|
HTML rendering created 2023-12-22 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
|
|
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | COMMAND-LINE | USE | DIALING DIRECTORY | CONFIGURATION | STATUS LINE | LOCALES | MISC | FILES | SEE ALSO | BUGS | AUTHORS | COLOPHON |
|
|
|
MINICOM(1) Version 2.7 MINICOM(1)
minicom - friendly serial communication program
minicom [options] [configuration]
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.
-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 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".
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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!
Minicom keeps it's configuration files in one directory, usually
/var/lib/minicom, /usr/local/etc or /etc. To find out what
default directory minicom has compiled in, issue the command
minicom -h. You'll probably also find the demo files for
runscript(1), and the examples of character conversion tables
either there or in the subdirectories of /usr/doc/minicom*. The
conversion tables are named 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
runscript(1)
Please report any bugs to minicom-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org.
Thank you!
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.
This page is part of the minicom (a serial communication program)
project. Information about the project can be found at
⟨https://salsa.debian.org/minicom-team/minicom⟩. If you have a
bug report for this manual page, send it to adam@lackorzynski.de.
This page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨https://salsa.debian.org/minicom-team/minicom⟩ on 2023-12-22.
(At that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found
in the repository was 2023-09-22.) If you discover any rendering
problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there
is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
(which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
man-pages@man7.org
User's Manual Dec 2013 MINICOM(1)
Pages that refer to this page: ascii-xfr(1), runscript(1), xminicom(1)
|
HTML rendering created 2023-12-22 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
|