MINICOM(1)						      General Commands Manual							MINICOM(1)

NAME

       minicom - friendly serial communication program

SYNOPSIS

       minicom [-somMlwz8] [-c on|off] [-S script] [-d entry]
	       [-a on|off] [-t term] [-p pty] [-C capturefile] [configuration]

DESCRIPTION

       minicom	is  a  communication program which somewhat 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 seperate  script  lan-
       guage interpreter, capture to file, multiple users with individual configurations, and more.

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

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

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

       -z   Use terminal status line. This only works on terminals that support it and that have the relevant information in their termcap or ter-
	    minfo database entry.

       -l   Literal translation of characters with the high bit set. With this flag on, minicom will not try to translate the IBM line	characters
	    to	ASCII,	but  passes  them straight trough. Many PC-unix clones will display them correctly without translation (Linux in a special
	    mode, Coherent and Sco).

       -w   Turns linewrap on at startup by default.

       -a   Attribute usage. Some terminals, notably televideo's, have a 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   Terminal type. With this flag, you can override the environment TERM variable.  This is handy for use in the MINICOM environment vari-
	    able;  one	can create a special termcap entry for use with minicom on the console, that initializes the screen to raw mode so that in
	    conjunction with the -l flag, the IBM line characters are displayed untranslated.

       -c   Color usage. Some terminals (such as the Linux console) support color with the standard ANSI escape sequences. Because there is appar-
	    ently  no termcap support for color, these escape sequences are hard-coded into minicom. Therefore this option is off by default.  You
	    can turn it on with '-c on'. This, and the '-m' option, are good candidates to put into the MINICOM environment variable.

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

       -d   Dial  an  entry from the dialing directory on startup. You can specify an index number, but also a substring of the name of the entry.
	    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 ini-
	    tialization procedures are completed.

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

       -C   filename.  Open capture file at startup.

       -8   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 multibyte characters such as Japanese. Not needed in every language with
	    8bit characters. (For example displaying Finnish text doesn't need this.)

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

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

USE

       Minicom is window based. To popup 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  com-
       plete 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-insensi-
	    tive). 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.
       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 direc-
	    tory 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.
       W    Toggle linewrap on/off.
       X    Exit minicom, reset modem. If macros changed and were not saved, you will have a chance to do so.
       Z    Pop up the help screen.

DIALING DIRECTORY

       By  pressing  C-A  D  the  program  puts you in the dialing directory. 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 a the file ".dialdir" in your home directory.  You can scroll up and
       down with the arrow keys, but you can also scroll complete pages by pressing the PageUp or PageDown key.  If you don't have those, use Con-
       trol-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 succesfull 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 spacify a character conversion table to be loaded whenever this entry answers, before running the login script.  If  this
		 field is blank, the conversion table stays unchanged.
       The  edit  menu	also  shows  the  latest date and time when you called this entry and the total number of calls there, but doesn't let you
       change them.  They are updated 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. Most settings there can be changed by everyone, but some are restricted to root
       only. Those priviliged settings are marked with a star (*) here.

       Filenames and paths
	 This menu defines your default directories.
	 A - Download 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 inter-
	      preter.
	 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 cur-
	      rent 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  "mini-
		   com.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, eg. 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 linux, but not  recommended  any  more  because  these
	      devices  are  obsolete  and many newly installed 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.)
	 *B - Lock file location
	      On most systems This should be /usr/spool/uucp. Linux systems use /var/lock. If this directory does  not	exist,	minicom  will  not
	      attempt to use lockfiles.
	 *C - Callin program
	      If  you  have a uugetty or something on your serial port, it could be that you want a program to be run to switch the modem cq. port
	      into dialin/dialout mode. This is the program to get into dialin mode.
	 *D - Callout program
	      And this to get into dialout mode.
	 E - Bps/Par/Bits
	      Default parameters at startup.

	 If one of the entries is left blank, it will not be used. So if you don't care about locking, and don't have  a  getty  running  on  your
	 modemline,  entries B - D should be left blank.  Be warned! The callin and callout programs are run with the effective user id of "root",
	 eg 0!

       Modem and Dialing
	 Here, the parameters for your modem are defined. I will not explain this further because the defaults are for generic Hayes  modems,  and
	 should  work always. This file is not a Hayes tutorial :-) The only things worth noticing are that control characters can be sent by 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
	 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 buf-
	      fers 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 succesfull connection and when up/downloading is complete.
	 E - Foreground Color (menu)
	      indicates the foreground color to use for all the configuration windows in minicom.
	 F - Background Color (menu)
	      indicates the background color to use for all the configuration windows in minicom. Note that minicom will not allow you to set for-
	      ground 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 forground  and	background
	      colors to the same value.
	 I - Foreground Color (stat)
	      indicates the foreground color to use in for the status bar.
	 J - Background Color (stat)
	      indicates  the color to use in for the status bar. Note that minicom will allow you to set the status bar's forground and background
	      colors to the same value. This will effectively make the status bar invisible but if these  are  your  intensions,  please  see  the
	      option
	 K - History buffer size
	      The number of lines to keep in the history buffer (for backscrolling).
	 L - Macros file
	      is  the  full  path  to  the file that holds macros. Macros allow you to define a string to be sent when you press a certain key. In
	      minicom, you may define F1 through F10 to send up to 256 characters [this is set at compile time]. The filename you specify is veri-
	      fied  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 F10 macros.
	 N - Macros enabled
	      - Yes or No. If macros are disabled, the F1-F10 keys will just send the VT100/VT220 function key escape sequences.
	 O - Character conversion
	      The active conversion table filename is shown here. If you can see no name, no conversion is active. Pressing O, you  will  see  the
	      conversion table edit menu.

	      Edit Macros
		 Here, the macros for F1 through F10 are defined. The bottom of the window shows a legend of character combinations that have spe-
		 cial 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
		 number (or letter for F10) and you will be moved to the end of the macro. When editing the line, you may use  the  left  &  right
		 arrows, Home & End keys, Delete & BackSpace, and ESC and RETURN.  ESC cancels any changes made while ENTER accepts the changes.

	      Character conversion
		 Here  you  can edit the character conversion table. If you are not an American, you know that in many languages there are charac-
		 ters 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 con-
		   nections 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, 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
	 option is of course priviliged to root.

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

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

STATUS LINE

       The  status  line  has  several indicators, that speak for themselves.  The mysterious APP or NOR indicator probably needs explanation. The
       VT100 cursor keys can be in two modes: applications mode and cursor mode. This is 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  now support for local languages. This means you can change most of the English messages and other strings to another language
       by setting the environment variable LANG. On September 2001 the supported languages are Brazilian Portuguese,  Finnish,	Japanese,  French,
       Polish, Czech, Russian and Spanish.  Turkish is under construction.

SECURITY ISSUES

       Since  Minicom  is run setuid root on some computers, you probably want to restrict access to it. This is possible by using a configuration
       file in the same directory as the default files, called "minicom.users".  The syntax of this file is as following:

	    <username> <configuration> [configuration...]

       To allow user 'miquels' to use the default configuration, enter the following line into "minicom.users":

	    miquels dfl

       If you want users to be able to use more than the default configurations, just add the names of those configurations behind the user  name.
       If no configuration is given behind the username, minicom assumes that the user has access to all configurations.

MISC

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

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

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

       As of release 1.3 this has bettered a little: now a 1-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-dependant hack :-) was added. Now, minicom can separate the escape key and
       escape-sequences. To see how dirty this was done, look into wkeys.c.  But it works like a charm!

FILES

       Minicom keeps it's configuration files in one directory, usually /var/lib/minicom, /usr/local/etc or /etc. To find out what default  direc-
       tory 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.

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

VERSION

       Minicom is now up to version 2.00.0.

AUTHORS

       The original author of minicom is Miquel van Smoorenburg (miquels@cistron.nl).  He wrote versions up to 1.75.
       Jukka  Lahtinen	(walker@clinet.fi,  walker@megabaud.fi)  has  been  responsible  for new versions since 1.78, helped by some other people,
       including:
       filipg@paranoia.com wrote the History buffer searching to 1.79.
       Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo (acme@conectiva.com.br) did the internationalization and the Brasilian Portuguese 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.

       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@clinet.fi) has added some information of the changes made after version 1.75.

User's Manual						   $Date: 2001/09/30 13:10:34 $ 						MINICOM(1)