MINICOM(1)					       MINICOM(1)


NAME
       minicom - friendly serial communication program

SYNOPSIS
       minicom [-somlz8] [-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).

       -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 entry 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.	The  dialing  will  start
	    after all other program initialization procedures.

       -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].

       -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 windows-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 hit-
	    ting 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 and turn the
	    status line on or off.
       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.  You can add, delete or edit entries. By choos-
       ing  "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 (Backward) and  Control-F  (Forward).
       You  can	 use the space bar to tag a number of entries and
       minicom will rotate trough this list if a connection can't
       be made. A '>' symbol is drawn in the directory before the
       names of the tagged entries.

       The "edit" menu speaks for itself, but I will  discuss  it
       briefly here.
       A - Name	 The name for this entry
       B - Number
		 and its telephone number.
       C - Dial string #
		 Which	specific  dial	string you want to use to
		 connect. There are three different dial  strings
		 (prefixes  and	 suffixes) that can be configured
		 in the Modem and dialing menu.

       D - Local echo
		 can be on or off for this system (if  your  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 and parity to use for  this  con-
		 nection.  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 automati-
       cally when you connect.


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
	       where the downloaded files go to.
	  B - upload
	       where the uploaded files are read from.
	  C - script
	       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



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MINICOM(1)					       MINICOM(1)


	       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,  and	 '%b'  is
	       expanded to the current baudrate.

       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' 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 down-
	  load directory defined in the file and  directory  menu
	  is used.

       Serial port setup
	  *A - Serial device
	       /dev/tty1   for	 most	people.	  /dev/cua<n>  or
	       /dev/modem under linux.	If you have  modems  con-
	       nected  to two or more serial ports, you may spec-
	       ify 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 differ-
	       ent init strings to them ..at least not yet.)



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MINICOM(1)					       MINICOM(1)


	  *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



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MINICOM(1)					       MINICOM(1)


	       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.
	  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 set the modem to show it	 in  the  connect
	       string.	Otherwise you will only see 0 as the line
	       speed.

	    Note that a special exception is made for this  menu:
	    every  user	 can change all parameters here, but they
	    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.




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	  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



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		 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 back-
		 slash 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



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MINICOM(1)					       MINICOM(1)


		    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).



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MINICOM(1)					       MINICOM(1)


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  July 1998 the supported languages are
       Brazilian Portuguese, Finnish  and  Japanese.  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 "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!




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MINICOM(1)					       MINICOM(1)


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) there.

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

VERSION
       Minicom is now up to version 1.82.1.

AUTHORS
       The  original  author of minicom is Miquel van Smoorenburg
       (miquels@drinkel.ow.org, miquels@cistron.nl).
       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.
       Gal Quri (gqueri@mail.dotcom.fr) wrote the French 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  (johnsonm@stolaf.edu).

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















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