OpenSuSE Man Pages

Man Page or Keyword Search:
Man Architecture
Apropos Keyword Search (all sections) Output format
home | help
x SuSE Linux 13.1-RELEASE x
x SuSE Linux 13.1-RELEASEx
MINICOM(1)                        Version 2.7                       MINICOM(1)

NAME
       minicom - friendly serial communication program

SYNOPSIS
       minicom [options] [configuration]

DESCRIPTION
       minicom  is a communication program which somewhat resembles the share-
       ware 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 configura-
       tions, and more.

COMMAND-LINE
       -s, --setup
            Setup.  Root edits the  system-wide  defaults  in  /etc/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  com-
            mand  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 sup-
            port 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 with-
            out 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, mini-
            com 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 spec-
            ify  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 configu-
            ration file.

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

       -R, --remotecharset
            Specify  the  character set of the remote system is using and con-
            vert 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.  'Continu-
            ous' 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.config-
            uration".

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  spe-
       cial  status  line that will be used if the termcap information is com-
       plete 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 sys-
            tem.   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,  par-
            ity 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  com-
            mand.  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  direc-
            tory  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 direc-
       tory  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  (Back-
       ward)  and Control-F (Forward). You can use the space bar to tag a num-
       ber 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 connec-
                 tion 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  con-
              nected 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 with-
                   out 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 transmit-
         ted.  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  file-
              name  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, mini-
              com 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 sys-
              tems 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 pre-
         fixing 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  sec-
              onds 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 commu-
              nicate  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-termi-
              nals)  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 com-
              plete.
         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 back-
              ground 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 charac-
              ters  [this is set at compile time]. The filename you specify is
              verified as soon as you hit ENTER. If you do  not  have  permis-
              sions  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  con-
                 trol 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 dou-
                 bled 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 can-
                 cels 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 impor-
                 tant characters in ASCII and now they are  often  represented
                 with character codes above 127. AND there are various differ-
                 ent ways to represent them. This is where you may  edit  con-
                 version 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.  Prede-
                   fined 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 charac-
                   ters used in Finnish and Swedish.

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

              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  (usu-
                   ally) 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, depend-
         ing 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 applica-
       tions 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  set-
       ting 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!

FILES
       Minicom keeps  it's  configuration  files  in  one  directory,  usually
       /var/lib/minicom,  /usr/local/etc  or  /etc.  To  find out what default
       directory minicom has  compiled  in,  issue  the  command  minicom  -h.
       You'll  probably  also  find  the  demo files for runscript(1), and the
       examples of character conversion tables either there or in  the  subdi-
       rectories  of  /usr/doc/minicom*. The conversion tables are named some-
       thing like mc.* in that directory, 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 international-
       ization and the Brazilian Portuguese translations.
       Jim Seymour (jseymour@jimsun.LinxNet.com) wrote the multiple modem sup-
       port 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  exten-
       sion.

       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.

User's Manual                      Dec 2013                         MINICOM(1)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<
http://star2.abcm.com/cgi-bin/bsdi-man?query=minicom&sektion=1&manpath=>

home | help