UNIX and Linux sessions (SSH and Telnet)

These sessions sit in the same tabs and split panes as mainframe and IBM i sessions. Themes, macros, the automation API, the audit log, session recording and IT’s policy all work with them.

Connect to a host

1. On the connect page, choose UNIX / Linux (SSH) or VT (Telnet) as the host type.
2. Type the host name or address.
3. Fill in any of the settings below, or leave them as they are.
4. Tick Save for next time to keep the connection in your list.

Passwords and key passphrases are never saved. From a shortcut or the command line:

wnd-terminal --connect "Build server=ssh:[email protected]"
wnd-terminal --connect "ssh:[email protected]:2222"
wnd-terminal --connect "telnet:vms.example.com"

Signing in

Over SSH, WND Terminal tries these in order.

1. Your ssh-agent. On Windows that’s the Windows OpenSSH agent or Pageant.
2. The key file chosen for the connection.
3. Your usual keys in ~/.ssh (id_ed25519, id_ecdsa, id_rsa).
4. The host’s own questions, then a password.

When the host wants a password, or a key file needs its passphrase, WND Terminal asks in the terminal itself. What you type isn’t shown or saved, and it’s wiped from memory once it’s sent. Over Telnet, the host shows its own login prompts, as on any terminal.

Host keys

The first time you connect to an SSH host, WND Terminal shows the host’s key fingerprint and asks whether to trust it. Check it with the host’s administrator, who can read it on the host with ssh-keygen -lf. A trusted key goes in your own list of known hosts.

If a host’s key changes later, WND Terminal refuses to connect and shows both fingerprints. A changed key can mean someone is in the middle of the connection, so ask the host’s administrator before you do anything else. If the key really was replaced, remove the host’s line from known_hosts in WND Terminal’s data folder and connect again.

Keys you already trust in OpenSSH (~/.ssh/known_hosts and the system’s ssh_known_hosts) count too, with hashed names, wildcards and @revoked lines. SFTP in the file transfer client uses the same list, so a host trusted in one is trusted in the other. IT can list the keys it trusts and stop people trusting others.

The terminal

• 16 colors from the theme, 256 colors and true color, with bold, dim, italic, underline, blink, reverse and strike-through.
• Full-screen programs such as top, vi, less, htop and mc, with scroll regions and the DEC line-drawing characters.
• The mouse for programs that ask for it. Hold Shift to select text instead.
• Bracketed paste, so a shell knows pasted text wasn’t typed.
• The window title the host sets, shown on the tab.
• 80 and 132 columns for programs that switch, and any other size.

The session fits the window. Resize it, split it or change the text size and the host is told the new rows and columns, so programs redraw. Lines that scroll off the top are kept. Scroll back with the mouse wheel or Shift+Page Up, and Copy everything (with the scrollback) on the right-click menu copies all of it.

Keys

Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V and the other Ctrl keys go to the host, as they do in any terminal.

Macros, scripts and recordings

WND Terminal macros type, press keys and wait for text here as in the other sessions. press takes VT keys by name, such as press F5, press Ctrl+C or press KPEnter. A UNIX host doesn’t say when it has finished, so wait for what it shows, such as wait "$ ". A password typed at a password prompt is recorded as {password}, never itself.

The automation API reads these screens and types into them the same way. Session recording, when IT turns it on, records each screen and each command line. Input at a password prompt is recorded only as “typed at a password prompt”. Card numbers and your masking patterns are hidden on the screen, in copies, in recordings and in anything sent to the AI. The audit log has each connection with its host type, and any SSH host key that was refused, with its fingerprint.

Bring sessions over from PuTTY and other emulators

Drag the files onto the window, or use Import… on the connect page.

• PuTTY. Export the saved sessions from the registry with reg export HKCU\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY\Sessions putty.reg and drop the .reg file. SSH and Telnet sessions come across with host, port, user name, terminal type, key file and window size.
• Reflection. VT session documents (.rdox) from Reflection Desktop and Reflection Workspace.
• BlueZone. VT sessions (.zvt).
• Others. The VT sessions of HostExplorer, PowerTerm, Extra!, PASSPORT and IBM i Access Client Solutions.

The Migration readiness report counts these sessions as imported.

Other text terminal models

The desktop app also offers VT52 and VT102, plus explicitly partial VT420 and VT520 profiles over Telnet. These profiles identify themselves to the host and implement the specific controls described on each model page. For PC-style and UNIX console applications, see BBS ANSI with DOS CP437, SCO ANSI and the partial AT386 profile. The software-host lab opens a visible sample for each one. Check your application in a proof of value; these later profiles have not been separately validated through the browser gateway.

In a browser

UNIX and Linux sessions work in WND Terminal in a browser too. There, people sign in with a password or the host’s questions. The gateway never uses SSH keys or an agent of its own for them.

IT settings

AllowCopy, AllowPaste, MaskCardNumbers, MaskPatterns, AllowAutomation, RecordSessions, AllowOtherHosts, Proxy and LockHostType apply to these sessions as to the others. See the policy settings reference.

What works differently

• Lines aren’t re-wrapped when the window gets narrower. The host redraws them.
• Accents typed as separate combining characters aren’t shown. Accented letters themselves are.
• Double-width and double-height lines show at normal size.
• Session recordings keep the 16 theme colors, and the nearest of them for 256-color and true-color text.