-\versionid $Id: faq.but,v 1.80 2004/09/22 14:07:35 jacob Exp $
+\define{versionidfaq} \versionid $Id$
\A{faq} PuTTY FAQ
If you have host keys available in the common \c{known_hosts} format,
we have a script called
-\W{http://cvs.tartarus.org/putty/contrib/kh2reg.py}\c{kh2reg.py}
+\W{http://www.tartarus.org/~simon-anonsvn/viewcvs.cgi/putty/contrib/kh2reg.py?view=markup}\c{kh2reg.py}
to convert them to a Windows .REG file, which can be installed ahead of
time by double-clicking or using \c{REGEDIT}.
\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?
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 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}).
+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}.)
+
+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.
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.
This is apparently an issue with SP2 that is acknowledged by Microsoft
in MS Knowledge Base article
\W{http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;884020}{884020}.
-
-For a fix, you'll need to contact Microsoft support, as mentioned in
-the KB article. We've been told that the process is reasonably easy,
-and is free of charge; and that the fix will be included in the next
-Windows XP Service Pack (but probably not before).
+The article links to a fix you can download.
(\e{However}, we've been told that SP2 \e{also} fixes the bug that
means you need to use non-\cw{127.0.0.1} addresses to forward
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
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?
Also, security reasons. PuTTY is a security product, and as such it
is particularly important to guard the code and the web site against
unauthorised modifications which might introduce subtle security
-flaws. Therefore, we prefer that the CVS repository, web site and
+flaws. Therefore, we prefer that the Subversion repository, web site and
FTP site remain where they are, under the direct control of system
administrators we know and trust personally, rather than being run
by a large organisation full of people we've never met and which is
If someone else wants to set up a mailing list or other forum for
PuTTY users to help each other with common problems, that would be
fine with us, though the PuTTY team would almost certainly not have the
-time to read it. It's probably better to use the established
-newsgroup \cw{comp.security.ssh} for this purpose.
+time to read it. It's probably better to use one of the established
+newsgroups for this purpose (see \k{feedback-other-fora}).
\S{faq-donations}{Question} How can I donate to PuTTY development?
Yes. You need not bother asking us explicitly for permission. You
already have permission. Redistribution of the unmodified PuTTY
-binary in this way is entirely permitted by our licence, and you are
-welcome to do it as much as you like.
+binary in this way is entirely permitted by our licence (see
+\k{licence}), and you are welcome to do it as much as you like.
If you are distributing PuTTY within your own organisation, or for
use with your own product, then we recommend (but do not insist)
~mdw / sgt / putty / blobdiff