arrange to be able to connect to a remote host |
| 256 | without any interactive prompts, as described in |
| 257 | \k{plink-usage-batch}. |
| 258 | |
| 259 | You should then be able to run CVS as follows: |
| 260 | |
| 261 | \c cvs -d :ext:user@sessionname:/path/to/repository co module |
| 262 | |
| 263 | If you specified a username in your saved session, you don't even |
| 264 | need to specify the \q{user} part of this, and you can just say: |
| 265 | |
| 266 | \c cvs -d :ext:sessionname:/path/to/repository co module |
| 267 | |
| 268 | \H{plink-wincvs} Using Plink with \i{WinCVS} |
| 269 | |
| 270 | Plink can also be used with WinCVS. Firstly, arrange for Plink to be |
| 271 | able to connect to a remote host non-interactively, as described in |
| 272 | \k{plink-usage-batch}. |
| 273 | |
| 274 | Then, in WinCVS, bring up the \q{Preferences} dialogue box from the |
| 275 | \e{Admin} menu, and switch to the \q{Ports} tab. Tick the box there |
| 276 | labelled \q{Check for an alternate \cw{rsh} name} and in the text |
| 277 | entry field to the right enter the full path to \c{plink.exe}. |
| 278 | Select \q{OK} on the \q{Preferences} dialogue box. |
| 279 | |
| 280 | Next, select \q{Command Line} from the WinCVS \q{Admin} menu, and type |
| 281 | a CVS command as in \k{plink-cvs}, for example: |
| 282 | |
| 283 | \c cvs -d :ext:user@hostname:/path/to/repository co module |
| 284 | |
| 285 | or (if you're using a saved session): |
| 286 | |
| 287 | \c cvs -d :ext:user@sessionname:/path/to/repository co module |
| 288 | |
| 289 | Select the folder you want to check out to with the \q{Change Folder} |
| 290 | button, and click \q{OK} to check out your module. Once you've got |
| 291 | modules checked out, WinCVS will happily invoke plink from the GUI for |
| 292 | CVS operations. |
| 293 | |
| 294 | \# \H{plink-whatelse} Using Plink with... ? |