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PuTTY

Published by Simon Tatham

SSH, Telnet and Rlogin client

Open sourceMIT

Highlights

  • SSH, Telnet, Rlogin, raw socket and serial connections in one client
  • Named sessions store host, port, key file and terminal settings
  • PuTTYgen generates and converts key pairs
  • Pageant holds decrypted keys so the passphrase is typed once
  • pscp and psftp transfer files over the same connection

About this application

PuTTY is a terminal client for connecting to another machine over SSH, Telnet, Rlogin or a raw socket, and for talking to devices over a serial port. It opens a terminal window and nothing else — there is no file manager, no tabs, no built-in editor.

Connection details are kept as named sessions, so a host, port, username, key file and terminal preferences can be saved once and reopened later. Keys are handled by the companion tools that come with it: PuTTYgen generates and converts key pairs, Pageant holds decrypted keys in memory so a passphrase is typed once per session, and pscp and psftp move files over the same connection.

It started on Windows and is still most associated with it, though the source builds on Unix as well. Serial console access makes it a common choice for configuring routers and embedded boards.

Linux

We do not host this file, we do not scan it and we do not inspect its contents. Read what the source says, then decide for yourself.