minicom(1) — Linux manual page

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MINICOM(1)                     Version 2.7                    MINICOM(1)

NAME         top

       minicom - friendly serial communication program

SYNOPSIS         top

       minicom [options] [configuration]

DESCRIPTION         top

       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         top

       -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 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. Terminals (such as the Linux console) support
            color with the standard ANSI escape sequences. In case there
            is no such support, color usage can be disabled with '-c
            off'. 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.

       --capturefile-buffer-mode=MODE
            Buffering mode of capture file. MODE can be one of:
               N  Unbuffered (the default).
               L  Line buffered.
               F  Fully buffered.

       -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.

       -O, --option
            Set an option. The argument can be a single word, or a
            key=value pair.  Recognized options:

            timestamp with values simple, delta, persecond, and
            extended. If no value is given, 'simple' is selected.

       -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 their own configuration file, it will show up
            in their home directory as ".minirc.dfl" or
            ".minirc.configuration".

USE         top

       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 timestamp modes to be added to the output.
            Available are simple and extended time formats for each
            line, a delta to the previous line, a time display each
            second and no timestamps (the default).
       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.
       U    Add carriage return to each received line.
       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         top

       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         top

       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 F12 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 F12 macros.
         N - Macros enabled
              - Yes or No. If macros are disabled, the F1-F12 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 F12 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 shown number or letter 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         top

       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         top

       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         top

       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         top

       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 subdirectories of /usr/doc/minicom*. The
       conversion tables are named something 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         top

       runscript(1)

BUGS         top

       Please report any bugs to [email protected].
       Thank you!

AUTHORS         top

       The original author of minicom is Miquel van Smoorenburg
       ([email protected]).  He wrote versions up to 1.75.
       Jukka Lahtinen ([email protected], [email protected]) has
       been responsible for new versions since 1.78, helped by some
       other people, including:
       [email protected] wrote the History buffer searching to 1.79.
       Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo ([email protected]) did the
       internationalization and the Brazilian Portuguese translations.
       Jim Seymour ([email protected]) wrote the multiple
       modem support and the filename selection window used since 1.80.
       Tomohiro Kubota ([email protected]) wrote the Japanese
       translations and the citation facility, and did some fixes.
       Gael Queri ([email protected]) wrote the French translations.
       Arkadiusz Miskiewicz ([email protected]) wrote the Polish
       translations.
       Kim Soyoung ([email protected]) wrote the Korean translations.
       Jork Loeser ([email protected]) 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 ([email protected]) has added some information of
       the changes made after version 1.75.

       Adam Lackorzynski ([email protected]) is the current
       maintainer of minicom.

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the minicom (a serial communication program)
       project.  Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨https://salsa.debian.org/minicom-team/minicom⟩.  If you have a
       bug report for this manual page, send it to [email protected].
       This page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨https://salsa.debian.org/minicom-team/minicom⟩ on 2024-06-14.
       (At that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found
       in the repository was 2024-06-13.)  If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there
       is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       [email protected]

User's Manual                   Dec 2013                      MINICOM(1)

Pages that refer to this page: ascii-xfr(1)runscript(1)xminicom(1)