1MINICOM(1) Version 2.1 MINICOM(1)
2
6 minicom - friendly serial communication program
7
9 minicom [-somMlwz8] [-c on|off] [-S script] [-d entry]
10 [-a on|off] [-t term] [-p pty] [-C capturefile] [configuration]
11
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
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 -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 -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 -M Same as -m, but assumes that your Meta key sets the 8th bit of the
46 character high (sends 128 + character code).
47 -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 -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 charachter correctly with‐
55 out translation (Linux in a special mode, Coherent and Sco).
56 -L Ditto but assume screen uses an ISO8859 character set.
58 -w Turns linewrap on at startup by default.
60 -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 -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 -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 -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 -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 -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 -C filename. Open capture file at startup.
102 -T Disable the display of the online time in the status bar.
104 -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 -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 multibyte characters such as Japanese. Not needed in every
113 language with 8bit characters. (For example displaying Finnish
114 text doesn't need this.)
115 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 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 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
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 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 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 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 linewrap 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
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 a 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 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 spacify 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 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
287 By pressing C-A O you will be thrown into the setup menu.
288 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 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 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 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 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, eg. 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 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 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 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 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 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 succesfull 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 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 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 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 B - Save table
551 This one saves the active table on the filename you spec‐
552 ify.
553 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 D - next screen
564 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 F - convert capture
573 Toggles whether or not the character conversion table is
574 used when writing the capture file.
575 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 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 Exit
587 Escape from this menu without saving. This can also be done with
588 ESC.
589 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
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
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
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 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 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 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
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 minicom.users
644 minirc.*
645 $HOME/.minirc.*
646 $HOME/.dialdir
647 $HOME/minicom.log
648 /usr/share/locale/*/LC_MESSAGES/minicom.mo
649
651 runscript(1)
652
654 Please report any bugs to minicom-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org. Thank
655 you!
656
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 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 Jukka Lahtinen (walker@netsonic.fi) has added some information of the
681 changes made after version 1.75.
682User's Manual $Date: 2005/11/06 19:22:07 $ MINICOM(1)