Terminal and shell options

These settings define the command that the SA Client invokes on your PC to open a Global Shell or start a remote terminal session. (For instructions on using an ssh client instead of the SA Client, see Open a Global Shell session) See alsoOpening a remote terminal session on an agentless server .

To view and change terminal and shell settings:

1. In the SA Client, select the Tools > Options menu item. This displays the Set Options window.
2. In the View pane, select Terminal and Shell. This displays the commands that will be used when connecting to managed and unmanaged servers.

The following sections describe how the terminal and shell settings are used and how to set them.

• Terminal client command
• RDP client command
• SSH client command
• Encoding

Terminal client command

This setting specifies the terminal client that the SA Client uses for remote terminal sessions on UNIX managed servers and for Global Shell sessions. This setting is used when you select a managed UNIX server and select Actions > Open With > Remote Terminal. It is also used when you run the Global Shell using Tools> Global Shell. The default value is:

cmd /c start /w cmd /c "(telnet %h %p || echo > nul) && echo %m && pause > nul"

The telnet program emulates a command-line terminal session. The %h represents the host and the %p is for the port number. See Variables for the Terminal, RDP, Rlogin and SSH Client Options.

If you change the Terminal Client setting from the default value, make sure that the command blocks until the terminal application terminates. The terminal application must not run in the background. If you specify cmd /c start, include the /w switch to make cmd block until the underlying command (such as telnet) completes.

You are not required to use telnet as the terminal application. For example, you could use putty, the free Windows application that supports SSH, rlogin and telnet. To use a putty client, you could specify the following command:

C:\\Program Files\\putty\\putty.exe" -telnet %h %p

RDP client command

This setting specifies the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) client that the SA Client uses for remote terminal sessions on Windows managed servers and unmanaged servers. This setting is used when you select a managed Windows server and select Actions > Open With > Remote Terminal. It is also used when you select an unmanaged server and select Actions > Log in with > Windows Terminal Services. The default value is the Microsoft Terminal Services Client:

mstsc "%r"

The specified terminal client must be installed on your PC. To verify the existence of the terminal client, click the Test button.

The command can include variables such as %h and %p representing the host name and port number, respectively. When the terminal client is launched, these variables are replaced with the values shown in Variables for the Terminal, RDP, Rlogin and SSH Client Options. To override a replacement value, specify a constant instead of a variable. For example, you might specify 435 for the port instead of %p.

SSH client command

This setting specifies the terminal client and configuration settings that the SA Client uses to remotely log in to unmanaged Windows servers. This setting is used when you select an unmanaged server and select Actions > Log in with > ssh.

You must specify a client program that can communicate over the SSH protocol. For example you could use putty, the free Windows application that supports SSH.

For the SSH Client setting, specify the command line to invoke your SSH client.

The following shows a putty command you can use to remotely log in to an unmanaged server over SSH.

putty -ssh -l %u -P %p %h

Variables for the Terminal, RDP, Rlogin and SSH Client Options

Variable	Description	Replacement value
%e	The character encoding.	For Remote Terminal sessions, the encoding of the managed server. For Global Shell sessions, the value of the Encoding field.
%h	The host name that the client is to connect to.	The value of the localhost of the managed server.
%m	A locale-specific message on how to close the window.	For English locales, click the Enter key to close this window.
%r	The name of the Remote Desktop (RDP) connection file. This variable is used only for the Microsoft Terminal Services Client (mstsc).	A temporary RDP file generated at runtime by the SA Client.
%t	The title displayed in the terminal window.	For Remote Terminal sessions, the name of the managed server. For Global Shell sessions, the string “Global Shell.”
%u	The user name to pass to the client.	Specifying %u causes SA to display a dialog and request a user name. Enter the user name and select Log In. SA passes the specified user name to the client.

Encoding

This sets the encoding for Global Shell and the Remote Terminal sessions. This option is the replacement value of the %e variable in the command specified by the Terminal Client field. The default value of the Encoding option is UTF-8.