--- name: "putty" section: "1" platform: "linux" package: "putty" version: "0.85-1" release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/putty" --- # putty(1) GUI SSH, Telnet, Rlogin, and SUPDUP client for X ## NAME **putty** - GUI SSH, Telnet, Rlogin, and SUPDUP client for X ## SYNOPSIS ``` putty [ options ] [ host ] ``` ## DESCRIPTION **putty** is a graphical SSH, Telnet, Rlogin, and SUPDUP client for X. It is a direct port of the Windows SSH client of the same name. ## OPTIONS The command-line options supported by **putty** are: - **--display** *display-name* Specify the X display on which to open **putty**. (Note this option has a double minus sign, even though none of the others do. This is because this option is supplied automatically by GTK. Sorry.) - **-fn** *font-name* Specify the font to use for normal text displayed in the terminal. For example, **-fn fixed**, **-fn "Monospace 12"**. - **-fb** *font-name* Specify the font to use for bold text displayed in the terminal. If the **BoldAsColour** resource is set to 1 (the default), bold text will be displayed in different colours instead of a different font, so this option will be ignored. If **BoldAsColour** is set to 0 or 2 and you do not specify a bold font, **putty** will overprint the normal font to make it look bolder. - **-fw** *font-name* Specify the font to use for double-width characters (typically Chinese, Japanese and Korean text) displayed in the terminal. - **-fwb** *font-name* Specify the font to use for bold double-width characters (typically Chinese, Japanese and Korean text). Like **-fb**, this will be ignored unless the **BoldAsColour** resource is set to 0 or 2. - **-geometry** *geometry* Specify the size of the terminal, in rows and columns of text. See **X**(*7*) for more information on the syntax of geometry specifications. - **-sl** *lines* Specify the number of lines of scrollback to save off the top of the terminal. - **-fg** *colour* Specify the foreground colour to use for normal text. - **-bg** *colour* Specify the background colour to use for normal text. - **-bfg** *colour* Specify the foreground colour to use for bold text, if the **BoldAsColour** resource is set to 1 (the default) or 2. - **-bbg** *colour* Specify the foreground colour to use for bold reverse-video text, if the **BoldAsColour** resource is set to 1 (the default) or 2. (This colour is best thought of as the bold version of the background colour; so it only appears when text is displayed *in* the background colour.) - **-cfg** *colour* Specify the foreground colour to use for text covered by the cursor. - **-cbg** *colour* Specify the background colour to use for text covered by the cursor. In other words, this is the main colour of the cursor. - **-title** *title* Specify the initial title of the terminal window. (This can be changed under control of the server.) - **-sb-** or **+sb** Tells **putty** not to display a scroll bar. - **-sb** Tells **putty** to display a scroll bar: this is the opposite of **-sb-**. This is the default option: you will probably only need to specify it explicitly if you have changed the default using the **ScrollBar** resource. - **-log** *logfile*, **-sessionlog** *logfile* This option makes **putty** log all the terminal output to a file as well as displaying it in the terminal. - **-sshlog** *logfile* - **-sshrawlog** *logfile* For SSH connections, these options make **putty** log protocol details to a file. (Some of these may be sensitive, although by default an effort is made to suppress obvious passwords.) **-sshlog** logs decoded SSH packets and other events (those that **-v** would print). **-sshrawlog** additionally logs the raw encrypted packet data. - **-logoverwrite** If **putty** is configured to write to a log file that already exists, discard the existing file. - **-logappend** If **putty** is configured to write to a log file that already exists, append new log data to the existing file. - **-cs** *charset* This option specifies the character set in which **putty** should assume the session is operating. This character set will be used to interpret all the data received from the session, and all input you type or paste into **putty** will be converted into this character set before being sent to the session. Any character set name which is valid in a MIME header (and supported by **putty**) should be valid here (examples are \`**ISO-8859-1**', \`**windows-1252**' or \`**UTF-8**'). Also, any character encoding which is valid in an X logical font description should be valid (\`**ibm-cp437**', for example). **putty**'s default behaviour is to use the same character encoding as its primary font. If you supply a Unicode (**iso10646-1**) font, it will default to the UTF-8 character set. Character set names are case-insensitive. - **-nethack** Tells **putty** to enable NetHack keypad mode, in which the numeric keypad generates the NetHack **hjklyubn** direction keys. This enables you to play NetHack with the numeric keypad without having to use the NetHack **number\_pad** option (which requires you to press \`**n**' before any repeat count). So you can move with the numeric keypad, and enter repeat counts with the normal number keys. - **-help**, **--help** Display a message summarizing the available options. - **-pgpfp** Display the fingerprints of the PuTTY PGP Master Keys, to aid in verifying new files released by the PuTTY team. - **-load** *session* Load a saved session by name. This allows you to run a saved session straight from the command line without having to go through the configuration box first. - **-ssh**, **-telnet**, **-rlogin**, **-supdup**, **-raw**, **-ssh-connection**, **-serial** Select the protocol **putty** will use to make the connection. - **-proxycmd** *command* Instead of making a TCP connection, use *command* as a proxy; network traffic will be redirected to the standard input and output of *command*. *command* must be a single word, so is likely to need quoting by the shell. The special strings **%host** and **%port** in *command* will be replaced by the hostname and port number you want to connect to; to get a literal **%** sign, enter **%%**. Backslash escapes are also supported, such as sequences like **\\n** being replaced by a literal newline; to get a literal backslash, enter **\\\\**. (Further escaping may be required by the shell.) (See the main PuTTY manual for full details of the supported **%**- and backslash-delimited tokens, although most of them are probably not very useful in this context.) - **-preconnectcommand** *command* Specify an external command to run just before making the main network connection. The syntax of *command* is similar to that for **-proxycmd**. - **-l** *username* Specify the username to use when logging in to the server. - **-L** **\[***srcaddr***:\]***srcport***:***desthost***:***destport* Set up a local port forwarding: listen on *srcport* (or *srcaddr*:*srcport* if specified), and forward any connections over the SSH connection to the destination address *desthost*:*destport*. Only works in SSH. - **-R** **\[***srcaddr***:\]***srcport***:***desthost***:***destport* Set up a remote port forwarding: ask the SSH server to listen on *srcport* (or *srcaddr*:*srcport* if specified), and to forward any connections back over the SSH connection where the client will pass them on to the destination address *desthost*:*destport*. Only works in SSH. - **-D** \[*srcaddr*:\]*srcport* Set up dynamic port forwarding. The client listens on *srcport* (or *srcaddr*:*srcport* if specified), and implements a SOCKS server. So you can point SOCKS-aware applications at this port and they will automatically use the SSH connection to tunnel all their connections. Only works in SSH. - **-P** *port* Specify the port to connect to the server on. - **-A**, **-a** Enable (**-A**) or disable (**-a**) SSH agent forwarding. Currently this only works with OpenSSH and SSH-1. - **-X**, **-x** Enable (**-X**) or disable (**-x**) X11 forwarding. - **-T**, **-t** Enable (**-t**) or disable (**-T**) the allocation of a pseudo-terminal at the server end. - **-C** Enable zlib-style compression on the connection. - **-1**, **-2** Select SSH protocol version 1 or 2. - **-4**, **-6** Force use of IPv4 or IPv6 for network connections. - **-i** *keyfile* Private key file for user authentication. For SSH-2 keys, this key file must be in PuTTY's PPK format, not OpenSSH's format or anyone else's. If you are using an authentication agent, you can also specify a *public* key here (in RFC 4716 or OpenSSH format), to identify which of the agent's keys to use. - **-noagent** Don't try to use an authentication agent for local authentication. (This doesn't affect agent forwarding.) - **-agent** Allow use of an authentication agent. (This option is only necessary to override a setting in a saved session.) - **-no-trivial-auth** Disconnect from any SSH server which accepts authentication without ever having asked for any kind of password or signature or token. (You might want to enable this for a server you always expect to challenge you, for instance to ensure you don't accidentally type your key file's passphrase into a compromised server spoofing PuTTY's passphrase prompt.) - **-hostkey** *key* Specify an acceptable host public key. This option may be specified multiple times; each key can be either a fingerprint (**SHA256:AbCdE...**, **99:aa:bb:...**, etc) or a base64-encoded blob in OpenSSH's one-line format. Specifying this option overrides automated host key management; *only* the key(s) specified on the command-line will be accepted (unless a saved session also overrides host keys, in which case those will be added to), and the host key cache will not be written. - **-sercfg** *configuration-string* Specify the configuration parameters for the serial port, in **-serial** mode. *configuration-string* should be a comma-separated list of configuration parameters as follows: - **•** Any single digit from 5 to 9 sets the number of data bits. - **•** \`**1**', \`**1.5**' or \`**2**' sets the number of stop bits. - **•** Any other numeric string is interpreted as a baud rate. - **•** A single lower-case letter specifies the parity: \`**n**' for none, \`**o**' for odd, \`**e**' for even, \`**m**' for mark and \`**s**' for space. - **•** A single upper-case letter specifies the flow control: \`**N**' for none, \`**X**' for XON/XOFF, \`**R**' for RTS/CTS and \`**D**' for DSR/DTR. ## SAVED SESSIONS Saved sessions are stored in a **.putty/sessions** subdirectory in your home directory. ## MORE INFORMATION For more information on PuTTY, it's probably best to go and look at the manual on the web page: **https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/** ## BUGS This man page isn't terribly complete.