Packages and Binaries:
minicom
Friendly menu driven serial communication program
Minicom is a clone of the MS-DOS “Telix” communication program. It emulates
ANSI and VT102 terminals, has a dialing directory and auto zmodem download.
Installed size: 1.09 MB
How to install: sudo apt install minicom
Dependencies:
- libc6
- libtinfo6
ascii-xfr
Upload/download files using the ASCII protocol
root@kali:~# ascii-xfr -h
ascii-xfr: invalid option -- 'h'
Usage: ascii-xfr -s|-r [-dvn] [-l linedelay] [-c character delay] filename
-s: send
-r: receive
-e: send the End Of File character (default is not to)
-d: set End Of File character to Control-D (instead of Control-Z)
-v: verbose (statistics on stderr output)
-n: do not translate CRLF <--> LF
Delays are in milliseconds.
minicom
Friendly serial communication program
root@kali:~# minicom -h
Usage: minicom [OPTION]... [configuration]
A terminal program for Linux and other unix-like systems.
-b, --baudrate : set baudrate (ignore the value from config)
-D, --device : set device name (ignore the value from config)
-s, --setup : enter setup mode
-o, --noinit : do not initialize modem & lockfiles at startup
-m, --metakey : use meta or alt key for commands
-M, --metakey8 : use 8bit meta key for commands
-l, --ansi : literal; assume screen uses non IBM-PC character set
-L, --iso : don't assume screen uses ISO8859
-w, --wrap : Linewrap on
-H, --displayhex : display output in hex
-z, --statline : try to use terminal's status line
-7, --7bit : force 7bit mode
-8, --8bit : force 8bit mode
-c, --color=on/off : ANSI style color usage on or off
-a, --attrib=on/off : use reverse or highlight attributes on or off
-t, --term=TERM : override TERM environment variable
-S, --script=SCRIPT : run SCRIPT at startup
-d, --dial=ENTRY : dial ENTRY from the dialing directory
-p, --ptty=TTYP : connect to pseudo terminal
-C, --capturefile=FILE : start capturing to FILE
--capturefile-buffer-mode=MODE : set buffering mode of capture file
-F, --statlinefmt : format of status line
-R, --remotecharset : character set of communication partner
-v, --version : output version information and exit
-h, --help : show help
configuration : configuration file to use
These options can also be specified in the MINICOM environment variable.
This variable is currently unset.
The configuration directory for the access file and the configurations
is compiled to /etc/minicom.
Report bugs to <[email protected]>.
runscript
Script interpreter for minicom
root@kali:~# man runscript
RUNSCRIPT(1) General Commands Manual RUNSCRIPT(1)
NAME
runscript - script interpreter for minicom
SYNOPSIS
runscript scriptname [logfile [homedir]]
DESCRIPTION
runscript is a simple script interpreter that can be called from within
the minicom communications program to automate tasks like logging in to a
Unix system or your favorite BBS.
INVOCATION
The program expects a script name and optionally a filename and the user's
home directory as arguments, and it expects that it's input and output are
connected to the "remote end", the system you are connecting to. All mes-
sages from runscript meant for the local screen are directed to the stderr
output. All this is automatically taken care of if you run it from mini-
com. The logfile and home directory parameters are only used to tell the
log command the name of the logfile and where to write it. If the homedir
is omitted, runscript uses the directory found in the $HOME environment
variable. If also the logfile name is omitted, the log commands are ig-
nored.
KEYWORDS
Runscript recognizes the following commands:
expect send goto gosub return !< !
exit print set inc dec if timeout
verbose sleep break call log
OVERVIEW OF KEYWORDS
send <string>
<string> is sent to the modem. It is followed by a '\r'. <string>
can be:
- regular text, e.g. 'send hello'
- text enclosed in quotes, e.g. 'send "hello world"'
Within <string> the following sequences are recognized:
\n - newline
\r - carriage return
\a - bell
\b - backspace
\c - don't send the default '\r'.
\f - formfeed
\^ - the ^ character
\o - send character o (o is an octal number)
Control characters can be used in the string with the ^ prefix (^A to
^Z, ^[, ^ ^], ^^ and ^_). If you need to send the ^ character, you
must prefix it with the \ escape character.
Octal characters are either four-digit or delimited by a non-digit
character, e.g. the null character may be sent with \0000 and 'send
1234' is equivalent to 'send \0061234'.
Also $(environment_variable) can be used, for example $(TERM). Mini-
com passes three special environment variables: $(LOGIN), which is
the username, $(PASS), which is the password, as defined in the
proper entry of the dialing directory, and $(TERMLIN) which is the
number of actual terminal lines on your screen (that is, the sta-
tusline excluded).
print <string>
Prints <string> to the local screen. Default followed by '\r\n'. See
the description of 'send' above.
label:
Declares a label (with the name 'label') to use with goto or gosub.
goto <label>
Jump to another place in the program.
gosub <label>
Jumps to another place in the program. When the statement 'return' is
encountered, control returns to the statement after the gosub. Go-
sub's can be nested.
return
Return from a gosub.
! <command>
Runs a shell for you in which 'command' is executed. On return, the
variable '$?' is set to the exit status of this command, so you can
subsequently test it using 'if'.
!< <command>
Runs a shell for you in which 'command' is executed. The stdout out-
put of the command execution will be sent to the modem. On return,
the variable '$?' is set to the exit status of this command, so you
can subsequently test it using 'if'.
exit [value]
Exit from "runscript" with an optional exit status. (default 1)
set <variable> <value>
Sets the value of <variable> (which is a single letter a-z) to the
value <value>. If <variable> does not exist, it will be created.
<value> can be a integer value or another variable.
inc <variable>
Increments the value of <variable> by one.
dec <variable>
Decrements the value of <variable> by one.
if <value> <operator> <value> <statement>
Conditional execution of <statement>. <operator> can be <, >, != or
=. Eg, 'if a > 3 goto exitlabel'.
timeout <value>
Sets the global timeout. By default, 'runscript' will exit after 120
seconds. This can be changed with this command. Warning: this command
acts differently within an 'expect' statement, but more about that
later.
verbose <on|off>
By default, this is 'on'. That means that anything that is being read
from the modem by 'runscript', gets echoed to the screen. This is so
that you can see what 'runscript' is doing.
sleep <value>
Suspend execution for <value> seconds.
expect
expect {
pattern [statement]
pattern [statement]
[timeout <value> [statement] ]
....
}
The most important command of all. Expect keeps reading from the in-
put until it reads a pattern that matches one of the specified ones.
If expect encounters an optional statement after that pattern, it
will execute it. Otherwise the default is to just break out of the
expect. 'pattern' is a string, just as in 'send' (see above). Nor-
mally, expect will timeout in 60 seconds and just exit, but this can
be changed with the timeout command.
break
Break out of an 'expect' statement. This is normally only useful as
argument to 'timeout' within an expect, because the default action of
timeout is to exit immediately.
call <scriptname>
Transfers control to another script file. When that script file fin-
ishes without errors, the original script will continue.
log <text>
Write text to the logfile.
NOTES
If you want to make your script to exit minicom (for example when you use
minicom to dial up your ISP, and then start a PPP or SLIP session from a
script), try the command "! killall -9 minicom" as the last script com-
mand. The -9 option should prevent minicom from hanging up the line and
resetting the modem before exiting.
Well, I don't think this is enough information to make you an experienced
'programmer' in 'runscript', but together with the examples it shouldn't
be too hard to write some useful script files. Things will be easier if
you have experience with BASIC. The minicom source code comes together
with two example scripts, scriptdemo and unixlogin. Especially the last
one is a good base to build on for your own scripts.
SEE ALSO
minicom(1)
BUGS
Runscript should be built in to minicom.
AUTHOR
Miquel van Smoorenburg, <[email protected]> Jukka Lahtinen,
<[email protected]>
xminicom
Friendly serial communication program
root@kali:~# man xminicom
XMINICOM(1) Linux Users Manual XMINICOM(1)
NAME
xminicom - friendly serial communication program
SYNOPSIS
xminicom minicom-options
DESCRIPTION
Xminicom is a script wrapper around minicom. It tries to find a color ca-
pable xterm or rxvt on your system, and then runs minicom with the -c
(color) flag in a terminal session.
OPTIONS
See minicom (1).
AUTHOR
Miquel van Smoorenburg, [email protected]
SEE ALSO
minicom(1)
September 14, 1998 XMINICOM(1)
Updated on: 2026-May-25