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minicom

MINICOM(1)                                                          MINICOM(1)



NAME
       minicom - friendly serial communication program

SYNOPSIS
       minicom [-somMlwz8] [-c on|off] [-S script] [-d entry]
               [-a on|off] [-t term] [-p pty] [-C capturefile] [configuration]

DESCRIPTION
       minicom is a communication program which somewhat resembles the  share-
       ware  program  TELIX  but  is free with source code and runs under most
       unices.  Features include dialing directory with  auto-redial,  support
       for UUCP-style lock files on serial devices, a seperate script language
       interpreter, capture to file, multiple users with individual configura-
       tions, and more.

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

       -o   Do not initialize. Minicom  will  skip  the  initialization  code.
            This  option  is  handy if you quitted from minicom without reset-
            ting, and then want to restart a session. It is  potentially  dan-
            gerous  though:  no check for lock files etc. is made, so a normal
            user could interfere with things like uucp... Maybe this  will  be
            taken  out  later. For now it is assumed, that users who are given
            access to a modem are responsible enough for their actions.

       -m   Override command-key with the Meta or ALT key. This is the default
            in  1.80  and it can also be configured in one of minicom's menus,
            but if you use different terminals all the  time,  of  which  some
            don't  have  a Meta or ALT key, it's handy to set the default com-
            mand key to Ctrl-A and use this option when you  have  a  keyboard
            supporting  Meta  or  ALT keys. Minicom assumes that your Meta key
            sends the ESC prefix, not the other variant that sets the  highest
            bit of the character.

       -M   Same as -m, but assumes that your Meta key sets the 8th bit of the
            character high (sends 128 + character code).

       -z   Use terminal status line. This only works on terminals  that  sup-
            port it and that have the relevant information in their termcap or
            terminfo database entry.

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

       -w   Turns linewrap on at startup by default.

       -a   Attribute usage. Some terminals, notably televideo's, have a  rot-
            ten  attribute  handling (serial instead of parallel). By default,
            minicom uses '-a on', but if you are using such a terminal you can
            (must!)  supply the option '-a off'. The trailing 'on' or 'off' is
            needed.

       -t   Terminal type. With this flag, you can  override  the  environment
            TERM  variable.   This is handy for use in the MINICOM environment
            variable; one can create a special  termcap  entry  for  use  with
            minicom on the console, that initializes the screen to raw mode so
            that in conjunction with the -l flag, the IBM line characters  are
            displayed untranslated.

       -c   Color  usage.  Some  terminals (such as the Linux console) support
            color with the standard ANSI escape sequences.  Because  there  is
            apparently  no  termcap  support for color, these escape sequences
            are hard-coded into minicom.  Therefore  this  option  is  off  by
            default.   You  can  turn  it  on with '-c on'. This, and the '-m'
            option, are good candidates to put into  the  MINICOM  environment
            variable.

       -S   script.  Run the named script at startup. So far, passing username
            and password to a startup script is not supported. If you also use
            the  -d  option to start dialing at startup, the -S script will be
            run BEFORE dialing the entries specified with -d.

       -d   Dial an entry from the dialing directory on startup. You can spec-
            ify  an  index  number,  but  also  a substring of the name of the
            entry. If you specify a name that  has  multiple  entries  in  the
            directory,  they  are all tagged for dialing. You can also specify
            multiple names or index numbers by separating  them  with  commas.
            The  dialing  will  start from the first entry specified after all
            other program initialization procedures are completed.

       -p   Pseudo terminal to use. This overrrides the terminal port  defined
            in  the  configuration  files, but only if it is a pseudo tty. The
            filename supplied  must  be  of  the  form  (/dev/)tty[p-z/][0-f],
            (/dev/)pts[p-z/][0-f]   or   (/dev/)pty[p-z/][0-f].  For  example,
            /dev/ttyp1, pts/0 or /dev/ptyp2.

       -C   filename.  Open capture file at startup.

       -8   8bit characters pass through without any modification.   'Continu-
            ous'  means  no  locate/attribute  control  sequences are inserted
            without real change of locate/attribute. This mode is  to  display
            8bit  multibyte  characters  such as Japanese. Not needed in every
            language with 8bit characters.  (For  example  displaying  Finnish
            text doesn't need this.)

            When  minicom  starts,  it  first searches the MINICOM environment
            variable for command-line arguments, which can be  over-ridden  on
            the command line.  Thus, if you have done

                 MINICOM='-m -c on'
                 export MINICOM

            or  the  equivalent,  and  start minicom, minicom will assume that
            your terminal has a Meta or <ALT> key and that color is supported.
            If  you then log in from a terminal without color support, and you
            have set MINICOM in your startup (.profile  or  equivalent)  file,
            and  don't  want to re-set your environment variable, you can type
            'minicom -c off' and run without color support for that session.

       configuration
            The configuration argument is more interesting. Normally,  minicom
            gets  its defaults from a file called "minirc.dfl". If you however
            give an argument to minicom, it will try to get its defaults  from
            a file called "minirc.configuration".  So it is possible to create
            multiple configuration files, for different ports, different users
            etc.  Most  sensible  is to use device names, such as tty1, tty64,
            sio2 etc. If a user creates his own configuration  file,  it  will
            show up in his home directory as '.minirc.dfl'.

USE
       Minicom  is window based. To popup a window with the function you want,
       press Control-A (from now on, we will use C-A to mean  Control-A),  and
       then the function key (a-z or A-Z). By pressing C-A first and then 'z',
       a help screen comes up with a  short  summary  of  all  commands.  This
       escape  key can be altered when minicom is configured (-s option or C-A
       O), but we'll stick to Control-A for now.

       For every menu the next keys can be used:
        UP     arrow-up or 'k'
        DOWN   arrow-down or 'j'
        LEFT   arrow-left or 'h'
        RIGHT  arrow-right or 'l'
        CHOOSE Enter
        CANCEL ESCape.

       The screen is divided into two portions: the upper  24  lines  are  the
       terminal-emulator   screen.  In  this  window,  ANSI  or  VT100  escape
       sequences are interpreted.  If there is a line left at  the  bottom,  a
       status  line  is placed there.  If this is not possible the status line
       will be showed every time you press C-A. On terminals that have a  spe-
       cial  status  line that will be used if the termcap information is com-
       plete and the -k flag has been given.

       Possible commands are listed next, in alphabetical order.
       C-A  Pressing C-A a second time will just send a C-A to the remote sys-
            tem.   If  you  have  changed your "escape character" to something
            other than C-A, this works analogously for that character.
       A    Toggle 'Add Linefeed' on/off. If it is on,  a  linefeed  is  added
            before every carriage return displayed on the screen.
       B    Gives  you  a  scroll  back buffer. You can scroll up with u, down
            with d, a page up with b, a page down with f, and if you have them
            the  arrow  and  page  up/page down keys can also be used. You can
            search for text in the buffer with s (case-sensitive) or S  (case-
            insensitive).  N  will  find the next occurrence of the string.  c
            will enter citation mode. A text cursor appears  and  you  specify
            the  start  line  by hitting Enter key. Then scroll back mode will
            finish and the contents with prefix '>' will be sent.
       C    Clears the screen.
       D    Dial a number, or go to the dialing directory.
       E    Toggle local echo on and off (if your version of minicom  supports
            it).
       F    A break signal is sent to the modem.
       G    Run script (Go). Runs a login script.
       H    Hangup.
       I    Toggle  the  type  of  escape  sequence  that the cursor keys send
            between normal and applications mode. (See also the comment  about
            the status line below).
       J    Jump to a shell. On return, the whole screen will be redrawn.
       K    Clears the screen, runs kermit and redraws the screen upon return.
       L    Turn Capture file on off. If turned on, all  output  sent  to  the
            screen will be captured in the file too.
       M    Sends  the  modem initialization string. If you are online and the
            DCD line setting is on, you are asked for confirmation before  the
            modem is initialized.
       O    Configure minicom. Puts you in the configuration menu.
       P    Communication  Parameters. Allows you to change the bps rate, par-
            ity and number of bits.
       Q    Exit minicom without resetting the modem. If  macros  changed  and
            were not saved, you will have a chance to do so.
       R    Receive  files.  Choose  from various protocols (external). If you
            have the filename selection window and  the  prompt  for  download
            directory  enabled, you'll get a selection window for choosing the
            directory  for  downloading.  Otherwise  the  download   directory
            defined in the Filenames and paths menu will be used.
       S    Send  files. Choose the protocol like you do with the receive com-
            mand. If you don't have the filename selection window enabled  (in
            the  File  transfer protocols menu), you'll just have to write the
            filename(s) in a dialog window. If you have the  selection  window
            enabled, a window will pop up showing the filenames in your upload
            directory. You can tag and untag filenames by  pressing  spacebar,
            and  move  the cursor up and down with the cursor keys or j/k. The
            selected filenames are  shown  highlighted.  Directory  names  are
            shown  [within brackets] and you can move up or down in the direc-
            tory tree by pressing the spacebar twice. Finally, send the  files
            by pressing ENTER or quit by pressing ESC.
       T    Choose  Terminal  emulation:  Ansi(color)  or vt100.  You can also
            change the backspace key here, turn the status line on or off, and
            define  delay  (in  milliseconds)  after  each newline if you need
            that.
       W    Toggle linewrap on/off.
       X    Exit minicom, reset modem. If macros changed and were  not  saved,
            you will have a chance to do so.
       Z    Pop up the help screen.

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

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

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


CONFIGURATION
       By pressing C-A O you will be thrown into the setup menu. Most settings
       there can be changed by everyone, but some are restricted to root only.
       Those priviliged settings are marked with a star (*) here.

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

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

               B - Log connects and hangups
                    This option defines whether or not the logfile is  written
                    when  the remote end answers the call or hangs up. Or when
                    you give the hangup  command  yourself  or  leave  minicom
                    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, eg. a file to be transmit-
          ted.  U/D  defines if this entry should show up in the upload or the
          download menu.  Fullscr defines  if  the  program  should  run  full
          screen,  or that minicom will only show it's stderr in a window. IO-
          Red defines if minicom should attach the program's standard  in  and
          output  to  the modem port or not. "Multi" tells the filename selec-
          tion 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.)
          *B - Lock file location
               On  most  systems This should be /usr/spool/uucp. Linux systems
               use /var/lock. If this directory does not exist,  minicom  will
               not attempt to use lockfiles.
          *C - Callin program
               If  you  have  a  uugetty  or something on your serial port, it
               could be that you want a program to be run to switch the  modem
               cq.  port  into dialin/dialout mode. This is the program to get
               into dialin mode.
          *D - Callout program
               And this to get into dialout mode.
          E - Bps/Par/Bits
               Default parameters at startup.

          If one of the entries is left blank, it will not be used. So if  you
          don't  care  about  locking,  and don't have a getty running on your
          modemline, entries B - D should  be  left  blank.   Be  warned!  The
          callin  and  callout  programs are run with the effective user id of
          "root", eg 0!

       Modem and Dialing
          Here, the parameters for your modem are defined. I will not  explain
          this  further because the defaults are for generic Hayes modems, and
          should work always. This file is not a Hayes tutorial :-)  The  only
          things  worth  noticing  are  that control characters can be sent by
          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 dial-
               ing 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-termi-
               nals) cause  the  status  line  to  jump  "up  and  down"  when
               scrolling,  so you can turn it off if desired. It will still be
               shown in command-mode.
          D - Alarm sound
               If turned on, minicom will sound an alarm (on the console only)
               after  a  succesfull connection and when up/downloading is com-
               plete.
          E - Foreground Color (menu)
               indicates the foreground color to use for all the configuration
               windows in minicom.
          F - Background Color (menu)
               indicates the background color to use for all the configuration
               windows in minicom. Note that minicom will not allow you to set
               forground and background colors to the same value.
          G - Foreground Color (term)
               indicates the foreground color to use in the terminal window.
          H - Background Color (term)
               indicates  the  background color to use in the terminal window.
               Note that minicom will not allow you to set forground and back-
               ground colors to the same value.
          I - Foreground Color (stat)
               indicates the foreground color to use in for the status bar.
          J - Background Color (stat)
               indicates  the  color  to  use in for the status bar. Note that
               minicom will allow you to set the status  bar's  forground  and
               background colors to the same value. This will effectively make
               the status bar invisible but  if  these  are  your  intensions,
               please see the option
          K - History buffer size
               The  number  of  lines  to  keep  in  the  history  buffer (for
               backscrolling).
          L - Macros file
               is the full path to the file that holds  macros.  Macros  allow
               you to define a string to be sent when you press a certain key.
               In minicom, you may define F1 through F10 to  send  up  to  256
               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  file-
               name.  If  you are permitted to create the file, minicom checks
               to see if it already exists. If so, it  assumes  it's  a  macro
               file  and reads it in. If it isn't, well, it's your problem :-)
               If the file does not exist, the filename is accepted.
          M - Edit Macros
               opens up a new window which allows you to edit the  F1  through
               F10 macros.
          N - Macros enabled
               -  Yes or No. If macros are disabled, the F1-F10 keys will just
               send the VT100/VT220 function key escape sequences.
          O - Character conversion
               The active conversion table filename is shown here. If you  can
               see  no name, no conversion is active. Pressing O, you will see
               the conversion table edit menu.

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

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

               A - Load table
                    You probably guessed it. This command loads a  table  from
                    the  disk.  You are asked a file name for the table.  Pre-
                    defined  tables  .mciso,  .mcpc8  and  .mcsf7  should   be
                    included  with  the  program. Table .mciso does no conver-
                    sion, .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  spec-
                    ify.

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

               D - next screen

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

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

       Save setup as dfl
          Save the parameters as the default for the next time the program  is
          started.  Instead  of  dfl,  any  other  parameter  name may appear,
          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 priviliged to root.

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

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

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

LOCALES
       Minicom  has now support for local languages. This means you can change
       most of the English messages and other strings to another  language  by
       setting  the environment variable LANG. On September 2001 the supported
       languages are Brazilian Portuguese, Finnish, Japanese, French,  Polish,
       Czech, Russian and Spanish.  Turkish is under construction.

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

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

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

            miquels dfl

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

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

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

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

       As of release 1.3 this has bettered a little: now a 1-second timeout is
       builtin, like in vi. For systems that have the select() system call the
       timeout is 0.5 seconds. And... surprise: a special Linux-dependant hack
       :-)  was  added.  Now,  minicom can separate the escape key and escape-
       sequences. To see how dirty this was done, look into wkeys.c.   But  it
       works like a charm!

FILES
       Minicom  keeps  it's  configuration  files  in  one  directory, usually
       /var/lib/minicom, /usr/local/etc or /etc.  To  find  out  what  default
       directory  minicom  has  compiled  in,  issue  the  command minicom -h.
       You'll probably also find the demo  files  for  runscript(1),  and  the
       examples  of  character conversion tables either there or in the subdi-
       rectories of /usr/doc/minicom*. The conversion tables are  named  some-
       thing  like  mc.*  in that directory, but you probably want to copy the
       ones you need in your home directory as something beginning with a dot.

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

VERSION
       Minicom is now up to version 2.00.0.

AUTHORS
       The   original   author   of   minicom   is   Miquel   van  Smoorenburg
       (miquels@cistron.nl).  He wrote versions up to 1.75.
       Jukka Lahtinen (walker@clinet.fi, walker@megabaud.fi) has been  respon-
       sible for new versions since 1.78, helped by some other people, includ-
       ing:
       filipg@paranoia.com wrote the History buffer searching to 1.79.
       Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo (acme@conectiva.com.br) did the international-
       ization and the Brasilian Portuguese translations.
       Jim Seymour (jseymour@jimsun.LinxNet.com) wrote the multiple modem sup-
       port and the filename selection window used since 1.80.
       Tomohiro Kubota (kubota@debian.or.jp) wrote the  Japanese  translations
       and the citation facility, and did some fixes.
       Gael Queri (gqueri@mail.dotcom.fr) wrote the French translations.
       Arkadiusz Miskiewicz (misiek@pld.org.pl) wrote the Polish translations.
       Kim Soyoung (nexti@chollian.net) wrote the Korean translations.

       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@clinet.fi) has added  some  information  of  the
       changes made after version 1.75.



User's Manual            $Date: 2001/09/30 13:10:34 $               MINICOM(1)