1MINICOM(1) Version 2.7 MINICOM(1)
2
6 minicom - friendly serial communication program
7
9 minicom [options] [configuration]
10
12 minicom is a communication program which somewhat resembles the share‐
13 ware program TELIX but is free with source code and runs under most
14 Unices. Features include dialing directory with auto-redial, support
15 for UUCP-style lock files on serial devices, a separate script language
16 interpreter, capture to file, multiple users with individual configura‐
17 tions, and more.
18
20 -s, --setup
21 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 -o, --noinit
29 Do not initialize. Minicom will skip the initialization code.
30 This option is handy if you quit from minicom without resetting,
31 and then want to restart a session. It is potentially dangerous
32 though: no check for lock files etc. is made, so a normal user
33 could interfere with things like UUCP... maybe this will be taken
34 out later. For now it is assumed, that users who are given access
35 to a modem are responsible enough for their actions.
36 -m, --metakey
38 Override command-key with the Meta or ALT key. This is the default
39 in 1.80 and it can also be configured in one of minicom's menus,
40 but if you use different terminals all the time, of which some
41 don't have a Meta or ALT key, it's handy to set the default com‐
42 mand key to Ctrl-A and use this option when you have a keyboard
43 supporting Meta or ALT keys. Minicom assumes that your Meta key
44 sends the ESC prefix, not the other variant that sets the highest
45 bit of the character.
46 -M, --metakey8
48 Same as -m, but assumes that your Meta key sets the 8th bit of the
49 character high (sends 128 + character code).
50 -z, --statline
52 Use terminal status line. This only works on terminals that sup‐
53 port it and that have the relevant information in their termcap or
54 terminfo database entry.
55 -l, --ansi
57 Literal translation of characters with the high bit set. With this
58 flag on, minicom will try to translate the IBM line characters to
59 ASCII. Many PC-unix clones will display character correctly with‐
60 out translation (Linux in a special mode, Coherent and SCO).
61 -L, --iso
63 Ditto but assume screen uses an ISO8859 character set.
64 -w, --wrap
66 Turns line-wrap on at startup by default.
67 -H, --displayhex
69 Turn on output in hex mode.
70 -a, --attrib=on/off
72 Attribute usage. Some terminals, notably Televideo's, have rotten
73 attribute handling (serial instead of parallel). By default, mini‐
74 com uses '-a on', but if you are using such a terminal you can
75 (must!) supply the option '-a off'. The trailing 'on' or 'off' is
76 needed.
77 -t, --term=TERM
79 Terminal type. With this flag, you can override the environment
80 TERM variable. This is handy for use in the MINICOM environment
81 variable; one can create a special termcap entry for use with
82 minicom on the console, that initializes the screen to raw mode so
83 that in conjunction with the -l flag, the IBM line characters are
84 displayed untranslated.
85 -c, --color=on/off
87 Color usage. Some terminals (such as the Linux console) support
88 color with the standard ANSI escape sequences. Because there is
89 apparently no termcap support for color, these escape sequences
90 are hard-coded into minicom. Therefore this option is off by
91 default. You can turn it on with '-c on'. This, and the '-m'
92 option, are good candidates to put into the MINICOM environment
93 variable.
94 -S, --script=SCRIPT
96 script. Run the named script at startup. So far, passing username
97 and password to a startup script is not supported. If you also use
98 the -d option to start dialing at startup, the -S script will be
99 run BEFORE dialing the entries specified with -d.
100 -d, --dial=ENTRY
102 Dial an entry from the dialing directory on startup. You can spec‐
103 ify an index number, but also a substring of the name of the
104 entry. If you specify a name that has multiple entries in the
105 directory, they are all tagged for dialing. You can also specify
106 multiple names or index numbers by separating them with commas.
107 The dialing will start from the first entry specified after all
108 other program initialization procedures are completed.
109 -p, --ptty=TTYP
111 Pseudo terminal to use. This overrides the terminal port defined
112 in the configuration files, but only if it is a pseudo TTY. The
113 filename supplied must be of the form (/dev/)tty[p-z/][0-f],
114 (/dev/)pts[p-z/][0-f] or (/dev/)pty[p-z/][0-f]. For example,
115 /dev/ttyp1, pts/0 or /dev/ptyp2.
116 -C, --capturefile=FILE
118 filename. Open capture file at startup.
119 -F, --statlinefmt
121 Format for the status line. The following format specifier are
122 available:
123 %H Escape key for help screen.
124 %V Version string of minicom.
125 %b Information on connection, such as baud rate.
126 %T Terminal type.
127 %C Cursor mode.
128 %D Device path, possibly shorted to remaining available space.
129 %t Online time.
130 %% % character.
131 Example: "%H for help | %b | Minicom %V | %T | %C | %t"
133 -b, --baudrate
135 Specify the baud rate, overriding the value given in the configu‐
136 ration file.
137 -D, --device
139 Specify the device, overriding the value given in the configura‐
140 tion file.
141 -R, --remotecharset
143 Specify the character set of the remote system is using and con‐
144 vert it to the character set of the local side. Example might be
145 'latin1'.
146 -7, --7bit
148 7bit mode for terminals which aren't 8bit capable. 8bit is default
149 if the environment is configured for this via LANG or LC_ALL, 7bit
150 otherwise.
151 -8, --8bit
153 8bit characters pass through without any modification. 'Continu‐
154 ous' means no locate/attribute control sequences are inserted
155 without real change of locate/attribute. This mode is to display
156 8bit multi-byte characters such as Japanese. Not needed in every
157 language with 8bit characters. (For example displaying Finnish
158 text doesn't need this.)
159 -h, --help
161 Display help and exit.
162 -v, --version
164 Print the minicom version.
165 When minicom starts, it first searches the MINICOM environment
167 variable for command-line arguments, which can be over-ridden on
168 the command line. Thus, if you have done
169 MINICOM='-m -c on'
171 export MINICOM
172 or the equivalent, and start minicom, minicom will assume that
173 your terminal has a Meta or <ALT> key and that color is supported.
174 If you then log in from a terminal without color support, and you
175 have set MINICOM in your startup (.profile or equivalent) file,
176 and don't want to re-set your environment variable, you can type
177 'minicom -c off' and run without color support for that session.
178 configuration
180 The configuration argument is more interesting. Normally, minicom
181 gets its defaults from a file called "minirc.dfl". If you however
182 give an argument to minicom, it will try to get its defaults from
183 a file called "minirc.configuration". So it is possible to create
184 multiple configuration files, for different ports, different users
185 etc. Most sensible is to use device names, such as tty1, tty64,
186 sio2 etc. If a user creates his own configuration file, it will
187 show up in his home directory as ".minirc.dfl" or ".minirc.config‐
188 uration".
189
191 Minicom is window based. To pop-up a window with the function you want,
192 press Control-A (from now on, we will use C-A to mean Control-A), and
193 then the function key (a-z or A-Z). By pressing C-A first and then 'z',
194 a help screen comes up with a short summary of all commands. This
195 escape key can be altered when minicom is configured (-s option or C-A
196 O), but we'll stick to Control-A for now.
197 For every menu the next keys can be used:
199 UP arrow-up or 'k'
200 DOWN arrow-down or 'j'
201 LEFT arrow-left or 'h'
202 RIGHT arrow-right or 'l'
203 CHOOSE Enter
204 CANCEL ESCape.
205 The screen is divided into two portions: the upper 24 lines are the
207 terminal-emulator screen. In this window, ANSI or VT100 escape
208 sequences are interpreted. If there is a line left at the bottom, a
209 status line is placed there. If this is not possible the status line
210 will be showed every time you press C-A. On terminals that have a spe‐
211 cial status line that will be used if the termcap information is com‐
212 plete and the -k flag has been given.
213 Possible commands are listed next, in alphabetical order.
215 C-A Pressing C-A a second time will just send a C-A to the remote sys‐
216 tem. If you have changed your "escape character" to something
217 other than C-A, this works analogously for that character.
218 A Toggle 'Add Linefeed' on/off. If it is on, a linefeed is added
219 before every carriage return displayed on the screen.
220 B Gives you a scroll back buffer. You can scroll up with u, down
221 with d, a page up with b, a page down with f, and if you have them
222 the arrow and page up/page down keys can also be used. You can
223 search for text in the buffer with s (case-sensitive) or S (case-
224 insensitive). N will find the next occurrence of the string. c
225 will enter citation mode. A text cursor appears and you specify
226 the start line by hitting Enter key. Then scroll back mode will
227 finish and the contents with prefix '>' will be sent.
228 C Clears the screen.
229 D Dial a number, or go to the dialing directory.
230 E Toggle local echo on and off (if your version of minicom supports
231 it).
232 F A break signal is sent to the modem.
233 G Run script (Go). Runs a login script.
234 H Hangup.
235 I Toggle the type of escape sequence that the cursor keys send
236 between normal and applications mode. (See also the comment about
237 the status line below).
238 J Jump to a shell. On return, the whole screen will be redrawn.
239 K Clears the screen, runs kermit and redraws the screen upon return.
240 L Turn Capture file on off. If turned on, all output sent to the
241 screen will be captured in the file too.
242 M Sends the modem initialization string. If you are online and the
243 DCD line setting is on, you are asked for confirmation before the
244 modem is initialized.
245 N Toggle between three states, whether each line is prefixed with
246 current date and time, a timestamp is added every second, or no
247 timestamps.
248 O Configure minicom. Puts you in the configuration menu.
249 P Communication Parameters. Allows you to change the bps rate, par‐
250 ity and number of bits.
251 Q Exit minicom without resetting the modem. If macros changed and
252 were not saved, you will have a chance to do so.
253 R Receive files. Choose from various protocols (external). If you
254 have the filename selection window and the prompt for download
255 directory enabled, you'll get a selection window for choosing the
256 directory for downloading. Otherwise the download directory
257 defined in the Filenames and paths menu will be used.
258 S Send files. Choose the protocol like you do with the receive com‐
259 mand. If you don't have the filename selection window enabled (in
260 the File transfer protocols menu), you'll just have to write the
261 filename(s) in a dialog window. If you have the selection window
262 enabled, a window will pop up showing the filenames in your upload
263 directory. You can tag and untag filenames by pressing spacebar,
264 and move the cursor up and down with the cursor keys or j/k. The
265 selected filenames are shown highlighted. Directory names are
266 shown [within brackets] and you can move up or down in the direc‐
267 tory tree by pressing the spacebar twice. Finally, send the files
268 by pressing ENTER or quit by pressing ESC.
269 T Choose Terminal emulation: Ansi(color) or vt100. You can also
270 change the backspace key here, turn the status line on or off, and
271 define delay (in milliseconds) after each newline if you need
272 that.
273 W Toggle line-wrap on/off.
274 X Exit minicom, reset modem. If macros changed and were not saved,
275 you will have a chance to do so.
276 Y Paste a file. Reads a file and sends its contests just as if it
277 would be typed in.
278 Z Pop up the help screen.
279
281 By pressing C-A D the program puts you in the dialing directory. Select
282 a command by pressing the capitalized letter or moving cursor
283 right/left with the arrow keys or the h/l keys and pressing Enter. You
284 can add, delete or edit entries and move them up and down in the direc‐
285 tory list. By choosing "dial" the phone numbers of the tagged entries,
286 or if nothing is tagged, the number of the highlighted entry will be
287 dialed. While the modem is dialing, you can press escape to cancel
288 dialing. Any other key will close the dial window, but won't cancel the
289 dialing itself. Your dialing directory will be saved into the file
290 ".dialdir" in your home directory. You can scroll up and down with the
291 arrow keys, but you can also scroll complete pages by pressing the
292 PageUp or PageDown key. If you don't have those, use Control-B (Back‐
293 ward) and Control-F (Forward). You can use the space bar to tag a num‐
294 ber of entries and minicom will rotate trough this list if a connection
295 can't be made. A '>' symbol is drawn in the directory before the names
296 of the tagged entries.
297 The "edit" menu speaks for itself, but I will discuss it briefly here.
299 A - Name The name for this entry
300 B - Number
301 and its telephone number.
302 C - Dial string #
303 Which specific dial string you want to use to connect. There
304 are three different dial strings (prefixes and suffixes) that
305 can be configured in the Modem and dialing menu.
306 D - Local echo
307 can be on or off for this system (if your version of minicom
308 supports it).
309 E - Script
310 The script that must be executed after a successful connec‐
311 tion is made (see the manual for runscript)
312 F - Username
313 The username that is passed to the runscript program. It is
314 passed in the environment string "$LOGIN".
315 G - Password
316 The password is passed as "$PASS".
317 H - Terminal Emulation
318 Use ANSI or VT100 emulation.
319 I - Backspace key sends
320 What code (Backspace or Delete) the backspace key sends.
321 J - Linewrap
322 Can be on or off.
323 K - Line settings
324 Bps rate, bits, parity and number of stop bits to use for
325 this connection. You can choose current for the speed, so
326 that it will use whatever speed is being used at that moment
327 (useful if you have multiple modems).
328 L - Conversion table
329 You may specify a character conversion table to be loaded
330 whenever this entry answers, before running the login script.
331 If this field is blank, the conversion table stays unchanged.
332 The edit menu also shows the latest date and time when you called this
333 entry and the total number of calls there, but doesn't let you change
334 them. They are updated automatically when you connect.
335 The moVe command lets you move the highlighted entry up or down in the
337 dialing directory with the up/down arrow keys or the k and j keys.
338 Press Enter or ESC to end moving the entry.
339
341 By pressing C-A O you will be thrown into the setup menu.
342 Filenames and paths
344 This menu defines your default directories.
345 A - Download directory
346 where the downloaded files go to.
347 B - Upload directory
348 where the uploaded files are read from.
349 C - Script directory
350 Where you keep your login scripts.
351 D - Script program
352 Which program to use as the script interpreter. Defaults to the
353 program "runscript", but if you want to use something else (eg,
354 /bin/sh or "expect") it is possible. Stdin and stdout are con‐
355 nected to the modem, stderr to the screen.
356 If the path is relative (ie, does not start with a slash) then
357 it's relative to your home directory, except for the script
358 interpreter.
359 E - Kermit program
360 Where to find the executable for kermit, and it's options. Some
361 simple macro's can be used on the command line: '%l' is expanded
362 to the complete filename of the dial out-device, '%f' is
363 expanded to the serial port file descriptor and '%b' is expanded
364 to the current serial port speed.
365 F - Logging options
366 Options to configure the logfile writing.
367 A - File name
369 Here you can enter the name of the logfile. The file will
370 be written in your home directory, and the default value is
371 "minicom.log". If you blank the name, all logging is
372 turned off.
373 B - Log connects and hangups
375 This option defines whether or not the logfile is written
376 when the remote end answers the call or hangs up. Or when
377 you give the hangup command yourself or leave minicom with‐
378 out hangup while online.
379 C - Log file transfers
381 Do you want log entries of receiving and sending files.
382 The 'log' command in the scripts is not affected by logging options B
383 and C. It is always executed, if you just have the name of the log
384 file defined.
385 File Transfer Protocols
387 Protocols defined here will show up when C-A s/r is pressed. "Name"
388 in the beginning of the line is the name that will show up in the
389 menu. "Program" is the path to the protocol. "Name" after that
390 defines if the program needs an argument, e.g. a file to be transmit‐
391 ted. U/D defines if this entry should show up in the upload or the
392 download menu. Fullscr defines if the program should run full
393 screen, or that minicom will only show it's stderr in a window. IO-
394 Red defines if minicom should attach the program's standard in and
395 output to the modem port or not. "Multi" tells the filename selection
396 window whether or not the protocol can send multiple files with one
397 command. It has no effect on download protocols, and it is also
398 ignored with upload protocols if you don't use the filename selection
399 window. The old sz and rz are not full screen, and have IO-Red set.
400 However, there are curses based versions of at least rz that do not
401 want their stdin and stdout redirected, and run full screen. All
402 file transfer protocols are run with the UID of the user, and not
403 with UID=root. '%l', '%f' and '%b' can be used on the command line as
404 with kermit. Within this menu you can also define if you want to use
405 the filename selection window when prompted for files to upload, and
406 if you like to be prompted for the download directory every time the
407 automatic download is started. If you leave the download directory
408 prompt disabled, the download directory defined in the file and
409 directory menu is used.
410 Serial port setup
412 A - Serial device
413 /dev/tty1 or /dev/ttyS1 for most people. /dev/cua<n> is still
414 possible under GNU/Linux, but no longer recommended as these
415 devices are obsolete and many systems with kernel 2.2.x or newer
416 don't have them. Use /dev/ttyS<n> instead. You may also have
417 /dev/modem as a symlink to the real device.
418 If you have modems connected to two or more serial ports, you
419 may specify all of them here in a list separated by space, comma
420 or semicolon. When Minicom starts, it checks the list until it
421 finds an available modem and uses that one. (However, you can't
422 specify different init strings to them... at least not yet.)
423 To use a UNIX socket for communication the device name must be
424 prefixed with "unix#" following by the full path and the file‐
425 name of the socket. Minicom will then try to connect to this
426 socket as a client. As long as it cannot connect to the socket
427 it stays 'offline'. As soon as the connection establishes, mini‐
428 com goes 'online'. If the server closes the socket, minicom
429 switches to 'offline' again.
430 B - Lock file location
431 On most systems This should be /usr/spool/uucp. GNU/Linux sys‐
432 tems use /var/lock. If this directory does not exist, minicom
433 will not attempt to use lockfiles.
434 C - Callin program
435 If you have a uugetty or something on your serial port, it could
436 be that you want a program to be run to switch the modem cq.
437 port into dialin/dialout mode. This is the program to get into
438 dialin mode.
439 D - Callout program
440 And this to get into dialout mode.
441 E - Bps/Par/Bits
442 Default parameters at startup.
443 If one of the entries is left blank, it will not be used. So if you
445 don't care about locking, and don't have a getty running on your
446 modemline, entries B - D should be left blank.
447 Modem and Dialing
449 Here, the parameters for your modem are defined. I will not explain
450 this further because the defaults are for generic Hayes modems, and
451 should work always. This file is not a Hayes tutorial :-) The only
452 things worth noticing are that control characters can be sent by pre‐
453 fixing them with a '^', in which '^^' means '^' itself, and the '\'
454 character must also be doubled as '\\', because backslash is used
455 specially in the macro definitions. Some options however, don't have
456 much to do with the modem but more with the behaviour of minicom
457 itself:
458 M - Dial time
459 The number of seconds before minicom times out if no connection
460 is established.
461 N - Delay before redial
462 Minicom will redial if no connection was made, but it first
463 waits some time.
464 O - Number of tries
465 Maximum number of times that minicom attempts to dial.
466 P - Drop DTR time
467 If you set this to 0, minicom hangs up by sending a Hayes-type
468 hangup sequence. If you specify a non-zero value, the hangup
469 will be done by dropping the DTR line. The value tells in sec‐
470 onds how long DTR will be kept down.
471 Q - Auto bps detect
472 If this is on, minicom tries to match the dialed party's speed.
473 With most modern modems this is NOT desirable, since the modem
474 buffers the data and converts the speed.
475 R - Modem has DCD line
476 If your modem, and your O/S both support the DCD line (that goes
477 'high' when a connection is made) minicom will use it. When you
478 have this option on, minicom will also NOT start dialing while
479 you are already online.
480 S - Status line shows DTE speed / line speed
481 You can toggle the status line to show either the DTE speed (the
482 speed which minicom uses to communicate with your modem) or the
483 line speed (the speed that your modem uses on the line to commu‐
484 nicate with the other modem). Notice that the line speed may
485 change during the connection, but you will still only see the
486 initial speed that the modems started the connection with. This
487 is because the modem doesn't tell the program if the speed is
488 changed. Also, to see the line speed, you need to have the modem
489 set to show it in the connect string. Otherwise you will only
490 see 0 as the line speed.
491 T - Multi-line untag
492 You can toggle the feature to untag entries from the dialing
493 directory when a connection is established to a multi-line BBS.
494 All the tagged entries that have the same name are untagged.
495 Note that a special exception is made for this menu: every user
497 can change all parameters here, but some of them will not be
498 saved.
499 Screen and keyboard
501 A - Command key is
502 the 'Hot Key' that brings you into command mode. If this is set
503 to 'ALT' or 'meta key', you can directly call commands by alt-
504 key instead of HotKey-key.
505 B - Backspace key sends
506 There still are some systems that want a VT100 to send DEL
507 instead of BS. With this option you can enable that stupidity.
508 (Eh, it's even on by default...)
509 C - Status line is
510 Enabled or disabled. Some slow terminals (for example, X-termi‐
511 nals) cause the status line to jump "up and down" when
512 scrolling, so you can turn it off if desired. It will still be
513 shown in command-mode.
514 D - Alarm sound
515 If turned on, minicom will sound an alarm (on the console only)
516 after a successful connection and when up/downloading is com‐
517 plete.
518 E - Foreground Color (menu)
519 indicates the foreground color to use for all the configuration
520 windows in minicom.
521 F - Background Color (menu)
522 indicates the background color to use for all the configuration
523 windows in minicom. Note that minicom will not allow you to set
524 foreground and background colors to the same value.
525 G - Foreground Color (term)
526 indicates the foreground color to use in the terminal window.
527 H - Background Color (term)
528 indicates the background color to use in the terminal window.
529 Note that minicom will not allow you to set foreground and back‐
530 ground colors to the same value.
531 I - Foreground Color (stat)
532 indicates the foreground color to use in for the status bar.
533 J - Background Color (stat)
534 indicates the color to use in for the status bar. Note that
535 minicom will allow you to set the status bar's foreground and
536 background colors to the same value. This will effectively make
537 the status bar invisible but if these are your intentions,
538 please see the option
539 K - History buffer size
540 The number of lines to keep in the history buffer (for
541 backscrolling).
542 L - Macros file
543 is the full path to the file that holds macros. Macros allow you
544 to define a string to be sent when you press a certain key. In
545 minicom, you may define F1 through F10 to send up to 256 charac‐
546 ters [this is set at compile time]. The filename you specify is
547 verified as soon as you hit ENTER. If you do not have permis‐
548 sions to create the specified file, an error message will so
549 indicate and you will be forced to re-edit the filename. If you
550 are permitted to create the file, minicom checks to see if it
551 already exists. If so, it assumes it's a macro file and reads it
552 in. If it isn't, well, it's your problem :-) If the file does
553 not exist, the filename is accepted.
554 M - Edit Macros
555 opens up a new window which allows you to edit the F1 through
556 F10 macros.
557 N - Macros enabled
558 - Yes or No. If macros are disabled, the F1-F10 keys will just
559 send the VT100/VT220 function key escape sequences.
560 O - Character conversion
561 The active conversion table filename is shown here. If you can
562 see no name, no conversion is active. Pressing O, you will see
563 the conversion table edit menu.
564 Edit Macros
566 Here, the macros for F1 through F10 are defined. The bottom
567 of the window shows a legend of character combinations that
568 have special meaning. They allow you to enter special con‐
569 trol characters with plain text by prefixing them with a '^',
570 in which '^^' means '^' itself. You can send a 1 second delay
571 with the '^~' code. This is useful when you are trying to
572 login after ftp'ing or telnet'ing somewhere. You can also
573 include your current username and password from the phone
574 directory in the macros with '\u' and '\p', respectively. If
575 you need the backslash character in the macro, write it dou‐
576 bled as '\\'. To edit a macro, press the number (or letter
577 for F10) and you will be moved to the end of the macro. When
578 editing the line, you may use the left & right arrows, Home &
579 End keys, Delete & BackSpace, and ESC and RETURN. ESC can‐
580 cels any changes made while ENTER accepts the changes.
581 Character conversion
583 Here you can edit the character conversion table. If you are
584 not an American, you know that in many languages there are
585 characters that are not included in the ASCII character set,
586 and in the old times they may have replaced some less impor‐
587 tant characters in ASCII and now they are often represented
588 with character codes above 127. AND there are various differ‐
589 ent ways to represent them. This is where you may edit con‐
590 version tables for systems that use a character set different
591 from the one on your computer.
592 A - Load table
594 You probably guessed it. This command loads a table from
595 the disk. You are asked a file name for the table. Prede‐
596 fined tables .mciso, .mcpc8 and .mcsf7 should be included
597 with the program. Table .mciso does no conversion, .mcpc8
598 is to be used for connections with systems that use the
599 8-bit pc character set, and .mcsf7 is for compatibility
600 with the systems that uses the good old 7-bit coding to
601 replace the characters {|}[]\ with the diacritical charac‐
602 ters used in Finnish and Swedish.
603 B - Save table
605 This one saves the active table on the filename you spec‐
606 ify.
607 C - edit char
609 This is where you can make your own modifications to the
610 existing table. First you are asked the character value
611 (in decimal) whose conversion you want to change. Next
612 you'll say which character you want to see on your screen
613 when that character comes from the outside world. And then
614 you'll be asked what you want to be sent out when you enter
615 that character from your keyboard.
616 D - next screen
618 E - prev screen
620 Yeah, you probably noticed that this screen shows you what
621 kind of conversions are active. The screen just is (usu‐
622 ally) too small to show the whole table at once in an easy-
623 to-understand format. This is how you can scroll the table
624 left and right.
625 F - convert capture
627 Toggles whether or not the character conversion table is
628 used when writing the capture file.
629 Save setup as dfl
631 Save the parameters as the default for the next time the program is
632 started. Instead of dfl, any other parameter name may appear, depend‐
633 ing on which one was used when the program was started.
634 Save setup as..
636 Save the parameters under a special name. Whenever Minicom is started
637 with this name as an argument, it will use these parameters. This
638 option is of course privileged to root.
639 Exit
641 Escape from this menu without saving. This can also be done with
642 ESC.
643 Exit from minicom
645 Only root will see this menu entry, if he/she started minicom with
646 the '-s' option. This way, it is possible to change the configuration
647 without actually running minicom.
648
650 The status line has several indicators, that speak for themselves. The
651 mysterious APP or NOR indicator probably needs explanation. The VT100
652 cursor keys can be in two modes: applications mode and cursor mode.
653 This is controlled by an escape sequence. If you find that the cursor
654 keys do not work in, say, vi when you're logged in using minicom then
655 you can see with this indicator whether the cursor keys are in applica‐
656 tions or cursor mode. You can toggle the two with the C-A I key. If the
657 cursor keys then work, it's probably an error in the remote system's
658 termcap initialization strings (is).
659
661 Minicom has support for local languages. This means you can change most
662 of the English messages and other strings to another language by set‐
663 ting the environment variable LANG.
664
666 If minicom is hung, kill it with SIGTERM . (This means kill -15, or
667 since sigterm is default, just plain "kill <minicompid>". This will
668 cause a graceful exit of minicom, doing resets and everything. You may
669 kill minicom from a script with the command "! killall -9 minicom"
670 without hanging up the line. Without the -9 parameter, minicom first
671 hangs up before exiting.
672 Since a lot of escape sequences begin with ESC (Arrow up is ESC [ A),
674 Minicom does not know if the escape character it gets is you pressing
675 the escape key, or part of a sequence.
676 An old version of Minicom, V1.2, solved this in a rather crude way: to
678 get the escape key, you had to press it twice.
679 As of release 1.3 this has bettered a little: now a 1-second timeout is
681 builtin, like in vi. For systems that have the select() system call the
682 timeout is 0.5 seconds. And... surprise: a special Linux-dependent hack
683 :-) was added. Now, minicom can separate the escape key and escape-
684 sequences. To see how dirty this was done, look into wkeys.c. But it
685 works like a charm!
686
688 Minicom keeps it's configuration files in one directory, usually
689 /var/lib/minicom, /usr/local/etc or /etc. To find out what default
690 directory minicom has compiled in, issue the command minicom -h.
691 You'll probably also find the demo files for runscript(1), and the
692 examples of character conversion tables either there or in the subdi‐
693 rectories of /usr/doc/minicom*. The conversion tables are named some‐
694 thing like mc.* in that directory, but you probably want to copy the
695 ones you need in your home directory as something beginning with a dot.
696 minirc.*
698 $HOME/.minirc.*
699 $HOME/.dialdir
700 $HOME/minicom.log
701 /usr/share/locale/*/LC_MESSAGES/minicom.mo
702
704 runscript(1)
705
707 Please report any bugs to minicom-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org. Thank
708 you!
709
711 The original author of minicom is Miquel van Smoorenburg
712 (miquels@cistron.nl). He wrote versions up to 1.75.
713 Jukka Lahtinen (walker@netsonic.fi, jukkal@despammed.com) has been
714 responsible for new versions since 1.78, helped by some other people,
715 including:
716 filipg@paranoia.com wrote the History buffer searching to 1.79.
717 Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo (acme@conectiva.com.br) did the international‐
718 ization and the Brazilian Portuguese translations.
719 Jim Seymour (jseymour@jimsun.LinxNet.com) wrote the multiple modem sup‐
720 port and the filename selection window used since 1.80.
721 Tomohiro Kubota (kubota@debian.or.jp) wrote the Japanese translations
722 and the citation facility, and did some fixes.
723 Gael Queri (gqueri@mail.dotcom.fr) wrote the French translations.
724 Arkadiusz Miskiewicz (misiek@pld.org.pl) wrote the Polish translations.
725 Kim Soyoung (nexti@chollian.net) wrote the Korean translations.
726 Jork Loeser (jork.loeser@inf.tu-dresden.de) provided the socket exten‐
727 sion.
728 Most of this man page is copied, with corrections, from the original
730 minicom README, but some pieces and the corrections are by Michael K.
731 Johnson.
732 Jukka Lahtinen (walker@netsonic.fi) has added some information of the
734 changes made after version 1.75.
735User's Manual Dec 2013 MINICOM(1)