Provided by: minicom_2.9-4_amd64 bug

NAME

       minicom - friendly serial communication program

SYNOPSIS

       minicom [options] [configuration]

DESCRIPTION

       minicom  is  a  communication program which somewhat resembles 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
       separate script language interpreter, capture to  file,  multiple  users  with  individual
       configurations, and more.

COMMAND-LINE

       -s, --setup
            Setup.   Root  edits  the  system-wide  defaults in /etc/minicom/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
            command 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 support 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  without 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, 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, --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 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=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 specify an index number,
            but also a substring of the name of the  entry.  If  you  specify  a  name  that  has
            multiple  entries  in  the  directory,  they are all tagged for dialing. You can also
            specify multiple names or index numbers by separating them with commas.  The  dialing
            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 configuration file.

       -D, --device
            Specify the device, overriding the value given in the configuration 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 convert 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.   '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  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  their  own  configuration  file,  it will show up in their home directory as
            ".minirc.dfl" or ".minirc.configuration".

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 escape key can be altered when minicom is configured (-s option or C-A O),
       but we'll stick to Control-A for now.

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

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

       Possible commands are listed next, in alphabetical order.
       C-A  Pressing  C-A  a  second time will just send a C-A to the remote system.  If you have
            changed your "escape character" to something other than C-A, this  works  analogously
            for that character.
       A    Toggle  'Add Linefeed' on/off. If it is on, a linefeed is added before every carriage
            return displayed on the screen.
       B    Gives you a scroll back buffer. You can scroll up with u, down with d, a page up with
            b,  a page down with f, and if you have them the arrow and page up/page down keys can
            also be used. You can search for text in the buffer  with  s  (case-sensitive)  or  S
            (case-insensitive).  N  will  find  the  next occurrence of the string.  c will enter
            citation mode. A text cursor appears and you specify the start line by hitting  Enter
            key. Then scroll back mode will finish and the contents with prefix '>' will be sent.
       C    Clears the screen.
       D    Dial a number, or go to the dialing directory.
       E    Toggle local echo on and off (if your version of minicom supports it).
       F    A break signal is sent to the modem.
       G    Run script (Go). Runs a login script.
       H    Hangup.
       I    Toggle  the  type  of  escape  sequence  that the cursor keys send between normal and
            applications mode. (See also the comment about the status line below).
       J    Jump to a shell. On return, the whole screen will be redrawn.
       K    Clears the screen, runs kermit and redraws the screen upon return.
       L    Turn Capture file on off. If turned on,  all  output  sent  to  the  screen  will  be
            captured in the file too.
       M    Sends  the modem initialization string. If you are online and the DCD line setting is
            on, you are asked for confirmation before the modem is initialized.
       N    Toggle between timestamp modes to be added to the output.  Available 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,  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 (external). If  you  have  the  filename
            selection  window  and  the  prompt  for  download  directory  enabled,  you'll get a
            selection window for choosing the directory for downloading. Otherwise  the  download
            directory defined in the Filenames and paths menu will be used.
       S    Send  files.  Choose  the protocol like you do with the receive command. 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 directory tree by pressing the spacebar twice.  Finally,  send  the  files  by
            pressing ENTER or quit by pressing ESC.
       T    Choose  Terminal  emulation: Ansi(color) or vt100.  You can also change the backspace
            key here, turn the 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  directory  list.  By  choosing  "dial" the phone numbers of the tagged entries, or if
       nothing is tagged, the number of the highlighted entry will be dialed. While the modem  is
       dialing, you can press escape to cancel dialing. Any other key will close the dial window,
       but won't cancel the dialing itself. Your dialing directory will be saved  into  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 version of minicom supports it).
       E - Script
                 The  script that must be executed after a successful connection 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 connected to the modem, stderr to the screen.
              If  the  path  is  relative (ie, does not start with a slash) then it's relative to
              your home directory, except for the script interpreter.
         E - Kermit program
              Where to find the executable for kermit, and it's options. Some simple macro's  can
              be  used on the command line: '%l' is expanded to the complete filename of the dial
              out-device, '%f' is expanded to  the  serial  port  file  descriptor  and  '%b'  is
              expanded to the current serial port speed.
         F - Logging options
              Options to configure the logfile writing.

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

              B - Log connects and hangups
                   This  option defines whether or not the logfile is written when the remote end
                   answers the call or hangs up. Or when you give the hangup command yourself  or
                   leave minicom without hangup while online.

              C - Log file transfers
                   Do you want log entries of receiving and sending files.
         The  'log'  command  in  the  scripts is not affected by logging options B and C.  It is
         always executed, if you just have the name of the log file defined.

       File Transfer Protocols
         Protocols defined here will show up when C-A s/r is pressed.  "Name" in the beginning of
         the  line  is  the  name  that  will  show  up in the menu. "Program" is the path to the
         protocol. "Name" after that defines if the program needs an argument, e.g. a file to  be
         transmitted.  U/D  defines  if  this  entry should show up in the upload or the download
         menu.  Fullscr defines if the program should run full screen, or that minicom will  only
         show  it's  stderr  in  a  window. IO-Red defines if minicom should attach the program's
         standard in and output to the modem port or not. "Multi" tells  the  filename  selection
         window  whether  or not the protocol can send multiple files with one command. It has no
         effect on download protocols, and it is also ignored with upload protocols if you  don't
         use  the  filename selection window. The old sz and rz are not full screen, and have IO-
         Red set. However, there are curses based versions of at least rz that do not want  their
         stdin  and  stdout redirected, and run full screen.  All file transfer protocols are run
         with the UID of the user, and not with UID=root. '%l', '%f' and '%b' can be used on  the
         command  line  as  with kermit.  Within this menu you can also define if you want to use
         the filename selection window when prompted for files to upload, and if you like  to  be
         prompted for the download directory every time the automatic download is started. If you
         leave the download directory prompt disabled, the download directory defined in the file
         and directory menu is used.

       Serial port setup
         A - Serial device
              /dev/tty1  or  /dev/ttyS1  for  most  people.   /dev/cua<n> is still possible under
              GNU/Linux, but no longer recommended as these devices 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 filename 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,  minicom  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 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.

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

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

       Screen and keyboard
         A - Command key is
              the 'Hot Key' that brings you into command mode. If this is set to 'ALT'  or  'meta
              key', you can directly call commands by alt-key instead of HotKey-key.
         B - Backspace key sends
              There still are some systems that want a VT100 to send DEL instead of BS. With this
              option you can enable that stupidity.  (Eh, it's even on by default...)
         C - Status line is
              Enabled or disabled. Some slow  terminals  (for  example,  X-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 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 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 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 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 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  characters  [this  is set at compile time]. The filename you
              specify is verified as soon as you hit ENTER. If you do  not  have  permissions  to
              create the specified file, an error message will so indicate and you will be forced
              to re-edit the 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  control characters with plain text by prefixing them with a '^',
                 in which '^^' means '^' itself. You can send a 1  second  delay  with  the  '^~'
                 code.  This  is  useful when you are trying to login after ftp'ing or telnet'ing
                 somewhere.  You can also include your current username  and  password  from  the
                 phone  directory in the macros with '\u' and '\p', respectively. If you need the
                 backslash character in the macro, write it doubled 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 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  conversion  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  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 replace the characters {|}[]\ with the diacritical characters
                   used in Finnish and Swedish.

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

              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 (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 conversion table is used when writing the
                   capture file.

       Save setup as dfl
         Save the parameters as the default for the next time the program is started. Instead  of
         dfl,  any  other  parameter  name  may  appear, depending on which one was used when the
         program was started.

       Save setup as..
         Save the parameters under a special name. Whenever Minicom is started with this name  as
         an argument, it will use these parameters. This option is of course 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 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 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 setting 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-sequences. To see how dirty this was done, look into wkeys.c.  But
       it works like a charm!

DEBIAN SPECIFIC

       In Debian GNU/Linux systems, minicom is not setuid root. Users that need to use it have to
       get added to the dialout group in order to use serial port devices.

FILES

       Minicom  keeps  it's  configuration  files in the directory /etc/minicom.  You'll find the
       demo  files  for  runscript(1),  and  the  examples  of  character  conversion  tables  in
       /usr/share/doc/minicom.  The conversion tables are named something like mc.* in the tables
       subdirectory, 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  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
       Brazilian Portuguese translations.
       Jim Seymour  (jseymour@jimsun.LinxNet.com)  wrote  the  multiple  modem  support  and  the
       filename selection window used since 1.80.
       Tomohiro  Kubota  (kubota@debian.or.jp)  wrote  the Japanese translations and the citation
       facility, and did some fixes.
       Gael Queri (gqueri@mail.dotcom.fr) wrote the French 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 extension.

       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.