PuTTY bug cmdline-host-override

summary: -load overrides a host name specified on the command line
class: bug: This is clearly an actual problem we want fixed.
difficulty: fun: Just needs tuits, and not many of them.
priority: medium: This should be fixed one day.
fixed-in: 2003-03-23 (0.54) (0.55) (0.56) (0.57) (0.58) (0.59) (0.60) (0.61) (0.62)

If both -load and a hostname are specified on PuTTY's command line, the hostname from the saved session takes precedence, which it shouldn't. This is because bare hostnames aren't passed through cmdline_process_param() in the same way that (e.g.) bare port numbers are, so they end up being trampled by cmdline_process_saved().

SGT, 2003-03-22: Well, -load is now processed immediately rather than being deferred until cmdline_process_saved(). This should eliminate this sort of bug completely. However, the effect on Plink host names isn't exactly what I stated above; instead, specifying a -load option that mentions a host name actually prevents Plink from looking for an explicit host name. The upshot of this is that the command plink -load session host will connect to the host specified in the saved session, and interpret "host" as the command to run.

It's possible that some people really do have a need to load a saved session and override only its host name component, but I think this behaviour is more generally useful. If anyone complains I can always add an explicit -host command-line option.

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(last revision of this bug record was at 2004-11-16 15:27:00 +0000)