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

COMMAND-LINE

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

       -o   Do  not  initialize.  Minicom  will  skip the initialization code.
            This  option  is  handy  if  you  quitted  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   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   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
            support 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 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   Ditto but assume screen uses an ISO8859 character set.

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

       -a   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   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
            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   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   filename.  Open capture file at startup.

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

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

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

       -R   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 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   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.)

            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
       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.
       O    Configure minicom. Puts you in the configuration menu.
       P    Communication Parameters. Allows  you  to  change  the  bps  rate,
            parity and number of bits.
       Q    Exit  minicom  without  resetting the modem. If macros changed and
            were not saved, you will have a chance to do so.
       R    Receive files. Choose from various protocols  (external).  If  you
            have  the  filename  selection  window and the prompt for download
            directory enabled, you’ll get a selection window for choosing  the
            directory   for  downloading.  Otherwise  the  download  directory
            defined in the Filenames and paths menu will be used.
       S    Send files. Choose the protocol  like  you  do  with  the  receive
            command.  If  you don’t have the filename selection window enabled
            (in the File transfer protocols menu), you’ll just have  to  write
            the  filename(s)  in  a  dialog  window. If you have the selection
            window enabled, a window will pop up showing the filenames in your
            upload  directory.  You  can  tag  and untag filenames by pressing
            spacebar, and move the cursor up and down with the cursor keys  or
            j/k. The selected filenames are shown highlighted. Directory names
            are shown [within brackets] and you can move up  or  down  in  the
            directory  tree  by pressing the spacebar twice. Finally, send the
            files by pressing ENTER or quit by pressing ESC.
       T    Choose Terminal emulation: Ansi(color) or  vt100.   You  can  also
            change the backspace key here, turn the status line on or off, and
            define delay (in milliseconds) after  each  newline  if  you  need
            that.
       W    Toggle line-wrap on/off.
       X    Exit  minicom,  reset modem. If macros changed and were not saved,
            you will have a chance to do so.
       Y    Paste a file. Reads a file and sends its contests just  as  if  it
            would be typed in.
       Z    Pop up the help screen.

DIALING DIRECTORY

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

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

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

CONFIGURATION

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

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

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

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

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

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

       Serial port setup
          A - Serial device
               /dev/tty1  or /dev/ttyS1 for most people.  /dev/cua<n> is still
               possible under linux, but  not  recommended  any  more  because
               these  devices  are  obsolete  and many newly installed 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. Linux systems
               use /var/lock. If this directory does not exist,  minicom  will
               not attempt to use lockfiles.
          C - Callin program
               If  you  have  a  uugetty  or something on your serial port, it
               could be that you want a program to be run to switch the  modem
               cq.  port  into dialin/dialout mode. This is the program to get
               into dialin mode.
          D - Callout program
               And this to get into dialout mode.
          E - Bps/Par/Bits
               Default parameters at startup.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

               D - next screen

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

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

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

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

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

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

STATUS LINE

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

LOCALES

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

MISC

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

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

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

       As of release 1.3 this has bettered a little: now a 1-second timeout is
       builtin, like in vi. For systems that have the select() system call the
       timeout is 0.5 seconds. And... surprise: a special Linux-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!

DEBIAN SPECIFIC

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

FILES

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

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

SEE ALSO

       runscript(1)

BUGS

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

AUTHORS

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

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

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