picocom ☆

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Description:
Minimal dumb-terminal emulation program

Type: Formula | Tracked Since: Dec 28, 2025

Links: Homepage | formulae.brew.sh

Category: Developer tools

Tags: serial terminal embedded hardware uart

Install: brew install picocom

About:
Picocom is a minimal terminal emulator that establishes a serial connection to communicate with embedded devices and hardware. It provides essential functionality for interacting with serial ports without the overhead of more complex terminal programs. Its lightweight design makes it ideal for direct hardware debugging and configuration tasks.

Key Features:

Minimal and lightweight serial terminal emulator
Supports basic file transfers via XMODEM and YMODEM
Flexible command-line configuration for port settings
No external dependencies beyond a standard C library

Use Cases:

Interacting with serial consoles on routers and embedded devices
Debugging microcontroller boards like Arduino or Raspberry Pi
Configuring headless servers via serial connection

Alternatives:

minicom – Picocom is significantly smaller and simpler, while minicom offers a full-screen UI and more features like dialing directories.
screen – Screen is a full terminal multiplexer with session management, whereas Picocom focuses solely on serial communication.

Version History

Detected	Version	Rev	Change	Commit
Sep 16, 2025 11:08am		1	VERSION_BUMP	121e9697