-\versionid $Id: plink.but,v 1.18 2003/03/24 10:49:01 simon Exp $
+\define{versionidplink} \versionid $Id$
-\C{plink} Using the command-line connection tool Plink
+\C{plink} Using the command-line connection tool \i{Plink}
\i{Plink} (PuTTY Link) is a command-line connection tool similar to
-UNIX \c{ssh}. It is mostly used for automated operations, such as
+UNIX \c{ssh}. It is mostly used for \i{automated operations}, such as
making CVS access a repository on a remote server.
Plink is probably not what you want if you want to run an
-interactive session in a console window.
+\i{interactive session} in a console window.
\H{plink-starting} Starting Plink
Plink is a command line application. This means that you cannot just
double-click on its icon to run it and instead you have to bring up
a \i{console window}. In Windows 95, 98, and ME, this is called an
-\q{MS-DOS Prompt}, and in Windows NT and 2000 it is called a
+\q{MS-DOS Prompt}, and in Windows NT, 2000, and XP, it is called a
\q{Command Prompt}. It should be available from the Programs section
of your Start Menu.
\c set PATH=C:\path\to\putty\directory;%PATH%
This will only work for the lifetime of that particular console
-window. To set your \c{PATH} more permanently on Windows NT, use the
-Environment tab of the System Control Panel. On Windows 95, 98, and
-ME, you will need to edit your \c{AUTOEXEC.BAT} to include a \c{set}
-command like the one above.
+window. To set your \c{PATH} more permanently on Windows NT, 2000,
+and XP, use the Environment tab of the System Control Panel. On
+Windows 95, 98, and ME, you will need to edit your \i\c{AUTOEXEC.BAT}
+to include a \c{set} command like the one above.
\H{plink-usage} Using Plink
\c Z:\sysosd>plink
\c PuTTY Link: command-line connection utility
-\c Release 0.53
+\c Release 0.63
\c Usage: plink [options] [user@]host [command]
\c ("host" can also be a PuTTY saved session name)
\c Options:
+\c -V print version information and exit
+\c -pgpfp print PGP key fingerprints and exit
\c -v show verbose messages
\c -load sessname Load settings from saved session
-\c -ssh -telnet -rlogin -raw
-\c force use of a particular protocol (default SSH)
+\c -ssh -telnet -rlogin -raw -serial
+\c force use of a particular protocol
\c -P port connect to specified port
\c -l user connect with specified username
-\c -m file read remote command(s) from file
\c -batch disable all interactive prompts
\c The following options only apply to SSH connections:
\c -pw passw login with specified password
-\c -L listen-port:host:port Forward local port to remote address
-\c -R listen-port:host:port Forward remote port to local address
+\c -D [listen-IP:]listen-port
+\c Dynamic SOCKS-based port forwarding
+\c -L [listen-IP:]listen-port:host:port
+\c Forward local port to remote address
+\c -R [listen-IP:]listen-port:host:port
+\c Forward remote port to local address
\c -X -x enable / disable X11 forwarding
\c -A -a enable / disable agent forwarding
\c -t -T enable / disable pty allocation
\c -1 -2 force use of particular protocol version
+\c -4 -6 force use of IPv4 or IPv6
\c -C enable compression
\c -i key private key file for authentication
+\c -noagent disable use of Pageant
+\c -agent enable use of Pageant
+\c -m file read remote command(s) from file
+\c -s remote command is an SSH subsystem (SSH-2 only)
+\c -N don't start a shell/command (SSH-2 only)
+\c -nc host:port
+\c open tunnel in place of session (SSH-2 only)
+\c -sercfg configuration-string (e.g. 19200,8,n,1,X)
+\c Specify the serial configuration (serial only)
Once this works, you are ready to use Plink.
You should then be able to log in as normal and run a session. The
output sent by the server will be written straight to your command
-prompt window, which will most likely not interpret terminal control
-codes in the way the server expects it to. So if you run any
+prompt window, which will most likely not interpret terminal \i{control
+codes} in the way the server expects it to. So if you run any
full-screen applications, for example, you can expect to see strange
characters appearing in your window. Interactive connections like
this are not the main point of Plink.
\c Last login: Thu Dec 6 19:25:33 2001 from :0.0
\c fred@flunky:~$
+(You can also use the \c{-load} command-line option to load a saved
+session; see \k{using-cmdline-load}. If you use \c{-load}, the saved
+session exists, and it specifies a hostname, you cannot also specify a
+\c{host} or \c{user@host} argument - it will be treated as part of the
+remote command.)
+
\S{plink-usage-batch} Using Plink for automated connections
More typically Plink is used with the SSH protocol, to enable you to
\b Set up a PuTTY saved session that describes the server you are
connecting to, and that also specifies the protocol as SSH.
-\b Set the Windows environment variable \c{PLINK_PROTOCOL} to the
+\b Set the Windows environment variable \i\c{PLINK_PROTOCOL} to the
word \c{ssh}.
Usually Plink is not invoked directly by a user, but run
(see \k{config-username}).
To avoid being prompted for a password, you should almost certainly
-set up public-key authentication. (See \k{pubkey} for a general
+set up \i{public-key authentication}. (See \k{pubkey} for a general
introduction to public-key authentication.) Again, you can do this
in two ways:
PuTTY tools. See \k{using-general-opts} for a description of these
options.
-In addition to this, Plink accepts one other option: the \c{-batch}
-option. If you use the \c{-batch} option, Plink will never give an
+Plink also supports some of its own options. The following sections
+describe Plink's specific command-line options.
+
+\S2{plink-option-batch} \I{-batch-plink}\c{-batch}: disable all
+interactive prompts
+
+If you use the \c{-batch} option, Plink will never give an
interactive prompt while establishing the connection. If the
server's host key is invalid, for example (see \k{gs-hostkey}), then
the connection will simply be abandoned instead of asking you what
scripts: using \c{-batch}, if something goes wrong at connection
time, the batch job will fail rather than hang.
+\S2{plink-option-s} \I{-s-plink}\c{-s}: remote command is SSH subsystem
+
+If you specify the \c{-s} option, Plink passes the specified command
+as the name of an SSH \q{\i{subsystem}} rather than an ordinary command
+line.
+
+(This option is only meaningful with the SSH-2 protocol.)
+
\H{plink-batch} Using Plink in \i{batch files} and \i{scripts}
Once you have set up Plink to be able to log in to a remote server
Or perhaps you want to fetch all system log lines relating to a
particular web area:
-\c plink mysession grep /~fjbloggs/ /var/log/httpd/access.log > fredlogs
+\c plink mysession grep /~fred/ /var/log/httpd/access.log > fredlog
Any non-interactive command you could usefully run on the server
command line, you can run in a batch file using Plink in this way.
\H{plink-cvs} Using Plink with \i{CVS}
To use Plink with CVS, you need to set the environment variable
-\c{CVS_RSH} to point to Plink:
+\i\c{CVS_RSH} to point to Plink:
\c set CVS_RSH=\path\to\plink.exe
~mdw / sgt / putty / blobdiff