1MINICOM(1)                        Version 2.1                       MINICOM(1)
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NAME

6       minicom - friendly serial communication program
7

SYNOPSIS

9       minicom [-somMlwz8] [-c on|off] [-S script] [-d entry]
10               [-a on|off] [-t term] [-p pty] [-C capturefile] [configuration]
11

DESCRIPTION

13       minicom  is a communication program which somewhat resembles the share‐
14       ware program TELIX but is free with source code  and  runs  under  most
15       unices.   Features  include dialing directory with auto-redial, support
16       for UUCP-style lock files on serial devices, a separate script language
17       interpreter, capture to file, multiple users with individual configura‐
18       tions, and more.
19

COMMAND-LINE

21       -s   Setup.  Root edits the  system-wide  defaults  in  /etc/minirc.dfl
22            with  this  option.  When it is used, minicom does not initialize,
23            but puts you directly into the configuration menu.  This  is  very
24            handy  if  minicom  refuses  to  start  up because your system has
25            changed, or for the first time you run minicom. For most  systems,
26            reasonable defaults are already compiled in.
27
28       -o   Do  not  initialize.  Minicom  will  skip the initialization code.
29            This option is handy if you quitted from  minicom  without  reset‐
30            ting,  and  then want to restart a session. It is potentially dan‐
31            gerous though: no check for lock files etc. is made, so  a  normal
32            user  could  interfere with things like uucp... Maybe this will be
33            taken out later. For now it is assumed, that users who  are  given
34            access to a modem are responsible enough for their actions.
35
36       -m   Override command-key with the Meta or ALT key. This is the default
37            in 1.80 and it can also be configured in one of  minicom's  menus,
38            but  if  you  use  different terminals all the time, of which some
39            don't have a Meta or ALT key, it's handy to set the  default  com‐
40            mand  key  to  Ctrl-A and use this option when you have a keyboard
41            supporting Meta or ALT keys. Minicom assumes that  your  Meta  key
42            sends  the ESC prefix, not the other variant that sets the highest
43            bit of the character.
44
45       -M   Same as -m, but assumes that your Meta key sets the 8th bit of the
46            character high (sends 128 + character code).
47
48       -z   Use  terminal  status line. This only works on terminals that sup‐
49            port it and that have the relevant information in their termcap or
50            terminfo database entry.
51
52       -l   Literal translation of characters with the high bit set. With this
53            flag on, minicom will try to translate the IBM line characters  to
54            ASCII.  Many PC-unix clones will display character correctly with‐
55            out translation (Linux in a special mode, Coherent and Sco).
56
57       -L   Ditto but assume screen uses an ISO8859 character set.
58
59       -w   Turns line-wrap on at startup by default.
60
61       -a   Attribute usage. Some terminals, notably Televideo's, have  rotten
62            attribute handling (serial instead of parallel). By default, mini‐
63            com uses '-a on', but if you are using such  a  terminal  you  can
64            (must!)  supply the option '-a off'. The trailing 'on' or 'off' is
65            needed.
66
67       -t   Terminal type. With this flag, you can  override  the  environment
68            TERM  variable.   This is handy for use in the MINICOM environment
69            variable; one can create a special  termcap  entry  for  use  with
70            minicom on the console, that initializes the screen to raw mode so
71            that in conjunction with the -l flag, the IBM line characters  are
72            displayed untranslated.
73
74       -c   Color  usage.  Some  terminals (such as the Linux console) support
75            color with the standard ANSI escape sequences.  Because  there  is
76            apparently  no  termcap  support for color, these escape sequences
77            are hard-coded into minicom.  Therefore  this  option  is  off  by
78            default.   You  can  turn  it  on with '-c on'. This, and the '-m'
79            option, are good candidates to put into  the  MINICOM  environment
80            variable.
81
82       -S   script.  Run the named script at startup. So far, passing username
83            and password to a startup script is not supported. If you also use
84            the  -d  option to start dialing at startup, the -S script will be
85            run BEFORE dialing the entries specified with -d.
86
87       -d   Dial an entry from the dialing directory on startup. You can spec‐
88            ify  an  index  number,  but  also  a substring of the name of the
89            entry. If you specify a name that  has  multiple  entries  in  the
90            directory,  they  are all tagged for dialing. You can also specify
91            multiple names or index numbers by separating  them  with  commas.
92            The  dialing  will  start from the first entry specified after all
93            other program initialization procedures are completed.
94
95       -p   Pseudo terminal to use. This overrides the terminal  port  defined
96            in  the  configuration  files, but only if it is a pseudo tty. The
97            filename supplied  must  be  of  the  form  (/dev/)tty[p-z/][0-f],
98            (/dev/)pts[p-z/][0-f]   or   (/dev/)pty[p-z/][0-f].  For  example,
99            /dev/ttyp1, pts/0 or /dev/ptyp2.
100
101       -C   filename.  Open capture file at startup.
102
103       -T   Disable the display of the online time in the status bar.
104
105       -7   7bit mode for terminals which aren't 8bit capable. 8bit is default
106            if the environment is configured for this via LANG or LC_ALL, 7bit
107            otherwise.
108
109       -8   8bit characters pass through without any modification.   'Continu‐
110            ous'  means  no  locate/attribute  control  sequences are inserted
111            without real change of locate/attribute. This mode is  to  display
112            8bit  multi-byte  characters such as Japanese. Not needed in every
113            language with 8bit characters.  (For  example  displaying  Finnish
114            text doesn't need this.)
115
116            When  minicom  starts,  it  first searches the MINICOM environment
117            variable for command-line arguments, which can be  over-ridden  on
118            the command line.  Thus, if you have done
119
120                 MINICOM='-m -c on'
121                 export MINICOM
122            or  the  equivalent,  and  start minicom, minicom will assume that
123            your terminal has a Meta or <ALT> key and that color is supported.
124            If  you then log in from a terminal without color support, and you
125            have set MINICOM in your startup (.profile  or  equivalent)  file,
126            and  don't  want to re-set your environment variable, you can type
127            'minicom -c off' and run without color support for that session.
128
129       configuration
130            The configuration argument is more interesting. Normally,  minicom
131            gets  its defaults from a file called "minirc.dfl". If you however
132            give an argument to minicom, it will try to get its defaults  from
133            a file called "minirc.configuration".  So it is possible to create
134            multiple configuration files, for different ports, different users
135            etc.  Most  sensible  is to use device names, such as tty1, tty64,
136            sio2 etc. If a user creates his own configuration  file,  it  will
137            show up in his home directory as '.minirc.dfl'.
138

USE

140       Minicom  is window based. To popup a window with the function you want,
141       press Control-A (from now on, we will use C-A to mean  Control-A),  and
142       then the function key (a-z or A-Z). By pressing C-A first and then 'z',
143       a help screen comes up with a  short  summary  of  all  commands.  This
144       escape  key can be altered when minicom is configured (-s option or C-A
145       O), but we'll stick to Control-A for now.
146
147       For every menu the next keys can be used:
148       UP     arrow-up or 'k'
149       DOWN   arrow-down or 'j'
150       LEFT   arrow-left or 'h'
151       RIGHT  arrow-right or 'l'
152       CHOOSE Enter
153       CANCEL ESCape.
154
155       The screen is divided into two portions: the upper  24  lines  are  the
156       terminal-emulator   screen.  In  this  window,  ANSI  or  VT100  escape
157       sequences are interpreted.  If there is a line left at  the  bottom,  a
158       status  line  is placed there.  If this is not possible the status line
159       will be showed every time you press C-A. On terminals that have a  spe‐
160       cial  status  line that will be used if the termcap information is com‐
161       plete and the -k flag has been given.
162
163       Possible commands are listed next, in alphabetical order.
164       C-A  Pressing C-A a second time will just send a C-A to the remote sys‐
165            tem.   If  you  have  changed your "escape character" to something
166            other than C-A, this works analogously for that character.
167       A    Toggle 'Add Linefeed' on/off. If it is on,  a  linefeed  is  added
168            before every carriage return displayed on the screen.
169       B    Gives  you  a  scroll  back buffer. You can scroll up with u, down
170            with d, a page up with b, a page down with f, and if you have them
171            the  arrow  and  page  up/page down keys can also be used. You can
172            search for text in the buffer with s (case-sensitive) or S  (case-
173            insensitive).  N  will  find the next occurrence of the string.  c
174            will enter citation mode. A text cursor appears  and  you  specify
175            the  start  line  by hitting Enter key. Then scroll back mode will
176            finish and the contents with prefix '>' will be sent.
177       C    Clears the screen.
178       D    Dial a number, or go to the dialing directory.
179       E    Toggle local echo on and off (if your version of minicom  supports
180            it).
181       F    A break signal is sent to the modem.
182       G    Run script (Go). Runs a login script.
183       H    Hangup.
184       I    Toggle  the  type  of  escape  sequence  that the cursor keys send
185            between normal and applications mode. (See also the comment  about
186            the status line below).
187       J    Jump to a shell. On return, the whole screen will be redrawn.
188       K    Clears the screen, runs kermit and redraws the screen upon return.
189       L    Turn  Capture  file  on  off. If turned on, all output sent to the
190            screen will be captured in the file too.
191       M    Sends the modem initialization string. If you are online  and  the
192            DCD  line setting is on, you are asked for confirmation before the
193            modem is initialized.
194       O    Configure minicom. Puts you in the configuration menu.
195       P    Communication Parameters. Allows you to change the bps rate,  par‐
196            ity and number of bits.
197       Q    Exit  minicom  without  resetting the modem. If macros changed and
198            were not saved, you will have a chance to do so.
199       R    Receive files. Choose from various protocols  (external).  If  you
200            have  the  filename  selection  window and the prompt for download
201            directory enabled, you'll get a selection window for choosing  the
202            directory   for  downloading.  Otherwise  the  download  directory
203            defined in the Filenames and paths menu will be used.
204       S    Send files. Choose the protocol like you do with the receive  com‐
205            mand.  If you don't have the filename selection window enabled (in
206            the File transfer protocols menu), you'll just have to  write  the
207            filename(s)  in  a dialog window. If you have the selection window
208            enabled, a window will pop up showing the filenames in your upload
209            directory.  You  can tag and untag filenames by pressing spacebar,
210            and move the cursor up and down with the cursor keys or  j/k.  The
211            selected  filenames  are  shown  highlighted.  Directory names are
212            shown [within brackets] and you can move up or down in the  direc‐
213            tory  tree by pressing the spacebar twice. Finally, send the files
214            by pressing ENTER or quit by pressing ESC.
215       T    Choose Terminal emulation: Ansi(color) or  vt100.   You  can  also
216            change the backspace key here, turn the status line on or off, and
217            define delay (in milliseconds) after  each  newline  if  you  need
218            that.
219       W    Toggle line-wrap on/off.
220       X    Exit  minicom,  reset modem. If macros changed and were not saved,
221            you will have a chance to do so.
222       Y    Paste a file. Reads a file and sends its contests just  as  if  it
223            would be typed in.
224       Z    Pop up the help screen.
225

DIALING DIRECTORY

227       By pressing C-A D the program puts you in the dialing directory. Select
228       a  command  by  pressing  the  capitalized  letter  or  moving   cursor
229       right/left  with the arrow keys or the h/l keys and pressing Enter. You
230       can add, delete or edit entries and move them up and down in the direc‐
231       tory  list. By choosing "dial" the phone numbers of the tagged entries,
232       or if nothing is tagged, the number of the highlighted  entry  will  be
233       dialed.  While  the  modem  is  dialing, you can press escape to cancel
234       dialing. Any other key will close the dial window, but won't cancel the
235       dialing  itself.  Your  dialing  directory  will be saved into the file
236       ".dialdir" in your home directory.  You can scroll up and down with the
237       arrow  keys,  but  you  can  also scroll complete pages by pressing the
238       PageUp or PageDown key.  If you don't have those, use Control-B  (Back‐
239       ward)  and Control-F (Forward). You can use the space bar to tag a num‐
240       ber of entries and minicom will rotate trough this list if a connection
241       can't  be made. A '>' symbol is drawn in the directory before the names
242       of the tagged entries.
243
244       The "edit" menu speaks for itself, but I will discuss it briefly here.
245       A - Name  The name for this entry
246       B - Number
247                 and its telephone number.
248       C - Dial string #
249                 Which specific dial string you want to use to connect.  There
250                 are three different dial strings (prefixes and suffixes) that
251                 can be configured in the Modem and dialing menu.
252       D - Local echo
253                 can be on or off for this system (if your version of  minicom
254                 supports it).
255       E - Script
256                 The  script  that must be executed after a successful connec‐
257                 tion is made (see the manual for runscript)
258       F - Username
259                 The username that is passed to the runscript program.  It  is
260                 passed in the environment string "$LOGIN".
261       G - Password
262                 The password is passed as "$PASS".
263       H - Terminal Emulation
264                 Use ANSI or VT100 emulation.
265       I - Backspace key sends
266                 What code (Backspace or Delete) the backspace key sends.
267       J - Linewrap
268                 Can be on or off.
269       K - Line settings
270                 Bps  rate,  bits,  parity  and number of stop bits to use for
271                 this connection.  You can choose current for  the  speed,  so
272                 that  it will use whatever speed is being used at that moment
273                 (useful if you have multiple modems).
274       L - Conversion table
275                 You may specify a character conversion  table  to  be  loaded
276                 whenever this entry answers, before running the login script.
277                 If this field is blank, the conversion table stays unchanged.
278       The edit menu also shows the latest date and time when you called  this
279       entry  and  the total number of calls there, but doesn't let you change
280       them.  They are updated automatically when you connect.
281
282       The moVe command lets you move the highlighted entry up or down in  the
283       dialing  directory  with  the  up/down  arrow keys or the k and j keys.
284       Press Enter or ESC to end moving the entry.
285

CONFIGURATION

287       By pressing C-A O you will be thrown into the setup menu.
288
289       Filenames and paths
290         This menu defines your default directories.
291         A - Download directory
292              where the downloaded files go to.
293         B - Upload directory
294              where the uploaded files are read from.
295         C - Script directory
296              Where you keep your login scripts.
297         D - Script program
298              Which program to use as the script interpreter. Defaults to  the
299              program  "runscript", but if you want to use something else (eg,
300              /bin/sh or "expect") it is possible.  Stdin and stdout are  con‐
301              nected to the modem, stderr to the screen.
302              If  the  path is relative (ie, does not start with a slash) then
303              it's relative to your home  directory,  except  for  the  script
304              interpreter.
305         E - Kermit program
306              Where  to find the executable for kermit, and it's options. Some
307              simple macro's can be used on the command line: '%l' is expanded
308              to  the  complete  filename  of  the  dial  out-device,  '%f' is
309              expanded to the serial port file descriptor and '%b' is expanded
310              to the current serial port speed.
311         F - Logging options
312              Options to configure the logfile writing.
313
314              A - File name
315                   Here  you  can enter the name of the logfile. The file will
316                   be written in your home directory, and the default value is
317                   "minicom.log".   If  you  blank  the  name,  all logging is
318                   turned off.
319
320              B - Log connects and hangups
321                   This option defines whether or not the logfile  is  written
322                   when  the  remote end answers the call or hangs up. Or when
323                   you give the hangup command yourself or leave minicom with‐
324                   out hangup while online.
325
326              C - Log file transfers
327                   Do you want log entries of receiving and sending files.
328         The 'log' command in the scripts is not affected by logging options B
329         and C.  It is always executed, if you just have the name of  the  log
330         file defined.
331
332       File Transfer Protocols
333         Protocols  defined here will show up when C-A s/r is pressed.  "Name"
334         in the beginning of the line is the name that will  show  up  in  the
335         menu.  "Program"  is  the  path  to  the  protocol. "Name" after that
336         defines if the program needs an argument, e.g. a file to be transmit‐
337         ted.  U/D  defines  if this entry should show up in the upload or the
338         download menu.  Fullscr  defines  if  the  program  should  run  full
339         screen,  or  that minicom will only show it's stderr in a window. IO-
340         Red defines if minicom should attach the program's  standard  in  and
341         output to the modem port or not. "Multi" tells the filename selection
342         window whether or not the protocol can send multiple files  with  one
343         command.  It  has  no  effect  on  download protocols, and it is also
344         ignored with upload protocols if you don't use the filename selection
345         window.  The  old sz and rz are not full screen, and have IO-Red set.
346         However, there are curses based versions of at least rz that  do  not
347         want  their  stdin  and  stdout redirected, and run full screen.  All
348         file transfer protocols are run with the UID of  the  user,  and  not
349         with UID=root. '%l', '%f' and '%b' can be used on the command line as
350         with kermit.  Within this menu you can also define if you want to use
351         the  filename selection window when prompted for files to upload, and
352         if you like to be prompted for the download directory every time  the
353         automatic  download  is  started. If you leave the download directory
354         prompt disabled, the download  directory  defined  in  the  file  and
355         directory menu is used.
356
357       Serial port setup
358         A - Serial device
359              /dev/tty1  or  /dev/ttyS1 for most people.  /dev/cua<n> is still
360              possible under linux, but not recommended any more because these
361              devices  are obsolete and many newly installed systems with ker‐
362              nel 2.2.x or newer don't have them.  Use  /dev/ttyS<n>  instead.
363              You may also have /dev/modem as a symlink to the real device.
364              If  you  have  modems connected to two or more serial ports, you
365              may specify all of them here in a list separated by space, comma
366              or  semicolon.  When Minicom starts, it checks the list until it
367              finds an available modem and uses that one. (However, you  can't
368              specify different init strings to them ..at least not yet.)
369              To  use  a UNIX socket for communication the device name must be
370              prefixed with "unix#" following by the full path and  the  file‐
371              name  of  the  socket.  Minicom will then try to connect to this
372              socket as a client. As long as it cannot connect to  the  socket
373              it stays 'offline'. As soon as the connection establishes, mini‐
374              com goes 'online'. If the  server  closes  the  socket,  minicom
375              switches to 'offline' again.
376         B - Lock file location
377              On  most  systems  This should be /usr/spool/uucp. Linux systems
378              use /var/lock. If this directory does not  exist,  minicom  will
379              not attempt to use lockfiles.
380         C - Callin program
381              If you have a uugetty or something on your serial port, it could
382              be that you want a program to be run to  switch  the  modem  cq.
383              port  into  dialin/dialout mode. This is the program to get into
384              dialin mode.
385         D - Callout program
386              And this to get into dialout mode.
387         E - Bps/Par/Bits
388              Default parameters at startup.
389
390         If one of the entries is left blank, it will not be used. So  if  you
391         don't  care  about  locking,  and  don't have a getty running on your
392         modemline, entries B - D should be left blank.
393
394       Modem and Dialing
395         Here, the parameters for your modem are defined. I will  not  explain
396         this  further  because the defaults are for generic Hayes modems, and
397         should work always. This file is not a Hayes tutorial  :-)  The  only
398         things worth noticing are that control characters can be sent by pre‐
399         fixing them with a '^', in which '^^' means '^' itself, and  the  '\'
400         character  must  also  be  doubled as '\\', because backslash is used
401         specially in the macro definitions.  Some options however, don't have
402         much  to  do  with  the  modem but more with the behaviour of minicom
403         itself:
404         M - Dial time
405              The number of seconds before minicom times out if no  connection
406              is established.
407         N - Delay before redial
408              Minicom  will  redial  if  no  connection was made, but it first
409              waits some time.
410         O - Number of tries
411              Maximum number of times that minicom attempts to dial.
412         P - Drop DTR time
413              If you set this to 0, minicom hangs up by sending  a  Hayes-type
414              hangup  sequence.  If  you  specify a non-zero value, the hangup
415              will be done by dropping the DTR line. The value tells  in  sec‐
416              onds how long DTR will be kept down.
417         Q - Auto bps detect
418              If  this is on, minicom tries to match the dialed party's speed.
419              With most modern modems this is NOT desirable, since  the  modem
420              buffers the data and converts the speed.
421         R - Modem has DCD line
422              If your modem, and your O/S both support the DCD line (that goes
423              'high' when a connection is made) minicom will use it. When  you
424              have  this  option on, minicom will also NOT start dialing while
425              you are already online.
426         S - Status line shows DTE speed / line speed
427              You can toggle the status line to show either the DTE speed (the
428              speed  which minicom uses to communicate with your modem) or the
429              line speed (the speed that your modem uses on the line to commu‐
430              nicate  with  the  other  modem). Notice that the line speed may
431              change during the connection, but you will still  only  see  the
432              initial  speed that the modems started the connection with. This
433              is because the modem doesn't tell the program if  the  speed  is
434              changed. Also, to see the line speed, you need to have the modem
435              set to show it in the connect string.  Otherwise you  will  only
436              see 0 as the line speed.
437         T - Multi-line untag
438              You  can  toggle  the  feature to untag entries from the dialing
439              directory when a connection is established to a multi-line  BBS.
440              All the tagged entries that have the same name are untagged.
441
442            Note  that  a  special exception is made for this menu: every user
443            can change all parameters here, but  some  of  them  will  not  be
444            saved.
445
446       Screen and keyboard
447         A - Command key is
448              the  'Hot Key' that brings you into command mode. If this is set
449              to 'ALT' or 'meta key', you can directly call commands  by  alt-
450              key instead of HotKey-key.
451         B - Backspace key sends
452              There  still  are  some  systems  that  want a VT100 to send DEL
453              instead of BS. With this option you can enable  that  stupidity.
454              (Eh, it's even on by default...)
455         C - Status line is
456              Enabled  or disabled. Some slow terminals (for example, X-termi‐
457              nals)  cause  the  status  line  to  jump  "up  and  down"  when
458              scrolling,  so  you can turn it off if desired. It will still be
459              shown in command-mode.
460         D - Alarm sound
461              If turned on, minicom will sound an alarm (on the console  only)
462              after  a  successful  connection and when up/downloading is com‐
463              plete.
464         E - Foreground Color (menu)
465              indicates the foreground color to use for all the  configuration
466              windows in minicom.
467         F - Background Color (menu)
468              indicates  the background color to use for all the configuration
469              windows in minicom. Note that minicom will not allow you to  set
470              foreground and background colors to the same value.
471         G - Foreground Color (term)
472              indicates the foreground color to use in the terminal window.
473         H - Background Color (term)
474              indicates  the  background  color to use in the terminal window.
475              Note that minicom will not allow you to set foreground and back‐
476              ground colors to the same value.
477         I - Foreground Color (stat)
478              indicates the foreground color to use in for the status bar.
479         J - Background Color (stat)
480              indicates  the  color  to  use  in for the status bar. Note that
481              minicom will allow you to set the status  bar's  foreground  and
482              background  colors to the same value. This will effectively make
483              the status bar invisible  but  if  these  are  your  intentions,
484              please see the option
485         K - History buffer size
486              The  number  of  lines  to  keep  in  the  history  buffer  (for
487              backscrolling).
488         L - Macros file
489              is the full path to the file that holds macros. Macros allow you
490              to  define  a string to be sent when you press a certain key. In
491              minicom, you may define F1 through F10 to send up to 256 charac‐
492              ters  [this is set at compile time]. The filename you specify is
493              verified as soon as you hit ENTER. If you do  not  have  permis‐
494              sions  to  create  the  specified file, an error message will so
495              indicate and you will be forced to re-edit the filename. If  you
496              are  permitted  to  create the file, minicom checks to see if it
497              already exists. If so, it assumes it's a macro file and reads it
498              in.  If  it  isn't, well, it's your problem :-) If the file does
499              not exist, the filename is accepted.
500         M - Edit Macros
501              opens up a new window which allows you to edit  the  F1  through
502              F10 macros.
503         N - Macros enabled
504              -  Yes  or No. If macros are disabled, the F1-F10 keys will just
505              send the VT100/VT220 function key escape sequences.
506         O - Character conversion
507              The active conversion table filename is shown here. If  you  can
508              see  no  name, no conversion is active. Pressing O, you will see
509              the conversion table edit menu.
510
511              Edit Macros
512                 Here, the macros for F1 through F10 are defined.  The  bottom
513                 of  the  window shows a legend of character combinations that
514                 have special meaning.  They allow you to enter  special  con‐
515                 trol characters with plain text by prefixing them with a '^',
516                 in which '^^' means '^' itself. You can send a 1 second delay
517                 with  the  '^~'  code.  This is useful when you are trying to
518                 login after ftp'ing or telnet'ing somewhere.   You  can  also
519                 include  your  current  username  and password from the phone
520                 directory in the macros with '\u' and '\p', respectively.  If
521                 you  need the backslash character in the macro, write it dou‐
522                 bled as '\\'.  To edit a macro, press the number  (or  letter
523                 for  F10) and you will be moved to the end of the macro. When
524                 editing the line, you may use the left & right arrows, Home &
525                 End  keys,  Delete & BackSpace, and ESC and RETURN.  ESC can‐
526                 cels any changes made while ENTER accepts the changes.
527
528              Character conversion
529                 Here you can edit the character conversion table. If you  are
530                 not  an  American,  you know that in many languages there are
531                 characters that are not included in the ASCII character  set,
532                 and  in the old times they may have replaced some less impor‐
533                 tant characters in ASCII and now they are  often  represented
534                 with character codes above 127. AND there are various differ‐
535                 ent ways to represent them. This is where you may  edit  con‐
536                 version tables for systems that use a character set different
537                 from the one on your computer.
538
539              A - Load table
540                   You probably guessed it. This command loads  a  table  from
541                   the disk.  You are asked a file name for the table.  Prede‐
542                   fined tables .mciso, .mcpc8 and .mcsf7 should  be  included
543                   with  the  program. Table .mciso does no conversion, .mcpc8
544                   is to be used for connections with  systems  that  use  the
545                   8-bit  pc  character  set,  and .mcsf7 is for compatibility
546                   with the systems that uses the good  old  7-bit  coding  to
547                   replace  the characters {|}[]\ with the diacritical charac‐
548                   ters used in Finnish and Swedish.
549
550              B - Save table
551                   This one saves the active table on the filename  you  spec‐
552                   ify.
553
554              C - edit char
555                   This  is  where  you can make your own modifications to the
556                   existing table.  First you are asked  the  character  value
557                   (in  decimal)  whose  conversion  you  want to change. Next
558                   you'll say which character you want to see on  your  screen
559                   when  that character comes from the outside world. And then
560                   you'll be asked what you want to be sent out when you enter
561                   that character from your keyboard.
562
563              D - next screen
564
565              E - prev screen
566                   Yeah,  you probably noticed that this screen shows you what
567                   kind of conversions are active. The screen  just  is  (usu‐
568                   ally) too small to show the whole table at once in an easy-
569                   to-understand format. This is how you can scroll the  table
570                   left and right.
571
572              F - convert capture
573                   Toggles  whether  or  not the character conversion table is
574                   used when writing the capture file.
575
576       Save setup as dfl
577         Save the parameters as the default for the next time the  program  is
578         started. Instead of dfl, any other parameter name may appear, depend‐
579         ing on which one was used when the program was started.
580
581       Save setup as..
582         Save the parameters under a special name. Whenever Minicom is started
583         with  this  name  as  an argument, it will use these parameters. This
584         option is of course privileged to root.
585
586       Exit
587         Escape from this menu without saving.  This can  also  be  done  with
588         ESC.
589
590       Exit from minicom
591         Only  root  will  see this menu entry, if he/she started minicom with
592         the '-s' option. This way, it is possible to change the configuration
593         without actually running minicom.
594

STATUS LINE

596       The status line has several indicators, that speak for themselves.  The
597       mysterious APP or NOR indicator probably needs explanation.  The  VT100
598       cursor  keys  can  be  in two modes: applications mode and cursor mode.
599       This is controlled by an escape sequence. If you find that  the  cursor
600       keys  do  not work in, say, vi when you're logged in using minicom then
601       you can see with this indicator whether the cursor keys are in applica‐
602       tions or cursor mode. You can toggle the two with the C-A I key. If the
603       cursor keys then work, it's probably an error in  the  remote  system's
604       termcap initialization strings (is).
605

LOCALES

607       Minicom has support for local languages. This means you can change most
608       of the English messages and other strings to another language  by  set‐
609       ting the environment variable LANG.
610

MISC

612       If  minicom  is  hung,  kill it with SIGTERM . (This means kill -15, or
613       since sigterm is default, just plain  "kill  <minicompid>".  This  will
614       cause a graceful exit of minicom, doing resets and everything.  You may
615       kill minicom from a script with the  command  "!  killall  -9  minicom"
616       without  hanging  up  the line. Without the -9 parameter, minicom first
617       hangs up before exiting.
618
619       Since a lot of escape sequences begin with ESC (Arrow up is ESC  [  A),
620       Minicom  does  not know if the escape character it gets is you pressing
621       the escape key, or part of a sequence.
622
623       An old version of Minicom, V1.2, solved this in a rather crude way:  to
624       get the escape key, you had to press it twice.
625
626       As of release 1.3 this has bettered a little: now a 1-second timeout is
627       builtin, like in vi. For systems that have the select() system call the
628       timeout is 0.5 seconds. And... surprise: a special Linux-dependant hack
629       :-) was added. Now, minicom can separate the  escape  key  and  escape-
630       sequences.  To  see how dirty this was done, look into wkeys.c.  But it
631       works like a charm!
632

FILES

634       Minicom keeps  it's  configuration  files  in  one  directory,  usually
635       /var/lib/minicom,  /usr/local/etc  or  /etc.  To  find out what default
636       directory minicom has  compiled  in,  issue  the  command  minicom  -h.
637       You'll  probably  also  find  the  demo files for runscript(1), and the
638       examples of character conversion tables either there or in  the  subdi‐
639       rectories  of  /usr/doc/minicom*. The conversion tables are named some‐
640       thing like mc.* in that directory, but you probably want  to  copy  the
641       ones you need in your home directory as something beginning with a dot.
642
643       minicom.users
644       minirc.*
645       $HOME/.minirc.*
646       $HOME/.dialdir
647       $HOME/minicom.log
648       /usr/share/locale/*/LC_MESSAGES/minicom.mo
649

SEE ALSO

651       runscript(1)
652

BUGS

654       Please report any bugs to minicom-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org.  Thank
655       you!
656

AUTHORS

658       The  original   author   of   minicom   is   Miquel   van   Smoorenburg
659       (miquels@cistron.nl).  He wrote versions up to 1.75.
660       Jukka  Lahtinen  (walker@netsonic.fi,  jukkal@despammed.com)  has  been
661       responsible for new versions since 1.78, helped by some  other  people,
662       including:
663       filipg@paranoia.com wrote the History buffer searching to 1.79.
664       Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo (acme@conectiva.com.br) did the international‐
665       ization and the Brasilian Portuguese translations.
666       Jim Seymour (jseymour@jimsun.LinxNet.com) wrote the multiple modem sup‐
667       port and the filename selection window used since 1.80.
668       Tomohiro  Kubota  (kubota@debian.or.jp) wrote the Japanese translations
669       and the citation facility, and did some fixes.
670       Gael Queri (gqueri@mail.dotcom.fr) wrote the French translations.
671       Arkadiusz Miskiewicz (misiek@pld.org.pl) wrote the Polish translations.
672       Kim Soyoung (nexti@chollian.net) wrote the Korean translations.
673       Jork Loeser (jork.loeser@inf.tu-dresden.de) provided the socket  exten‐
674       sion.
675
676       Most  of  this  man page is copied, with corrections, from the original
677       minicom README, but some pieces and the corrections are by  Michael  K.
678       Johnson.
679
680       Jukka  Lahtinen  (walker@netsonic.fi) has added some information of the
681       changes made after version 1.75.
682
683
684
685User's Manual            $Date: 2008-02-23 19:14:56 $               MINICOM(1)
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