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minicom(1)Linuxmanpage

Name
minicomfriendlyserialcommunicationprogram

Synopsis
minicom[somMlwz8][con|off][Sscript][dentry] [aon|off][tterm][ppty][Ccapturefile][configuration]

Description
minicomisacommunicationprogramwhichsomewhatresemblesthesharewareprogramTELIX butisfreewithsourcecodeandrunsundermostunices.Featuresincludedialingdirectorywith autoredial,supportforUUCPstylelockfilesonserialdevices,aseparatescriptlanguage interpreter,capturetofile,multipleuserswithindividualconfigurations,andmore.

Commandline
s Setup.Rooteditsthesystemwidedefaultsin/etc/minirc.dflwiththisoption.Whenitisused, minicomdoesnotinitialize,butputsyoudirectlyintotheconfigurationmenu.Thisisveryhandyif minicomrefusestostartupbecauseyoursystemhaschanged,orforthefirsttimeyourun minicom.Formostsystems,reasonabledefaultsarealreadycompiledin. o Donotinitialize.Minicomwillskiptheinitializationcode.Thisoptionishandyifyouquittedfrom minicomwithoutresetting,andthenwanttorestartasession.Itispotentiallydangerousthough:no checkforlockfilesetc.ismade,soanormalusercouldinterferewiththingslikeuucp...Maybethis willbetakenoutlater.Fornowitisassumed,thatuserswhoaregivenaccesstoamodemare responsibleenoughfortheiractions. m OverridecommandkeywiththeMetaorALTkey.Thisisthedefaultin1.80anditcanalsobe configuredinoneofminicom'smenus,butifyouusedifferentterminalsallthetime,ofwhichsome don'thaveaMetaorALTkey,it'shandytosetthedefaultcommandkeytoCtrlAandusethis optionwhenyouhaveakeyboardsupportingMetaorALTkeys.MinicomassumesthatyourMeta keysendstheESCprefix,nottheothervariantthatsetsthehighestbitofthecharacter. M Sameasm,butassumesthatyourMetakeysetsthe8thbitofthecharacterhigh(sends128+ charactercode).

z Useterminalstatusline.Thisonlyworksonterminalsthatsupportitandthathavetherelevant informationintheirtermcaporterminfodatabaseentry. l Literaltranslationofcharacterswiththehighbitset.Withthisflagon,minicomwilltrytotranslate theIBMlinecharacterstoASCII.ManyPCunixcloneswilldisplaycharactercorrectlywithout translation(Linuxinaspecialmode,CoherentandSco). L DittobutassumescreenusesanISO8859characterset. w Turnslinewraponatstartupbydefault. a Attributeusage.Someterminals,notablyTelevideo's,haverottenattributehandling(serialinstead ofparallel).Bydefault,minicomuses'aon',butifyouareusingsuchaterminalyoucan(must!) supplytheoption'aoff'.Thetrailing'on'or'off'isneeded. t Terminaltype.Withthisflag,youcanoverridetheenvironmentTERMvariable.Thisishandyfor useintheMINICOMenvironmentvariableonecancreateaspecialtermcapentryforusewith minicomontheconsole,thatinitializesthescreentorawmodesothatinconjunctionwiththel flag,theIBMlinecharactersaredisplayeduntranslated. c Colorusage.Someterminals(suchastheLinuxconsole)supportcolorwiththestandardANSI escapesequences.Becausethereisapparentlynotermcapsupportforcolor,theseescape sequencesarehardcodedintominicom.Thereforethisoptionisoffbydefault.Youcanturniton with'con'.This,andthe'm'option,aregoodcandidatestoputintotheMINICOMenvironment variable. S script.Runthenamedscriptatstartup.Sofar,passingusernameandpasswordtoastartupscript isnotsupported.Ifyoualsousethedoptiontostartdialingatstartup,theSscriptwillberun BEFOREdialingtheentriesspecifiedwithd. d Dialanentryfromthedialingdirectoryonstartup.Youcanspecifyanindexnumber,butalsoa substringofthenameoftheentry.Ifyouspecifyanamethathasmultipleentriesinthedirectory,

theyarealltaggedfordialing.Youcanalsospecifymultiplenamesorindexnumbersby separatingthemwithcommas.Thedialingwillstartfromthefirstentryspecifiedafterallother programinitializationproceduresarecompleted. p Pseudoterminaltouse.Thisoverridestheterminalportdefinedintheconfigurationfiles,butonly ifitisapseudotty.Thefilenamesuppliedmustbeoftheform(/dev/)tty[pz/][0f],(/dev/)pts[pz/][0f] or(/dev/)pty[pz/][0f].Forexample,/dev/ttyp1,pts/0or/dev/ptyp2. C filename.Opencapturefileatstartup. T Disablethedisplayoftheonlinetimeinthestatusbar. 7 7bitmodeforterminalswhicharen't8bitcapable.8bitisdefaultiftheenvironmentisconfiguredfor thisviaLANGorLC_ALL,7bitotherwise. 8 8bitcharacterspassthroughwithoutanymodification.'Continuous'meansnolocate/attribute controlsequencesareinsertedwithoutrealchangeoflocate/attribute.Thismodeistodisplay8bit multibytecharacterssuchasJapanese.Notneededineverylanguagewith8bitcharacters.(For exampledisplayingFinnishtextdoesn'tneedthis.) Whenminicomstarts,itfirstsearchestheMINICOMenvironmentvariableforcommandline arguments,whichcanbeoverriddenonthecommandline.Thus,ifyouhavedone MINICOM='mcon' exportMINICOM ortheequivalent,andstartminicom,minicomwillassumethatyourterminalhasaMetaor <ALT>keyandthatcolorissupported.Ifyouthenloginfromaterminalwithoutcolor support,andyouhavesetMINICOMinyourstartup(.profileorequivalent)file,anddon't wanttoresetyourenvironmentvariable,youcantype'minicomcoff'andrunwithoutcolor supportforthatsession. configuration Theconfigurationargumentismoreinteresting.Normally,minicomgetsitsdefaultsfroma filecalled"minirc.dfl".Ifyouhowevergiveanargumenttominicom,itwilltrytogetits defaultsfromafilecalled"minirc.configuration".Soitispossibletocreatemultiple configurationfiles,fordifferentports,differentusersetc.Mostsensibleistousedevice names,suchastty1,tty64,sio2etc.Ifausercreateshisownconfigurationfile,itwillshowup inhishomedirectoryas'.minirc.dfl'.

Use

Minicomiswindowbased.Topopupawindowwiththefunctionyouwant,pressControlA(from nowon,wewilluseCAtomeanControlA),andthenthefunctionkey(azorAZ).BypressingC Afirstandthen'z',ahelpscreencomesupwithashortsummaryofallcommands.Thisescape keycanbealteredwhenminicomisconfigured(soptionorCAO),butwe'llsticktoControlAfor now. Foreverymenuthenextkeyscanbeused: UP arrowupor'k' DOWN arrowdownor'j' LEFT arrowleftor'h' RIGHT arrowrightor'l' CHOOSE Enter CANCEL ESCape. Thescreenisdividedintotwoportions:theupper24linesaretheterminalemulatorscreen.Inthis window,ANSIorVT100escapesequencesareinterpreted.Ifthereisalineleftatthebottom,a statuslineisplacedthere.Ifthisisnotpossiblethestatuslinewillbeshowedeverytimeyoupress CA.Onterminalsthathaveaspecialstatuslinethatwillbeusedifthetermcapinformationis completeandthekflaghasbeengiven. Possiblecommandsarelistednext,inalphabeticalorder. CA PressingCAasecondtimewilljustsendaCAtotheremotesystem.Ifyouhavechangedyour "escapecharacter"tosomethingotherthanCA,thisworksanalogouslyforthatcharacter. A Toggle'AddLinefeed'on/off.Ifitison,alinefeedisaddedbeforeeverycarriagereturndisplayed onthescreen.

B Givesyouascrollbackbuffer.Youcanscrollupwithu,downwithd,apageupwithb,apage downwithf,andifyouhavethemthearrowandpageup/pagedownkeyscanalsobeused.You cansearchfortextinthebufferwiths(casesensitive)orS(caseinsensitive).Nwillfindthenext occurrenceofthestring.cwillentercitationmode.Atextcursorappearsandyouspecifythestart linebyhittingEnterkey.Thenscrollbackmodewillfinishandthecontentswithprefix'>'willbe sent. C Clearsthescreen. D Dialanumber,orgotothedialingdirectory. E Togglelocalechoonandoff(ifyourversionofminicomsupportsit). F Abreaksignalissenttothemodem. G Runscript(Go).Runsaloginscript. H Hangup. I Togglethetypeofescapesequencethatthecursorkeyssendbetweennormalandapplications mode.(Seealsothecommentaboutthestatuslinebelow). J Jumptoashell.Onreturn,thewholescreenwillberedrawn. K Clearsthescreen,runskermitandredrawsthescreenuponreturn. L TurnCapturefileonoff.Ifturnedon,alloutputsenttothescreenwillbecapturedinthefiletoo.

M Sendsthemodeminitializationstring.IfyouareonlineandtheDCDlinesettingison,youare askedforconfirmationbeforethemodemisinitialized. O Configureminicom.Putsyouintheconfigurationmenu. P CommunicationParameters.Allowsyoutochangethebpsrate,parityandnumberofbits. Q Exitminicomwithoutresettingthemodem.Ifmacroschangedandwerenotsaved,youwillhavea chancetodoso. R Receivefiles.Choosefromvariousprotocols(external).Ifyouhavethefilenameselectionwindow andthepromptfordownloaddirectoryenabled,you'llgetaselectionwindowforchoosingthe directoryfordownloading.OtherwisethedownloaddirectorydefinedintheFilenamesandpaths menuwillbeused. S Sendfiles.Choosetheprotocollikeyoudowiththereceivecommand.Ifyoudon'thavethe filenameselectionwindowenabled(intheFiletransferprotocolsmenu),you'lljusthavetowrite thefilename(s)inadialogwindow.Ifyouhavetheselectionwindowenabled,awindowwillpop upshowingthefilenamesinyouruploaddirectory.Youcantaganduntagfilenamesbypressing spacebar,andmovethecursorupanddownwiththecursorkeysorj/k.Theselectedfilenames areshownhighlighted.Directorynamesareshown[withinbrackets]andyoucanmoveupor downinthedirectorytreebypressingthespacebartwice.Finally,sendthefilesbypressing ENTERorquitbypressingESC. T ChooseTerminalemulation:Ansi(color)orvt100.Youcanalsochangethebackspacekeyhere, turnthestatuslineonoroff,anddefinedelay(inmilliseconds)aftereachnewlineifyouneedthat. W Togglelinewrapon/off. X Exitminicom,resetmodem.Ifmacroschangedandwerenotsaved,youwillhaveachancetodo so.

Y Pasteafile.Readsafileandsendsitscontestsjustasifitwouldbetypedin. Z Popupthehelpscreen.

DialingDirectory
BypressingCADtheprogramputsyouinthedialingdirectory.Selectacommandbypressing thecapitalizedletterormovingcursorright/leftwiththearrowkeysortheh/lkeysandpressing Enter.Youcanadd,deleteoreditentriesandmovethemupanddowninthedirectorylist.By choosing"dial"thephonenumbersofthetaggedentries,orifnothingistagged,thenumberofthe highlightedentrywillbedialed.Whilethemodemisdialing,youcanpressescapetocancel dialing.Anyotherkeywillclosethedialwindow,butwon'tcancelthedialingitself.Yourdialing directorywillbesavedintothefile".dialdir"inyourhomedirectory.Youcanscrollupanddown withthearrowkeys,butyoucanalsoscrollcompletepagesbypressingthePageUpor PageDownkey.Ifyoudon'thavethose,useControlB(Backward)andControlF(Forward).You canusethespacebartotaganumberofentriesandminicomwillrotatetroughthislistifa connectioncan'tbemade.A'>'symbolisdrawninthedirectorybeforethenamesofthetagged entries. The"edit"menuspeaksforitself,butIwilldiscussitbrieflyhere. AName Thenameforthisentry BNumber anditstelephonenumber. CDialstring# Whichspecificdialstringyouwanttousetoconnect.Therearethreedifferentdialstrings (prefixesandsuffixes)thatcanbeconfiguredintheModemanddialingmenu. DLocalecho canbeonoroffforthissystem(ifyourversionofminicomsupportsit). EScript Thescriptthatmustbeexecutedafterasuccessfulconnectionismade(seethemanualfor runscript) FUsername Theusernamethatispassedtotherunscriptprogram.Itispassedintheenvironmentstring "$LOGIN". GPassword Thepasswordispassedas"$PASS". HTerminalEmulation UseANSIorVT100emulation. IBackspacekeysends Whatcode(BackspaceorDelete)thebackspacekeysends.

JLinewrap Canbeonoroff. KLinesettings Bpsrate,bits,parityandnumberofstopbitstouseforthisconnection.Youcanchoose currentforthespeed,sothatitwillusewhateverspeedisbeingusedatthatmoment(useful ifyouhavemultiplemodems). LConversiontable Youmayspecifyacharacterconversiontabletobeloadedwheneverthisentryanswers, beforerunningtheloginscript.Ifthisfieldisblank,theconversiontablestaysunchanged. Theeditmenualsoshowsthelatestdateandtimewhenyoucalledthisentryandthetotalnumber ofcallsthere,butdoesn'tletyouchangethem.Theyareupdatedautomaticallywhenyouconnect. ThemoVecommandletsyoumovethehighlightedentryupordowninthedialingdirectorywith theup/downarrowkeysorthekandjkeys.PressEnterorESCtoendmovingtheentry.

Configuration
BypressingCAOyouwillbethrownintothesetupmenu. Filenamesandpaths Thismenudefinesyourdefaultdirectories. ADownloaddirectory wherethedownloadedfilesgoto. BUploaddirectory wheretheuploadedfilesarereadfrom. CScriptdirectory Whereyoukeepyourloginscripts. DScriptprogram Whichprogramtouseasthescriptinterpreter.Defaultstotheprogram"runscript",butifyou wanttousesomethingelse(eg,/bin/shor"expect")itispossible.Stdinandstdoutare connectedtothemodem,stderrtothescreen. Ifthepathisrelative(ie,doesnotstartwithaslash)thenit'srelativetoyourhomedirectory, exceptforthescriptinterpreter. EKermitprogram Wheretofindtheexecutableforkermit,andit'soptions.Somesimplemacro'scanbeused onthecommandline:'%l'isexpandedtothecompletefilenameofthedialoutdevice,'%f'is expandedtotheserialportfiledescriptorand'%b'isexpandedtothecurrentserialport speed. FLoggingoptions Optionstoconfigurethelogfilewriting. AFilename Hereyoucanenterthenameofthelogfile.Thefilewillbewritteninyourhomedirectory,andthe defaultvalueis"minicom.log".Ifyoublankthename,allloggingisturnedoff. BLogconnectsandhangups

Thisoptiondefineswhetherornotthelogfileiswrittenwhentheremoteendanswersthecallor hangsup.Orwhenyougivethehangupcommandyourselforleaveminicomwithouthangup whileonline. CLogfiletransfers Doyouwantlogentriesofreceivingandsendingfiles. The'log'commandinthescriptsisnotaffectedbyloggingoptionsBandC.Itisalwaysexecuted, ifyoujusthavethenameofthelogfiledefined. FileTransferProtocols ProtocolsdefinedherewillshowupwhenCAs/rispressed."Name"inthebeginningoftheline isthenamethatwillshowupinthemenu."Program"isthepathtotheprotocol."Name"afterthat definesiftheprogramneedsanargument,e.g.afiletobetransmitted.U/Ddefinesifthisentry shouldshowupintheuploadorthedownloadmenu.Fullscrdefinesiftheprogramshouldrunfull screen,orthatminicomwillonlyshowit'sstderrinawindow.IOReddefinesifminicomshould attachtheprogram'sstandardinandoutputtothemodemportornot."Multi"tellsthefilename selectionwindowwhetherornottheprotocolcansendmultiplefileswithonecommand.Ithasno effectondownloadprotocols,anditisalsoignoredwithuploadprotocolsifyoudon'tusethe filenameselectionwindow.Theoldszandrzarenotfullscreen,andhaveIORedset.However, therearecursesbasedversionsofatleastrzthatdonotwanttheirstdinandstdoutredirected,and runfullscreen.AllfiletransferprotocolsarerunwiththeUIDoftheuser,andnotwithUID=root. '%l','%f'and'%b'canbeusedonthecommandlineaswithkermit.Withinthismenuyoucanalso defineifyouwanttousethefilenameselectionwindowwhenpromptedforfilestoupload,andif youliketobepromptedforthedownloaddirectoryeverytimetheautomaticdownloadisstarted.If youleavethedownloaddirectorypromptdisabled,thedownloaddirectorydefinedinthefileand directorymenuisused. Serialportsetup ASerialdevice /dev/tty1or/dev/ttyS1formostpeople./dev/cua<n>isstillpossibleunderlinux,butnot recommendedanymorebecausethesedevicesareobsoleteandmanynewlyinstalled systemswithkernel2.2.xornewerdon'thavethem.Use/dev/ttyS<n>instead.Youmayalso have/dev/modemasasymlinktotherealdevice. Ifyouhavemodemsconnectedtotwoormoreserialports,youmayspecifyallofthemhere inalistseparatedbyspace,commaorsemicolon.WhenMinicomstarts,itchecksthelist untilitfindsanavailablemodemandusesthatone.(However,youcan'tspecifydifferentinit stringstothem..atleastnotyet.) TouseaUNIXsocketforcommunicationthedevicenamemustbeprefixedwith"unix#" followingbythefullpathandthefilenameofthesocket.Minicomwillthentrytoconnectto thissocketasaclient.Aslongasitcannotconnecttothesocketitstays'offline'.Assoonas theconnectionestablishes,minicomgoes'online'.Iftheserverclosesthesocket,minicom switchesto'offline'again. BLockfilelocation OnmostsystemsThisshouldbe/usr/spool/uucp.Linuxsystemsuse/var/lock.Ifthis directorydoesnotexist,minicomwillnotattempttouselockfiles. CCallinprogram Ifyouhaveauugettyorsomethingonyourserialport,itcouldbethatyouwantaprogramto

beruntoswitchthemodemcq.portintodialin/dialoutmode.Thisistheprogramtogetinto dialinmode. DCalloutprogram Andthistogetintodialoutmode. EBps/Par/Bits Defaultparametersatstartup. Ifoneoftheentriesisleftblank,itwillnotbeused.Soifyoudon'tcareaboutlocking,anddon't haveagettyrunningonyourmodemline,entriesBDshouldbeleftblank. ModemandDialing Here,theparametersforyourmodemaredefined.Iwillnotexplainthisfurtherbecausethe defaultsareforgenericHayesmodems,andshouldworkalways.ThisfileisnotaHayestutorial: )Theonlythingsworthnoticingarethatcontrolcharacterscanbesentbyprefixingthemwitha'^', inwhich'^^'means'^'itself,andthe'\'charactermustalsobedoubledas'\\',becausebackslashis usedspeciallyinthemacrodefinitions.Someoptionshowever,don'thavemuchtodowiththe modembutmorewiththebehaviourofminicomitself: MDialtime Thenumberofsecondsbeforeminicomtimesoutifnoconnectionisestablished. NDelaybeforeredial Minicomwillredialifnoconnectionwasmade,butitfirstwaitssometime. ONumberoftries Maximumnumberoftimesthatminicomattemptstodial. PDropDTRtime Ifyousetthisto0,minicomhangsupbysendingaHayestypehangupsequence.Ifyou specifyanonzerovalue,thehangupwillbedonebydroppingtheDTRline.Thevaluetells insecondshowlongDTRwillbekeptdown. QAutobpsdetect Ifthisison,minicomtriestomatchthedialedparty'sspeed.Withmostmodernmodemsthis isNOTdesirable,sincethemodembuffersthedataandconvertsthespeed. RModemhasDCDline Ifyourmodem,andyourO/SbothsupporttheDCDline(thatgoes'high'whenaconnection ismade)minicomwilluseit.Whenyouhavethisoptionon,minicomwillalsoNOTstart dialingwhileyouarealreadyonline. SStatuslineshowsDTEspeed/linespeed YoucantogglethestatuslinetoshoweithertheDTEspeed(thespeedwhichminicomuses tocommunicatewithyourmodem)orthelinespeed(thespeedthatyourmodemusesonthe linetocommunicatewiththeothermodem).Noticethatthelinespeedmaychangeduring theconnection,butyouwillstillonlyseetheinitialspeedthatthemodemsstartedthe connectionwith.Thisisbecausethemodemdoesn'ttelltheprogramifthespeedis changed.Also,toseethelinespeed,youneedtohavethemodemsettoshowitinthe connectstring.Otherwiseyouwillonlysee0asthelinespeed. TMultilineuntag Youcantogglethefeaturetountagentriesfromthedialingdirectorywhenaconnectionis establishedtoamultilineBBS.Allthetaggedentriesthathavethesamenameare untagged. Notethataspecialexceptionismadeforthismenu:everyusercanchangeall parametershere,butsomeofthemwillnotbesaved. Screenandkeyboard

ACommandkeyis the'HotKey'thatbringsyouintocommandmode.Ifthisissetto'ALT'or'metakey',youcan directlycallcommandsbyaltkeyinsteadofHotKeykey. BBackspacekeysends TherestillaresomesystemsthatwantaVT100tosendDELinsteadofBS.Withthisoption youcanenablethatstupidity.(Eh,it'sevenonbydefault...) CStatuslineis Enabledordisabled.Someslowterminals(forexample,Xterminals)causethestatuslineto jump"upanddown"whenscrolling,soyoucanturnitoffifdesired.Itwillstillbeshownin commandmode. DAlarmsound Ifturnedon,minicomwillsoundanalarm(ontheconsoleonly)afterasuccessfulconnection andwhenup/downloadingiscomplete. EForegroundColor(menu) indicatestheforegroundcolortouseforalltheconfigurationwindowsinminicom. FBackgroundColor(menu) indicatesthebackgroundcolortouseforalltheconfigurationwindowsinminicom.Notethat minicomwillnotallowyoutosetforegroundandbackgroundcolorstothesamevalue. GForegroundColor(term) indicatestheforegroundcolortouseintheterminalwindow. HBackgroundColor(term) indicatesthebackgroundcolortouseintheterminalwindow.Notethatminicomwillnot allowyoutosetforegroundandbackgroundcolorstothesamevalue. IForegroundColor(stat) indicatestheforegroundcolortouseinforthestatusbar. JBackgroundColor(stat) indicatesthecolortouseinforthestatusbar.Notethatminicomwillallowyoutosetthe statusbar'sforegroundandbackgroundcolorstothesamevalue.Thiswilleffectivelymake thestatusbarinvisiblebutiftheseareyourintentions,pleaseseetheoption KHistorybuffersize Thenumberoflinestokeepinthehistorybuffer(forbackscrolling). LMacrosfile isthefullpathtothefilethatholdsmacros.Macrosallowyoutodefineastringtobesent whenyoupressacertainkey.Inminicom,youmaydefineF1throughF10tosendupto256 characters[thisissetatcompiletime].Thefilenameyouspecifyisverifiedassoonasyouhit ENTER.Ifyoudonothavepermissionstocreatethespecifiedfile,anerrormessagewillso indicateandyouwillbeforcedtoreeditthefilename.Ifyouarepermittedtocreatethefile, minicomcheckstoseeifitalreadyexists.Ifso,itassumesit'samacrofileandreadsitin.Ifit isn't,well,it'syourproblem:)Ifthefiledoesnotexist,thefilenameisaccepted. MEditMacros opensupanewwindowwhichallowsyoutoedittheF1throughF10macros. NMacrosenabled YesorNo.Ifmacrosaredisabled,theF1F10keyswilljustsendtheVT100/VT220function keyescapesequences. OCharacterconversion Theactiveconversiontablefilenameisshownhere.Ifyoucanseenoname,noconversion isactive.PressingO,youwillseetheconversiontableeditmenu.

EditMacros Here,themacrosforF1throughF10aredefined.Thebottomofthewindowshowsalegend ofcharactercombinationsthathavespecialmeaning.Theyallowyoutoenterspecialcontrol characterswithplaintextbyprefixingthemwitha'^',inwhich'^^'means'^'itself.Youcan senda1seconddelaywiththe'^~'code.Thisisusefulwhenyouaretryingtologinafter ftp'ingortelnet'ingsomewhere.Youcanalsoincludeyourcurrentusernameandpassword fromthephonedirectoryinthemacroswith'\u'and'\p',respectively.Ifyouneedthe backslashcharacterinthemacro,writeitdoubledas'\\'.Toeditamacro,pressthenumber (orletterforF10)andyouwillbemovedtotheendofthemacro.Wheneditingtheline,you mayusetheleft&rightarrows,Home&Endkeys,Delete&BackSpace,andESCand RETURN.ESCcancelsanychangesmadewhileENTERacceptsthechanges. Characterconversion Hereyoucaneditthecharacterconversiontable.IfyouarenotanAmerican,youknowthat inmanylanguagestherearecharactersthatarenotincludedintheASCIIcharacterset,and intheoldtimestheymayhavereplacedsomelessimportantcharactersinASCIIandnow theyareoftenrepresentedwithcharactercodesabove127.ANDtherearevariousdifferent waystorepresentthem.Thisiswhereyoumayeditconversiontablesforsystemsthatusea charactersetdifferentfromtheoneonyourcomputer. ALoadtable Youprobablyguessedit.Thiscommandloadsatablefromthedisk.Youareaskedafilenamefor thetable.Predefinedtables.mciso,.mcpc8and.mcsf7shouldbeincludedwiththeprogram. Table.mcisodoesnoconversion,.mcpc8istobeusedforconnectionswithsystemsthatusethe 8bitpccharacterset,and.mcsf7isforcompatibilitywiththesystemsthatusesthegoodold7bit codingtoreplacethecharacters{|}[]\withthediacriticalcharactersusedinFinnishandSwedish. BSavetable Thisonesavestheactivetableonthefilenameyouspecify. Ceditchar Thisiswhereyoucanmakeyourownmodificationstotheexistingtable.Firstyouareaskedthe charactervalue(indecimal)whoseconversionyouwanttochange.Nextyou'llsaywhich characteryouwanttoseeonyourscreenwhenthatcharactercomesfromtheoutsideworld.And thenyou'llbeaskedwhatyouwanttobesentoutwhenyouenterthatcharacterfromyour keyboard. Dnextscreen Eprevscreen Yeah,youprobablynoticedthatthisscreenshowsyouwhatkindofconversionsareactive.The screenjustis(usually)toosmalltoshowthewholetableatonceinaneasytounderstandformat. Thisishowyoucanscrollthetableleftandright. Fconvertcapture Toggleswhetherornotthecharacterconversiontableisusedwhenwritingthecapturefile.

Savesetupasdfl Savetheparametersasthedefaultforthenexttimetheprogramisstarted.Insteadofdfl,any otherparameternamemayappear,dependingonwhichonewasusedwhentheprogram wasstarted. Savesetupas.. Savetheparametersunderaspecialname.WheneverMinicomisstartedwiththisnameas anargument,itwillusetheseparameters.Thisoptionisofcourseprivilegedtoroot. Exit Escapefromthismenuwithoutsaving.ThiscanalsobedonewithESC. Exitfromminicom Onlyrootwillseethismenuentry,ifhe/shestartedminicomwiththe's'option.Thisway,itis possibletochangetheconfigurationwithoutactuallyrunningminicom.

StatusLine
Thestatuslinehasseveralindicators,thatspeakforthemselves.ThemysteriousAPPorNOR indicatorprobablyneedsexplanation.TheVT100cursorkeyscanbeintwomodes:applications modeandcursormode.Thisiscontrolledbyanescapesequence.Ifyoufindthatthecursorkeys donotworkin,say,viwhenyou'reloggedinusingminicomthenyoucanseewiththisindicator whetherthecursorkeysareinapplicationsorcursormode.YoucantogglethetwowiththeCAI key.Ifthecursorkeysthenwork,it'sprobablyanerrorintheremotesystem'stermcapinitialization strings(is).

Locales
Minicomhassupportforlocallanguages.ThismeansyoucanchangemostoftheEnglish messagesandotherstringstoanotherlanguagebysettingtheenvironmentvariableLANG.

Misc
Ifminicomishung,killitwithSIGTERM.(Thismeanskill15,orsincesigtermisdefault,justplain "kill<minicompid>".Thiswillcauseagracefulexitofminicom,doingresetsandeverything.You maykillminicomfromascriptwiththecommand"!killall9minicom"withouthanginguptheline. Withoutthe9parameter,minicomfirsthangsupbeforeexiting. SincealotofescapesequencesbeginwithESC(ArrowupisESC[A),Minicomdoesnotknowif theescapecharacteritgetsisyoupressingtheescapekey,orpartofasequence. AnoldversionofMinicom,V1.2,solvedthisinarathercrudeway:togettheescapekey,youhad topressittwice. Asofrelease1.3thishasbetteredalittle:nowa1secondtimeoutisbuiltin,likeinvi.Forsystems thathavetheselect()systemcallthetimeoutis0.5seconds.And...surprise:aspecialLinux dependanthack:)wasadded.Now,minicomcanseparatetheescapekeyandescape sequences.Toseehowdirtythiswasdone,lookintowkeys.c.Butitworkslikeacharm!

Files

Minicomkeepsit'sconfigurationfilesinonedirectory,usually/var/lib/minicom,/usr/local/etcor /etc.Tofindoutwhatdefaultdirectoryminicomhascompiledin,issuethecommandminicomh. You'llprobablyalsofindthedemofilesforrunscript(1),andtheexamplesofcharacterconversion tableseitherthereorinthesubdirectoriesof/usr/doc/minicom*.Theconversiontablesarenamed somethinglikemc.*inthatdirectory,butyouprobablywanttocopytheonesyouneedinyour homedirectoryassomethingbeginningwithadot. minicom.users minirc.* $HOME/.minirc.* $HOME/.dialdir $HOME/minicom.log /usr/share/locale/*/LC_MESSAGES/minicom.mo

SeeAlso
runscript(1)

Bugs
Pleasereportanybugstominicomdevel@lists.alioth.debian.org.Thankyou!

Authors
TheoriginalauthorofminicomisMiquelvanSmoorenburg(miquels@cistron.nl).Hewrote versionsupto1.75. JukkaLahtinen(walker@netsonic.fi,jukkal@despammed.com)hasbeenresponsiblefornew versionssince1.78,helpedbysomeotherpeople,including: filipg@paranoia.comwrotetheHistorybuffersearchingto1.79. ArnaldoCarvalhodeMelo(acme@conectiva.com.br)didtheinternationalizationandtheBrasilian Portuguesetranslations. JimSeymour(jseymour@jimsun.LinxNet.com)wrotethemultiplemodemsupportandthefilename selectionwindowusedsince1.80. TomohiroKubota(kubota@debian.or.jp)wrotetheJapanesetranslationsandthecitationfacility, anddidsomefixes. GaelQueri(gqueri@mail.dotcom.fr)wrotetheFrenchtranslations. ArkadiuszMiskiewicz(misiek@pld.org.pl)wrotethePolishtranslations. KimSoyoung(nexti@chollian.net)wrotetheKoreantranslations. JorkLoeser(jork.loeser@inf.tudresden.de)providedthesocketextension. Mostofthismanpageiscopied,withcorrections,fromtheoriginalminicomREADME,butsome piecesandthecorrectionsarebyMichaelK.Johnson. JukkaLahtinen(walker@netsonic.fi)hasaddedsomeinformationofthechangesmadeafter version1.75.

ReferencedBy

asciixfr(1),gnokiid(8),isdn_audio(4),picocom(8),qodem(1),ttyi(4),xminicom(1)

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