PuTTY scripting to log onto host

Figured this out with the help of a friend. The -m PuTTY option will end your session immediately after it executes the shell file. What I've done instead is I've created a batch script called putty.bat with these contents on my Windows machine:

@echo off
putty -load "host" -l username -pw password

This logs me in remotely to the Linux host. On the host side, I created a shell file called sql with these contents:

#!/bin/tcsh

add oracle10g
sqlplus username password

My host's Linux build used tcsh. Other Linux builds might use bash, so simply replace tcsh with bash and you should be fine.

To summarize, automating these steps are now done in two easy steps:

1. Double-click putty.bat. This opens PuTTY and logs me into the host.
2. Run command tcsh sql. This adds the oracle tool to my host, and logs me into the sql database.

When you use the -m option putty does not allocate a tty, it runs the command and quits. If you want to run an interactive script (such as a sql client), you need to tell it to allocate a tty with -t, see 3.8.3.12 -t and -T: control pseudo-terminal allocation. You'll avoid keeping a script on the server, as well as having to invoke it once you're connected.

Here's what I'm using to connect to mysql from a batch file:

#mysql.bat start putty -t -load "sessionname" -l username -pw password -m c:\mysql.sh

#mysql.sh mysql -h localhost -u username --password="foo" mydb

https://superuser.com/questions/587629/putty-run-a-remote-command-after-login-keep-the-shell-running

I'm not sure why previous answers haven't suggested that the original poster set up a shell profile (bashrc, .tcshrc, etc.) that executed their commands automatically every time they log in on the server side.

The quest that brought me to this page for help was a bit different -- I wanted multiple PuTTY shortcuts for the same host that would execute different startup commands.

I came up with two solutions, both of which worked:

(background) I have a folder with a variety of PuTTY shortcuts, each with the "target" property in the shortcut tab looking something like:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY\putty.exe" -load host01

with each load corresponding to a PuTTY profile I'd saved (with different hosts in the "Session" tab). (Mostly they only differ in color schemes -- I like to have each group of related tasks share a color scheme in the terminal window, with critical tasks, like logging in as root on a production system, performed only in distinctly colored windows.)

The folder's Windows properties are set to very clean and stripped down -- it functions as a small console with shortcut icons for each of my frequent remote PuTTY and RDP connections.

(solution 1) As mentioned in other answers the -m switch is used to configure a script on the Windows side to run, the -t switch is used to stay connected, but I found that it was order-sensitive if I wanted to get it to run without exiting

What I finally got to work after a lot of trial and error was:

(shortcut target field):

"C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY\putty.exe" -t -load "SSH Proxy" -m "C:\Users\[me]\Documents\hello-world-bash.txt"

where the file being executed looked like

echo "Hello, World!"
echo ""
export PUTTYVAR=PROXY
/usr/local/bin/bash

(no semicolons needed)

This runs the scripted command (in my case just printing "Hello, world" on the terminal) and sets a variable that my remote session can interact with.

Note for debugging: when you run PuTTY it loads the -m script, if you edit the script you need to re-launch PuTTY instead of just restarting the session.

(solution 2) This method feels a lot cleaner, as the brains are on the remote Unix side instead of the local Windows side:

From Putty master session (not "edit settings" from existing session) load a saved config and in the SSH tab set remote command to:

export PUTTYVAR=GREEN; bash -l

Then, in my .bashrc, I have a section that performs different actions based on that variable:

case ${PUTTYVAR} in
  "")
    echo "" 
    ;;
  "PROXY")
    # this is the session config with all the SSH tunnels defined in it
    echo "";
    echo "Special window just for holding tunnels open." ;
    echo "";
    PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "\033]0;Proxy Session @master01\$\007"'
    alias temppass="ssh keyholder.example.com makeonetimepassword"
    alias | grep temppass
    ;;
  "GREEN")
    echo "";
    echo "It's not easy being green"
    ;;
  "GRAY")
    echo ""
    echo "The gray ghost"
    ;;
  *)
    echo "";
    echo "Unknown PUTTYVAR setting ${PUTTYVAR}"
    ;;
esac

(solution 3, untried)

It should also be possible to have bash skip my .bashrc and execute a different startup script, by putting this in the PuTTY SSH command field:

bash --rcfile .bashrc_variant -l