minicom(1)


NAME

   minicom - friendly serial communication program

SYNOPSIS

   minicom [options] [configuration]

DESCRIPTION

   minicom  is  a  communication  program  which  somewhat  resembles  the
   shareware program TELIX but is free with source  code  and  runs  under
   most  Unices.   Features  include  dialing  directory with auto-redial,
   support for UUCP-style lock files on serial devices, a separate  script
   language  interpreter,  capture to file, multiple users with individual
   configurations, and more.

COMMAND-LINE

   -s, --setup
        Setup.     Root    edits    the    system-wide     defaults     in
        /etc/minicom/minirc.dfl  with  this  option.   When  it  is  used,
        minicom does not  initialize,  but  puts  you  directly  into  the
        configuration menu. This is very handy if minicom refuses to start
        up because your system has changed, or for the first time you  run
        minicom.   For  most  systems,  reasonable  defaults  are  already
        compiled in.

   -o, --noinit
        Do not initialize. Minicom  will  skip  the  initialization  code.
        This  option  is handy if you quit from minicom without resetting,
        and then want to restart a session. It  is  potentially  dangerous
        though:  no  check  for  lock files etc. is made, so a normal user
        could interfere with things like UUCP... maybe this will be  taken
        out  later. For now it is assumed, that users who are given access
        to a modem are responsible enough for their actions.

   -m, --metakey
        Override command-key with the Meta or ALT key. This is the default
        in  1.80  and it can also be configured in one of minicom's menus,
        but if you use different terminals all the  time,  of  which  some
        don't  have  a  Meta  or  ALT  key,  it's handy to set the default
        command key to Ctrl-A and use this option when you have a keyboard
        supporting  Meta  or  ALT keys. Minicom assumes that your Meta key
        sends the ESC prefix, not the other variant that sets the  highest
        bit of the character.

   -M, --metakey8
        Same as -m, but assumes that your Meta key sets the 8th bit of the
        character high (sends 128 + character code).

   -z, --statline
        Use terminal status  line.  This  only  works  on  terminals  that
        support it and that have the relevant information in their termcap
        or terminfo database entry.

   -l, --ansi
        Literal translation of characters with the high bit set. With this
        flag  on, minicom will try to translate the IBM line characters to
        ASCII.  Many  PC-unix  clones  will  display  character  correctly
        without translation (Linux in a special mode, Coherent and SCO).

   -L, --iso
        Ditto but assume screen uses an ISO8859 character set.

   -w, --wrap
        Turns line-wrap on at startup by default.

   -H, --displayhex
        Turn on output in hex mode.

   -a, --attrib=on/off
        Attribute  usage. Some terminals, notably Televideo's, have rotten
        attribute handling  (serial  instead  of  parallel).  By  default,
        minicom uses '-a on', but if you are using such a terminal you can
        (must!)  supply the option '-a off'. The trailing 'on' or 'off' is
        needed.

   -t, --term=TERM
        Terminal  type.  With  this flag, you can override the environment
        TERM variable.  This is handy for use in the  MINICOM  environment
        variable;  one  can  create  a  special termcap entry for use with
        minicom on the console, that initializes the screen to raw mode so
        that  in conjunction with the -l flag, the IBM line characters are
        displayed untranslated.

   -c, --color=on/off
        Color usage. Some terminals (such as the  Linux  console)  support
        color  with  the  standard ANSI escape sequences. Because there is
        apparently no termcap support for color,  these  escape  sequences
        are  hard-coded  into  minicom.  Therefore  this  option is off by
        default.  You can turn it on with '-c  on'.  This,  and  the  '-m'
        option,  are  good  candidates to put into the MINICOM environment
        variable.

   -S, --script=SCRIPT
        script.  Run the named script at startup. So far, passing username
        and password to a startup script is not supported. If you also use
        the -d option to start dialing at startup, the -S script  will  be
        run BEFORE dialing the entries specified with -d.

   -d, --dial=ENTRY
        Dial  an  entry  from  the  dialing  directory on startup. You can
        specify an index number, but also a substring of the name  of  the
        entry.  If  you  specify  a  name that has multiple entries in the
        directory, they are all tagged for dialing. You can  also  specify
        multiple  names  or  index numbers by separating them with commas.
        The dialing will start from the first entry  specified  after  all
        other program initialization procedures are completed.

   -p, --ptty=TTYP
        Pseudo  terminal  to use. This overrides the terminal port defined
        in the configuration files, but only if it is a  pseudo  TTY.  The
        filename  supplied  must  be  of  the  form (/dev/)tty[p-z/][0-f],
        (/dev/)pts[p-z/][0-f]  or  (/dev/)pty[p-z/][0-f].   For   example,
        /dev/ttyp1, pts/0 or /dev/ptyp2.

   -C, --capturefile=FILE
        filename.  Open capture file at startup.

   -F, --statlinefmt
        Format  for  the  status  line. The following format specifier are
        available:
           %H  Escape key for help screen.
           %V  Version string of minicom.
           %b  Information on connection, such as baud rate.
           %T  Terminal type.
           %C  Cursor mode.
           %D  Device path, possibly shorted to remaining available space.
           %t  Online time.
           %%  % character.

        Example: "%H for help | %b | Minicom %V | %T | %C | %t"

   -b, --baudrate
        Specify  the  baud  rate,  overriding  the  value  given  in   the
        configuration file.

   -D, --device
        Specify   the   device,   overriding   the   value  given  in  the
        configuration file.

   -R, --remotecharset
        Specify the character set  of  the  remote  system  is  using  and
        convert  it  to the character set of the local side. Example might
        be 'latin1'.

   -7, --7bit
        7bit mode for terminals which aren't 8bit capable. 8bit is default
        if the environment is configured for this via LANG or LC_ALL, 7bit
        otherwise.

   -8, --8bit
        8bit   characters   pass   through   without   any   modification.
        'Continuous'  means  no  locate/attribute  control  sequences  are
        inserted without real change of locate/attribute. This mode is  to
        display 8bit multi-byte characters such as Japanese. Not needed in
        every language  with  8bit  characters.  (For  example  displaying
        Finnish text doesn't need this.)

   -h, --help
        Display help and exit.

   -v, --version
        Print the minicom version.

        When  minicom  starts,  it  first searches the MINICOM environment
        variable for command-line arguments, which can be  over-ridden  on
        the command line.  Thus, if you have done

             MINICOM='-m -c on'
             export MINICOM
        or  the  equivalent,  and  start minicom, minicom will assume that
        your terminal has a Meta or <ALT> key and that color is supported.
        If  you then log in from a terminal without color support, and you
        have set MINICOM in your startup (.profile  or  equivalent)  file,
        and  don't  want to re-set your environment variable, you can type
        'minicom -c off' and run without color support for that session.

   configuration
        The configuration argument is more interesting. Normally,  minicom
        gets  its defaults from a file called "minirc.dfl". If you however
        give an argument to minicom, it will try to get its defaults  from
        a file called "minirc.configuration".  So it is possible to create
        multiple configuration files, for different ports, different users
        etc.  Most  sensible  is to use device names, such as tty1, tty64,
        sio2 etc. If a user creates his own configuration  file,  it  will
        show    up   in   his   home   directory   as   ".minirc.dfl"   or
        ".minirc.configuration".

USE

   Minicom is window based. To pop-up a window with the function you want,
   press  Control-A  (from now on, we will use C-A to mean Control-A), and
   then the function key (a-z or A-Z). By pressing C-A first and then 'z',
   a  help  screen  comes  up  with  a short summary of all commands. This
   escape key can be altered when minicom is configured (-s option or  C-A
   O), but we'll stick to Control-A for now.

   For every menu the next keys can be used:
   UP     arrow-up or 'k'
   DOWN   arrow-down or 'j'
   LEFT   arrow-left or 'h'
   RIGHT  arrow-right or 'l'
   CHOOSE Enter
   CANCEL ESCape.

   The  screen  is  divided  into two portions: the upper 24 lines are the
   terminal-emulator  screen.  In  this  window,  ANSI  or  VT100   escape
   sequences  are  interpreted.   If there is a line left at the bottom, a
   status line is placed there.  If this is not possible the  status  line
   will  be  showed  every  time  you  press C-A. On terminals that have a
   special status line that will be used if  the  termcap  information  is
   complete and the -k flag has been given.

   Possible commands are listed next, in alphabetical order.
   C-A  Pressing  C-A  a  second  time  will just send a C-A to the remote
        system.  If you have changed your "escape character" to  something
        other than C-A, this works analogously for that character.
   A    Toggle  'Add  Linefeed'  on/off.  If it is on, a linefeed is added
        before every carriage return displayed on the screen.
   B    Gives you a scroll back buffer. You can scroll  up  with  u,  down
        with d, a page up with b, a page down with f, and if you have them
        the arrow and page up/page down keys can also  be  used.  You  can
        search  for text in the buffer with s (case-sensitive) or S (case-
        insensitive). N will find the next occurrence of  the  string.   c
        will  enter  citation  mode. A text cursor appears and you specify
        the start line by hitting Enter key. Then scroll  back  mode  will
        finish and the contents with prefix '>' will be sent.
   C    Clears the screen.
   D    Dial a number, or go to the dialing directory.
   E    Toggle  local echo on and off (if your version of minicom supports
        it).
   F    A break signal is sent to the modem.
   G    Run script (Go). Runs a login script.
   H    Hangup.
   I    Toggle the type of escape  sequence  that  the  cursor  keys  send
        between  normal and applications mode. (See also the comment about
        the status line below).
   J    Jump to a shell. On return, the whole screen will be redrawn.
   K    Clears the screen, runs kermit and redraws the screen upon return.
   L    Turn Capture file on off. If turned on, all  output  sent  to  the
        screen will be captured in the file too.
   M    Sends  the  modem initialization string. If you are online and the
        DCD line setting is on, you are asked for confirmation before  the
        modem is initialized.
   N    Toggle  between  three  states, whether each line is prefixed with
        current date and time, a timestamp is added every  second,  or  no
        timestamps.
   O    Configure minicom. Puts you in the configuration menu.
   P    Communication  Parameters.  Allows  you  to  change  the bps rate,
        parity and number of bits.
   Q    Exit minicom without resetting the modem. If  macros  changed  and
        were not saved, you will have a chance to do so.
   R    Receive  files.  Choose  from various protocols (external). If you
        have the filename selection window and  the  prompt  for  download
        directory  enabled, you'll get a selection window for choosing the
        directory  for  downloading.  Otherwise  the  download   directory
        defined in the Filenames and paths menu will be used.
   S    Send  files.  Choose  the  protocol  like  you do with the receive
        command. If you don't have the filename selection  window  enabled
        (in  the  File transfer protocols menu), you'll just have to write
        the filename(s) in a dialog window.  If  you  have  the  selection
        window enabled, a window will pop up showing the filenames in your
        upload directory. You can tag  and  untag  filenames  by  pressing
        spacebar,  and move the cursor up and down with the cursor keys or
        j/k. The selected filenames are shown highlighted. Directory names
        are  shown  [within  brackets]  and you can move up or down in the
        directory tree by pressing the spacebar twice. Finally,  send  the
        files by pressing ENTER or quit by pressing ESC.
   T    Choose  Terminal  emulation:  Ansi(color)  or vt100.  You can also
        change the backspace key here, turn the status line on or off, and
        define  delay  (in  milliseconds)  after  each newline if you need
        that.
   W    Toggle line-wrap on/off.
   X    Exit minicom, reset modem. If macros changed and were  not  saved,
        you will have a chance to do so.
   Y    Paste  a  file.  Reads a file and sends its contests just as if it
        would be typed in.
   Z    Pop up the help screen.

DIALING DIRECTORY

   By pressing C-A D the program puts you in the dialing directory. Select
   a   command  by  pressing  the  capitalized  letter  or  moving  cursor
   right/left with the arrow keys or the h/l keys and pressing Enter.  You
   can  add,  delete  or  edit  entries  and  move them up and down in the
   directory list. By choosing "dial" the  phone  numbers  of  the  tagged
   entries,  or  if nothing is tagged, the number of the highlighted entry
   will be dialed. While the modem is dialing, you  can  press  escape  to
   cancel  dialing.  Any  other  key will close the dial window, but won't
   cancel the dialing itself. Your dialing directory will  be  saved  into
   the file ".dialdir" in your home directory.  You can scroll up and down
   with the arrow keys, but you can also scroll complete pages by pressing
   the  PageUp  or  PageDown  key.  If you don't have those, use Control-B
   (Backward) and Control-F (Forward). You can use the space bar to tag  a
   number  of  entries  and  minicom  will  rotate  trough  this list if a
   connection can't be made. A '>' symbol is drawn in the directory before
   the names of the tagged entries.

   The "edit" menu speaks for itself, but I will discuss it briefly here.
   A - Name  The name for this entry
   B - Number
             and its telephone number.
   C - Dial string #
             Which  specific dial string you want to use to connect. There
             are three different dial strings (prefixes and suffixes) that
             can be configured in the Modem and dialing menu.
   D - Local echo
             can  be on or off for this system (if your version of minicom
             supports it).
   E - Script
             The  script  that  must  be  executed  after   a   successful
             connection is made (see the manual for runscript)
   F - Username
             The  username that is passed to the runscript program.  It is
             passed in the environment string "$LOGIN".
   G - Password
             The password is passed as "$PASS".
   H - Terminal Emulation
             Use ANSI or VT100 emulation.
   I - Backspace key sends
             What code (Backspace or Delete) the backspace key sends.
   J - Linewrap
             Can be on or off.
   K - Line settings
             Bps rate, bits, parity and number of stop  bits  to  use  for
             this  connection.   You  can choose current for the speed, so
             that it will use whatever speed is being used at that  moment
             (useful if you have multiple modems).
   L - Conversion table
             You  may  specify  a  character conversion table to be loaded
             whenever this entry answers, before running the login script.
             If this field is blank, the conversion table stays unchanged.
   The  edit menu also shows the latest date and time when you called this
   entry and the total number of calls there, but doesn't let  you  change
   them.  They are updated automatically when you connect.

   The  moVe command lets you move the highlighted entry up or down in the
   dialing directory with the up/down arrow keys or  the  k  and  j  keys.
   Press Enter or ESC to end moving the entry.

CONFIGURATION

   By pressing C-A O you will be thrown into the setup menu.

   Filenames and paths
     This menu defines your default directories.
     A - Download directory
          where the downloaded files go to.
     B - Upload directory
          where the uploaded files are read from.
     C - Script directory
          Where you keep your login scripts.
     D - Script program
          Which  program to use as the script interpreter. Defaults to the
          program "runscript", but if you want to use something else  (eg,
          /bin/sh  or  "expect")  it  is  possible.   Stdin and stdout are
          connected to the modem, stderr to the screen.
          If the path is relative (ie, does not start with a  slash)  then
          it's  relative  to  your  home  directory, except for the script
          interpreter.
     E - Kermit program
          Where to find the executable for kermit, and it's options.  Some
          simple macro's can be used on the command line: '%l' is expanded
          to the  complete  filename  of  the  dial  out-device,  '%f'  is
          expanded to the serial port file descriptor and '%b' is expanded
          to the current serial port speed.
     F - Logging options
          Options to configure the logfile writing.

          A - File name
               Here you can enter the name of the logfile. The  file  will
               be written in your home directory, and the default value is
               "minicom.log".  If you  blank  the  name,  all  logging  is
               turned off.

          B - Log connects and hangups
               This  option  defines whether or not the logfile is written
               when the remote end answers the call or hangs up.  Or  when
               you  give  the  hangup  command  yourself  or leave minicom
               without hangup while online.

          C - Log file transfers
               Do you want log entries of receiving and sending files.
     The 'log' command in the scripts is not affected by logging options B
     and  C.   It is always executed, if you just have the name of the log
     file defined.

   File Transfer Protocols
     Protocols defined here will show up when C-A s/r is pressed.   "Name"
     in  the  beginning  of  the line is the name that will show up in the
     menu. "Program" is the  path  to  the  protocol.  "Name"  after  that
     defines  if  the  program  needs  an  argument,  e.g.  a  file  to be
     transmitted. U/D defines if this entry should show up in  the  upload
     or the download menu.  Fullscr defines if the program should run full
     screen, or that minicom will only show it's stderr in a  window.  IO-
     Red  defines  if  minicom should attach the program's standard in and
     output to the modem port or not. "Multi" tells the filename selection
     window  whether  or not the protocol can send multiple files with one
     command. It has no effect on  download  protocols,  and  it  is  also
     ignored with upload protocols if you don't use the filename selection
     window. The old sz and rz are not full screen, and have  IO-Red  set.
     However,  there  are curses based versions of at least rz that do not
     want their stdin and stdout redirected, and  run  full  screen.   All
     file  transfer  protocols  are  run with the UID of the user, and not
     with UID=root. '%l', '%f' and '%b' can be used on the command line as
     with kermit.  Within this menu you can also define if you want to use
     the filename selection window when prompted for files to upload,  and
     if  you like to be prompted for the download directory every time the
     automatic download is started. If you leave  the  download  directory
     prompt  disabled,  the  download  directory  defined  in the file and
     directory menu is used.

   Serial port setup
     A - Serial device
          /dev/tty1 or /dev/ttyS1 for most people.  /dev/cua<n>  is  still
          possible  under  GNU/Linux,  but  no longer recommended as these
          devices are obsolete and many systems with kernel 2.2.x or newer
          don't  have  them.  Use /dev/ttyS<n> instead.  You may also have
          /dev/modem as a symlink to the real device.
          If you have modems connected to two or more  serial  ports,  you
          may specify all of them here in a list separated by space, comma
          or semicolon. When Minicom starts, it checks the list  until  it
          finds  an available modem and uses that one. (However, you can't
          specify different init strings to them... at least not yet.)
          To use a UNIX socket for communication the device name  must  be
          prefixed  with  "unix#"  following  by  the  full  path  and the
          filename of the socket.  Minicom will then  try  to  connect  to
          this  socket  as  a  client. As long as it cannot connect to the
          socket  it  stays  'offline'.  As   soon   as   the   connection
          establishes,  minicom  goes  'online'.  If the server closes the
          socket, minicom switches to 'offline' again.
     B - Lock file location
          On  most  systems  This  should  be  /usr/spool/uucp.  GNU/Linux
          systems use /var/lock. If this directory does not exist, minicom
          will not attempt to use lockfiles.
     C - Callin program
          If you have a uugetty or something on your serial port, it could
          be  that  you  want  a program to be run to switch the modem cq.
          port into dialin/dialout mode. This is the program to  get  into
          dialin mode.
     D - Callout program
          And this to get into dialout mode.
     E - Bps/Par/Bits
          Default parameters at startup.

     If  one  of the entries is left blank, it will not be used. So if you
     don't care about locking, and don't have  a  getty  running  on  your
     modemline, entries B - D should be left blank.

   Modem and Dialing
     Here,  the  parameters for your modem are defined. I will not explain
     this further because the defaults are for generic Hayes  modems,  and
     should  work  always.  This file is not a Hayes tutorial :-) The only
     things worth noticing are that control  characters  can  be  sent  by
     prefixing  them  with  a '^', in which '^^' means '^' itself, and the
     '\' character must also be doubled as '\\', because backslash is used
     specially in the macro definitions.  Some options however, don't have
     much to do with the modem but more  with  the  behaviour  of  minicom
     itself:
     M - Dial time
          The  number of seconds before minicom times out if no connection
          is established.
     N - Delay before redial
          Minicom will redial if no connection  was  made,  but  it  first
          waits some time.
     O - Number of tries
          Maximum number of times that minicom attempts to dial.
     P - Drop DTR time
          If  you  set this to 0, minicom hangs up by sending a Hayes-type
          hangup sequence. If you specify a  non-zero  value,  the  hangup
          will  be  done  by  dropping  the  DTR  line. The value tells in
          seconds how long DTR will be kept down.
     Q - Auto bps detect
          If this is on, minicom tries to match the dialed party's  speed.
          With  most  modern modems this is NOT desirable, since the modem
          buffers the data and converts the speed.
     R - Modem has DCD line
          If your modem, and your O/S both support the DCD line (that goes
          'high'  when a connection is made) minicom will use it. When you
          have this option on, minicom will also NOT start  dialing  while
          you are already online.
     S - Status line shows DTE speed / line speed
          You can toggle the status line to show either the DTE speed (the
          speed which minicom uses to communicate with your modem) or  the
          line  speed  (the  speed  that  your  modem  uses on the line to
          communicate with the other modem). Notice that  the  line  speed
          may  change  during  the connection, but you will still only see
          the initial speed that the modems started the  connection  with.
          This  is because the modem doesn't tell the program if the speed
          is changed. Also, to see the line speed, you need  to  have  the
          modem  set to show it in the connect string.  Otherwise you will
          only see 0 as the line speed.
     T - Multi-line untag
          You can toggle the feature to untag  entries  from  the  dialing
          directory  when a connection is established to a multi-line BBS.
          All the tagged entries that have the same name are untagged.

        Note that a special exception is made for this  menu:  every  user
        can  change  all  parameters  here,  but  some of them will not be
        saved.

   Screen and keyboard
     A - Command key is
          the 'Hot Key' that brings you into command mode. If this is  set
          to  'ALT'  or 'meta key', you can directly call commands by alt-
          key instead of HotKey-key.
     B - Backspace key sends
          There still are some systems that  want  a  VT100  to  send  DEL
          instead  of  BS. With this option you can enable that stupidity.
          (Eh, it's even on by default...)
     C - Status line is
          Enabled or  disabled.  Some  slow  terminals  (for  example,  X-
          terminals)  cause  the  status  line  to jump "up and down" when
          scrolling, so you can turn it off if desired. It will  still  be
          shown in command-mode.
     D - Alarm sound
          If  turned on, minicom will sound an alarm (on the console only)
          after  a  successful  connection  and  when  up/downloading   is
          complete.
     E - Foreground Color (menu)
          indicates  the foreground color to use for all the configuration
          windows in minicom.
     F - Background Color (menu)
          indicates the background color to use for all the  configuration
          windows  in minicom. Note that minicom will not allow you to set
          foreground and background colors to the same value.
     G - Foreground Color (term)
          indicates the foreground color to use in the terminal window.
     H - Background Color (term)
          indicates the background color to use in  the  terminal  window.
          Note  that  minicom  will  not  allow  you to set foreground and
          background colors to the same value.
     I - Foreground Color (stat)
          indicates the foreground color to use in for the status bar.
     J - Background Color (stat)
          indicates the color to use in for  the  status  bar.  Note  that
          minicom  will  allow  you to set the status bar's foreground and
          background colors to the same value. This will effectively  make
          the  status  bar  invisible  but  if  these are your intentions,
          please see the option
     K - History buffer size
          The  number  of  lines  to  keep  in  the  history  buffer  (for
          backscrolling).
     L - Macros file
          is the full path to the file that holds macros. Macros allow you
          to define a string to be sent when you press a certain  key.  In
          minicom,  you  may  define  F1  through  F10  to  send up to 256
          characters [this is set  at  compile  time].  The  filename  you
          specify is verified as soon as you hit ENTER. If you do not have
          permissions to create the specified file, an error message  will
          so  indicate  and you will be forced to re-edit the filename. If
          you are permitted to create the file, minicom checks to  see  if
          it already exists. If so, it assumes it's a macro file and reads
          it in. If it isn't, well, it's your problem :-) If the file does
          not exist, the filename is accepted.
     M - Edit Macros
          opens  up  a  new window which allows you to edit the F1 through
          F10 macros.
     N - Macros enabled
          - Yes or No. If macros are disabled, the F1-F10 keys  will  just
          send the VT100/VT220 function key escape sequences.
     O - Character conversion
          The  active  conversion table filename is shown here. If you can
          see no name, no conversion is active. Pressing O, you  will  see
          the conversion table edit menu.

          Edit Macros
             Here,  the  macros for F1 through F10 are defined. The bottom
             of the window shows a legend of character  combinations  that
             have  special  meaning.   They  allow  you  to  enter special
             control characters with plain text by prefixing them  with  a
             '^',  in which '^^' means '^' itself. You can send a 1 second
             delay with the '^~' code. This is useful when you are  trying
             to login after ftp'ing or telnet'ing somewhere.  You can also
             include your current username and  password  from  the  phone
             directory  in the macros with '\u' and '\p', respectively. If
             you need the backslash  character  in  the  macro,  write  it
             doubled  as  '\\'.   To  edit  a  macro, press the number (or
             letter for F10) and you will be  moved  to  the  end  of  the
             macro.  When  editing  the line, you may use the left & right
             arrows, Home & End keys, Delete  &  BackSpace,  and  ESC  and
             RETURN.  ESC cancels any changes made while ENTER accepts the
             changes.

          Character conversion
             Here you can edit the character conversion table. If you  are
             not  an  American,  you know that in many languages there are
             characters that are not included in the ASCII character  set,
             and  in  the  old  times  they  may  have  replaced some less
             important  characters  in  ASCII  and  now  they  are   often
             represented  with  character  codes  above 127. AND there are
             various different ways to represent them. This is  where  you
             may  edit  conversion tables for systems that use a character
             set different from the one on your computer.

          A - Load table
               You probably guessed it. This command loads  a  table  from
               the  disk.   You  are  asked  a  file  name  for the table.
               Predefined tables  .mciso,  .mcpc8  and  .mcsf7  should  be
               included with the program. Table .mciso does no conversion,
               .mcpc8 is to be used for connections with systems that  use
               the 8-bit pc character set, and .mcsf7 is for compatibility
               with the systems that uses the good  old  7-bit  coding  to
               replace   the   characters   {|}[]\  with  the  diacritical
               characters used in Finnish and Swedish.

          B - Save table
               This one  saves  the  active  table  on  the  filename  you
               specify.

          C - edit char
               This  is  where  you can make your own modifications to the
               existing table.  First you are asked  the  character  value
               (in  decimal)  whose  conversion  you  want to change. Next
               you'll say which character you want to see on  your  screen
               when  that character comes from the outside world. And then
               you'll be asked what you want to be sent out when you enter
               that character from your keyboard.

          D - next screen

          E - prev screen
               Yeah,  you probably noticed that this screen shows you what
               kind  of  conversions  are  active.  The  screen  just   is
               (usually)  too  small to show the whole table at once in an
               easy-to-understand format. This is how you can  scroll  the
               table left and right.

          F - convert capture
               Toggles  whether  or  not the character conversion table is
               used when writing the capture file.

   Save setup as dfl
     Save the parameters as the default for the next time the  program  is
     started.  Instead  of  dfl,  any  other  parameter  name  may appear,
     depending on which one was used when the program was started.

   Save setup as..
     Save the parameters under a special name. Whenever Minicom is started
     with  this  name  as  an argument, it will use these parameters. This
     option is of course privileged to root.

   Exit
     Escape from this menu without saving.  This can  also  be  done  with
     ESC.

   Exit from minicom
     Only  root  will  see this menu entry, if he/she started minicom with
     the '-s' option. This way, it is possible to change the configuration
     without actually running minicom.

STATUS LINE

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

LOCALES

   Minicom has support for local languages. This means you can change most
   of the English messages  and  other  strings  to  another  language  by
   setting the environment variable LANG.

MISC

   If  minicom  is  hung,  kill it with SIGTERM . (This means kill -15, or
   since sigterm is default, just plain  "kill  <minicompid>".  This  will
   cause a graceful exit of minicom, doing resets and everything.  You may
   kill minicom from a script with the  command  "!  killall  -9  minicom"
   without  hanging  up  the line. Without the -9 parameter, minicom first
   hangs up before exiting.

   Since a lot of escape sequences begin with ESC (Arrow up is ESC  [  A),
   Minicom  does  not know if the escape character it gets is you pressing
   the escape key, or part of a sequence.

   An old version of Minicom, V1.2, solved this in a rather crude way:  to
   get the escape key, you had to press it twice.

   As of release 1.3 this has bettered a little: now a 1-second timeout is
   builtin, like in vi. For systems that have the select() system call the
   timeout is 0.5 seconds. And... surprise: a special Linux-dependent hack
   :-) was added. Now, minicom can separate the  escape  key  and  escape-
   sequences.  To  see how dirty this was done, look into wkeys.c.  But it
   works like a charm!

DEBIAN SPECIFIC

   In Debian GNU/Linux systems, minicom is not  setuid  root.  Users  that
   need  to  use it have to get added to the dialout group in order to use
   serial port devices.

FILES

   Minicom keeps it's configuration files in the  directory  /etc/minicom.
   You'll  find  the  demo  files  for  runscript(1),  and the examples of
   character conversion tables in /usr/share/doc/minicom.  The  conversion
   tables  are  named  something like mc.* in the tables subdirectory, but
   you probably want to copy the ones you need in your home  directory  as
   something beginning with a dot.

   minirc.*
   $HOME/.minirc.*
   $HOME/.dialdir
   $HOME/minicom.log
   /usr/share/locale/*/LC_MESSAGES/minicom.mo

SEE ALSO

   runscript(1)

BUGS

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

AUTHORS

   The  original   author   of   minicom   is   Miquel   van   Smoorenburg
   (miquels@cistron.nl).  He wrote versions up to 1.75.
   Jukka  Lahtinen  (walker@netsonic.fi,  jukkal@despammed.com)  has  been
   responsible for new versions since 1.78, helped by some  other  people,
   including:
   filipg@paranoia.com wrote the History buffer searching to 1.79.
   Arnaldo    Carvalho    de    Melo   (acme@conectiva.com.br)   did   the
   internationalization and the Brazilian Portuguese translations.
   Jim Seymour  (jseymour@jimsun.LinxNet.com)  wrote  the  multiple  modem
   support and the filename selection window used since 1.80.
   Tomohiro  Kubota  (kubota@debian.or.jp) wrote the Japanese translations
   and the citation facility, and did some fixes.
   Gael Queri (gqueri@mail.dotcom.fr) wrote the French translations.
   Arkadiusz Miskiewicz (misiek@pld.org.pl) wrote the Polish translations.
   Kim Soyoung (nexti@chollian.net) wrote the Korean translations.
   Jork  Loeser  (jork.loeser@inf.tu-dresden.de)   provided   the   socket
   extension.

   Most  of  this  man page is copied, with corrections, from the original
   minicom README, but some pieces and the corrections are by  Michael  K.
   Johnson.

   Jukka  Lahtinen  (walker@netsonic.fi) has added some information of the
   changes made after version 1.75.





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