Skip to content

Using tio for Serial Communication

tio is a lightweight serial console tool that provides a simple command-line interface for connecting to serial TTY devices and performing basic I/O operations.

Installation

$ sudo apt install tio

Opening a Serial Connection

Typical use is without options: 

$ tio /dev/ttyRS485-1
Which corresponds to the commonly used default options: 
$ tio --baudrate 115200 --databits 8 --flow none --stopbits 1 --parity none /dev/ttyRS485-1

Commonly Used Options

Log the serial session to a file: 

$ tio -b 115200 --log --log-file /tmp/serial.log /dev/ttyRS485-1

List detected serial devices: 

$ tio --list
udev-defined serial device names (for example /dev/ttyRS485-1) may not appear in tio --list, but can be used directly.

tio key commands

tio uses Ctrl+t as a command prefix. Press Ctrl+T, then the selected key.

  • Ctrl+t, q – Quit tio
  • Ctrl+t, ? – List available key commands

References