3.8.1 Starting a session from the command line

These options allow you to bypass the configuration window and launch straight into a session.

To start a connection to a server called host:

putty.exe [-ssh | -telnet | -rlogin | -raw] [user@]host

If this syntax is used, settings are taken from the Default Settings (see section 4.1.2); user overrides these settings if supplied. Also, you can specify a protocol, which will override the default protocol (see section 3.8.3.2).

For telnet sessions, the following alternative syntax is supported (this makes PuTTY suitable for use as a URL handler for telnet URLs in web browsers):

putty.exe telnet://host[:port]/

To start a connection to a serial port, e.g. COM1:

putty.exe -serial com1

In order to start an existing saved session called sessionname, use the -load option (described in section 3.8.3.1).

putty.exe -load "session name"