1plink(1) PuTTY tool suite plink(1)
2
6 plink - PuTTY link, command line network connection tool
7
9 plink [options] [user@]host [command]
10
12 plink is a network connection tool supporting several protocols.
13
15 The command-line options supported by plink are:
16 -V Show version information and exit.
18 -pgpfp Display the fingerprints of the PuTTY PGP Master Keys and exit,
20 to aid in verifying new files released by the PuTTY team.
21 -v Show verbose messages.
23 -load session
25 Load settings from saved session.
26 -ssh Force use of SSH protocol (default).
28 -telnet
30 Force use of Telnet protocol.
31 -rlogin
33 Force use of rlogin protocol.
34 -raw Force raw mode.
36 -serial
38 Force serial mode.
39 -ssh-connection
41 Force use of the `bare ssh-connection' protocol. This is only
42 likely to be useful when connecting to a psusan(1) server, most
43 likely with an absolute path to a Unix-domain socket in place of
44 host.
45 -proxycmd command
47 Instead of making a TCP connection, use command as a proxy; net‐
48 work traffic will be redirected to the standard input and output
49 of command. command must be a single word, so is likely to need
50 quoting by the shell.
51 The special strings %host and %port in command will be replaced
53 by the hostname and port number you want to connect to; to get a
54 literal % sign, enter %%.
55 Backslash escapes are also supported, such as sequences like \n
57 being replaced by a literal newline; to get a literal backslash,
58 enter \\. (Further escaping may be required by the shell.)
59 (See the main PuTTY manual for full details of the supported %-
61 and backslash-delimited tokens, although most of them are proba‐
62 bly not very useful in this context.)
63 -P port
65 Connect to port port.
66 -l user
68 Set remote username to user.
69 -m path
71 Read remote command(s) from local file path.
72 -batch Disable interactive prompts.
74 -sanitise-stderr
76 -sanitise-stdout
79 -no-sanitise-stderr
82 -no-sanitise-stdout
85 By default, Plink can choose to filter control characters if
86 that seems appropriate, to prevent remote processes sending con‐
87 fusing escape sequences. These options override Plink's default
88 behaviour to enable or disabling such filtering on the standard
89 error and standard output channels.
90 -pw password
92 Set remote password to password. CAUTION: this will likely make
93 the password visible to other users of the local machine (via
94 commands such as `w').
95 -L [srcaddr:]srcport:desthost:destport
97 Set up a local port forwarding: listen on srcport (or sr‐
98 caddr:srcport if specified), and forward any connections over
99 the SSH connection to the destination address desthost:destport.
100 Only works in SSH.
101 -R [srcaddr:]srcport:desthost:destport
103 Set up a remote port forwarding: ask the SSH server to listen on
104 srcport (or srcaddr:srcport if specified), and to forward any
105 connections back over the SSH connection where the client will
106 pass them on to the destination address desthost:destport. Only
107 works in SSH.
108 -D [srcaddr:]srcport
110 Set up dynamic port forwarding. The client listens on srcport
111 (or srcaddr:srcport if specified), and implements a SOCKS
112 server. So you can point SOCKS-aware applications at this port
113 and they will automatically use the SSH connection to tunnel all
114 their connections. Only works in SSH.
115 -X Enable X11 forwarding.
117 -x Disable X11 forwarding (default).
119 -A Enable agent forwarding.
121 -a Disable agent forwarding (default).
123 -t Enable pty allocation (default if a command is NOT specified).
125 -T Disable pty allocation (default if a command is specified).
127 -1 Force use of SSH protocol version 1.
129 -2 Force use of SSH protocol version 2.
131 -4, -6 Force use of IPv4 or IPv6 for network connections.
133 -C Enable SSH compression.
135 -i keyfile
137 Private key file for user authentication. For SSH-2 keys, this
138 key file must be in PuTTY's PPK format, not OpenSSH's format or
139 anyone else's.
140 If you are using an authentication agent, you can also specify a
142 public key here (in RFC 4716 or OpenSSH format), to identify
143 which of the agent's keys to use.
144 -noagent
146 Don't try to use an authentication agent for local authentica‐
147 tion. (This doesn't affect agent forwarding.)
148 -agent Allow use of an authentication agent. (This option is only nec‐
150 essary to override a setting in a saved session.)
151 -noshare
153 Don't test and try to share an existing connection, always make
154 a new connection.
155 -share Test and try to share an existing connection.
157 -hostkey key
159 Specify an acceptable host public key. This option may be speci‐
160 fied multiple times; each key can be either a fingerprint
161 (SHA256:AbCdE..., 99:aa:bb:..., etc) or a base64-encoded blob in
162 OpenSSH's one-line format.
163 Specifying this option overrides automated host key management;
165 only the key(s) specified on the command-line will be accepted
166 (unless a saved session also overrides host keys, in which case
167 those will be added to), and the host key cache will not be
168 written.
169 -s Remote command is SSH subsystem (SSH-2 only).
171 -N Don't start a remote command or shell at all (SSH-2 only).
173 -nc host:port
175 Make a remote network connection from the server instead of
176 starting a shell or command.
177 -sercfg configuration-string
179 Specify the configuration parameters for the serial port, in
180 -serial mode. configuration-string should be a comma-separated
181 list of configuration parameters as follows:
182 • Any single digit from 5 to 9 sets the number of data
184 bits.
185 • `1', `1.5' or `2' sets the number of stop bits.
187 • Any other numeric string is interpreted as a baud rate.
189 • A single lower-case letter specifies the parity: `n' for
191 none, `o' for odd, `e' for even, `m' for mark and `s' for
192 space.
193 • A single upper-case letter specifies the flow control:
195 `N' for none, `X' for XON/XOFF, `R' for RTS/CTS and `D'
196 for DSR/DTR.
197 -sshlog logfile
199 -sshrawlog logfile
202 For SSH connections, these options make plink log protocol de‐
203 tails to a file. (Some of these may be sensitive, although by
204 default an effort is made to suppress obvious passwords.)
205 -sshlog logs decoded SSH packets and other events (those that -v
207 would print). -sshrawlog additionally logs the raw encrypted
208 packet data.
209 -logoverwrite
211 If Plink is configured to write to a log file that already ex‐
212 ists, discard the existing file.
213 -logappend
215 If Plink is configured to write to a log file that already ex‐
216 ists, append new log data to the existing file.
217 -shareexists
219 Instead of making a new connection, test for the presence of an
220 existing connection that can be shared. The desired session can
221 be specified in any of the usual ways.
222 Returns immediately with a zero exit status if a suitable `up‐
224 stream' exists, nonzero otherwise.
225
227 For more information on plink, it's probably best to go and look at the
228 manual on the PuTTY web page:
229 https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/
231
233 This man page isn't terribly complete. See the above web link for bet‐
234 ter documentation.
235PuTTY tool suite 2004‐03‐24 plink(1)