\versionid $Id: using.but,v 1.1.1.4.2.2 2004/12/29 11:32:21 pekangas Exp $\C{using} Using PuTTYThis chapter provides a general introduction to some more advancedfeatures of PuTTY. For extreme detail and reference purposes,\k{config} is likely to contain more information.\H{using-session} During your sessionA lot of PuTTY's complexity and features are in the configurationpanel. Once you have worked your way through that and starteda session, things should be reasonably simple after that.Nevertheless, there are a few more useful features available.\S{using-selection} Copying and pasting text\I{copy and paste}Often in a PuTTY session you will find text onyour terminal screen which you want to type in again. Like mostother terminal emulators, PuTTY allows you to copy and paste thetext rather than having to type it again. Also, copy and paste usesthe \I{Windows clipboard}Windows \i{clipboard}, so that you canpaste (for example) URLs into a web browser, or paste from a wordprocessor or spreadsheet into your terminal session.PuTTY's copy and paste works entirely with the \i{mouse}. In orderto copy text to the clipboard, you just click the \i{left mousebutton} in the terminal window, and drag to \I{selecting text}selecttext. When you let go of the button, the text is \e{automatically}copied to the clipboard. You do not need to press Ctrl-C orCtrl-Ins; in fact, if you do press Ctrl-C, PuTTY will send a Ctrl-Ccharacter down your session to the server where it will probablycause a process to be interrupted.Pasting is done using the right button (or the middle mouse button,if you have a three-button mouse and have set it up; see\k{config-mouse}). (Pressing \i{Shift-Ins}, or selecting \q{Paste}from the Ctrl+right-click context menu, have the same effect.) Whenyou click the \i{right mouse button}, PuTTY will read whatever is inthe Windows clipboard and paste it into your session, \e{exactly} asif it had been typed at the keyboard. (Therefore, be careful ofpasting formatted text into an editor that does automatic indenting;you may find that the spaces pasted from the clipboard plus thespaces added by the editor add up to too many spaces and ruin theformatting. There is nothing PuTTY can do about this.)If you \i{double-click} the left mouse button, PuTTY will select awhole word. If you double-click, hold down the second click, anddrag the mouse, PuTTY will select a sequence of whole words. (Youcan adjust precisely what PuTTY considers to be part of a word; see\k{config-charclasses}.) If you \e{triple}-click, or\i{triple-click} and drag, then PuTTY will select a whole line orsequence of lines.If you want to select a \I{rectangular selection}rectangular regioninstead of selecting to the end of each line, you can do this byholding down Alt when you make your selection. (You can alsoconfigure rectangular selection to be the default, and then holdingdown Alt gives the normal behaviour instead. See\k{config-rectselect} for details.)If you have a \i{middle mouse button}, then you can use it to\I{adjusting a selection}adjust an existing selection if youselected something slightly wrong. (If you have configured themiddle mouse button to paste, then the right mouse button does thisinstead.) Click the button on the screen, and you can pick up thenearest end of the selection and drag it to somewhere else.It's possible for the server to ask to handle mouse clicks in thePuTTY window itself.  If this happens, the mouse cursor will turninto an arrow, and using the mouse to copy and paste will only work ifyou hold down Shift.  See \k{config-features-mouse} and\k{config-mouseshift} for details of this feature and how to configureit.\S{using-scrollback} \I{scrollback}Scrolling the screen backPuTTY keeps track of text that has scrolled up off the top of theterminal. So if something appears on the screen that you want toread, but it scrolls too fast and it's gone by the time you try tolook for it, you can use the scrollbar on the right side of thewindow to look back up the session \i{history} and find it again.As well as using the scrollbar, you can also page the scrollback upand down by pressing \i{Shift-PgUp} and \i{Shift-PgDn}. You canscroll a line at a time using \i{Ctrl-PgUp} and \i{Ctrl-PgDn}. Theseare still available if you configure the scrollbar to be invisible.By default the last 200 lines scrolled off the top arepreserved for you to look at. You can increase (or decrease) thisvalue using the configuration box; see \k{config-scrollback}.\S{using-sysmenu} The \i{System menu}If you click the left mouse button on the icon in the top leftcorner of PuTTY's terminal window, or click the right mouse buttonon the title bar, you will see the standard Windows system menucontaining items like Minimise, Move, Size and Close.PuTTY's system menu contains extra program features in addition tothe Windows standard options. These extra menu commands aredescribed below.(These options are also available in a context menu brought upby holding Ctrl and clicking with the right mouse button anywherein the PuTTY window.)\S2{using-eventlog} The PuTTY \i{Event Log}If you choose \q{Event Log} from the system menu, a small windowwill pop up in which PuTTY logs significant events during theconnection. Most of the events in the log will probably take placeduring session startup, but a few can occur at any point in thesession, and one or two occur right at the end.You can use the mouse to select one or more lines of the Event Log,and hit the Copy button to copy them to the \i{clipboard}. If youare reporting a bug, it's often useful to paste the contents of theEvent Log into your bug report.\S2{using-specials} \ii{Special commands}Depending on the protocol used for the current session, there may bea submenu of \q{special commands}. These are protocol-specifictokens, such as a \i{\q{break} signal}, that can be sent down aconnection in addition to normal data. Their precise effect is usuallyup to the server. Currently only Telnet and SSH have special commands.The following special commands are available in Telnet:\b \I{Are You There, Telnet special command}Are You There\b \I{Break, Telnet special command}Break\b \I{Synch, Telnet special command}Synch\b \I{Erase Character, Telnet special command}Erase Character\lcont{PuTTY can also be configured to send this when the Backspace key ispressed; see \k{config-telnetkey}.}\b \I{Erase Line, Telnet special command}Erase Line\b \I{Go Ahead, Telnet special command}Go Ahead\b \I{No Operation, Telnet special command}No Operation\lcont{Should have no effect.}\b \I{Abort Process, Telnet special command}Abort Process\b \I{Abort Output, Telnet special command}Abort Output\b \I{Interrupt Process, Telnet special command}Interrupt Process\lcont{PuTTY can also be configured to send this when Ctrl-C is typed; see\k{config-telnetkey}.}\b \I{Suspend Process, Telnet special command}Suspend Process\lcont{PuTTY can also be configured to send this when Ctrl-Z is typed; see\k{config-telnetkey}.}\b \I{End Of Record, Telnet special command}End Of Record\b \I{End Of File, Telnet special command}End Of FileIn an SSH connection, the following special commands are available:\b \I{IGNORE message, SSH special command}\I{No-op, in SSH}IGNORE message\lcont{Should have no effect.}\b \I{Break, SSH special command}Break\lcont{Only available in SSH-2, and only during a session. Optionalextension; may not be supported by server. PuTTY requests the server'sdefault break length.}\b \I{Signal, SSH special command}Signals (SIGINT, SIGTERM etc)\lcont{Only available in SSH-2, and only during a session. Sends variousPOSIX signals. Not honoured by all servers.}\S2{using-newsession} Starting new sessionsPuTTY's system menu provides some shortcut ways to start newsessions:\b Selecting \i{\q{New Session}} will start a completely newinstance of PuTTY, and bring up the configuration box as normal.\b Selecting \i{\q{Duplicate Session}} will start a session in anew window with precisely the same options as your current one -connecting to the same host using the same protocol, with all thesame terminal settings and everything.\b In an inactive window, selecting \i{\q{Restart Session}} willdo the same as \q{Duplicate Session}, but in the current window.\b The \i{\q{Saved Sessions} submenu} gives you quick access to anysets of stored session details you have previously saved. See\k{config-saving} for details of how to create saved sessions.\S2{using-changesettings} \I{settings, changing}Changing yoursession settingsIf you select \i{\q{Change Settings}} from the system menu, PuTTY willdisplay a cut-down version of its initial configuration box. Thisallows you to adjust most properties of your current session. Youcan change the terminal size, the font, the actions of variouskeypresses, the colours, and so on.Some of the options that are available in the main configuration boxare not shown in the cut-down Change Settings box. These are usuallyoptions which don't make sense to change in the middle of a session(for example, you can't switch from SSH to Telnet in mid-session).\S2{using-copyall} \i{Copy All to Clipboard}This system menu option provides a convenient way to copy the wholecontents of the terminal screen (up to the last nonempty line) andscrollback to the \i{clipboard} in one go.\S2{reset-terminal} \I{scrollback, clearing}Clearing and\I{terminal, resetting}resetting the terminalThe \i{\q{Clear Scrollback}} option on the system menu tells PuTTYto discard all the lines of text that have been kept after theyscrolled off the top of the screen. This might be useful, forexample, if you displayed sensitive information and wanted to makesure nobody could look over your shoulder and see it. (Note thatthis only prevents a casual user from using the scrollbar to viewthe information; the text is not guaranteed not to still be inPuTTY's memory.)The \i{\q{Reset Terminal}} option causes a full reset of theterminal emulation. A VT-series terminal is a complex piece ofsoftware and can easily get into a state where all the text printedbecomes unreadable. (This can happen, for example, if you