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MINICOM(1)			  Version 2.7			    MINICOM(1)

NAME
       minicom - friendly serial communication program

SYNOPSIS
       minicom [options] [configuration]

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

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

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

       -m, --metakey
	    Override command-key with the Meta or ALT key. This	is the default
	    in	1.80  and it can also be configured in one of minicom's	menus,
	    but	if you use different terminals all the	time,  of  which  some
	    don't  have	 a Meta	or ALT key, it's handy to set the default 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, --metakey8
	    Same as -m,	but assumes that your Meta key sets the	8th bit	of the
	    character high (sends 128 +	character code).

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

       -l, --ansi
	    Literal translation	of characters with the high bit	set. With this
	    flag on, minicom will try to translate the IBM line	characters  to
	    ASCII.  Many PC-unix clones	will display character correctly with-
	    out	translation (Linux in a	special	mode, Coherent and SCO).

       -L, --iso
	    Ditto but assume screen uses an ISO8859 character set.

       -w, --wrap
	    Turns line-wrap on at startup by default.

       -H, --displayhex
	    Turn on output in hex mode.

       -a, --attrib=on/off
	    Attribute usage. Some terminals, notably Televideo's, have	rotten
	    attribute handling (serial instead of parallel). By	default, mini-
	    com	 uses  '-a  on',  but if you are using such a terminal you can
	    (must!)  supply the	option '-a off'. The trailing 'on' or 'off' is
	    needed.

       -t, --term=TERM
	    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=on/off
	    Color usage. Some terminals	(such as the  Linux  console)  support
	    color  with	 the  standard ANSI escape sequences. Because there is
	    apparently no termcap support for color,  these  escape  sequences
	    are	 hard-coded  into minicom. Therefore this option is off	by de-
	    fault.  You	can turn it on with '-c	on'. This, and	the  '-m'  op-
	    tion,  are	good  candidates  to  put into the MINICOM environment
	    variable.

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

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

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

       -C, --capturefile=FILE
	    filename.  Open capture file at startup.

       --capturefile-buffer-mode=MODE
	    Buffering mode of capture file. MODE can be	one of:
	       N  Unbuffered (the default).
	       L  Line buffered.
	       F  Fully	buffered.

       -F, --statlinefmt
	    Format  for	 the  status  line. The	following format specifier are
	    available:
	       %H  Escape key for help screen.
	       %V  Version string of minicom.
	       %b  Information on connection, such as baud rate.
	       %T  Terminal type.
	       %C  Cursor mode.
	       %D  Device path,	possibly shorted to remaining available	space.
	       %t  Online time.
	       %%  % character.

	    Example: "%H for help | %b | Minicom %V | %T | %C |	%t"

       -b, --baudrate
	    Specify the	baud rate, overriding the value	given in the  configu-
	    ration file.

       -D, --device
	    Specify  the  device, overriding the value given in	the configura-
	    tion file.

       -O, --option
	    Set	an option. The argument	can be a single	word, or  a  key=value
	    pair.  Recognized options:

	    timestamp  with  values simple, delta, persecond, and extended. If
	    no value is	given, 'simple'	is selected.

       -R, --remotecharset
	    Specify the	character set of the remote system is using  and  con-
	    vert  it  to the character set of the local	side. Example might be
	    'latin1'.

       -7, --7bit
	    7bit mode for terminals which aren't 8bit capable. 8bit is default
	    if the environment is configured for this via LANG or LC_ALL, 7bit
	    otherwise.

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

       -h, --help
	    Display help and exit.

       -v, --version
	    Print the minicom version.

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

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

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

USE
       Minicom is window based.	To pop-up a window with	the function you want,
       press Control-A (from now on, we	will use C-A to	mean  Control-A),  and
       then the	function key (a-z or A-Z). By pressing C-A first and then 'z',
       a  help	screen comes up	with a short summary of	all commands. This es-
       cape 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  se-
       quences are interpreted.	 If there is a line left at the	bottom,	a sta-
       tus 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 sys-
	    tem.   If  you  have  changed your "escape character" to something
	    other than C-A, this works analogously for that character.
       A    Toggle 'Add	Linefeed' on/off. If it	is on, a linefeed is added be-
	    fore 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 be-
	    tween normal and applications mode.	(See also  the	comment	 about
	    the	status line below).
       J    Jump to a shell. On	return,	the whole screen will be redrawn.
       K    Clears the screen, runs kermit and redraws the screen upon return.
       L    Turn  Capture  file	 on  off. If turned on,	all output sent	to the
	    screen will	be captured in the file	too.
       M    Sends the modem initialization string. If you are online  and  the
	    DCD	 line setting is on, you are asked for confirmation before the
	    modem is initialized.
       N    Toggle between timestamp modes to be added to the output.	Avail-
	    able  are  simple and extended time	formats	for each line, a delta
	    to the previous line, a time display each second and no timestamps
	    (the default).
       O    Configure minicom. Puts you	in the configuration menu.
       P    Communication Parameters. Allows you to change the bps rate,  par-
	    ity	and number of bits.
       Q    Exit  minicom  without  resetting the modem. If macros changed and
	    were not saved, you	will have a chance to do so.
       R    Receive files. Choose from various protocols  (external).  If  you
	    have the filename selection	window and the prompt for download di-
	    rectory  enabled,  you'll  get a selection window for choosing the
	    directory for downloading. Otherwise the  download	directory  de-
	    fined in the Filenames and paths menu will be used.
       S    Send  files. Choose	the protocol like you do with the receive com-
	    mand. If you don't have the	filename selection window enabled  (in
	    the	 File  transfer	protocols menu), you'll	just have to write the
	    filename(s)	in a dialog window. If you have	the  selection	window
	    enabled, a window will pop up showing the filenames	in your	upload
	    directory.	You  can tag and untag filenames by pressing spacebar,
	    and	move the cursor	up and down with the cursor keys or  j/k.  The
	    selected  filenames	 are  shown  highlighted.  Directory names are
	    shown [within brackets] and	you can	move up	or down	in the	direc-
	    tory  tree by pressing the spacebar	twice. Finally,	send the files
	    by pressing	ENTER or quit by pressing ESC.
       T    Choose Terminal emulation: Ansi(color) or  vt100.	You  can  also
	    change the backspace key here, turn	the status line	on or off, and
	    define  delay  (in	milliseconds)  after  each newline if you need
	    that.
       U    Add	carriage return	to each	received line.
       W    Toggle line-wrap on/off.
       X    Exit minicom, reset	modem. If macros changed and were  not	saved,
	    you	will have a chance to do so.
       Y    Paste  a  file.  Reads a file and sends its	contests just as if it
	    would be typed in.
       Z    Pop	up the help screen.

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

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

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

CONFIGURATION
       By pressing C-A O you will be thrown into the setup menu.

       Filenames and paths
	 This menu defines your	default	directories.
	 A - Download directory
	      where the	downloaded files go to.
	 B - Upload directory
	      where the	uploaded files are read	from.
	 C - Script directory
	      Where you	keep your login	scripts.
	 D - Script program
	      Which  program to	use as the script interpreter. Defaults	to the
	      program "runscript", but if you want to use something else  (eg,
	      /bin/sh  or "expect") it is possible.  Stdin and stdout are con-
	      nected to	the modem, stderr to the screen.
	      If the path is relative (ie, does	not start with a  slash)  then
	      it's  relative to	your home directory, except for	the script in-
	      terpreter.
	 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 ex-
	      panded to	the serial port	file descriptor	and '%b'  is  expanded
	      to the current serial port speed.
	 F - Logging options
	      Options to configure the logfile writing.

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

	      B	- Log connects and hangups
		   This	 option	 defines whether or not	the logfile is written
		   when	the remote end answers the call	or hangs up.  Or  when
		   you give the	hangup command yourself	or leave minicom with-
		   out 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  de-
	 fines	if  the	program	needs an argument, e.g.	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 ig-
	 nored with upload protocols if	you don't use the  filename  selection
	 window.  The  old sz and rz are not full screen, and have IO-Red set.
	 However, there	are curses based versions of at	least rz that  do  not
	 want  their  stdin  and  stdout redirected, and run full screen.  All
	 file transfer protocols are run with the UID of  the  user,  and  not
	 with UID=root.	'%l', '%f' and '%b' can	be used	on the command line as
	 with kermit.  Within this menu	you can	also define if you want	to use
	 the  filename selection window	when prompted for files	to upload, and
	 if you	like to	be prompted for	the download directory every time  the
	 automatic  download  is  started. If you leave	the download directory
	 prompt	disabled, the download directory defined in the	file  and  di-
	 rectory menu is used.

       Serial port setup
	 A - Serial device
	      /dev/tty1	 or  /dev/ttyS1	for most people.  /dev/cua<n> is still
	      possible under GNU/Linux,	but no longer recommended as these de-
	      vices are	obsolete and many systems with kernel 2.2.x  or	 newer
	      don't  have  them.  Use /dev/ttyS<n> instead.  You may also have
	      /dev/modem as a symlink to the real device.
	      If you have modems connected to two or more  serial  ports,  you
	      may specify all of them here in a	list separated by space, comma
	      or  semicolon.  When Minicom starts, it checks the list until it
	      finds an available modem and uses	that one. (However, you	 can't
	      specify different	init strings to	them...	at least not yet.)
	      To  use  a UNIX socket for communication the device name must be
	      prefixed with "unix#" following by the full path and  the	 file-
	      name  of	the  socket.  Minicom will then	try to connect to this
	      socket as	a client. As long as it	cannot connect to  the	socket
	      it stays 'offline'. As soon as the connection establishes, mini-
	      com  goes	 'online'.  If	the  server closes the socket, minicom
	      switches to 'offline' again.
	 B - Lock file location
	      On most systems This should be /usr/spool/uucp.  GNU/Linux  sys-
	      tems  use	 /var/lock.  If	this directory does not	exist, minicom
	      will not attempt to use lockfiles.
	 C - Callin program
	      If you have a uugetty or something on your serial	port, it could
	      be that you want a program to be run to  switch  the  modem  cq.
	      port  into  dialin/dialout mode. This is the program to get into
	      dialin mode.
	 D - Callout program
	      And this to get into dialout mode.
	 E - Bps/Par/Bits
	      Default parameters at startup.

	 If one	of the entries is left blank, it will not be used. So  if  you
	 don't	care  about  locking,  and  don't have a getty running on your
	 modemline, entries B -	D should be left blank.

       Modem and Dialing
	 Here, the parameters for your modem are defined. I will  not  explain
	 this  further	because	the defaults are for generic Hayes modems, and
	 should	work always. This file is not a	Hayes tutorial	:-)  The  only
	 things	worth noticing are that	control	characters can be sent by pre-
	 fixing	 them  with a '^', in which '^^' means '^' itself, and the '\'
	 character must	also be	doubled	as '\\',  because  backslash  is  used
	 specially in the macro	definitions.  Some options however, don't have
	 much  to do with the modem but	more with the behaviour	of minicom it-
	 self:
	 M - Dial time
	      The number of seconds before minicom times out if	no  connection
	      is established.
	 N - Delay before redial
	      Minicom  will  redial  if	 no  connection	was made, but it first
	      waits some time.
	 O - Number of tries
	      Maximum number of	times that minicom attempts to dial.
	 P - Drop DTR time
	      If you set this to 0, minicom hangs up by	sending	 a  Hayes-type
	      hangup  sequence.	 If  you  specify a non-zero value, the	hangup
	      will be done by dropping the DTR line. The value tells  in  sec-
	      onds how long DTR	will be	kept down.
	 Q - Auto bps detect
	      If  this is on, minicom tries to match the dialed	party's	speed.
	      With most	modern modems this is NOT desirable, since  the	 modem
	      buffers the data and converts the	speed.
	 R - Modem has DCD line
	      If your modem, and your O/S both support the DCD line (that goes
	      'high'  when a connection	is made) minicom will use it. When you
	      have this	option on, minicom will	also NOT start	dialing	 while
	      you are already online.
	 S - Status line shows DTE speed / line	speed
	      You can toggle the status	line to	show either the	DTE speed (the
	      speed  which minicom uses	to communicate with your modem)	or the
	      line speed (the speed that your modem uses on the	line to	commu-
	      nicate with the other modem). Notice that	 the  line  speed  may
	      change  during  the  connection, but you will still only see the
	      initial speed that the modems started the	connection with.  This
	      is  because  the	modem doesn't tell the program if the speed is
	      changed. Also, to	see the	line speed, you	need to	have the modem
	      set to show it in	the connect string.  Otherwise you  will  only
	      see 0 as the line	speed.
	 T - Multi-line	untag
	      You can toggle the feature to untag entries from the dialing di-
	      rectory  when  a	connection is established to a multi-line BBS.
	      All the tagged entries that have the same	name are untagged.

	    Note that a	special	exception is made for this  menu:  every  user
	    can	 change	 all  parameters  here,	 but  some of them will	not be
	    saved.

       Screen and keyboard
	 A - Command key is
	      the 'Hot Key' that brings	you into command mode. If this is  set
	      to  'ALT'	 or 'meta key',	you can	directly call commands by alt-
	      key instead of HotKey-key.
	 B - Backspace key sends
	      There still are some systems that	want a VT100 to	send  DEL  in-
	      stead  of	 BS.  With  this option	you can	enable that stupidity.
	      (Eh, it's	even on	by default...)
	 C - Status line is
	      Enabled or disabled. Some	slow terminals (for example,  X-termi-
	      nals)  cause  the	 status	 line  to  jump	 "up  and  down"  when
	      scrolling, so you	can turn it off	if desired. It will  still  be
	      shown in command-mode.
	 D - Alarm sound
	      If  turned on, minicom will sound	an alarm (on the console only)
	      after a successful connection and	when  up/downloading  is  com-
	      plete.
	 E - Foreground	Color (menu)
	      indicates	 the foreground	color to use for all the configuration
	      windows in minicom.
	 F - Background	Color (menu)
	      indicates	the background color to	use for	all the	 configuration
	      windows  in minicom. Note	that minicom will not allow you	to set
	      foreground and background	colors to the same value.
	 G - Foreground	Color (term)
	      indicates	the foreground color to	use in the terminal window.
	 H - Background	Color (term)
	      indicates	the background color to	use in	the  terminal  window.
	      Note that	minicom	will not allow you to set foreground and back-
	      ground colors to the same	value.
	 I - Foreground	Color (stat)
	      indicates	the foreground color to	use in for the status bar.
	 J - Background	Color (stat)
	      indicates	 the  color  to	 use  in for the status	bar. Note that
	      minicom will allow you to	set the	status	bar's  foreground  and
	      background  colors to the	same value. This will effectively make
	      the status bar invisible	but  if	 these	are  your  intentions,
	      please see the option
	 K - History buffer size
	      The  number  of  lines  to  keep	in  the	 history  buffer  (for
	      backscrolling).
	 L - Macros file
	      is the full path to the file that	holds macros. Macros allow you
	      to define	a string to be sent when you press a certain  key.  In
	      minicom, you may define F1 through F12 to	send up	to 256 charac-
	      ters  [this is set at compile time]. The filename	you specify is
	      verified as soon as you hit ENTER. If you	do  not	 have  permis-
	      sions to create the specified file, an error message will	so in-
	      dicate  and  you	will be	forced to re-edit the filename.	If you
	      are permitted to create the file,	minicom	checks to  see	if  it
	      already exists. If so, it	assumes	it's a macro file and reads it
	      in.  If  it  isn't, well,	it's your problem :-) If the file does
	      not exist, the filename is accepted.
	 M - Edit Macros
	      opens up a new window which allows you to	edit  the  F1  through
	      F12 macros.
	 N - Macros enabled
	      -	 Yes  or No. If	macros are disabled, the F1-F12	keys will just
	      send the VT100/VT220 function key	escape sequences.
	 O - Character conversion
	      The active conversion table filename is shown here. If  you  can
	      see  no  name, no	conversion is active. Pressing O, you will see
	      the conversion table edit	menu.

	      Edit Macros
		 Here, the macros for F1 through F12 are defined.  The	bottom
		 of  the  window shows a legend	of character combinations that
		 have special meaning.	They allow you to enter	 special  con-
		 trol characters with plain text by prefixing them with	a '^',
		 in which '^^' means '^' itself. You can send a	1 second delay
		 with the '^~' code. This is useful when you are trying	to lo-
		 gin  after ftp'ing or telnet'ing somewhere.  You can also in-
		 clude your current username and password from the  phone  di-
		 rectory  in  the  macros with '\u' and	'\p', respectively. If
		 you need the backslash	character in the macro,	write it  dou-
		 bled  as  '\\'.   To  edit a macro, press the shown number or
		 letter	and you	will be	moved to the end of  the  macro.  When
		 editing the line, you may use the left	& right	arrows,	Home &
		 End  keys,  Delete & BackSpace, and ESC and RETURN.  ESC can-
		 cels any changes made while ENTER accepts the changes.

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

	      A	- Load table
		   You probably	guessed	it. This command loads	a  table  from
		   the disk.  You are asked a file name	for the	table.	Prede-
		   fined  tables  .mciso, .mcpc8 and .mcsf7 should be included
		   with	the program. Table .mciso does no  conversion,	.mcpc8
		   is  to  be  used  for connections with systems that use the
		   8-bit pc character set, and	.mcsf7	is  for	 compatibility
		   with	the systems that uses the good old 7-bit coding	to re-
		   place the characters	{|}[]\ with the	diacritical characters
		   used	in Finnish and Swedish.

	      B	- Save table
		   This	 one  saves the	active table on	the filename you spec-
		   ify.

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

	      D	- next screen

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

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

       Save setup as dfl
	 Save  the  parameters as the default for the next time	the program is
	 started. Instead of dfl, any other parameter name may appear, depend-
	 ing 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 op-
	 tion is of course privileged to root.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

       As of release 1.3 this has bettered a little: now a 1-second timeout is
       builtin,	like in	vi. For	systems	that have the select() system call the
       timeout is 0.5 seconds. And... surprise:	a special Linux-dependent hack
       :-)  was	added. Now, minicom can	separate the escape key	and escape-se-
       quences.	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  di-
       rectory	minicom	has compiled in, issue the command minicom -h.	You'll
       probably	also find the demo files for runscript(1), and the examples of
       character conversion tables either there	or in  the  subdirectories  of
       /usr/doc/minicom*.  The conversion tables are named something like mc.*
       in that directory, but you probably want	to copy	the ones you  need  in
       your home directory as something	beginning with a dot.

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

SEE ALSO
       runscript(1)

BUGS
       Please report any bugs to minicom-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org.	 Thank
       you!

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

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

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

       Adam Lackorzynski (adam@lackorzynski.de)	is the current	maintainer  of
       minicom.

User's Manual			   Dec 2013			    MINICOM(1)

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