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 de‐
91 fault. You can turn it on with '-c on'. This, and the '-m' op‐
92 tion, 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 en‐
104 try. If you specify a name that has multiple entries in the direc‐
105 tory, they are all tagged for dialing. You can also specify multi‐
106 ple names or index numbers by separating them with commas. The di‐
107 aling will start from the first entry specified after all other
108 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 --capturefile-buffer-mode=MODE
121 Buffering mode of capture file. MODE can be one of:
122 N Unbuffered (the default).
123 L Line buffered.
124 F Fully buffered.
125 -F, --statlinefmt
127 Format for the status line. The following format specifier are
128 available:
129 %H Escape key for help screen.
130 %V Version string of minicom.
131 %b Information on connection, such as baud rate.
132 %T Terminal type.
133 %C Cursor mode.
134 %D Device path, possibly shorted to remaining available space.
135 %t Online time.
136 %% % character.
137 Example: "%H for help | %b | Minicom %V | %T | %C | %t"
139 -b, --baudrate
141 Specify the baud rate, overriding the value given in the configu‐
142 ration file.
143 -D, --device
145 Specify the device, overriding the value given in the configura‐
146 tion file.
147 -O, --option
149 Set an option. The argument can be a single word, or a key=value
150 pair. Recognized options:
151 timestamp with values simple, delta, persecond, and extended. If
153 no value is given, 'simple' is selected.
154 -R, --remotecharset
156 Specify the character set of the remote system is using and con‐
157 vert it to the character set of the local side. Example might be
158 'latin1'.
159 -7, --7bit
161 7bit mode for terminals which aren't 8bit capable. 8bit is default
162 if the environment is configured for this via LANG or LC_ALL, 7bit
163 otherwise.
164 -8, --8bit
166 8bit characters pass through without any modification. 'Continu‐
167 ous' means no locate/attribute control sequences are inserted
168 without real change of locate/attribute. This mode is to display
169 8bit multi-byte characters such as Japanese. Not needed in every
170 language with 8bit characters. (For example displaying Finnish
171 text doesn't need this.)
172 -h, --help
174 Display help and exit.
175 -v, --version
177 Print the minicom version.
178 When minicom starts, it first searches the MINICOM environment
180 variable for command-line arguments, which can be over-ridden on
181 the command line. Thus, if you have done
182 MINICOM='-m -c on'
184 export MINICOM
185 or the equivalent, and start minicom, minicom will assume that
186 your terminal has a Meta or <ALT> key and that color is supported.
187 If you then log in from a terminal without color support, and you
188 have set MINICOM in your startup (.profile or equivalent) file,
189 and don't want to re-set your environment variable, you can type
190 'minicom -c off' and run without color support for that session.
191 configuration
193 The configuration argument is more interesting. Normally, minicom
194 gets its defaults from a file called "minirc.dfl". If you however
195 give an argument to minicom, it will try to get its defaults from
196 a file called "minirc.configuration". So it is possible to create
197 multiple configuration files, for different ports, different users
198 etc. Most sensible is to use device names, such as tty1, tty64,
199 sio2 etc. If a user creates his own configuration file, it will
200 show up in his home directory as ".minirc.dfl" or ".minirc.config‐
201 uration".
202
204 Minicom is window based. To pop-up a window with the function you want,
205 press Control-A (from now on, we will use C-A to mean Control-A), and
206 then the function key (a-z or A-Z). By pressing C-A first and then 'z',
207 a help screen comes up with a short summary of all commands. This es‐
208 cape key can be altered when minicom is configured (-s option or C-A
209 O), but we'll stick to Control-A for now.
210 For every menu the next keys can be used:
212 UP arrow-up or 'k'
213 DOWN arrow-down or 'j'
214 LEFT arrow-left or 'h'
215 RIGHT arrow-right or 'l'
216 CHOOSE Enter
217 CANCEL ESCape.
218 The screen is divided into two portions: the upper 24 lines are the
220 terminal-emulator screen. In this window, ANSI or VT100 escape se‐
221 quences are interpreted. If there is a line left at the bottom, a sta‐
222 tus line is placed there. If this is not possible the status line will
223 be showed every time you press C-A. On terminals that have a special
224 status line that will be used if the termcap information is complete
225 and the -k flag has been given.
226 Possible commands are listed next, in alphabetical order.
228 C-A Pressing C-A a second time will just send a C-A to the remote sys‐
229 tem. If you have changed your "escape character" to something
230 other than C-A, this works analogously for that character.
231 A Toggle 'Add Linefeed' on/off. If it is on, a linefeed is added be‐
232 fore every carriage return displayed on the screen.
233 B Gives you a scroll back buffer. You can scroll up with u, down
234 with d, a page up with b, a page down with f, and if you have them
235 the arrow and page up/page down keys can also be used. You can
236 search for text in the buffer with s (case-sensitive) or S (case-
237 insensitive). N will find the next occurrence of the string. c
238 will enter citation mode. A text cursor appears and you specify
239 the start line by hitting Enter key. Then scroll back mode will
240 finish and the contents with prefix '>' will be sent.
241 C Clears the screen.
242 D Dial a number, or go to the dialing directory.
243 E Toggle local echo on and off (if your version of minicom supports
244 it).
245 F A break signal is sent to the modem.
246 G Run script (Go). Runs a login script.
247 H Hangup.
248 I Toggle the type of escape sequence that the cursor keys send be‐
249 tween normal and applications mode. (See also the comment about
250 the status line below).
251 J Jump to a shell. On return, the whole screen will be redrawn.
252 K Clears the screen, runs kermit and redraws the screen upon return.
253 L Turn Capture file on off. If turned on, all output sent to the
254 screen will be captured in the file too.
255 M Sends the modem initialization string. If you are online and the
256 DCD line setting is on, you are asked for confirmation before the
257 modem is initialized.
258 N Toggle between timestamp modes to be added to the output. Avail‐
259 able are simple and extended time formats for each line, a delta
260 to the previous line, a time display each second and no timestamps
261 (the default).
262 O Configure minicom. Puts you in the configuration menu.
263 P Communication Parameters. Allows you to change the bps rate, par‐
264 ity and number of bits.
265 Q Exit minicom without resetting the modem. If macros changed and
266 were not saved, you will have a chance to do so.
267 R Receive files. Choose from various protocols (external). If you
268 have the filename selection window and the prompt for download di‐
269 rectory enabled, you'll get a selection window for choosing the
270 directory for downloading. Otherwise the download directory de‐
271 fined in the Filenames and paths menu will be used.
272 S Send files. Choose the protocol like you do with the receive com‐
273 mand. If you don't have the filename selection window enabled (in
274 the File transfer protocols menu), you'll just have to write the
275 filename(s) in a dialog window. If you have the selection window
276 enabled, a window will pop up showing the filenames in your upload
277 directory. You can tag and untag filenames by pressing spacebar,
278 and move the cursor up and down with the cursor keys or j/k. The
279 selected filenames are shown highlighted. Directory names are
280 shown [within brackets] and you can move up or down in the direc‐
281 tory tree by pressing the spacebar twice. Finally, send the files
282 by pressing ENTER or quit by pressing ESC.
283 T Choose Terminal emulation: Ansi(color) or vt100. You can also
284 change the backspace key here, turn the status line on or off, and
285 define delay (in milliseconds) after each newline if you need
286 that.
287 U Add carriage return to each received line.
288 W Toggle line-wrap on/off.
289 X Exit minicom, reset modem. If macros changed and were not saved,
290 you will have a chance to do so.
291 Y Paste a file. Reads a file and sends its contests just as if it
292 would be typed in.
293 Z Pop up the help screen.
294
296 By pressing C-A D the program puts you in the dialing directory. Select
297 a command by pressing the capitalized letter or moving cursor
298 right/left with the arrow keys or the h/l keys and pressing Enter. You
299 can add, delete or edit entries and move them up and down in the direc‐
300 tory list. By choosing "dial" the phone numbers of the tagged entries,
301 or if nothing is tagged, the number of the highlighted entry will be
302 dialed. While the modem is dialing, you can press escape to cancel di‐
303 aling. Any other key will close the dial window, but won't cancel the
304 dialing itself. Your dialing directory will be saved into the file
305 ".dialdir" in your home directory. You can scroll up and down with the
306 arrow keys, but you can also scroll complete pages by pressing the
307 PageUp or PageDown key. If you don't have those, use Control-B (Back‐
308 ward) and Control-F (Forward). You can use the space bar to tag a num‐
309 ber of entries and minicom will rotate trough this list if a connection
310 can't be made. A '>' symbol is drawn in the directory before the names
311 of the tagged entries.
312 The "edit" menu speaks for itself, but I will discuss it briefly here.
314 A - Name The name for this entry
315 B - Number
316 and its telephone number.
317 C - Dial string #
318 Which specific dial string you want to use to connect. There
319 are three different dial strings (prefixes and suffixes) that
320 can be configured in the Modem and dialing menu.
321 D - Local echo
322 can be on or off for this system (if your version of minicom
323 supports it).
324 E - Script
325 The script that must be executed after a successful connec‐
326 tion is made (see the manual for runscript)
327 F - Username
328 The username that is passed to the runscript program. It is
329 passed in the environment string "$LOGIN".
330 G - Password
331 The password is passed as "$PASS".
332 H - Terminal Emulation
333 Use ANSI or VT100 emulation.
334 I - Backspace key sends
335 What code (Backspace or Delete) the backspace key sends.
336 J - Linewrap
337 Can be on or off.
338 K - Line settings
339 Bps rate, bits, parity and number of stop bits to use for
340 this connection. You can choose current for the speed, so
341 that it will use whatever speed is being used at that moment
342 (useful if you have multiple modems).
343 L - Conversion table
344 You may specify a character conversion table to be loaded
345 whenever this entry answers, before running the login script.
346 If this field is blank, the conversion table stays unchanged.
347 The edit menu also shows the latest date and time when you called this
348 entry and the total number of calls there, but doesn't let you change
349 them. They are updated automatically when you connect.
350 The moVe command lets you move the highlighted entry up or down in the
352 dialing directory with the up/down arrow keys or the k and j keys.
353 Press Enter or ESC to end moving the entry.
354
356 By pressing C-A O you will be thrown into the setup menu.
357 Filenames and paths
359 This menu defines your default directories.
360 A - Download directory
361 where the downloaded files go to.
362 B - Upload directory
363 where the uploaded files are read from.
364 C - Script directory
365 Where you keep your login scripts.
366 D - Script program
367 Which program to use as the script interpreter. Defaults to the
368 program "runscript", but if you want to use something else (eg,
369 /bin/sh or "expect") it is possible. Stdin and stdout are con‐
370 nected to the modem, stderr to the screen.
371 If the path is relative (ie, does not start with a slash) then
372 it's relative to your home directory, except for the script in‐
373 terpreter.
374 E - Kermit program
375 Where to find the executable for kermit, and it's options. Some
376 simple macro's can be used on the command line: '%l' is expanded
377 to the complete filename of the dial out-device, '%f' is ex‐
378 panded to the serial port file descriptor and '%b' is expanded
379 to the current serial port speed.
380 F - Logging options
381 Options to configure the logfile writing.
382 A - File name
384 Here you can enter the name of the logfile. The file will
385 be written in your home directory, and the default value is
386 "minicom.log". If you blank the name, all logging is
387 turned off.
388 B - Log connects and hangups
390 This option defines whether or not the logfile is written
391 when the remote end answers the call or hangs up. Or when
392 you give the hangup command yourself or leave minicom with‐
393 out hangup while online.
394 C - Log file transfers
396 Do you want log entries of receiving and sending files.
397 The 'log' command in the scripts is not affected by logging options B
398 and C. It is always executed, if you just have the name of the log
399 file defined.
400 File Transfer Protocols
402 Protocols defined here will show up when C-A s/r is pressed. "Name"
403 in the beginning of the line is the name that will show up in the
404 menu. "Program" is the path to the protocol. "Name" after that de‐
405 fines if the program needs an argument, e.g. a file to be transmit‐
406 ted. U/D defines if this entry should show up in the upload or the
407 download menu. Fullscr defines if the program should run full
408 screen, or that minicom will only show it's stderr in a window. IO-
409 Red defines if minicom should attach the program's standard in and
410 output to the modem port or not. "Multi" tells the filename selection
411 window whether or not the protocol can send multiple files with one
412 command. It has no effect on download protocols, and it is also ig‐
413 nored with upload protocols if you don't use the filename selection
414 window. The old sz and rz are not full screen, and have IO-Red set.
415 However, there are curses based versions of at least rz that do not
416 want their stdin and stdout redirected, and run full screen. All
417 file transfer protocols are run with the UID of the user, and not
418 with UID=root. '%l', '%f' and '%b' can be used on the command line as
419 with kermit. Within this menu you can also define if you want to use
420 the filename selection window when prompted for files to upload, and
421 if you like to be prompted for the download directory every time the
422 automatic download is started. If you leave the download directory
423 prompt disabled, the download directory defined in the file and di‐
424 rectory menu is used.
425 Serial port setup
427 A - Serial device
428 /dev/tty1 or /dev/ttyS1 for most people. /dev/cua<n> is still
429 possible under GNU/Linux, but no longer recommended as these de‐
430 vices are obsolete and many systems with kernel 2.2.x or newer
431 don't have them. Use /dev/ttyS<n> instead. You may also have
432 /dev/modem as a symlink to the real device.
433 If you have modems connected to two or more serial ports, you
434 may specify all of them here in a list separated by space, comma
435 or semicolon. When Minicom starts, it checks the list until it
436 finds an available modem and uses that one. (However, you can't
437 specify different init strings to them... at least not yet.)
438 To use a UNIX socket for communication the device name must be
439 prefixed with "unix#" following by the full path and the file‐
440 name of the socket. Minicom will then try to connect to this
441 socket as a client. As long as it cannot connect to the socket
442 it stays 'offline'. As soon as the connection establishes, mini‐
443 com goes 'online'. If the server closes the socket, minicom
444 switches to 'offline' again.
445 B - Lock file location
446 On most systems This should be /usr/spool/uucp. GNU/Linux sys‐
447 tems use /var/lock. If this directory does not exist, minicom
448 will not attempt to use lockfiles.
449 C - Callin program
450 If you have a uugetty or something on your serial port, it could
451 be that you want a program to be run to switch the modem cq.
452 port into dialin/dialout mode. This is the program to get into
453 dialin mode.
454 D - Callout program
455 And this to get into dialout mode.
456 E - Bps/Par/Bits
457 Default parameters at startup.
458 If one of the entries is left blank, it will not be used. So if you
460 don't care about locking, and don't have a getty running on your
461 modemline, entries B - D should be left blank.
462 Modem and Dialing
464 Here, the parameters for your modem are defined. I will not explain
465 this further because the defaults are for generic Hayes modems, and
466 should work always. This file is not a Hayes tutorial :-) The only
467 things worth noticing are that control characters can be sent by pre‐
468 fixing them with a '^', in which '^^' means '^' itself, and the '\'
469 character must also be doubled as '\\', because backslash is used
470 specially in the macro definitions. Some options however, don't have
471 much to do with the modem but more with the behaviour of minicom it‐
472 self:
473 M - Dial time
474 The number of seconds before minicom times out if no connection
475 is established.
476 N - Delay before redial
477 Minicom will redial if no connection was made, but it first
478 waits some time.
479 O - Number of tries
480 Maximum number of times that minicom attempts to dial.
481 P - Drop DTR time
482 If you set this to 0, minicom hangs up by sending a Hayes-type
483 hangup sequence. If you specify a non-zero value, the hangup
484 will be done by dropping the DTR line. The value tells in sec‐
485 onds how long DTR will be kept down.
486 Q - Auto bps detect
487 If this is on, minicom tries to match the dialed party's speed.
488 With most modern modems this is NOT desirable, since the modem
489 buffers the data and converts the speed.
490 R - Modem has DCD line
491 If your modem, and your O/S both support the DCD line (that goes
492 'high' when a connection is made) minicom will use it. When you
493 have this option on, minicom will also NOT start dialing while
494 you are already online.
495 S - Status line shows DTE speed / line speed
496 You can toggle the status line to show either the DTE speed (the
497 speed which minicom uses to communicate with your modem) or the
498 line speed (the speed that your modem uses on the line to commu‐
499 nicate with the other modem). Notice that the line speed may
500 change during the connection, but you will still only see the
501 initial speed that the modems started the connection with. This
502 is because the modem doesn't tell the program if the speed is
503 changed. Also, to see the line speed, you need to have the modem
504 set to show it in the connect string. Otherwise you will only
505 see 0 as the line speed.
506 T - Multi-line untag
507 You can toggle the feature to untag entries from the dialing di‐
508 rectory when a connection is established to a multi-line BBS.
509 All the tagged entries that have the same name are untagged.
510 Note that a special exception is made for this menu: every user
512 can change all parameters here, but some of them will not be
513 saved.
514 Screen and keyboard
516 A - Command key is
517 the 'Hot Key' that brings you into command mode. If this is set
518 to 'ALT' or 'meta key', you can directly call commands by alt-
519 key instead of HotKey-key.
520 B - Backspace key sends
521 There still are some systems that want a VT100 to send DEL in‐
522 stead of BS. With this option you can enable that stupidity.
523 (Eh, it's even on by default...)
524 C - Status line is
525 Enabled or disabled. Some slow terminals (for example, X-termi‐
526 nals) cause the status line to jump "up and down" when
527 scrolling, so you can turn it off if desired. It will still be
528 shown in command-mode.
529 D - Alarm sound
530 If turned on, minicom will sound an alarm (on the console only)
531 after a successful connection and when up/downloading is com‐
532 plete.
533 E - Foreground Color (menu)
534 indicates the foreground color to use for all the configuration
535 windows in minicom.
536 F - Background Color (menu)
537 indicates the background color to use for all the configuration
538 windows in minicom. Note that minicom will not allow you to set
539 foreground and background colors to the same value.
540 G - Foreground Color (term)
541 indicates the foreground color to use in the terminal window.
542 H - Background Color (term)
543 indicates the background color to use in the terminal window.
544 Note that minicom will not allow you to set foreground and back‐
545 ground colors to the same value.
546 I - Foreground Color (stat)
547 indicates the foreground color to use in for the status bar.
548 J - Background Color (stat)
549 indicates the color to use in for the status bar. Note that
550 minicom will allow you to set the status bar's foreground and
551 background colors to the same value. This will effectively make
552 the status bar invisible but if these are your intentions,
553 please see the option
554 K - History buffer size
555 The number of lines to keep in the history buffer (for
556 backscrolling).
557 L - Macros file
558 is the full path to the file that holds macros. Macros allow you
559 to define a string to be sent when you press a certain key. In
560 minicom, you may define F1 through F12 to send up to 256 charac‐
561 ters [this is set at compile time]. The filename you specify is
562 verified as soon as you hit ENTER. If you do not have permis‐
563 sions to create the specified file, an error message will so in‐
564 dicate and you will be forced to re-edit the filename. If you
565 are permitted to create the file, minicom checks to see if it
566 already exists. If so, it assumes it's a macro file and reads it
567 in. If it isn't, well, it's your problem :-) If the file does
568 not exist, the filename is accepted.
569 M - Edit Macros
570 opens up a new window which allows you to edit the F1 through
571 F12 macros.
572 N - Macros enabled
573 - Yes or No. If macros are disabled, the F1-F12 keys will just
574 send the VT100/VT220 function key escape sequences.
575 O - Character conversion
576 The active conversion table filename is shown here. If you can
577 see no name, no conversion is active. Pressing O, you will see
578 the conversion table edit menu.
579 Edit Macros
581 Here, the macros for F1 through F12 are defined. The bottom
582 of the window shows a legend of character combinations that
583 have special meaning. They allow you to enter special con‐
584 trol characters with plain text by prefixing them with a '^',
585 in which '^^' means '^' itself. You can send a 1 second delay
586 with the '^~' code. This is useful when you are trying to lo‐
587 gin after ftp'ing or telnet'ing somewhere. You can also in‐
588 clude your current username and password from the phone di‐
589 rectory in the macros with '\u' and '\p', respectively. If
590 you need the backslash character in the macro, write it dou‐
591 bled as '\\'. To edit a macro, press the shown number or
592 letter and you will be moved to the end of the macro. When
593 editing the line, you may use the left & right arrows, Home &
594 End keys, Delete & BackSpace, and ESC and RETURN. ESC can‐
595 cels any changes made while ENTER accepts the changes.
596 Character conversion
598 Here you can edit the character conversion table. If you are
599 not an American, you know that in many languages there are
600 characters that are not included in the ASCII character set,
601 and in the old times they may have replaced some less impor‐
602 tant characters in ASCII and now they are often represented
603 with character codes above 127. AND there are various differ‐
604 ent ways to represent them. This is where you may edit con‐
605 version tables for systems that use a character set different
606 from the one on your computer.
607 A - Load table
609 You probably guessed it. This command loads a table from
610 the disk. You are asked a file name for the table. Prede‐
611 fined tables .mciso, .mcpc8 and .mcsf7 should be included
612 with the program. Table .mciso does no conversion, .mcpc8
613 is to be used for connections with systems that use the
614 8-bit pc character set, and .mcsf7 is for compatibility
615 with the systems that uses the good old 7-bit coding to re‐
616 place the characters {|}[]\ with the diacritical characters
617 used in Finnish and Swedish.
618 B - Save table
620 This one saves the active table on the filename you spec‐
621 ify.
622 C - edit char
624 This is where you can make your own modifications to the
625 existing table. First you are asked the character value
626 (in decimal) whose conversion you want to change. Next
627 you'll say which character you want to see on your screen
628 when that character comes from the outside world. And then
629 you'll be asked what you want to be sent out when you enter
630 that character from your keyboard.
631 D - next screen
633 E - prev screen
635 Yeah, you probably noticed that this screen shows you what
636 kind of conversions are active. The screen just is (usu‐
637 ally) too small to show the whole table at once in an easy-
638 to-understand format. This is how you can scroll the table
639 left and right.
640 F - convert capture
642 Toggles whether or not the character conversion table is
643 used when writing the capture file.
644 Save setup as dfl
646 Save the parameters as the default for the next time the program is
647 started. Instead of dfl, any other parameter name may appear, depend‐
648 ing on which one was used when the program was started.
649 Save setup as..
651 Save the parameters under a special name. Whenever Minicom is started
652 with this name as an argument, it will use these parameters. This op‐
653 tion is of course privileged to root.
654 Exit
656 Escape from this menu without saving. This can also be done with
657 ESC.
658 Exit from minicom
660 Only root will see this menu entry, if he/she started minicom with
661 the '-s' option. This way, it is possible to change the configuration
662 without actually running minicom.
663
665 The status line has several indicators, that speak for themselves. The
666 mysterious APP or NOR indicator probably needs explanation. The VT100
667 cursor keys can be in two modes: applications mode and cursor mode.
668 This is controlled by an escape sequence. If you find that the cursor
669 keys do not work in, say, vi when you're logged in using minicom then
670 you can see with this indicator whether the cursor keys are in applica‐
671 tions or cursor mode. You can toggle the two with the C-A I key. If the
672 cursor keys then work, it's probably an error in the remote system's
673 termcap initialization strings (is).
674
676 Minicom has support for local languages. This means you can change most
677 of the English messages and other strings to another language by set‐
678 ting the environment variable LANG.
679
681 If minicom is hung, kill it with SIGTERM . (This means kill -15, or
682 since sigterm is default, just plain "kill <minicompid>". This will
683 cause a graceful exit of minicom, doing resets and everything. You may
684 kill minicom from a script with the command "! killall -9 minicom"
685 without hanging up the line. Without the -9 parameter, minicom first
686 hangs up before exiting.
687 Since a lot of escape sequences begin with ESC (Arrow up is ESC [ A),
689 Minicom does not know if the escape character it gets is you pressing
690 the escape key, or part of a sequence.
691 An old version of Minicom, V1.2, solved this in a rather crude way: to
693 get the escape key, you had to press it twice.
694 As of release 1.3 this has bettered a little: now a 1-second timeout is
696 builtin, like in vi. For systems that have the select() system call the
697 timeout is 0.5 seconds. And... surprise: a special Linux-dependent hack
698 :-) was added. Now, minicom can separate the escape key and escape-se‐
699 quences. To see how dirty this was done, look into wkeys.c. But it
700 works like a charm!
701
703 Minicom keeps it's configuration files in one directory, usually
704 /var/lib/minicom, /usr/local/etc or /etc. To find out what default di‐
705 rectory minicom has compiled in, issue the command minicom -h. You'll
706 probably also find the demo files for runscript(1), and the examples of
707 character conversion tables either there or in the subdirectories of
708 /usr/doc/minicom*. The conversion tables are named something like mc.*
709 in that directory, but you probably want to copy the ones you need in
710 your home directory as something beginning with a dot.
711 minirc.*
713 $HOME/.minirc.*
714 $HOME/.dialdir
715 $HOME/minicom.log
716 /usr/share/locale/*/LC_MESSAGES/minicom.mo
717
719 runscript(1)
720
722 Please report any bugs to minicom-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org. Thank
723 you!
724
726 The original author of minicom is Miquel van Smoorenburg
727 (miquels@cistron.nl). He wrote versions up to 1.75.
728 Jukka Lahtinen (walker@netsonic.fi, jukkal@despammed.com) has been re‐
729 sponsible for new versions since 1.78, helped by some other people, in‐
730 cluding:
731 filipg@paranoia.com wrote the History buffer searching to 1.79.
732 Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo (acme@conectiva.com.br) did the international‐
733 ization and the Brazilian Portuguese translations.
734 Jim Seymour (jseymour@jimsun.LinxNet.com) wrote the multiple modem sup‐
735 port and the filename selection window used since 1.80.
736 Tomohiro Kubota (kubota@debian.or.jp) wrote the Japanese translations
737 and the citation facility, and did some fixes.
738 Gael Queri (gqueri@mail.dotcom.fr) wrote the French translations.
739 Arkadiusz Miskiewicz (misiek@pld.org.pl) wrote the Polish translations.
740 Kim Soyoung (nexti@chollian.net) wrote the Korean translations.
741 Jork Loeser (jork.loeser@inf.tu-dresden.de) provided the socket exten‐
742 sion.
743 Most of this man page is copied, with corrections, from the original
745 minicom README, but some pieces and the corrections are by Michael K.
746 Johnson.
747 Jukka Lahtinen (walker@netsonic.fi) has added some information of the
749 changes made after version 1.75.
750 Adam Lackorzynski (adam@lackorzynski.de) is the current maintainer of
752 minicom.
753User's Manual Dec 2013 MINICOM(1)