Problems with installing PuTTY from source

[TheFu]

Why use PuTTY at all?

+1? Why? It is fairly limiting compared to a normal terminal with ssh connections to other systems.

[MAFoElffen]

+1000 -- Since it can be done (better) from Windows CMD prompt, PowerShell prompt, and now that Windows Terminal is a default install in Win11.

I guess I just do not understand...

[TheFu]

+1000 -- Since it can be done (better) from Windows CMD prompt, PowerShell prompt, and now that Windows Terminal is a default install in Win11.

I guess I just do not understand...

On MS-Windows, I'd use PuTTY, but I've never seen Win10 or Win11. PuTTY on Windows provides a nice enough copy/paste - very xterm-like.
But on any Unix with real terminal programs, I can't imagine any good reason, unless the boss mandates it, to have putty on Linux, Unix, BSD. X/Windows select+paste is so much better and when connected to your favorite shell, even if that is ksh or bash, it is still a great productively environment since tab completion were added in the 1990s.

Every few years, someone screws up X/Windows select paste because they think we want multi-level copy buffers. Takes me about 10 minutes to figure out how to disable that crap. Recently, bash started preventing multi-line pastes to "protect us". All they did was **** me off and make me hunt down the ~/.inputrc setting

set enable-bracketed-paste off

so I could be productive again.
A) They should have made it available and on the first use, asked if we wanted it or not. Then never ask again. E-V-E-R.
B) At least they included a method to disable it ... unlike some other tools that change a default and don't provide a way back to the old behavior.

Sorry ... stress brings out the rant in me. This time of year isn't good for that - I have to see family soon. Arrrrg. There's a reason we live 7 hours apart.

[bernx01]

Install a GTK-dev package like
sudo apt-get install libgtk-3-dev
otherwise will be compiled only CLI programs

[bernx01]

Install a GTK-dev package like sudo apt-get install libgtk-3-dev
otherwise will be compiled only CLI programs

[ActionParsnip]

You can SSH from PowerShell from Windows.....why PuTTY? It's been part of PowerShell for ages now....

[TheFu]

You can SSH from PowerShell from Windows.....why PuTTY? It's been part of PowerShell for ages now....

The shells and lack of trivial select/paste on MS-Windows makes PuTTY very useful on that platform. If you are using any menu system or keyboard shortcuts to select/paste, you are doing it the hard way. PuTTY select is just using the left mouse button to select, then using the right button to paste.

But all Linux terminal programs support that already, so there's no need for PuTTY on Linux/BSD/Unix. Terminal selection is just using the left mouse button to select, then using the middle button to paste. No menus, no keyboard. Get your single, double, and triple click selections for even more speed/convenience.

Little things like these are lost when people don't work in teams, in the same room and see how others do it - or when they come from a different OS and simply don't know any better. Sigh.

[him610]

Maybe the OP is accustomed to using putty in windows, and is hesitant to learn something new and unfamiliar.
After all, this sub-forum is titled, "New to Ubuntu."

[MAFoElffen]

The shells and lack of trivial select/paste on MS-Windows...

On Windows SSH'ing to Linux via both PowerSheel and CMD: There has been changes to Win10 and inherited by Win11 where you can copy and paste, and a toggle to turn it on as hot-keys, which is more than graphical terminal sessions in Linux...

But all Linux terminal programs support that already, so there's no need for PuTTY on Linux/BSD/Unix. Terminal selection is just using the left mouse button to select, then using the middle button to paste. No menus, no keyboard. Get your single, double, and triple click selections for even more speed/convenience.

+1 = Very true. I think the key point here paralleled with this User, is a Windows User who is using what they know. (Also pointed out by Him610) Not knowing that there are other ways to do that.

I had to use Putty, when I went back to college, because they were Windows based, and that is what they taught. In Putty, once the connection is made, it's just a basic terminal session. The only plus is in the connection part of that, where you can save connection settings for various multiple connections...

But in Linux, you can do the same if you ssh in Remmina. That would give that plus for doing that in Linux, over just using a graphical terminal session or in console.

My curiosity is still, if you are set on that: Why compile Putty from source, when it is already available and stable as Apt, Snap, and FlatPak packages?Or did I miss something about that?

[TheFu]

No complaints about using PuTTY on Windows, assuming they've upgraded over the decades to use the correct ciphers and protocols. In the early 2000s, they didn't, but the alternatives were worse, so everyone used PuTTY even when commercials terminals were available and BOUGHT by their companies.

But PuTTY is a little non-standard, so it integrates poorly with other ssh-based tools that are now, finally, available 25 yrs late, in Win10. For example, ssh-keys for PuTTY are special and cannot be used by non-PuTTY ssh-based programs. That kinda defeats the purpose. In Win10, I know there is the normal ssh-keygen that creates keys which can be share with rsync, scp, sftp, and ssh (probably 20 other tools), just not PuTTY. Of course, in all Unix-based systems, those and 50 others integrate and the same keys and config file will be used across all the tools making PuTTY a poor choice for use when not on MS-Windows.

The fact that table completion works across ssh-based connections should be enough reason. But if it hasn't been seen, it is one of those things you don't know you are missing.
That's all I was trying to say. I hope we've shown the OP sufficient cause to try native tools, see how nice they are compared to PuTTY so he can be more productive AND more secure with very few hassles.