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  resem-
       bles  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 seperate script language inter-
       preter,  capture  to  file, multiple users with individual
       configurations, 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  com-
            piled in.

       -o   Do  not initialize. Minicom will skip the initializa-
            tion 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 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  termi-
            nals  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  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 special mode, Coherent and Sco).

       -w   Turns linewrap on at startup by default.

       -a   Attribute usage. Some terminals, notably televideo's,
            have  a  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 con-
            sole) 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 com-
            mas. The dialing will  start  from  the  first  entry
            specified after all other program initialization pro-
            cedures 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 modifica-
            tion.  '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  display-
            ing 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 vari-
            able, you can type 'minicom -c off' and  run  without
            color support for that session.

       configuration
            The  configuration argument is more interesting. Nor-
            mally, 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  func-
       tion  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 (exter-
            nal). 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 proto-
            cols 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 file-
            names  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 sta-
            tus  line  on  or off, and define delay (in millisec-
            onds) 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 directory
       list. By choosing "dial" the phone numbers of  the  tagged
       entries,  or if nothing is tagged, the number of the high-
       lighted 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 com-
       plete pages by pressing the PageUp or  PageDown  key.   If
       you  don't  have  those, use Control-B (Backward) and Con-
       trol-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 ver-
                 sion of minicom supports it).
       E - Script
                 The script that must be executed after a succes-
                 full connection is made (see the manual for run-
                 script)
       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 cur-
                 rent 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  automati-
       cally 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
               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 direc-
                    tory, 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  log-
                    file  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 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 file-
          name  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  direc-
          tory 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 Mini-
               com 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 call-
          out 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  mini-
          com 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  drop-
               ping  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  commu-
               nicate  with  your  modem)  or the line speed (the
               speed that your modem uses on the line to communi-
               cate  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 con-
               nect 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  estab-
               lished 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 com-
               mand-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 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  mini-
               com  will not allow you to set forground and back-
               ground colors to the same value.
          G - Foreground Color (term)
               indicates the foreground color to use in the  ter-
               minal window.
          H - Background Color (term)
               indicates  the background color to use in the ter-
               minal window. Note that minicom will not allow you
               to set forground 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  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 speci-
               fied 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 char-
                 acter combinations that  have  special  meaning.
                 They  allow you to enter special control charac-
                 ters 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 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.   Predefined  tables
                    .mciso, .mcpc8 and .mcsf7 should be  included
                    with  the  program. Table .mciso does no con-
                    version, .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  file-
                    name you specify.

               C - edit char
                    This is where you can make your own modifica-
                    tions 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  conver-
                    sion  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  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 con-
       trolled 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 term-
       cap 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,  Pol-
       ish,  Czech,  Russian  and Spanish.  Turkish is under con-
       struction.

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 "minicom.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
       configurations, 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-sec-
       ond  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 subdirectories 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  some-
       thing 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  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 transla-
       tions.
       Jim Seymour (jseymour@jimsun.LinxNet.com) wrote the multi-
       ple 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 trans-
       lations.
       Arkadiusz Miskiewicz (misiek@pld.org.pl) wrote the  Polish
       translations.
       Kim Soyoung (nexti@chollian.net) wrote the Korean transla-
       tions.

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

       Jukka Lahtinen (walker@clinet.fi) has added some  informa-
       tion of the changes made after version 1.75.



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