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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 share-
    ware program TELIX but is free with source code and runs under most
    unices. Features include dialing directory with  auto-redial, support
    for UUCP-style lock files on serial devices, a seperate script language
    interpreter, capture to file, multiple users with individual configura-
    tions, 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 reset-
   ting, and then want to restart a session. It is potentially dan-
   gerous though: no check for lock files etc. is made, so a normal
   user could interfere with things like uucp... Maybe this will be
   taken out later. For now it is assumed, that users who are given
   access to a modem are responsible enough for their actions.

    -m  Override command-key with the Meta or ALT key. This is the default
   in 1.80 and it can also be configured in one of minicom's menus,
   but if you use different terminals all the time, of which some
   don't have  a Meta or ALT key, it's handy to set the default com-
   mand key to Ctrl-A and use this option when you have a keyboard
   supporting Meta or ALT keys. Minicom assumes that your Meta key
   sends the ESC prefix, not the other variant that sets the highest
   bit of the character.

    -M  Same as -m, but assumes that your Meta key sets the 8th bit of the
   character high (sends 128 + character code).

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

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

    -w  Turns linewrap on at startup by default.

    -a  Attribute usage. Some terminals, notably televideo's, have a rot-
   ten  attribute handling (serial instead of parallel). By default,
   minicom uses '-a on', but if you are using such a terminal you can
   (must!) supply the option '-a off'. The trailing 'on' or 'off' is
   needed.

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

    -c  Color usage. Some  terminals (such as the Linux 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. 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 spec-
   ify  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  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.  'Continu-
   ous' 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 spe-
    cial 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 sys-
   tem.  If you have changed your "escape character" to something
   other than C-A, this works analogously for that character.
    A  Toggle 'Add Linefeed' on/off. If it is on, a linefeed is  added
   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.
    O  Configure minicom. Puts you in the configuration menu.
    P  Communication Parameters. Allows you to change the bps rate, par-
   ity and number of bits.
    Q  Exit minicom without resetting the modem. If macros changed and
   were not saved, you will have a chance to do so.
    R  Receive files. Choose from various protocols (external). If you
   have the filename selection window and the  prompt  for download
   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 com-
   mand. If you don't have the filename selection window enabled (in
   the  File transfer protocols menu), you'll just have to write the
   filename(s) in a dialog window. If you have the selection window
   enabled, a window will pop up showing the filenames in your upload
   directory. You can tag and untag filenames by pressing spacebar,
   and  move the cursor up and down with the cursor keys or j/k. The
   selected filenames are shown highlighted.  Directory names are
   shown [within brackets] and you can move up or down in the direc-
   tory tree by pressing the spacebar twice. Finally, send the  files
   by pressing ENTER or quit by pressing ESC.
    T  Choose Terminal emulation: Ansi(color) or vt100. You can also
   change the backspace key here, turn the status line on or off, and
   define delay (in milliseconds) after each newline if you need
   that.
    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 direc-
    tory list. By choosing "dial" the phone numbers of the tagged entries,
    or if nothing is tagged, the number of the highlighted entry will be
    dialed. While the modem is dialing, you can press escape to cancel
    dialing. Any other key will close the dial window, but won't cancel the
    dialing itself.  Your dialing directory will be saved into a the file
    ".dialdir" in your home directory. You can scroll up and down with the
    arrow keys, but you can also scroll complete pages by pressing the
    PageUp or PageDown key. If you don't have those, use Control-B (Back-
    ward) and Control-F (Forward). You can use the space bar to tag a num-
    ber of entries and minicom will rotate trough this list if a connection
    can't be made. A '>' symbol is drawn in the directory before the names
    of the tagged entries.

    The "edit" menu speaks for itself, but I will discuss it briefly  here.
    A - Name  The name for this entry
    B - Number
   and its telephone number.
    C - Dial string #
   Which specific dial string you want to use to connect. There
   are three different dial strings (prefixes and suffixes) that
   can be configured in the Modem and dialing menu.
    D - Local echo
   can be on or off for this system (if your version of minicom
   supports it).
    E - Script
   The script that must be executed after a succesfull connec-
   tion is made (see the manual for runscript)
    F - Username
   The username that is passed to the runscript program.  It is
   passed in the environment string "$LOGIN".
    G - Password
   The password is passed as "$PASS".
    H - Terminal Emulation
   Use ANSI or VT100 emulation.
    I - Backspace key sends
   What code (Backspace or Delete) the backspace key sends.
    J - Linewrap
   Can be on or off.
    K - Line settings
   Bps rate, bits, parity and number of stop bits to use for
   this connection.  You can choose current for the speed, so
   that it will use whatever speed is being used at that moment
   (useful if you have multiple modems).
    L - Conversion table
   You may 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 con-
     nected to the modem, stderr to the screen.
     If the path is relative (ie, does not start with a slash) then
     it's relative to your home directory, except for the script
     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, eg. a file to be transmit-
  ted. U/D defines if this entry should show up in the upload or the
  download menu. Fullscr defines if the program should run full
  screen, or that minicom will only show it's stderr in a window. IO-
  Red defines if minicom should attach the program's standard in and
  output to the modem port or not. "Multi" tells the filename selec-
  tion 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
  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 dial-
     ing 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-termi-
     nals) cause the  status  line to jump  "up and down" when
     scrolling, so you can turn it off if desired. It will still be
     shown in command-mode.
  D - Alarm sound
     If turned on, minicom will sound an alarm (on the console only)
     after a  succesfull connection and when up/downloading is com-
     plete.
  E - Foreground Color (menu)
     indicates the foreground color to use for all the configuration
     windows in minicom.
  F - Background Color (menu)
     indicates the background color to use for all the configuration
     windows in minicom. Note that minicom will not allow you to set
     forground 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 back-
     ground colors to the same value.
  I - Foreground Color (stat)
     indicates the foreground color to use in for the status bar.
  J - Background Color (stat)
     indicates the color to use in for the status bar. Note that
     minicom will allow you to set the status  bar's forground and
     background colors to the same value. This will effectively make
     the status bar invisible but if  these are your intensions,
     please see the option
  K - History buffer size
     The number of lines to keep  in the history buffer (for
     backscrolling).
  L - Macros file
     is the full path to the file that holds macros.  Macros  allow
     you to define a string to be sent when you press a certain key.
     In minicom, you may define F1 through F10 to send up to 256
     characters [this is set at compile time]. The filename you
     specify is verified as soon as you hit ENTER. If you do not
     have permissions to create the specified file, an error message
     will so indicate and you will be forced to re-edit the  file-
     name. 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 special meaning. They allow you to enter  special con-
   trol characters with plain text by prefixing them with a '^',
   in which '^^' means '^' itself. You can send a 1 second delay
   with the '^~' code.  This is useful when you are trying to
   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 dou-
   bled 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 can-
   cels any changes made while ENTER accepts the changes.

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

     A - Load table
    You probably guessed it. This command loads a table from
    the  disk. You are asked a file name for the table. Pre-
    defined tables .mciso, .mcpc8 and .mcsf7 should  be
    included with the  program. Table .mciso does no conver-
    sion, .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  spec-
    ify.

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

     D - next screen

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

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

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

    Save setup as..
  Save the parameters under a  special name.  Whenever Minicom is
  started with this name as an argument, it will use these parameters.
  This option is of course priviliged to root.

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

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

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

LOCALES
    Minicom has 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 "mini-
    com.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 configura-
    tions, 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
    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 subdi-
    rectories of /usr/doc/minicom*. The conversion tables are named  some-
    thing 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 respon-
    sible for new versions since 1.78, helped by some other people, includ-
    ing:
    filipg@paranoia.com wrote the History buffer searching to 1.79.
    Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo (acme@conectiva.com.br) did the international-
    ization and the Brasilian Portuguese translations.
    Jim Seymour (jseymour@jimsun.LinxNet.com) wrote the multiple modem sup-
    port and the filename selection window used since 1.80.
    Tomohiro Kubota (kubota@debian.or.jp) wrote the Japanese translations
    and the citation facility, and did some fixes.
    Gael Queri (gqueri@mail.dotcom.fr) wrote the French translations.
    Arkadiusz Miskiewicz (misiek@pld.org.pl) wrote the Polish translations.
    Kim Soyoung (nexti@chollian.net) wrote the Korean translations.

    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.