How to call and execute a shell script using PuTTY from VBA macro

Question

I am trying to write a VBA macro which will login using PuTTY and execute commands. The below code has been used.

Sub open_putty()
    Dim UserName 'assign user name
    Dim Passwrd 'assign password
    Dim TaskID As Long
    UserName = "user name"
    Passwrd = "password"
    pc1 = "C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY/putty.exe -ssh " & UserName & "@ip address -pw " & Passwrd
    pc2 = "putty.exe -m ""C:\Temp\emu.sh"""
    TaskID = Shell(pc1, 1)
    TaskID = Shell(pc2, 1)

End Sub

Script throws an error saying

'Run-time error '53' - File not found'.

Please help.

Answer 1

• You have to quote the path to PuTTY, as it contains spaces.

• Also you execute putty.exe twice. Instead you have to pass all those parameters to a single instance of putty.exe

pc1 = """C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY\putty.exe"" " & _
    "-ssh " & UserName & "@ip address -pw " & Passwrd & " -m ""C:\Temp\emu.sh"""
TaskID = Shell(pc1, 1)

And you should consider using plink.exe instead of putty.exe, what is a PuTTY tool intended to automation. PuTTY is GUI application intended for an interactive use.

Answer 2

File paths with spaces need to be quoted:

Sub open_putty()
    Dim UserName 'assign user name
    Dim Passwrd 'assign password
    Dim TaskID As Long
    UserName = "user name"
    Passwrd = "password"
    pc1 = """C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY\putty.exe"" -ssh " & _
           UserName & "@ip address -pw " & Passwrd
    pc2 = "putty.exe -m ""C:\Temp\emu.sh"""
    TaskID = Shell(pc1, 1)
    TaskID = Shell(pc2, 1)

End Sub