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MINICOM(1)							    MINICOM(1)

NAME
       minicom - friendly serial communication program

SYNOPSIS
       minicom [-somMlwz8] [-c on|off] [-S script] [-d entry]
	       [-a on|off] [-t term] [-p pty] [-C capturefile] [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 seperate script language
       interpreter, capture to file, multiple users with individual configura‐
       tions, and more.

COMMAND-LINE
       -s   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   Do	not  initialize.  Minicom  will	 skip the initialization code.
	    This option is handy if you quitted from  minicom  without	reset‐
	    ting,  and	then want to restart a session. It is potentially dan‐
	    gerous 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   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   Same as -m, but assumes that your Meta key sets the 8th bit of the
	    character high (sends 128 + character code).

       -z   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   Literal translation of characters with the high bit set. With this
	    flag on, minicom will not try to translate the IBM line characters
	    to	ASCII,	but  passes  them straight trough. Many PC-unix clones
	    will display them correctly without translation (Linux in  a  spe‐
	    cial mode, Coherent and Sco).

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

       -w   Turns linewrap on at startup by default.

       -a   Attribute  usage. Some terminals, notably televideo's, have a rot‐
	    ten 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   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 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.  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 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   Pseudo  terminal to use. This overrrides 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   filename.  Open capture file at startup.

       -T   Disable the display of the online time in the status bar.

       -8   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 multibyte characters such as Japanese. Not  needed  in	 every
	    language  with  8bit  characters.  (For example displaying Finnish
	    text doesn't need this.)

	    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'.

USE
       Minicom is window based. To popup 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.
       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 linewrap on/off.
       X    Exit minicom, reset modem. If macros changed and were  not	saved,
	    you will have a chance to do so.
       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 a 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 succesfull 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 spacify 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. Most settings
       there can be changed by everyone, but some are restricted to root only.
       Those priviliged settings are marked with a star (*) here.

       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, eg. 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 linux, but not recommended any more because these
	      devices  are obsolete and many newly installed systems with ker‐
	      nel 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. 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.	 Be warned! The callin
	 and callout programs are run with the effective user id of "root", eg
	 0!

       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	succesfull  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
	      forground 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 forground 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	forground  and
	      background  colors to the same value. This will effectively make
	      the status bar invisible	but  if	 these	are  your  intensions,
	      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 priviliged 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 now 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. On September 2001 the supported
       languages are Brazilian Portuguese, Finnish, Japanese, French,  Polish,
       Czech, Russian and Spanish.  Turkish is under construction.

SECURITY ISSUES
       Since  Minicom  is run setuid root on some computers, you probably want
       to restrict access to it. This is possible  by  using  a	 configuration
       file  in	 the  same  directory  as  the	default	 files,	 called "mini‐
       com.users".  The syntax of this file is as following:

	    <username> <configuration> [configuration...]

       To allow user 'miquels' to use the  default  configuration,  enter  the
       following line into "minicom.users":

	    miquels dfl

       If  you	want  users to be able to use more than the default configura‐
       tions, just add the names of those configurations behind the user name.
       If  no configuration is given behind the username, minicom assumes that
       the user has access to all configurations.

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-dependant 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.

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

VERSION
       Minicom is now up to version 2.1.

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 Brasilian 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		 $Date: 2003/04/26 07:31:06 $		    MINICOM(1)
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