# minicom

## NAME



           minicom - friendly serial communication program
    


## SYNOPSIS



           **minicom**[options] [_configuration_]
    


## DESCRIPTION



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


## COMMAND-LINE



           **-s, --setup**
                **S** etup.  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**
                **L** iteral 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**
                **A** ttribute 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**
                **T** erminal 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**
                **C** olor 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**
                **D** ial 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**
                **P** seudo 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



           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



           By pressing C-A D the program puts you in the dialing directory.
           Select a command by pressing the capitalized letter or moving
           cursor right/left with the arrow keys or the h/l keys and pressing
           Enter. You can add, delete or edit entries and move them up and
           down in the directory list. By choosing "dial" the phone numbers
           of the tagged entries, or if nothing is tagged, the number of the
           highlighted entry will be dialed. While the modem is dialing, you
           can press escape to cancel dialing. Any other key will close the
           dial window, but won't cancel the dialing itself. Your dialing
           directory will be saved into the file ".dialdir" in your home
           directory.  You can scroll up and down with the arrow keys, but
           you can also scroll complete pages by pressing the PageUp or
           PageDown key.  If you don't have those, use Control-B (Backward)
           and Control-F (Forward). You can use the space bar to **tag** a number
           of entries and minicom will rotate trough this list if a
           connection can't be made. A '>' symbol is drawn in the directory
           before the names of the tagged entries.
    
           The "edit" menu speaks for itself, but I will discuss it briefly
           here.
           **A - Name**
                  The name for this entry
           **B - Number**
                  and its telephone number.
           **C - Dial string #**
                  Which specific dial string you want to use to connect.
                  There are three different dial strings (prefixes and
                  suffixes) that can be configured in the **Modem and dialing**
                  menu.
           **D - Local echo**
                  can be on or off for this system (if your version of
                  minicom supports it).
           **E - Script**
                  The script that must be executed after a successful
                  connection is made (see the manual for runscript)
           **F - Username**
                  The username that is passed to the runscript program.  It
                  is passed in the environment string "$LOGIN".
           **G - Password**
                  The password is passed as "$PASS".
           **H - Terminal Emulation**
                  Use ANSI or VT100 emulation.
           **I - Backspace key sends**
                  What code (Backspace or Delete) the backspace key sends.
           **J - Linewrap**
                  Can be on or off.
           **K - Line settings**
                  Bps rate, bits, parity and number of stop bits to use for
                  this connection.  You can choose **current** for the speed, so
                  that it will use whatever speed is being used at that
                  moment (useful if you have multiple modems).
           **L - Conversion table**
                  You may specify a character conversion table to be loaded
                  whenever this entry answers, before running the login
                  script. If this field is blank, the conversion table stays
                  unchanged.
           The edit menu also shows the latest date and time when you called
           this entry and the total number of calls there, but doesn't let
           you change them.  They are updated automatically when you connect.
    
           The moVe command lets you move the highlighted entry up or down in
           the dialing directory with the up/down arrow keys or the k and j
           keys. Press Enter or ESC to end moving the entry.
    


## CONFIGURATION



           By pressing C-A O you will be thrown into the setup menu.
    
           **Filenames and paths**
             This menu defines your default directories.
             **A - Download directory**
                  where the downloaded files go to.
             **B - Upload directory**
                  where the uploaded files are read from.
             **C - Script directory**
                  Where you keep your login scripts.
             **D - Script program**
                  Which program to use as the script interpreter. Defaults to
                  the program "runscript", but if you want to use something
                  else (eg, /bin/sh or "expect") it is possible.  Stdin and
                  stdout are connected to the modem, stderr to the screen.
                  If the path is relative (ie, does not start with a slash)
                  then it's relative to your home directory, except for the
                  script interpreter.
             **E - Kermit program**
                  Where to find the executable for kermit, and it's options.
                  Some simple macro's can be used on the command line: '%l'
                  is expanded to the complete filename of the dial out-
                  device, '%f' is expanded to the serial port file descriptor
                  and '%b' is expanded to the current serial port speed.
             **F - Logging options**
                  Options to configure the logfile writing.
    
                  **A - File name**
                       Here you can enter the name of the logfile. The file
                       will be written in your home directory, and the
                       default value is "minicom.log".  If you blank the
                       name, all logging is turned off.
    
                  **B - Log connects and hangups**
                       This option defines whether or not the logfile is
                       written when the remote end answers the call or hangs
                       up. Or when you give the hangup command yourself or
                       leave minicom without hangup while online.
    
                  **C - Log file transfers**
                       Do you want log entries of receiving and sending
                       files.
             The 'log' command in the scripts is not affected by logging
             options B and C.  It is always executed, if you just have the
             name of the log file defined.
    
           **File Transfer Protocols**
             Protocols defined here will show up when C-A s/r is pressed.
             "Name" in the beginning of the line is the name that will show
             up in the menu. "Program" is the path to the protocol. "Name"
             after that defines if the program needs an argument, e.g. a file
             to be transmitted. U/D defines if this entry should show up in
             the upload or the download menu.  Fullscr defines if the program
             should run full screen, or that minicom will only show it's
             stderr in a window. IO-Red defines if minicom should attach the
             program's standard in and output to the modem port or not.
             "Multi" tells the filename selection window whether or not the
             protocol can send multiple files with one command. It has no
             effect on download protocols, and it is also ignored with upload
             protocols if you don't use the filename selection window. The
             old sz and rz are not full screen, and have IO-Red set. However,
             there are curses based versions of at least rz that do not want
             their stdin and stdout redirected, and run full screen.  All
             file transfer protocols are run with the UID of the user, and
             not with UID=root. '%l', '%f' and '%b' can be used on the
             command line as with kermit.  Within this menu you can also
             define if you want to use the filename selection window when
             prompted for files to upload, and if you like to be prompted for
             the download directory every time the automatic download is
             started. If you leave the download directory prompt disabled,
             the download directory defined in the file and directory menu is
             used.
    
           **Serial port setup**
             **A - Serial device**
                  /dev/tty1 or /dev/ttyS1 for most people.  /dev/cua<n> is
                  still possible under GNU/Linux, but no longer recommended
                  as these devices are obsolete and many systems with kernel
                  2.2.x or newer don't have them.  Use /dev/ttyS<n> instead.
                  You may also have /dev/modem as a symlink to the real
                  device.
                  If you have modems connected to two or more serial ports,
                  you may specify all of them here in a list separated by
                  space, comma or semicolon. When Minicom starts, it checks
                  the list until it finds an available modem and uses that
                  one. (However, you can't specify different init strings to
                  them... at least not yet.)
                  To use a UNIX socket for communication the device name must
                  be prefixed with "unix#" following by the full path and the
                  filename of the socket.  Minicom will then try to connect
                  to this socket as a client. As long as it cannot connect to
                  the socket it stays 'offline'. As soon as the connection
                  establishes, minicom goes 'online'. If the server closes
                  the socket, minicom switches to 'offline' again.
             **B - Lock file location**
                  On most systems This should be /usr/spool/uucp. GNU/Linux
                  systems use /var/lock. If this directory does not exist,
                  minicom will not attempt to use lockfiles.
             **C - Callin program**
                  If you have a uugetty or something on your serial port, it
                  could be that you want a program to be run to switch the
                  modem cq. port into dialin/dialout mode. This is the
                  program to get into dialin mode.
             **D - Callout program**
                  And this to get into dialout mode.
             **E - Bps/Par/Bits**
                  Default parameters at startup.
    
             If one of the entries is left blank, it will not be used. So if
             you don't care about locking, and don't have a getty running on
             your modemline, entries B - D should be left blank.
    
           **Modem and Dialing**
             Here, the parameters for your modem are defined. I will not
             explain this further because the defaults are for generic Hayes
             modems, and should work always. This file is not a Hayes
             tutorial :-) The only things worth noticing are that control
             characters can be sent by prefixing them with a '^', in which
             '^^' means '^' itself, and the '\' character must also be
             doubled as '\\', because backslash is used specially in the
             macro definitions.  Some options however, don't have much to do
             with the modem but more with the behaviour of minicom itself:
             **M - Dial time**
                  The number of seconds before minicom times out if no
                  connection is established.
             **N - Delay before redial**
                  Minicom will redial if no connection was made, but it first
                  waits some time.
             **O - Number of tries**
                  Maximum number of times that minicom attempts to dial.
             **P - Drop DTR time**
                  If you set this to 0, minicom hangs up by sending a Hayes-
                  type hangup sequence. If you specify a non-zero value, the
                  hangup will be done by dropping the DTR line. The value
                  tells in seconds how long DTR will be kept down.
             **Q - Auto bps detect**
                  If this is on, minicom tries to match the dialed party's
                  speed.  With most modern modems this is NOT desirable,
                  since the modem buffers the data and converts the speed.
             **R - Modem has DCD line**
                  If your modem, and your O/S both support the DCD line (that
                  goes 'high' when a connection is made) minicom will use it.
                  When you have this option on, minicom will also NOT start
                  dialing while you are already online.
             **S - Status line shows DTE speed / line speed**
                  You can toggle the status line to show either the DTE speed
                  (the speed which minicom uses to communicate with your
                  modem) or the line speed (the speed that your modem uses on
                  the line to communicate with the other modem). Notice that
                  the line speed may change during the connection, but you
                  will still only see the initial speed that the modems
                  started the connection with. This is because the modem
                  doesn't tell the program if the speed is changed. Also, to
                  see the line speed, you need to have the modem set to show
                  it in the connect string.  Otherwise you will only see 0 as
                  the line speed.
             **T - Multi-line untag**
                  You can toggle the feature to untag entries from the
                  dialing directory when a connection is established to a
                  multi-line BBS. All the tagged entries that have the same
                  name are untagged.
    
                **Note that a special exception is made for this menu: every**
                **user can change all parameters here, but some of them will**
                **not be saved.**
    
           **Screen and keyboard**
             **A - Command key is**
                  the 'Hot Key' that brings you into command mode. If this is
                  set to 'ALT' or 'meta key', you can directly call commands
                  by alt-key instead of HotKey-key.
             **B - Backspace key sends**
                  There still are some systems that want a VT100 to send DEL
                  instead of BS. With this option you can enable that
                  stupidity.  (Eh, it's even on by default...)
             **C - Status line is**
                  Enabled or disabled. Some slow terminals (for example, X-
                  terminals) cause the status line to jump "up and down" when
                  scrolling, so you can turn it off if desired. It will still
                  be shown in command-mode.
             **D - Alarm sound**
                  If turned on, minicom will sound an alarm (on the console
                  only) after a successful connection and when up/downloading
                  is complete.
             **E - Foreground Color (menu)**
                  indicates the foreground color to use for all the
                  configuration windows in minicom.
             **F - Background Color (menu)**
                  indicates the background color to use for all the
                  configuration windows in minicom. Note that minicom will
                  not allow you to set foreground and background colors to
                  the same value.
             **G - Foreground Color (term)**
                  indicates the foreground color to use in the terminal
                  window.
             **H - Background Color (term)**
                  indicates the background color to use in the terminal
                  window. Note that minicom will not allow you to set
                  foreground and background colors to the same value.
             **I - Foreground Color (stat)**
                  indicates the foreground color to use in for the status
                  bar.
             **J - Background Color (stat)**
                  indicates the color to use in for the status bar. Note that
                  minicom will allow you to set the status bar's foreground
                  and background colors to the same value. This will
                  effectively make the status bar invisible but if these are
                  your intentions, please see the option
             **K - History buffer size**
                  The number of lines to keep in the history buffer (for
                  backscrolling).
             **L - Macros file**
                  is the full path to the file that holds macros. Macros
                  allow you to define a string to be sent when you press a
                  certain key. In minicom, you may define F1 through 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



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


## LOCALES



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


## MISC



           If minicom is hung, kill it with SIGTERM . (This means kill -15,
           or since sigterm is default, just plain "kill <minicompid>". This
           will cause a graceful exit of minicom, doing resets and
           everything.  You may kill minicom from a script with the command
           "! killall -9 minicom" without hanging up the line. Without the -9
           parameter, minicom first hangs up before exiting.
    
           Since a lot of escape sequences begin with ESC (Arrow up is ESC [
           A), Minicom does not know if the escape character it gets is you
           pressing the escape key, or part of a sequence.
    
           An old version of Minicom, V1.2, solved this in a rather crude
           way: to get the escape key, you had to press it _twice_.
    
           As of release 1.3 this has bettered a little: now a 1-second
           timeout is builtin, like in vi. For systems that have the select()
           system call the timeout is 0.5 seconds. And... surprise: a special
           Linux-dependent **hack** :-) was added. Now, minicom can separate the
           escape key and escape-sequences. To see how dirty this was done,
           look into wkeys.c.  But it works like a charm!
    


## 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
           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
    


## BUGS



           Please report any bugs to _minicom-devel@alioth-lists.debian.net_.
           Thank you!
    


* * *