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CU(1) General Commands Manual CU(1)

cu — serial terminal emulator

cu [-dr] [-E escape_char] [-l line] [-s speed | -speed]

cu [host]

cu is used to connect to another system over a serial link. In the era before modern networks, it was typically used to connect to a modem in order to dial in to a remote host. It is now frequently used for tasks such as attaching to the serial console of another machine for administrative or debugging purposes.

The options are as follows:

Specify that the line is directly connected and cu should not allow the driver to block waiting for a carrier to be detected.
escape_char
Specify an escape character to use instead of the default tilde.
line
Specify the line to use. Any of the forms cua00, /dev/cua00, or usb0.1.00002.3 are permitted.

The default is /dev/cua00. See cua(4) for information on terminal devices. Users in group “dialer” are permitted to use cua(4) devices by default.

See sysctl(2) hw.ucomnames for available USB serial lines.

Start cu in restricted mode. This prevents all local filesystem operations (~R, ~X, and ~>) and command executions (~C and ~$).
speed | -speed
Set the speed of the connection. The default is 9600.

If host is given, cu uses the remote(5) database to retrieve the (directly connected), (device) and (baud rate) capabilities for that host. The cu utility ignores other capabilities found in that database.

Typed characters are normally transmitted directly to the remote machine (which does the echoing as well). A tilde (‘~’) appearing as the first character of a line is an escape signal; the following are recognized:

or ~.
Drop the connection and exit. Only the connection is dropped – the login session is not terminated.
Copy file from local to remote. cu prompts for the name of a local file to transmit.
Pipe the output from a local UNIX process to the remote host. The command string sent to the local UNIX system is processed by the shell.
Send a BREAK to the remote system.
Stop cu (only available with job control).
Fork a child process on the local system to perform special protocols such as XMODEM. The child program will be run with the following arrangement of file descriptors:

  • 0 ↔ remote tty in
  • 1 ↔ remote tty out
  • 2 ↔ local tty stderr
Deassert the data terminal ready (DTR) line briefly.
Record all output from the remote system to a file. If the given file already exists, it is appended to. If no file is specified, any existing recording is stopped.
Change the speed of the connection.
Send a file with the XMODEM protocol.
Get a summary of the tilde escapes.

When cu prompts for an argument, for example during setup of a file transfer, the line typed may be edited with the standard erase and kill characters. A null line in response to a prompt, or an interrupt, will abort the dialogue and return the user to the remote machine.

cu guards against multiple users connecting to a remote system by opening modems and terminal lines with exclusive access.

The default value for host if none is specified via the command line.
A system description, or an absolute path to a remote(5) system description database.

/etc/remote
host description file

The cu utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

sysctl(2), cua(4), remote(5)

The cu (“Call Unix”) command first appeared outside of Bell Labs in PWB/UNIX 1.0. It was reimplemented as part of the tip command in 4.1cBSD. The current version was written for OpenBSD 5.4.

Nicholas Marriott <nicm@openbsd.org>

October 3, 2023 OpenBSD-7.6