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[INS::INS]
Midnight Commander Tips and Tricks
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| | | | | Ebook | | | | | | | |
| |Orthodox | | |Orthodox |mcedit- M |Midnight | | | | | MC |
| News | File |Recommended| Cheetsheet | File | idnight |Commander| mcedit | mcview | mcdiff |User Menu|Extension|
| |Managers | Links | | Manager |Commander |tutorial | | | | | menu |
| | | | | (OFM) | editor | | | | | | |
| | | | |Paradigm | | | | | | | |
|--------------+---------+-----------+-------------+---------+----------+---------+---------+----------+---------+---------+---------|
| | Command | | | History | |Midnight | OFM | | History | | |
| Macro |line and | External | OFM Book | of |Colorizing|Commander| YouTube |Colorizing| of | Color | |
| Substitution | command | panelize | |commands | | version |Tutorials| |commands | scheme | |
| | window | | | | | 4.8 | | | | | |
|--------------+---------+-----------+-------------+---------+----------+---------+---------+----------+---------+---------+---------|
| mc does not | | |Software and | | | | | | | | |
| display | | |configuration|Building | OFM | OFM |Sysadmin | | | | |
|pseudo-graphic| | | management | RPMs |Standards |Standard | Horror |MC History| Tips | Humor | Etc |
| characters | | | using RPM | | | 1999 | Storie | | | | |
| properly | | | | | | | | | | | |
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+----------------------+
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+----------------------+
* Introduction
* General
* Basic keyboard usage
* Use of programmable keyboard is highly recommended
* Hotlist
* History
* Command line tips
* In menus
* Listing Mode
+ Creating Custom Format
* Viewer
* Editor
* mcdiff
* Macro variables
* Random Findings
----------------------
Introduction
[INS::INS]
A good tutorial can be found at Midnight Commander Guide. There is a
mail list for MC in which you can ask questions and share tips:
https://mail.gnome.org/archives/mc/. There at least a half-dozen of
entry level tutorial for Mc on the Web including several YouTube
videos (just search for Midnight commander on Youtube):
* Midnight Commander Guide by Mueen Nawaz -- A good tutorial with
some useful tips
* Midnight Commander - MC Tutorial by JANE TREMBATH. Basic but
still useful.
* An Introduction to the Midnight Commander by John M. Fisk <
fiskjm@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu> October, 1997 Nashville, TN
* How to install and use Midnight Commander Opensource.com
* Midnight Commander (mc) Guide Powerful Text based File Manager
for Unix by Ramesh Natarajan on October 17, 2008
* Youtube
+ RHEL - CentOS Linux Install GNU Midnight Commander Tutorial -
YouTube
+ Midnight Commander Basics - YouTube
Visibility of the directory and immediate visual feedback present
some of sysadmins blunders and corresponding horror stories. As such
mc is highly recommended tool for system administrators.
Some novices complain that mc is just too idiosyncratic for them.
Here is a pretty typical lament that the user jhfry wrote in his
response to Slashdot story Midnight Commander Development Revived
(January 26 2009)
Anyone else regret...
Anyone else regret not getting attached to tools like MC
years ago?
There are a few tools that pop up whenever people discuss the
easiest or best way to do a task... and I always wish I had
made the investment of time to get proficient with those
tools. However it almost seems too late.
For example, vi and emacs... I am sure they are great, but
the investment of time to get proficient makes it hard to
justify even trying. So on my headless linux boxen I use
nano, I can do everything I need to do without a cheatsheet.
MC is the same way... I have tinkered with it, but I always
found myself exiting to the command line because I would find
something I didn't know how to do and didn't want to take the
time to figure it out.
Does anyone have any tips on how to best add these types of
tools to your tool set when you've mastered an alternative.
Simply saying to use it doesn't take into consideration
productivity.
Are these tools worth investing personal time into, say
instead of studying for a certification or something. Are the
gains really that significant?
There is no royal way to mastering of mc. But, truth be told, MC
allow "exiting to command line" by just pressing Ctrl-O. Then you
can "return" to mc dual panel screen by pressing Ctrl-O another time.
That means that you can gradually learn the ropes and at the
beginning to use mc just as a tool to see the currently directory
with one click. The guy in the post reproduced above also failed to
understand the simplest thing: that the bar below contains the main
commands (so called F-commands which can be invoked by functional
keys F1-F10) and this bar items are clickable by mouse. That probably
represents level-zero of usage of mc.
It would be better if MC exported its macros to environmental
variables in the shell so that you can operate with the current file,
directory in the passive panel and the current file in the passive
panel via macros like in mc command line:
1. %f -- The current file name. %F -- The current file in the
passive panel.
2. %d -- The current directory name. %D -- The directory name of the
passive panel.
3. %t -- The currently tagged files. %T -- The tagged files in the
passive panel.
But this export can be emulated "seamlessly" if you program macro in
programmable keyboard or keypad. For example, Logitech G110 gaming
keyboard or, better, Logitech G13 Programmable Keypad with LCD
Display (which can be used with any keyboard). You can also create a
user menu item that writes the content of those macros your home
directory in a form of export statements and then "source" this file
in your bashrc.
At the same time, you can't get far in mastering mc without
investing some time experimenting with it and reading documentation.
It is a different paradigm of working with shell (see Orthodox system
interface ). But there is some critical mass of efforts after which
you do start doing operation of "subconscious" level, as a part of
your motor skills, and they become a part of you "kinetic memory".
You now can execute some typical sequences of keystroke
semi-automatically, like a good piano player. And that's the goal.
I still remember this "I got it" moment and after that I just could
not understand why initial learning was so difficult for me (I came
to NC from Xtree). In other words you need a critical mass of
investment in time and effort that will be handsomely paid off. And
the the main advantage on investing time and energy is MC is that it
probably will be available for the rest of your life.
For example, I use OFMs since 1989. That's almost 30 years and those
skills that I acquired in 1989 with NC 2.0 are still by-and-large
valid. This is not the case with most commercial products, which that
often are discontinued or changed in such a way to make previous
skills obsolete for facilitate upgrades. MS Word is one good example
here. Few skills acquired with MS Word 5.0 for DOS (I typeset a book
using MS Word 5.0, so I did make a huge investment is acquiring MS
Word skills) are valid now. And this is not a completely bad
application, where the key ideas preserved, albeit in crippled and
somewhat perverted form. Although in the most recent version (Office
365) Microsoft managed to screw up even basic functionality of MS
Word. But at least a decent versions like MS Word 2007 still exists,
so effort of learning it still pays. How long nobody knows. And
that's the problem. With MC you can be pretty sure enjoy the same
interface and functionality in 2050 if you live that long ;-)
With programmer editors the situation might be worse. While it is an
essential instrument of programmer and learning programmable editor
with macro language pays many time, the survival rate of such editors
is low, if we are talking about timespan of more then 20 years. For
example both the Kedit and MultiEdit are not abandonware:
1. An excellent editor DOS and then Windows 3.1 editor MultiEdit. It
barely survived. The most recent release is dated from 2008. As
of 2011, it was one of the few surviving editors from the DOS era
when text editors were regarded as indispensable programming
tools.
2. An excellent editor for Windows 3.1 Kedit, which is a derivative
of IBM Xedit. KEDIT first became available in 1983. It is
derivative of Xedit from VM/CMS OS, and it has very good Unix
implementation THE editor.
There are very few editors that survived from the time of PC
revolution when DOS ruled the globe (let's say from 1986) for 30
years. Among them:
1. VI
2. Emacs
While mcedit, a built-in editor is far from the power of, say, Kedit
it is a much better deal then nano. for example it allow to edit
multiple files simultaneously and move "selection" between them with
ease.
In a way users, who do not want to invest time and energy into
learning mc are hopeless. Like old English proverb aptly states "
Nothing venture, nothing have." (Noght venter noght haue. [1546 J.
Heywood Dialogue of Proverbs i. xi. E1]). That's the main tip for
those who want to master mc ;-).
General
You need to take some steps to make MC to exit in the current
directory visible on the screen. One way is to use alias such as
alias mc='mc -P "/tmp/mc-$USER/mc.pwd.$$"; cd `cat /tmp/mc-$USER/mc.pwd.$$`; rm /tmp/mc-$USER/*'
The other is to use a supplied with mc more generic script
alias mc='. /usr/libexec/mc/mc-wrapper.sh'
One of the most common problems with mc is incorrect display of
pseudo-graphical characters, which spoils borders on the panels and
while this defect does not affect functionality, is very unpleasant
aesthetically. See Midnight commander does not display pseudo-graphic
characters properly for more information. You can use option -a to
use regular characters instead and in most cases this is an adequate
solution.
Another possible fix that sometimes work is to try using LANG=C mc
instead of mc.
* Please, a small question - I made the new installation (FC3, KDE)
and run MC (the great SW!!). Everything works, except that
borders on the panels are drawn by 'a umlaut' instead of
pseudo-graphic (lines)
+ This is a locale and termcap issue which I do not fully
understand.
Fortunately I do know a workaround. :) Use this:
+ LANG=C mc
Other common issues and little know features:
* You can change sizes of each panel making them asymmetrical,
which is useful for displaying long names via Options/Layout/
Panel_split. I find useful 33%/66% split so that light panel is
approximately twice larger then the left.
+ You can also change from vertical split to horizontal one, in
which the width of each panel is equal to the width of the
terminal screen. that allows to display usner and
permissions in wider panel.
* Ctrl-O opens shell prompt. Another Ctrl-O return panels.
* Strings that you copied on any of the panels can be pasted to the
command line.
* MC simplified using "safe" editing of files: make a backup, copy
it to some directory, edit it, test it and then copy back. This
is important when working on remote servers when you blunder
might means a trip of say 100 miles in the most inopportune
moment. See Sysadmin Horror Stories
* To copy the name of the current file into the command like
instead of Alt-Enter (put the current file in the command line)
you can use Esc-Enter (this is useful for Cygwin as Windows uses
Alt-Enter for maximizing screen, and this is a useful shortcut to
disable)
* Recommended fonts for Midnight commander
+ For Cygwin you can use Fixedsys 11
+ terminus is the best font for linux
* Multi-screen feature: support of many opened editors and viewers
(#1490)
You can concurrently run multiple viewers and editors
(screens). Use following default hotkeys:
shortcut description
Meta + ` Show list of screens: viewers, editors and file
panel
Meta + { Switch to previous screen
Meta + } Switch to next screen
Basic keyboard usage
TIP: Often you need to use "learn key functionality to enable some
keys on your keyboard (for example Grey + and grey - ). You need to
save the results of leraning for them to work, so don't forget to get
to save menu and press enter at then end of this exercise.
* Home, or Alt-< - move to the top of the directory listing
* End, or Alt-> - move to the end of the directory listing
* Ctrl-X V, or Ctrl-X S create symbolic link
* Alt-C or Esc-C -- quick cd (opens a box with history of previous
directories and selecting them is quicker to type than retyping.
* Ctrl-O -- Hide panels and expose command window.
* Ctrl-U -- Swap left and right panel
* Space Toggle tick boxes ++++++++-++on or off
* Tab key also moves sequentially through fields of selection boxes
* Ins or Ctrl-T -- select file (actually this is a toggle)
* Ctrl-R -- refresh or rescan directory view
* Alt-shift ? -- find file (also available from top menu F9/command
/find file)
* Ctrl-X D -- compare directories (release ctrl-x before pressing
d)
* Ctrl-X I information about file
* Ctrl-X X,L -- symlink, link file
* Shift-Grey+ or Shift + -- select group. Can enter wildcards to
highlight a certain type or name of file.
* Shift-Grey- or Shift - -- deselect group.
* Grey* or Shift * - reverse selection. Changes highlighting to all
unselected files. Handy to use these two in combination if you
are trying to quickly select all but a certain group.
* Shift-* select all /deselect all (toggle)
* Ctrl-X-C -- built-in graphic chmod command,
* Ctrl-X-O -- built-in graphic chown command
* Alt-O or Esc-O make passive panel directory equivalent to the
active.
* Shift + - select group. Can enter wildcards to highlight a
certain type or name of file.
* Shift * - reverse selection. Changes highlighting to all
unselected files. Handy to use these two in combination if you
are trying to quickly select all but a certain group.
* \ - unselect group. Opposite of +.
Use of programmable keyboard is highly recommended
As most sysadmin now access servers using Windows desktop and
terminal emulator, usage of programmable keyboard can dramatically
increase your productivity.
I would recommend Logitech G510s gaming keyboard It provides 18
macro keys and allows LUA scripting for macros. Macros can help to
solve some nasty problems with MC. For example MC does not export the
values of macrovariables to shell window when you press Ctrl-O. But
using programmable keyboard you can create a macro and assign it to
say key G18 which:
1. Runs user command assigned to say letter e (F2-e) that export
value of all macro variable into export statements and write this
file to your home directly under some fixed name or the current
date and session id (if you use multiple sessions). For example
export f="'%f'" > ~/mv_env
export D="'%D'" >> ~/mv_env
export t="'%t'" >> ~/mv_env
... ... ...
Please note that the current directory of the active panel
corresponds to the value of $PWD. you you do not need to export
it. You can also create a loop to accomplish the same with less
number of lines.
2. Presses Ctrl-O and then executes dot command on this newly
created file
. ~/mv_env
(you can alias it to .m; just add alias .m='. ~/mc_env' to your
profile )
After that all MC built-in macros are available for usage in commands
and scripts as env variables.
Hotlist
* Ctrl \ -- open directory hotlist
* Ctrl-X H -- add directory top hotlist
History
There are several types of history in mc. It is present if you can
see the pictogram [^] (usually on the right side). for example there
is:
History on command entered on the command like
History of directories visited (separate for left and right panels)
History is persistent from one invocation to another. You case see it
by clicking with mouse [^] in the right bottom corner of mc.
* For directories history and whenever it is present Alt-y moves to
the previous directory in the history, equivalent to clicking the
< with the mouse.
* Alt-u moves to the next directory in the history, equivalent to
clicking the > with the mouse.
* Alt-Shift-h, Alt-H displays the directory history, equivalent to
depressing the 'v' with the mouse.
* Alt-p, Alt-n use these keys to browse through the command
history. Alt-p takes you to the last entry, Alt-n takes you to
the next one.
* Alt-h displays the history for the current input line.
Command line tips
* Instead of Alt-Enter (put the current file in the command line)
you can use Esc-Enter (this is useful for Cygwin as Windows uses
Alt-Enter for maximizing screen, and this is a useful shortcut to
disable)
* You can add the path from the active and passive panels Ctrl-X P
and Ctrl-X Ctrl-P. Pasting the file name is Ctrl-X T. There is a
quick cd command (which in version 4.8.1 can be used to rsync
panel directory with shell terminal screen directory.
* You can use macrovariables in the command string (see below).
* Click on [^] at the right corner of command line shows history of
commands, which is browsable. (also availbel via menu F9/
Ccommand/FCommand history)
* Hitting Ctrl-O in viewer and editor expose console screen and
allow typing commands in it.
* Alt-O -- Switch to the directory on the passive panel identical
to the directory on the active panel hotkey
* Equlize directories on both panels -- put the directory on
active panel in the holist and then switch to the other panel and
retrieve it.
In menus
* Tab, ArrowUp, ArrowDn or Ctrl-I moves from one menu field to
another ArrowUp or ArrowDown and Enter, or use the 'hotkey' - the
highlighted letter in each menu item.
* F10 closes menu
* ArrowLeft, ArrowRight, Home, End help to navigate entered string
* Mouse click on [^] produces history, Esc close the history
Listing Mode
The directory listing can be displayed in several different formats.
Pressing Alt-t to cycles through them. There are
* Full: gives a standard view.
* a dual column format,
* Long: a format resembling the output of ls -l called full (single
column on the screen) shows permissions, ownership and long file
names in full, but removes the other pane to make space.
* Custom, where you can define fields to be displayed (press F1 to
see proper name when you at this tab). See Creating Custom
Format
Listing Mode allows you to change how your directory is displayed.
Brief: shows contents in two columns on that pane.
You can also cycle through these views by using Alt - t.
In Listing Mode, tick "User Mini Status" which will handily display
the permissions of the presently highlighted file or directory within
the separate line at the bottom of the panel.
There is also an "information mode." This will display detailed file
system information in the other panel about the selected item in the
current panel. To invoke this mode, type Ctrl-x i. To return the
other panel to its normal state, type Ctrl-x i again.
Creating Custom Format
You can create your own format. Some userful keywords for custom
fields are
* size
* mtime
* owner
* group
* perm
you can also change format of the summary line. it makes sense to
display owner and permissions
You can adjust the displayed digits with the column size option, see
the "Listing mode" section in the manual. The file to edit is ~
/.config/mc/panels.ini.
To list the file sizes as K, M or G use a narrow size column using
the user_format key:
[New Left Panel]
user_format=half type name mark size:4 space mtime
If you want the size without abbreviation, reserve enough space for
it:
[New Right Panel]
user_format=half type name mark size:16 space mtime
From the manual:
Listing Mode...
The listing mode view is used to display a listing of files,
there are four different listing modes available: Full, Brief,
Long and User. The full directory view shows the file name, the
size of the file and the modification time.
The brief view shows only the file name and it has from 1 up to 9
columns (therefore showing more files unlike other views). The
long view is similar to the output of "Is -1" command. The long
view takes the whole screen width.
If you choose the "User" display format, then you have to specify
the display format.
The user display format must start with a panel size specifier.
This may be "half" or "full", and they specify a half screen
panel and a full screen panel respectively.
After the panel size, you may specify how many listings to fit in
the panel, side-by-side (in other words: how many times to repeat
the fields horizontally). This defaults to 1. You may change this
by adding a number from
1 to 9 to the format string.
After this you add the name of the fields with an optional size
specifier. This
are the available fields you may display:
1. name displays the file name.
2. size displays the file size.
3. bsize is an alternative form of the size format. It displays
the size of the files and for directories it just shows
SUB-DIR or UP--DIR.
4. type displays a one character wide type field. This character
is similar to what is displayed by Is with the -F flag - *
for executable files, / for directories, @ for links, = for
sockets, - for character devices, + for block devices, I for
pipes, ~ for symbolic links to directories and ! for stale
symlinks (links that point nowhere).
5. mark an asterisk if the file is tagged, a space if it's not.
6. mtime file's last modification time.
7. atime file's last access time.
8. ctime file's status change time.
9. perm a string representing the current permission bits of the
file
10. mode an octal value with the current permission bits of the
file.
11. nlink the number of links to the file.
12. ngid the GID (numeric).
13. nuid the UID (numeric).
14. owner the owner of the file.
15. group the group of the file.
16. inode the inode of the file.
Also you can use following keywords to define the panel layout:
+ space a space in the display format.
+ | add a vertical line to the display format.
To force one field to a fixed size (a size specifier), you just
add : followed by the number of characters you want the field to
have. If the number is followed by the symbol +, then the size
specifies the minimal field size - if
the program finds out that there is more space on the screen, it
will then expand that field.
For example, the Full display corresponds to this format:
half type name | size | mtime
And the Long display corresponds to this format:
full perm space nlink space owner space group space size space mtime space name
This is a nice user display format:
half name I size:7 | type mode:3
Viewer
Few people understand that you you can pipe output of any command
into viewer with Alt-!. That make viewing logs more eeffficent
Ctrl-O in viewer and editor hide the window and exposes the console
screen.
* Ctrl-X-Q Quick viewer
* Ctrl-X-I -- information about file is quick view window
* allows to execute arbitrary Unix command and pipe output into
built-in viewer.
* Alt-! The viewer supports "/" and "?" for regex search, the
hotkeys that are standard for many Unix utilities (vi, less,
etc).
* F3 in viewer exits the viewer. That seems to be a minor thing but
this feature proved to be very useful and I recommend it as a
standard key binding for viewer in any OFM.
* Ctrl-O in viewer and editor hide the window and exposes the
console screen.
* Multi-screen feature: support of many opened editors and viewers
(#1490) Here Meta means Alt key as PC keyboard lack proper meta
key.
You can concurrently run multiple viewers and editors
(screens). Use following default hotkeys:
shortcut description
Meta + ` Show list of screens: viewers, editors and file
panel
Meta + { Switch to previous screen
Meta + } Switch to next screen
Editor
Few people understand the mcedit has multiwindow capability. After
you open it with you first file you can open another files using
editor menu and then you can "cat and paste" fragments of text
between them with ease using save selection to the clipfile feature (
Edit/Save to clipfile) and then switch to the second window and paste
from the clipfile in the point you need this selection.
Ctrl-O in editor hide the window and exposes the console screen.
* Selection using mouse (F3 key usage is somewaht awkward)
* Ability to save selection to a file and inset this file into
another window (possibly using macro)
* Built-in internal editor user menu. Key panel elements (current
file on active panel, the current file on passive panel, path to
active panel, path to passive panel, highlighted files on active/
passive panel, etc) are exportable to the editor as
macrovariables and can be inserted into the text via editor user
menu. See mcedit for details
* Alt-b Hotkey for finding matching bracket is
* Ctrl-O in viewer and editor hides the editor window and exposes
the console screen.
* Multi-screen feature: support of many opened editors and viewers
(#1490)
You can concurrently run multiple viewers and editors
(screens). Use following default hotkeys:
shortcut description
Meta + ` Show list of screens: viewers, editors and file
panel
Meta + { Switch to previous screen
Meta + } Switch to next screen
You can open the editor in a separate windows if you use screen or
tmux. To accomplish this you need create a bash script, not a
function. Then set EDITOR value to it, for example:
$ cat ~/myEditor.sh
#!/bin/sh
tmux new-window "vim $1"
export EDITOR=~/myEditor.sh
mcdiff
mcdiff - Internal diff viewer of GNU Midnight Commander
Jun 13, 2018 | www.systutorials.com
mcdiff: Internal diff viewer of GNU Midnight Commander. Index of
mcdiff man page
Read mcdiff man page on Linux: $ man 1 mcdiff NAME mcdiff -
Internal diff viewer of GNU Midnight Commander. USAGE mcdiff
[-bcCdfhstVx?] file1 file2 DESCRIPTION
mcdiff is a link to mc , the main GNU Midnight Commander
executable. Executing GNU Midnight Commander under this name
requests starting the internal diff viewer which compares file1
and file2 specified on the command line.
OPTIONS
-b Force black and white display.
-c Force color mode on terminals where mcdiff defaults to black
and white.
-C =,,:= ...
Specify a different color set. See the Colors section in mc
(1) for more information.
-d Disable mouse support.
-f Display the compiled-in search paths for Midnight Commander
files.
-t Used only if the code was compiled with S-Lang and terminfo:
it makes the Midnight Commander use the value of the TERMCAP
variable for the terminal information instead of the
information on the system wide terminal database
-V Displays the version of the program.
-x Forces xterm mode. Used when running on xterm-capable
terminals (two screen modes, and able to send mouse escape
sequences).
COLORS The default colors may be changed by appending to the
MC_COLOR_TABLE environment variable. Foreground and background
colors pairs may be specified for example with:
MC_COLOR_TABLE="$MC_COLOR_TABLE:\
normal=lightgray,black:\
selected=black,green"
FILES /usr/share/mc/mc.hlp
The help file for the program.
/usr/share/mc/mc.ini
The default system-wide setup for GNU Midnight Commander,
used only if the user's own ~/.config/mc/ini file is missing.
/usr/share/mc/mc.lib
Global settings for the Midnight Commander. Settings in this
file affect all users, whether they have ~/.config/mc/ini or
not.
~/.config/mc/ini
User's own setup. If this file is present, the setup is
loaded from here instead of the system-wide startup file.
Macro variables
Creative use of user menu
There is a very simple test that allow you to distinguish advance mc
user from a novice. Ask him/her to press F2 and show you the user
menu. If the user menu is default this is a novice.
Despite being very basic MC user menu is a very powerful tool that
allow to code many typical operation which became available to you
with just two keystrokes. The following macrovariables(you can use
them both in your own user menu entries and on command line) are
available (See also MC Macro Variables ):
1. %f The current file name. %F The current file in the passive
panel.
2. %d The current directory name. %D The directory name of the
passive panel.
3. %t The currently tagged files. %T The tagged files in the passive
panel.
4. "%u" and "%U" Similar to the %t and %T macros, but after the
operation all the files are untagged (can be used only once per
menu entry).
5. %s and %S The tagged files if there are any. Otherwise the
current file.
6. %cd This is a special macro that is used to change the current
directory to the directory specified in front of it. This is used
primarily as an interface to the VFS.
7. %view the invocation of the internal viewer
8. "%%" The % character
9. "%{Enter some text}" Prompt for the substitution (in the example
given, the prompt will be "Enter some text"), each time the
command is executed.
"Learn macrovariables" is a great tip. For example to symlink the
file to opposite pane you can add to the user menu with just a
couple of lines (for example with the short key l):
l Symlink the current file to the directory in opposite (passive) panel
ln -s %d/%p $D/%p
Similarly you can create a shortcut for creating "in-place" backup of
the file:
b Create a time stamped backup is the same directory
cp %f %f.`date +"%y%m%d"`
I recommend to print your mc.menu file and put in it above your
monitor for reference. Details of how to write user menu items are
in provides in MC Context Sensitive User Menu
Mc is also great for working with tar files, gzip and zip archives.
Additional way of integration with the underling OS shell via so
called User menu and extension menu using the same set of macro
variables that are available for command line. This way "user
menu" provide a user with he capability to write his own simple
extensions some of which can be quite useful. Here is an example
taken from Midnight Commander User menu (which has a unique
feature that it is dynamic and only those items of the menu that
are applicable to the current file type and presence/absence of
selected files are shown to the user):
= t r
+ ! t
y Gzip or unzip current file
unset DECOMP
case %f in
*.gz) DECOMP=-d;;
*.[zZ]) DECOMP=-d;;
esac
gzip $DECOMP -v %f
+ t t
Y Gzip or gunzip tagged files
for i in %t
do
unset DECOMP
case "$i" in
*.gz) DECOMP=-d;;
*.[zZ]) DECOMP=-d;;
esac
gzip $DECOMP -v "$i"
done
+ f \.tar.gz$ | f \.tgz$ | f \.tpz$ | f \.tar.Z$ | f \.tar.z$ | f \.tar.bz2$ | f \.tar.F$ & t r & ! t t
z Extract compressed tar file to subdirectory
unset D
set gzip -cd
case %f in
*.tar.gz) D="`basename %f .tar.gz`";;
*.tgz) D="`basename %f .tgz`";;
*.tpz) D="`basename %f .tpz`";;
*.tar.Z) D="`basename %f .tar.Z`";;
*.tar.z) D="`basename %f .tar.z`";;
*.tar.bz2) D="`basename %f .tar.bz2`"; set bunzip2 -c ;;
*.tar.F) D="`basename %f .tar.F`"; set freeze -dc;
esac
mkdir "$D"; cd "$D" && ("$1" "$2" ../%f | tar xvf -)
+ t t
Z Extract compressed tar files to subdirectories
for i in %t
do
set gzip -dc
unset D
case "$i" in
*.tar.gz) D="`basename $i .tar.gz`";;
*.tgz) D="`basename $i .tgz`";;
*.tpz) D="`basename $i .tpz`";;
*.tar.Z) D="`basename $i .tar.Z`";;
*.tar.z) D="`basename $i .tar.z`";;
*.tar.F) D="`basename $i .tar.F`"; set freeze -dc;;
*.tar.bz2) D="`basename $i .tar.bz2`"; set bunzip2 -c;;
esac
mkdir "$D"; (cd "$D" && "$1" "$2" "../$i" | tar xvf -)
done
This idea of user menu was extended to the mc internal editor which
has an additional macro variable %b to which you can direct the
output of shell command for insertion into editor buffer and vise
versa.
This is a valuable innovation. Generally in version 4.8.1 editor
looks more promising and more modern then in previous version
although it still is lack in quality and capabilities in comparison
with FTE (while having some unique features).
Random Findings
* Multi-screen feature: support of many opened editors and viewers
instead of one (#1490)
You can concurrently run multiple viewers and editors
(screens). Use following default hotkeys:
shortcut description
Meta + ` Show list of screens: viewers, editors and file panel
Meta + { Switch to previous screen
Meta + } Switch to next screen
* "External panelize" command (executing an arbitrary command and
putting the resulting file listing in a panel, so that it can be
used for navigating. This was really great idea that was still
never implemented in other OFMs. MC implementation need
capabilities of hiding full path like in FAR.
* Columns in the panels can be sorted using mouse click like in
Total Commander (version 4.7 and later).
* Context-sensitive, dynamic user menu based on "visibility
predicates". MC pioneered concept of context-sensitive user menu
items. Each item has it's "visibility predicate" which determine
conditions under which the this item will be displayed in the
menu.
* You can assign viewer and editor for files with given extension
(for example .pdf) via extension menu. Both can be assigned
depending on the result of a predicate (or even script)
evaluation. Script can filter the file before passing it to the
viewer (very useful for viewing log files). Concept of "actions"
was introduced in extension menu. So pressing F3 is one action,
while pressing F4 is another, and pressing Enter is yet another
one. You can assign a program for each action (viewer for F3,
editor for F4 and so on for files with given extension (for
example .pdf) via extension menu. Both can be assigned depending
on the result of a predicate (or even script) evaluation. Script
can filter the file before passing it to the viewer (very useful
for viewing log files)
* "History of everything" and command completion in all dialogs.
That's really highly helpful feature for advanced users.
+ History of commands entered in command line is available by
clicking [^] in the right corner with the mouse.
* Mouse drag and drop is working even in Teraterm (4.8 and later
versions)
* Better than in previous versions implementation of command
console interface (4.8 and later versions). Probably the first
support of "real" Unix console via "Ctrl-O". Addition of path
from the left and right panels (Ctrl-[ and Ctrl-]) were
implemented as Ctrl-X P and Ctrl-X P. Pasting the file name
(Ctrl-I) is Ctrl-X T. There is also a hotkey for active panel
directory path Alt-A and for quick cd command. Paradoxically
before MC 4.8 using OFMs were extremely weak in this area as if
programmers who wrote them were completely limited to Windows
experience and did not understand of value of integration of
shell and file manager the OFM support.
* Correct implementation of Ctrl-O functionality in viewer and
editor -- editor or viewer are hidden and console screen is
exposed.
* Full power of regular expressions in selections and search. For
example, in panel selections the list "*.txt; *.bat; *.inf;
*.doc" can be specified as "*.(doc|bat|inf|doc)".
* RegEx-based search capabilities. Like in NC5, XTree "flat" VFS
can be emulated in MC using panelize command (search for *), but
without macros this emulation is pretty painful.
* Dynamic construction of the directory tree. The idea itself is
rather interesting taking into account the real height of
directory tree that we see in Red Hat and other Linux
distributions with Gnome installed. But unfortunately the
existing implementation breaks OFM doctrine as the tree is build
from root, not from the current directory and that somewhat
limits its usability for quick search of files and navigation.
The directory tree expand/collapse should happens automatically
in the vicinity of the user view on the tree. Currently you need
manually use F2 (rescan) to open the branch that interests you.
Still the problem here is the cost of full scanning of the tree
in a typical unix system.
* Configurable display information (you can select your own
directory display format)
+ The circular ring of predefined display formats switchable
via Alt-T.
* Attempts to provide some hotkeys for working with the current
directory. Jumping to the top file, middle file and the last file
on the panel are provided (only Alt-G (the top) and Alt-J (the
bottom) actually work now); That can be extended to potentially
more useful jumps to the top subdirectory, middle subdirectory
and the last subdirectory in the current panel (often there are
only two or three subdirectories; in this case those three keys
select subdirectory unambiguously).
* Dynamic Bottom Toolbar. MC 4.6.0 is probably the only Unix OFMs
that supports the concept of dynamic toolbar (in Viewer, Editor,
and Directory Search panel).. Dynamic toolbar is a very useful
instant help system and should be used whenever possible.
Unfortunately, the key bar doesn't change when Alt, Ctrl, or
Shift are pressed like in FAR and FC. It's probably hard to
implement it in a portable way in Unix with its limited PC
keyboard support.
Games with shorcuts
* Ctrl-x-v -- create symbolic link
* Instead of Alt-Enter (put the current file in the command line)
which often does not work, you can use Esc-Enter. This tip works
for other shortcuts too.
* This idea of user menu was extended to the mc internal editor
which has an additional macro variable %b to which you can direct
the output of shell command for insertion into editor buffer and
vise versa. This is a valuable innovation. Generally in version
4.8.1 editor looks more promising and more modern then in
previous version although it still is lack in quality and
capabilities from FTE, which I strongly recommend as an external
editor for Midnight Commander.
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NEWS CONTENTS
* 20210510* The Tilde Text Editor ( May 10, 2021 , os.ghalkes.nl )
[Recommended]
* 20200403 : Use Midnight Commander like a pro by Igor Kilmer ( Apr
03, 2020 , klimer.eu )
* 20200305 : Using Ctags with MC ( Mar 05, 2020 ,
frankhesse.wordpress.com )
* 20200305 : How to switch the editor in mc (midnight commander)
from nano to mcedit? ( Jan 01, 2014 , askubuntu.com )
* 20190820 : Fixing Midnight Commander's unreadable dropdown menus
( Apr 24, 2011 , tech.iprock.com )
* 20190820 : Midnight Commander, using date in User menu ( Dec 31,
2013 , unix.stackexchange.com )
* 20190810 : LinuxQuestions.org - [SOLVED] Midnight Commander Help
( Aug 10, 2019 , www.linuxquestions.org )
* 20190810 : Plug-and-Pray Editing Midnight Commander's color
scheme ( Aug 10, 2019 , plug-and-pray.blogspot.com )
* 20190810 : Midnight Commander color scheme ~ centosvn ( Aug 10,
2019 , centos-vn.blogspot.com )
* 20190810 : Midnight Commander colors and themes ( Aug 10, 2019 ,
ajnasz.hu )
* 20190730 : The difference between tar and tar.gz archives ( Jul
30, 2019 , askubuntu.com )
* 20190728 : command line - How do I extract a specific file from a
tar archive - Ask Ubuntu ( Jul 28, 2019 , askubuntu.com )
* 20190728 : iso - midnight commander rules for accessing archives
through VFS - Unix Linux Stack Exchange ( Jul 28, 2019 ,
unix.stackexchange.com )
* 20190728 : How to Use Midnight Commander, a Visual File Manager (
Jul 28, 2019 , www.linode.com )
* 20190728 : Bartosz Kosarzycki's blog Midnight Commander how to
compress a file-directory; Make a tar archive with midnight
commander ( Jul 28, 2019 , kosiara87.blogspot.com )
* 20190101 : Re: customize columns in single panel view ( Jun 12,
2017 , mail.gnome.org )
* 20190101 : Re- Help- meaning of the panelize command in
left-right menus ( Feb 17, 2017 , mail.gnome.org )
* 20190101 : Re- Help- meaning of the panelize command in
left-right menus ( Jan 01, 2019 , mail.gnome.org )
* 20190101 : Re- customize columns in single panel view ( Jan 01,
2019 , mail.gnome.org )
* 20190101 : %f macro in mcedit ( Jan 01, 2019 , mail.gnome.org )
* 20190101 : Re- Setting left and right panel directories at
startup ( Jan 01, 2019 , mail.gnome.org )
* 20190101 : Mc2 by mooffie ( Jan 01, 2019 , midnight-commander.org
)
* 20190101 : mc - How can I set the default (user defined) listing
mode in Midnight Commander- - Unix Linux Stack Exchange ( Jan 01,
2019 , unix.stackexchange.com )
* 20190101 : Lua-l - [ANN] mc^2 ( Jan 01, 2019 , n2.nabble.com )
* 20190101 : Re change default configuration ( Jan 01, 2019 ,
mail.gnome.org )
* 20190101 : Re does mc support sftp ( Jan 01, 2019 ,
mail.gnome.org )
* 20190101 : Re: Ctrl+J in mc ( Jan 01, 2019 , mail.gnome.org )
* 20180614 : Changing shortcuts in midnight commander by rride Last
Updated 20:01 PM ( Feb 04, 2018 , www.queryxchange.com )
* 20180613 : Opening editor in another screen or tmux window ( Jun
13, 2018 , www.queryxchange.com )
* 20180613 : Mcedit is actually a multiwindow editor ( Jun 13, 2018
, www.unix.com )
* 20180613 : How mc.init is stored ( Jun 13, 2018 , superuser.com )
* 20180613 : Temporary Do Something Else while editing/viewing a
file ( Jun 13, 2018 , www.nawaz.org )
* 20180613 : My Screen is Garbled Up ( Jun 13, 2018 , www.nawaz.org
)
* 20180613 : Find file shows no results ( Jun 13, 2018 ,
wiki.archlinux.org )
* 20180613 : Draft of documentation for Midnight Commander ( Jun
13, 2018 , midnight-commander.org )
* 20180613 : Trash support ( Jun 13, 2018 , wiki.archlinux.org )
* 20180613 : Make both panels display the same directory ( Jun 13,
2018 , www.fredshack.com )
* 20180613 : Copy and paste text in midnight commander (MC) via
putty in Linux ( Jun 13, 2018 , www.queryxchange.com )
* 20180613 : How to exclude some pattern when doing a search in MC
( Mar 25, 2018 , www.queryxchange.com )
* 20180613 : Midnight Commander tab completion ( Sep 17, 2011 ,
superuser.com )
* 20180613 : mc-wrapper does not exit to MC_PWD directory ( Jun 13,
2018 , www.queryxchange.com )
* 20180613 : How to enable find-as-you-type behavior ( Jun 13, 2018
, www.queryxchange.com )
* 20180613 : How to expand the command line to the whole screen in
MC ( Jun 13, 2018 , www.queryxchange.com )
* 20180613 : MC Tips Tricks ( Jun 13, 2018 , www.fredshack.com )
* 20180613 : MC_HOME allows you to run mc with alternative mc.init
( Jun 13, 2018 , unix.stackexchange.com )
* 20180613 : Editing mc.ini ( Jun 07, 2014 , superuser.com )
* 20180613 : Running mc with you own skin ( Jun 13, 2018 ,
help.ubuntu.com )
* 20180613 : mcdiff - Internal diff viewer of GNU Midnight
Commander ( Jun 13, 2018 , www.systutorials.com )
* 20180613 : MC (Midnight Commmander) mc/ini settings file location
( Jun 13, 2018 , unix.stackexchange.com )
* 20180613 : Hide/view of hidden files ( Sep 17, 2011 ,
superuser.com )
* 20180613 : Loss of output problem ( Sep 17, 2011 , superuser.com
)
* 20180613 : I Can't Select Text With My Mouse ( Jun 13, 2018 ,
www.nawaz.org )
* 20180520 : Midnight Commander (mc): convenient hard links
creation from user menu ( May 20, 2018 , bogdan.org.ua )
* 20180520 : Midnight Commander: panelize or select all files newer
than specified date ( May 20, 2018 , bogdan.org.ua )
* 20171005 : How can I set the default (user defined) listing mode
in Midnight Commander? ( Jul 14, 2016 )
* 20171005 : mc - Midnight Commander file size format ( Unix &
Linux Stack Exchange )
* 20170629 : An Introduction to the Midnight Commander ( An
Introduction to the Midnight Commander, Jun 29, 2017 )
* 20170329 : SDB: Midnight Commander tips ( openSUSE )
* 20170211 : Use Midnight Commander like a pro ( May 1, 2015 ,
klimer.eu )
* 20170211 : SFTP filesystem in Midnight Commander 4.8.17 and later
( )
* 20170211 : SDB: Midnight Commander tips ( openSUSE )
* 20170211 : Diff viewer 4.7.2 ( Diff viewer 4.7.2 , )
* 20160314 : Macros in McEdit ( softpanorama.org, Mar 14, 2016 )
* 20160314 : Ctrl+w clears the editboxes and Meta+h triggers the
history drop-down ( Mar 14, 2016 )
* 20151206 : www.trembath.co.za/mctutorial.html (
www.trembath.co.za/mctutorial.html, Dec 06, 2015 )
* 20151206 : Garbled graphic characters in mc on particular
terminal ( Garbled graphic characters in mc on particular
terminal, Dec 06, 2015 )
* 20151206 : ALT+S or CTRL+S for file searching ( Dec 06, 2015 )
* 20151206 : mc - How to set default editor-viewer for Midnight
Commander to Sublime ( MattDMo Jun 27 '13 at 16:07 )
* 20151206 : Lynx-like motion ( Dec 06, 2015 )
* 20150320 : Re: mc.keymap ( Jan 14, 2015 )
* 20150209 : If you put the program you want to test on the left
(passive panel) and file that this program works with on the
right (active panel) you can have a shortcut for testing. ( Feb
09, 2015 )
* 20150209 : There is the ScreenList functionality in MC bound by
default to Alt-Prime(`) ( Feb 09, 2015 )
* 20150118 : How can I create file in mc? shift+f4 not working (
Jan 18, 2015 )
* 20150112 : opening *.xz files (Kevin Wilson) ( Jan 12, 2015 )
* 20150112 : Re: mc on high resolution monitor with konsole ( Jan
12, 2015 )
* 20150112 : Re: External editor with parameters not working? ( Jan
12, 2015 )
* 20150112 : Re: How to know when mc is running in a terminal ( )
* 20150112 : linux mc keyboard shortcuts ( linux mc keyboard
shortcuts, )
* 20150112 : MC Tutorial ( MC Tutorial, )
* 20131028 : Re: behavior changed. ( Oct 28, 2013 )
* 20131028 : mc startup with single specified path ( Oct 28, 2013 )
* 20131027 : re: How to switch two -> single panel modes? ( Oct 27,
2013 )
* 20130411 : MC major changes and fixes since 4.8.7 ( MC major
changes and fixes since 4.8.7, Apr 11, 2013 )
* 20130328 : Re midnight commander internal cd in scripts ( Re
midnight commander internal cd in scripts, Mar 28, 2013 )
* 20130328 : Re nlink ( Re nlink, Mar 28, 2013 )
* 20130328 : Re external diff ( Re external diff, Mar 28, 2013 )
* 20130328 : Re Creating Symlinks with defaul relative path ( Re
Creating Symlinks with defaul relative path, Mar 28, 2013 )
* 20130328 : polishlinux.org " Midnight Commander in Action (
polishlinux.org " Midnight Commander in Action, )
* 20121114 : M-! allows to execute arbitrary Unix command and see
output in built-in viewer. ( Nov 14, 2012 )
* 20121113 : Compensating for deficiencies of built-in search with
panelize command ( Nov 13, 2012 )
* 20121106 : Windows XP+/32 bit native port of GNU Midnight
Commander, based on the current 4.8.4 development stream. (
Sourceforge.net )
* 20121106 : Mc allows one panel to be full screen and the other
half screen. In this case tab essentially expands the other panel
to full screen ( Nov 06, 2012 )
* 20121106 : Diffs in color by James Ogley ( openSUSE )
* 20121105 : NEWS-4.8.2 - Midnight Commander ( NEWS-4.8.2 -
Midnight Commander, Nov 05, 2012 )
* 20121105 : Mcedit allows to edit many files in one mcedit window
4.8.4 - Midnight Commander ( Mcedit allows to edit many files in
one mcedit window 4.8.4 - Midnight Commander, Nov 05, 2012 )
* 20121104 : Multiple viewers and editorsP ( Multiple viewers and
editorsP , Nov 04, 2012 )
* 20121030 : History of commands entered in command line is
available by clicking [^] in the right corner with the mouse. (
Oct 30, 2012 )
* 20121029 : Midnight Commander Development Revived - Slashdot (
Midnight Commander Development Revived - Slashdot, Oct 29, 2012 )
* 20121029 : Performing some operation on multiple files with the
help of mc ( )
* 20121019 : mc 4.8.1.3 correctly implements command window making
it probably the first Unix OFM really helpful for Unix sysadmins
( mc 4.8.1.3 correctly implements command window making it
probably the first Unix OFM really helpful for Unix sysadmins,
Oct 19, 2012 )
* 20121018 : Midnight Commander tips ( openSUSE )
* 20120928 : Midnight Commander Guide ( Sep 28, 2012 )
* 20100921 : Pseudo-graphic border ( gnome.apps.mc.general )
* 20100921 : Way to make F6 put the current name on the input line
for editing (renaming) ( )
* 20100921 : /etc/mc/mc.ext file are some entries for common file
types. ( )
Old News ;-)
# # #
[May 10, 2021] The Tilde Text Editor
Highly recommended!
This is an editor similar to FDE and can be used as external editor
for MC
May 10, 2021 | os.ghalkes.nl
Tilde is a text editor for the console/terminal, which provides
an intuitive interface for people accustomed to GUI environments
such as Gnome, KDE and Windows. For example, the short-cut to
copy the current selection is Control-C, and to paste the
previously copied text the short-cut Control-V can be used. As
another example, the File menu can be accessed by pressing
Meta-F.
However, being a terminal-based program there are limitations.
Not all terminals provide sufficient information to the client
programs to make Tilde behave in the most intuitive way. When
this is the case, Tilde provides work-arounds which should be
easy to work with.
The main audience for Tilde is users who normally work in GUI
environments, but sometimes require an editor for a console/
terminal environment. This may be because the computer in
question is a server which does not provide a GUI, or is accessed
remotely over SSH. Tilde allows these users to edit files without
having to learn a completely new interface, such as vi or Emacs
do. A result of this choice is that Tilde will not provide all
the fancy features that Vim or Emacs provide, but only the most
used features.
[tilde-scre]
News Tilde version 1.1.2 released
This release fixes a bug where Tilde would discard read lines
before an invalid character, while requested to continue reading.
23-May-2020
Tilde version 1.1.1 released
This release fixes a build failure on C++14 and later compilers
12-Dec-2019
# # #
[Apr 03, 2020] Use Midnight Commander like a pro by Igor Kilmer
Apr 03, 2020 | klimer.eu
Panels
+ Alt + , - switch mc 's layout from left-right to top-bottom.
Mind = blown. Useful for operating on files with long names.
+ Alt + t - switch the panel's listing mode in a loop: default,
brief, long, user-defined. "long" is especially useful,
because it maximises one panel so that it takes full width of
the window and longer filenames fit on screen.
+ Alt + i - synchronize the active panel with the other panel.
That is, show the current directory in the other panel.
+ Ctrl + u - swap panels.
+ Alt + o - if the currently selected file is a directory, load
that directory on the other panel and move the selection to
the next file. If the currently selected file is not a
directory, load the parent directory on the other panel and
moves the selection to the next file. This is useful for
quick checking the contents of a list of directories.
+ Ctrl + PgUp (or just left arrow, if you've enabled Lynx-like
motion , see later) - move to the parent directory.
+ Alt + Shift + h - show the directory history. Might be easier
to navigate than going back one entry at a time.
+ Alt + y - move to the previous directory in history.
+ Alt + u - move to the next directory in history.
Common actions
+ Ctrl + Space - calculate the size of the selected
directories. Press this shortcut when the selection is on ..
to calculate the size of all the directories in the current
directory.
+ Ctrl + x s (that is press Ctrl + x , let it go and then press
s ) - create a symbolic link (change s to l for a hardlink).
I find it very useful and intuitive - the link will, of
course, be created in the other panel. You can change it's
destination and name, like with any other file operation.
+ Ctrl + x c - open the chmod dialog.
+ Ctrl + x o - open the chown dialog.
Panel options
+ Show backup files and Show hidden files - I keep both
enabled, as I often work with configuration files, etc.
+ Lynx-like motion - mentioned above, makes left arrow go to
parent directory, while the right arrow enters the directory
under selection. Faster than Home , Enter , Home , Enter ,
etc. This options is quite smart, that is if the shell
command line is not empty, the arrows work as usual and allow
moving the cursor in the command line.
Bonus assignments
+ Define your own listing mode ( Right/Left -> Listing mode...
-> User defined ). Hit F1 to see available columns and
options.
+ Play around in tree mode: Right/Left -> Tree or Command ->
Directory tree .
+ Compare directories ( Ctrl + x d )
+ Fill up the directory hotlist ( Ctrl + \ )
# # #
[Mar 05, 2020] Using Ctags with MC
Mar 05, 2020 | frankhesse.wordpress.com
the Midnight Commander's built-in editor turned out to be. Below
is one of the features of mc 4.7, namely the use of the ctags /
etags utilities together with mcedit to navigate through the
code.
`Code Navigation'
`Training'
Support for this functionality appeared in mcedit from version
4.7.0-pre1.
To use it, you need to index the directory with the project using
the ctags or etags utility, for this you need to run the
following commands:
$ cd /home/user/projects/myproj
$ find . -type f -name "*.[ch]" | etags -lc --declarations -
or
$ find . -type f -name "*.[ch]" | ctags --c-kinds=+p --fields=
+iaS --extra=+q -e -L-
') [INS:[INS:[INS:
[INS:me marginwidth=:INS]
:INS]:INS]:INS]
After the utility completes, a TAGS file will appear in the root
directory of our project, which mcedit will use.
Well, practically all that needs to be done in order for mcedit
to find the definition of the functions of variables or
properties of the object under study.
`Using'
Imagine that we need to determine the place where the definition
of the locked property of an edit object is located in some
source code of a rather large project.
/* Succesful, so unlock both files */
if (different_filename) {
if (save_lock)
edit_unlock_file (exp);
if (edit->locked)
edit->locked = edit_unlock_file (edit->filename);
} else {
if (edit->locked || save_lock)
edit->locked = edit_unlock_file (edit->filename);
}
[INS:[INS:[INS:
[INS:me marginwidth=:INS]
:INS]:INS]:INS]
To do this, put the cursor at the end of the word locked and
press alt + enter , a list of possible options appears, as in the
screenshot below.
image
After selecting the desired option, we get to the line with the
definition.
# # #
[Mar 05, 2020] How to switch the editor in mc (midnight commander)
from nano to mcedit?
Jan 01, 2014 | askubuntu.com
Ask Question Asked 9 years, 2 months ago Active 6 months ago
Viewed 123k times
https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/
container.html
-
sdu ,
Using ubuntu 10.10 the editor in mc (midnight commander) is
nano. How can i switch to the internal mc editor (mcedit)?
Isaiah ,
Press the following keys in order, one at a time:
1. F9 Activates the top menu.
2. o Selects the Option menu.
3. c Opens the configuration dialog.
4. i Toggles the use internal edit option.
5. s Saves your preferences.
Hurnst , 2014-06-21 02:34:51
Run MC as usual. On the command line right above the bottom
row of menu selections type select-editor . This should open
a menu with a list of all of your installed editors. This is
working for me on all my current linux machines.
, 2010-12-09 18:07:18
You can also change the standard editor. Open a terminal and
type this command:
sudo update-alternatives --config editor
You will get an list of the installed editors on your system,
and you can chose your favorite.
AntonioK , 2015-01-27 07:06:33
If you want to leave mc and system settings as it is now, you
may just run it like
$ EDITOR=mcedit
> ,
Open Midnight Commander, go to Options -> Configuration and
check "use internal editor" Hit save and you are done.
# # #
[Aug 20, 2019] Fixing Midnight Commander's unreadable dropdown menus
Apr 24, 2011 | tech.iprock.com
TechNotes
My Personal Notes You Might Find Useful About Don't go here Skip
to content April 24, 2011 by Admin
Important This is an edited version of a post that originally
appeared on a blog called The Michigan Telephone Blog, which was
written by a friend before he decided to stop blogging. It is
reposted with his permission. Comments dated before the year 2013
were originally posted to his blog.
If you've installed Midnight Commander and haven't changed the
default colors, when you try to access a dropdown menu you may
see this:
[midnight-commander-original] Midnight Commander -- Original
Colors
REALLY hard to read that menu, isn't it? Wouldn't you rather see
this?
[midnight-commander-changed] Midnight Commander -- Changed Colors
To fix the unreadable menus, just make sure Midnight Commander is
not open, then use any text editor (such as nano) to open ~/.mc/
ini:
nano ~/.mc/ini
Assuming that there is no existing [Colors] section in the file,
just add this at the bottom of the file (if the second line
exceeds the blog column width, just use copy and paste to get it
all):
[Colors] base_color=default,default:menu=black,cyan:menuhot=
brightmagenta,cyan:menusel=white,blue:menuhotsel=
brightmagenta,blue
If there is an existing [Colors] section, you can try tweaking it
using the parameters shown above. If you have a very recent
version of Midnight Commander (which you probably will have if
you are running Ubuntu), then instead of menu= you'll need to use
menunormal= , as shown here:
[Colors] base_color=default,default:menunormal=black,cyan:menuhot
=brightmagenta,cyan:menusel=white,blue:menuhotsel=
brightmagenta,blue
Note that for some reason the base_color parameter must appear,
or the other items are ignored. Save the change, exit the editor,
and open Midnight Commander. If you then close Midnight
Commander, you may find that the position of the [Colors] section
has moved within the ini file -- apparently Midnight Commander
rewrites the file when you close it -- but if you don't like the
changes you can remove the [Colors] section to reverse the
change.
I figured out how to do this after reading this blog post:
Ajnasz Blog - Midnight Commander colors and themes
Another source of information is:
Zagura's blog - Midnight Commander Color Themes
Related Posts
+ Link: Midnight Commander Custom Interface Colors
+ Link: Video Monkey - an excellent free video encoding (format
converter) application exclusively for Mac OS X
+ How to install Midnight Commander under Mac OS X (the easy
way, using Rudix)
+ How to install Midnight Commander under Mac OS X (the easiest
way?)
+ Link: 7 Apps To Help You Run Windows Programs On Another OS
+ Link: How to Easily Create Audiobooks From Text Files in OS X
+ Link: Do More, Faster In The Linux Terminal With Midnight
Commander
+ [OS X] Don't Put Tape On Your Webcam, This Free App Alerts
You When Someone Hacks It
+ Link: Send an SMS Text Message from the Command Line
+ Link: Linux alias command explained with examples
+ LinuxCommand.org: Midnight Commander
+ Link: Get started with Midnight Commander, a Linux file
manager
# # #
[Aug 20, 2019] Midnight Commander, using date in User menu
Dec 31, 2013 | unix.stackexchange.com
user2013619 ,Dec 31, 2013 at 0:43
I would like to use MC (midnight commander) to compress the
selected dir with date in its name, e.g:
dirname_20131231.tar.gz
The command in the User menu is :
tar -czf dirname_`date '+%Y%m%d'`.tar.gz %d
The archive is missing because %m , and %d has another
meaning in MC. I made an alias for the date, but it also
doesn't work.
Does anybody solved this problem ever?
John1024 ,Dec 31, 2013 at 1:06
To escape the percent signs, double them:
tar -czf dirname_$(date '+%%Y%%m%%d').tar.gz %d
The above would compress the current directory (%d) to a file
also in the current directory. If you want to compress the
directory pointed to by the cursor rather than the current
directory, use %f instead:
tar -czf %f_$(date '+%%Y%%m%%d').tar.gz %f
mc handles escaping of special characters so there is no need
to put %f in quotes.
By the way, midnight commander's special treatment of percent
signs occurs not just in the user menu file but also at the
command line. This is an issue when using shell commands with
constructs like ${var%.c} . At the command line, the same as
in the user menu file, percent signs can be escaped by
doubling them.
# # #
[Aug 10, 2019] LinuxQuestions.org - [SOLVED] Midnight Commander Help
Aug 10, 2019 | www.linuxquestions.org
CrazyCatLover 12-22-2014 02:40 AM
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Midnight Commander Help
Hi,
I need to know how to check the current colour for mc and how to
change it.
I google it and they talk about changeing some initial file /.mc/
ini which i have no idea (no one ever gives full filename.)and i
cant find it at all. Wasted an hour of my life. I just need the
simplest way to change it, not another 10+ steps to change a
stupid colour.
gengisdave 12-22-2014 03:22 AM
-----------------------------------------------------------------
in some distros (mine, e.g.) it is located in ~/.local/mc/ini
sycamorex 12-22-2014 03:24 AM
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This is the full filename. Mind you on my distro it's in ~
/.config/mc/ini
Find / Create this file and add the following (obviously change
the colour values):
The syntax is: variable=foreground_colour,background_colour
Code:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
[Colors]
base_color=lightgray,green:normal=green,default:selected=
white,gray:marked=yellow,default:markselect=yellow,gray:directory
=blue,default:executable=brightgreen,default:link=
cyan,default:device=brightmagenta,default:special=
lightgray,default:errors=red,default:reverse=green,default:gauge=
green,default:input=white,gray:dnormal=green,gray:dfocus=
brightgreen,gray:dhotnormal=cyan,gray:dhotfocus=
brightcyan,gray:menu=green,default:menuhot=cyan,default:menusel=
green,gray:menuhotsel=cyan,default:helpnormal=
cyan,default:editnormal=green,default:editbold=
blue,default:editmarked=gray,blue:stalelink=red,default
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Also, have a look at this:
http://blog.mybox.ro/2010/05/10/skin...ght-commander/
# # #
[Aug 10, 2019] Plug-and-Pray Editing Midnight Commander's color
scheme
Aug 10, 2019 | plug-and-pray.blogspot.com
Editing Midnight Commander's color scheme In a previous post I
was sort of laying out a "formula" on how to transform your
Midnight Commander default color scheme into a trasnparent skin,
without talking too much about how you can change the other
colors.
To my great shame, I didn't pay too much attention to this blog
or to the comments asking for further advice. I found Mateus'
comment rather late (just now!) and decided to dig further, in
order to find out how exactly to deal with more refined color
changes, while still keeping the transparent background (in both
in Midnight Commander and its editor).
So the first thing to know is which are the colors that Midnight
Commander supports; the available colors are:
black
gray
lightgray
white
red
brightred
green
brightgreen
blue
brightblue
magenta
brightmagenta
cyan
brightcyan
brown
yellow
default
The " default " color is the one giving out the nice
transparency.
Now, there are certain "components" in Midnight Commander's
display that can have their colors altered. Here they are:
base_color, normal, selected, marked, markselect, errors, menu,
reverse, dnormal, dfocus, dhotnormal, dhotfocus, viewunderline,
menuhot, menusel, menuhotsel, helpnormal, helpitalic, helpbold,
helplink, helpslink, gauge, input, directory, executable, link,
stalelink, device, core, special, editnormal, editbold,
editmarked, errdhotnormal, errdhotfocus
Each and every one of these "components" can have its own colors
set accordingly to the user's wish. Each component is assigned a
color pair and must be followed by a colon (':') in order to
separate it from the color pair of the next component. Here's how
this basic syntax must look like:
component=foreground_color,background_color:
When you start modifying the color scheme in your Midnight
Commander configuration file (located at ~/.mc/ini ), you just
have to add a section called " [Colors] " and proceed with
enumerating the color pairs. So you'd have something like this:
# the rest of your ~/.mc/ini file
[Colors]
component1=foreground_color1,background_color1:...:componentN=
foreground_colorN,background_colorN
For increased readability, I will "truncate" that long line,
adding a backslash ('\') to indicate that in fact what follows on
the next line should be adjacent to the text on the previous
line. This being said, the [Colors] section could look like this:
# the rest of your ~/.mc/ini file
[Colors]
component1=foreground_color1,background_color1:\
component2=foreground_color2,background_color2:\
...
componentN=foreground_colorN,background_colorN
Now that you've gotten the hang of this, let's see how the
[Colors] section looks like in the default Midnight Commander
color scheme (you know, the "ugly" one, with blue and dull cyan):
IMPORTANT NOTE: For visual impact's sake and due to Blogspot
breaking long lines, I wrote each color pair on a single row,
followed by a backslash ('\'). Please note that this does NOT
work in the ~/.mc/ini file, so the final [Colors] section in your
Midnight Commander configuration file MUST be a SINGLE line with
no spaces and with each color pair separated from the next one by
a colon (':').
# the rest of your ~/.mc/ini file
[Colors]
base_color=lightgray,blue:\
normal=lightgray,blue:\
selected=black,cyan:\
marked=yellow,blue:\
markselect=yellow,cyan:\
errors=white,red:\
menu=white,cyan:\
reverse=black,lightgray:\
dnormal=black,lightgray:\
dfocus=black,cyan:\
dhotnormal=blue,lightgray:\
dhotfocus=blue,cyan:\
viewunderline=brightred,blue:\
menuhot=yellow,cyan:\
menusel=white,black:\
menuhotsel=yellow,black:\
helpnormal=black,lightgray:\
helpitalic=red,lightgray:\
helpbold=blue,lightgray:\
helplink=black,cyan:\
helpslink=yellow,blue:\
gauge=white,black:\
input=black,cyan:\
directory=white,blue:\
executable=brightgreen,blue:\
link=lightgray,blue:\
stalelink=brightred,blue:\
device=brightmagenta,blue:\
core=red,blue:\
special=black,blue:\
editnormal=lightgray,blue:\
editbold=yellow,blue:\
editmarked=black,cyan:\
errdhotnormal=yellow,red:\
errdhotfocus=yellow,lightgray
Now let's see. What you want to change first of all is most of
the background of these "components", such that the display will
be one with a neat looking transparent background. So first of
all you might want to make a few changes to these color pairs by
replacing the background color "blue" with "default". After doing
these changes, your [Colors] section will look a bit like this:
# the rest of your ~/.mc/ini file
[Colors]
base_color=lightgray,default:\
normal=lightgray,default:\
selected=black,cyan:\
marked=yellow,default:\
markselect=yellow,cyan:\
errors=white,red:\
menu=white,cyan:\
reverse=black,lightgray:\
dnormal=black,lightgray:\
dfocus=black,cyan:\
dhotnormal=blue,lightgray:\
dhotfocus=blue,cyan:\
viewunderline=brightred,default:\
menuhot=yellow,cyan:\
menusel=white,black:\
menuhotsel=yellow,black:\
helpnormal=black,lightgray:\
helpitalic=red,lightgray:\
helpbold=blue,lightgray:\
helplink=black,cyan:\
helpslink=yellow,default:\
gauge=white,black:\
input=black,cyan:\
directory=white,default:\
executable=brightgreen,default:\
link=lightgray,default:\
stalelink=brightred,default:\
device=brightmagenta,default:\
core=red,default:\
special=black,default:\
editnormal=lightgray,default:\
editbold=yellow,default:\
editmarked=black,cyan:\
errdhotnormal=yellow,red:\
errdhotfocus=yellow,lightgray
Now you've got the basic "Midnight Commander transparent scheme"
that was the result of this post .
Proceeding to Mateus' question, regarding how to change the rest
of the colors now, it's about the same as before. What he didn't
like there (and as a matter of fact I don't quite like it,
either) is the dull cyan that's still seen in the following
places:
1. the bottom line (the one displaying the F1...F10 function
keys);
2. the line that signifies the current selection, the "prompt"
which shows you on which file/directory you're "on" at a
given moment;
3. the uppermost line (the "menu" line);
4. the menus themselves, once you open them.
To "fix" issues 1, 2, and 3 it is sufficient to alter the value
of the " selected " parameter. Notice how it is initially
selected=black,cyan:\
My personal choice is to replace the background cyan, which I
don't really like, with green. To do this, I'll change this color
pair to
selected=black,green:\
You can, of course, change the foreground color as well. For me,
it's alright to keep the foreground (the text) "black". You can
change it to whatever suits your taste.
To "fix" issue number 4 in the list above, you need to change the
" menu " parameter. To get it transparent, just change the "cyan"
background to "default". Make other adjustments as you see fit.
In other words, change
menu=white,cyan:\
into, for instance,
menu=ligthgray,default:\
However, there are a few "leftovers" from the default color
scheme.
One of them is the parameter regarding the hotkeys in the menus
(the "underlined" character on most of the menu options, showing
you what key you can press in order to access that option faster
than by moving to it with the arrow keys). This color pair is
called " menuhot ". I changed it from
menuhot=yellow,cyan:\
into
menuhot=yellow,default:\
Another thing which might bother you is the color of the line in
the panel you're in when you've "selected all" files (when you've
pressed the "*" key). This parameter is called " markselect ". I
changed it from
markselect=yellow,cyan:\
into
markselect=white,green:\
The color pair of the selected buttons in dialogs is called "
dfocus ". I changed mine from
dfocus=black,cyan:\
into
dfocus=black,green:\
In the "focused" buttons or options, the underlined character is
called " dhotfocus ". I changed mine from
dhotfocus=blue,cyan:\
into
dhotfocus=brightgreen,green:\
since the background color was already green, after I modified
the " dfocus " color pair.
The other buttons or options in the dialogs which have hotkeys
assigned to them, but which are not "focused" (the buttons/
options that you're not located on at a given moment) are still
displayed in blue on a light gray background. This color pair is
referred to as " dhotnormal ". Since the blue looks a bit odd
there, I changed
dhotnormal=blue,lightgray:\
into
dhotnormal=brightgreen,default:\
Well, this is nice, in window titles and on normal (unfocused)
hotkeys I get the transparent background. The problem now is that
the rest of the dialog window is still light gray. To change this
(to make the window transparent as well), you only need to alter
the " dnormal " color pair, such as changing it from
dnormal=black,lightgray:\
into
dnormal=white,default:\
You may notice that the input fields stay cyan, as well; you find
these fields in quite a lot of dialog boxes. To alter this, I
changed
input=black,cyan:\
into
input=black,green:\
One thing which I consider useful is to have symbolic links
displayed in bright cyan (as in the colored listings in the
terminal). So I just changed
link=lightgray,default:\
into
link=brightcyan,default:\
Now, regarding the rest of the color pairs, I don't really know
what they do. However, if at some point after using Midnight
Commander more with this new, neat, transparent/green color
scheme you'll notice unwanted leftovers, you can try out other
changes in the color pairs values, one at a time, until you
determine the troublesome one.
After operating the changes above, my [Colors] section in ~/.mc/
ini now looks like this:
[Colors]
base_color=lightgray,default:\
normal=lightgray,default:\
selected=black,green:\
marked=yellow,default:\
markselect=white,green:\
errors=white,red:\
menu=lightgray,default:\
reverse=black,lightgray:\
dnormal=white,default:\
dfocus=black,green:\
dhotnormal=brightgreen,default:\
dhotfocus=brightgreen,green:\
viewunderline=brightred,default:\
menuhot=yellow,default:\
menusel=white,black:\
menuhotsel=yellow,black:\
helpnormal=black,lightgray:\
helpitalic=red,lightgray:\
helpbold=blue,lightgray:\
helplink=black,cyan:\
helpslink=yellow,default:\
gauge=white,black:\
input=black,green:\
directory=white,default:\
executable=brightgreen,default:\
link=brightcyan,default:\
stalelink=brightred,default:\
device=brightmagenta,default:\
core=red,default:\
special=black,default:\
editnormal=lightgray,default:\
editbold=yellow,default:\
editmarked=black,cyan:\
errdhotnormal=yellow,red:\
errdhotfocus=yellow,lightgray
I need to direct you to the " IMPORTANT NOTE " above. The final
[Colors] section above is written like this - one pair on each
row, followed by a backslash - for clarity's sake. The actual
final [Colors] section in your ~/.mc/ini file will have to be a
one-liner, with no blanks and no backslashes. So it will probably
look similar to this:
base_color=lightgray,default:normal=lightgray,default:selected=
black,green:marked=yellow,default:markselect=white,green:errors=
white,red:menu=lightgray,default:reverse=black,lightgray:dnormal=
white,default:dfocus=black,green:dhotnormal=
brightgreen,default:dhotfocus=brightgreen,green:viewunderline=
brightred,default:menuhot=yellow,default:menusel=
white,black:menuhotsel=yellow,black:helpnormal=
black,lightgray:helpitalic=red,lightgray:helpbold=
blue,lightgray:helplink=black,cyan:helpslink=yellow,default:gauge
=white,black:input=black,green:directory=white,default:executable
=brightgreen,default:link=brightcyan,default:stalelink=
brightred,default:device=brightmagenta,default:core=
red,default:special=black,default:editnormal=
lightgray,default:editbold=yellow,default:editmarked=
black,cyan:errdhotnormal=yellow,red:errdhotfocus=yellow,lightgray
Now, the next time you start mc , the new color scheme will take
effect.
As a bonus, here's a picture of how my Midnight Commander looks
like, with this new "skin" on:
[mc_transpa] Posted by Alexandra at 1:54 PM # # Labels: color
scheme , mc , transparency
# # #
[Aug 10, 2019] Midnight Commander color scheme ~ centosvn
Aug 10, 2019 | centos-vn.blogspot.com
Midnight Commander (or "mc") can have transparent panels instead
of the ugly, dull default blue. So can "mcedit", its text editor.
Here's how to do it. Edit the file ~/.mc/ini and add at the end
the following:
[Colors]
base_color=normal=,default:selected=,:marked=,default:\
markselect=,:menu=,:menuhot=,:menusel=,:\
menuhotsel=,:dnormal=,:dfocus=,:dhotnormal=,:dhotfocus=,:\
input=,:reverse=,:executable=,default:directory=,default:\
link=,default:device=,default:special=,:core=,:helpnormal=,:\
helplink=,:helpslink=,:editnormal=,default:
Note #1: In the above 'code' block, there is only one line below
[Colors] . I truncated the line with the backslash because of
blogspot rendering issues. You just write all that on one single
line, without the "\" (backslash-es).
Note #2: At the end of this line, the " editnormal,=default: "
option means that mcedit will have transparent background in your
console, as well.
To my great shame, I didn't pay too much attention to this blog
or to the comments asking for further advice. I found Mateus'
comment rather late (just now!) and decided to dig further, in
order to find out how exactly to deal with more refined color
changes, while still keeping the transparent background (in both
in Midnight Commander and its editor).
So the first thing to know is which are the colors that Midnight
Commander supports; the available colors are:
black
gray
lightgray
white
red
brightred
green
brightgreen
blue
brightblue
magenta
brightmagenta
cyan
brightcyan
brown
yellow
default
The " default " color is the one giving out the nice
transparency.
Now, there are certain "components" in Midnight Commander's
display that can have their colors altered. Here they are:
base_color, normal, selected, marked, markselect, errors, menu,
reverse, dnormal, dfocus, dhotnormal, dhotfocus, viewunderline,
menuhot, menusel, menuhotsel, helpnormal, helpitalic, helpbold,
helplink, helpslink, gauge, input, directory, executable, link,
stalelink, device, core, special, editnormal, editbold,
editmarked, errdhotnormal, errdhotfocus
Each and every one of these "components" can have its own colors
set accordingly to the user's wish. Each component is assigned a
color pair and must be followed by a colon (':') in order to
separate it from the color pair of the next component. Here's how
this basic syntax must look like:
component=foreground_color,background_color:
When you start modifying the color scheme in your Midnight
Commander configuration file (located at ~/.mc/ini ), you just
have to add a section called " [Colors] " and proceed with
enumerating the color pairs. So you'd have something like this:
# the rest of your ~/.mc/ini file
[Colors]
component1=foreground_color1,background_color1:...:componentN=
foreground_colorN,background_colorN
For increased readability, I will "truncate" that long line,
adding a backslash ('\') to indicate that in fact what follows on
the next line should be adjacent to the text on the previous
line. This being said, the [Colors] section could look like this:
# the rest of your ~/.mc/ini file
[Colors]
component1=foreground_color1,background_color1:\
component2=foreground_color2,background_color2:\
...
componentN=foreground_colorN,background_colorN
Now that you've gotten the hang of this, let's see how the
[Colors] section looks like in the default Midnight Commander
color scheme (you know, the "ugly" one, with blue and dull cyan):
IMPORTANT NOTE: For visual impact's sake and due to Blogspot
breaking long lines, I wrote each color pair on a single row,
followed by a backslash ('\'). Please note that this does NOT
work in the ~/.mc/ini file, so the final [Colors] section in your
Midnight Commander configuration file MUST be a SINGLE line with
no spaces and with each color pair separated from the next one by
a colon (':').
# the rest of your ~/.mc/ini file
[Colors]
base_color=lightgray,blue:\
normal=lightgray,blue:\
selected=black,cyan:\
marked=yellow,blue:\
markselect=yellow,cyan:\
errors=white,red:\
menu=white,cyan:\
reverse=black,lightgray:\
dnormal=black,lightgray:\
dfocus=black,cyan:\
dhotnormal=blue,lightgray:\
dhotfocus=blue,cyan:\
viewunderline=brightred,blue:\
menuhot=yellow,cyan:\
menusel=white,black:\
menuhotsel=yellow,black:\
helpnormal=black,lightgray:\
helpitalic=red,lightgray:\
helpbold=blue,lightgray:\
helplink=black,cyan:\
helpslink=yellow,blue:\
gauge=white,black:\
input=black,cyan:\
directory=white,blue:\
executable=brightgreen,blue:\
link=lightgray,blue:\
stalelink=brightred,blue:\
device=brightmagenta,blue:\
core=red,blue:\
special=black,blue:\
editnormal=lightgray,blue:\
editbold=yellow,blue:\
editmarked=black,cyan:\
errdhotnormal=yellow,red:\
errdhotfocus=yellow,lightgray
Now let's see. What you want to change first of all is most of
the background of these "components", such that the display will
be one with a neat looking transparent background. So first of
all you might want to make a few changes to these color pairs by
replacing the background color "blue" with "default". After doing
these changes, your [Colors] section will look a bit like this:
# the rest of your ~/.mc/ini file
[Colors]
base_color=lightgray,default:\
normal=lightgray,default:\
selected=black,cyan:\
marked=yellow,default:\
markselect=yellow,cyan:\
errors=white,red:\
menu=white,cyan:\
reverse=black,lightgray:\
dnormal=black,lightgray:\
dfocus=black,cyan:\
dhotnormal=blue,lightgray:\
dhotfocus=blue,cyan:\
viewunderline=brightred,default:\
menuhot=yellow,cyan:\
menusel=white,black:\
menuhotsel=yellow,black:\
helpnormal=black,lightgray:\
helpitalic=red,lightgray:\
helpbold=blue,lightgray:\
helplink=black,cyan:\
helpslink=yellow,default:\
gauge=white,black:\
input=black,cyan:\
directory=white,default:\
executable=brightgreen,default:\
link=lightgray,default:\
stalelink=brightred,default:\
device=brightmagenta,default:\
core=red,default:\
special=black,default:\
editnormal=lightgray,default:\
editbold=yellow,default:\
editmarked=black,cyan:\
errdhotnormal=yellow,red:\
errdhotfocus=yellow,lightgray
Now you've got the basic "Midnight Commander transparent scheme"
that was the result of this post .
Proceeding to Mateus' question, regarding how to change the rest
of the colors now, it's about the same as before. What he didn't
like there (and as a matter of fact I don't quite like it,
either) is the dull cyan that's still seen in the following
places:
1. the bottom line (the one displaying the F1...F10 function
keys);
2. the line that signifies the current selection, the "prompt"
which shows you on which file/directory you're "on" at a
given moment;
3. the uppermost line (the "menu" line);
4. the menus themselves, once you open them.
To "fix" issues 1, 2, and 3 it is sufficient to alter the value
of the " selected " parameter. Notice how it is initially
selected=black,cyan:\
My personal choice is to replace the background cyan, which I
don't really like, with green. To do this, I'll change this color
pair to
selected=black,green:\
You can, of course, change the foreground color as well. For me,
it's alright to keep the foreground (the text) "black". You can
change it to whatever suits your taste.
To "fix" issue number 4 in the list above, you need to change the
" menu " parameter. To get it transparent, just change the "cyan"
background to "default". Make other adjustments as you see fit.
In other words, change
menu=white,cyan:\
into, for instance,
menu=ligthgray,default:\
However, there are a few "leftovers" from the default color
scheme.
One of them is the parameter regarding the hotkeys in the menus
(the "underlined" character on most of the menu options, showing
you what key you can press in order to access that option faster
than by moving to it with the arrow keys). This color pair is
called " menuhot ". I changed it from
menuhot=yellow,cyan:\
into
menuhot=yellow,default:\
Another thing which might bother you is the color of the line in
the panel you're in when you've "selected all" files (when you've
pressed the "*" key). This parameter is called " markselect ". I
changed it from
markselect=yellow,cyan:\
into
markselect=white,green:\
The color pair of the selected buttons in dialogs is called "
dfocus ". I changed mine from
dfocus=black,cyan:\
into
dfocus=black,green:\
In the "focused" buttons or options, the underlined character is
called " dhotfocus ". I changed mine from
dhotfocus=blue,cyan:\
into
dhotfocus=brightgreen,green:\
since the background color was already green, after I modified
the " dfocus " color pair.
The other buttons or options in the dialogs which have hotkeys
assigned to them, but which are not "focused" (the buttons/
options that you're not located on at a given moment) are still
displayed in blue on a light gray background. This color pair is
referred to as " dhotnormal ". Since the blue looks a bit odd
there, I changed
dhotnormal=blue,lightgray:\
into
dhotnormal=brightgreen,default:\
Well, this is nice, in window titles and on normal (unfocused)
hotkeys I get the transparent background. The problem now is that
the rest of the dialog window is still light gray. To change this
(to make the window transparent as well), you only need to alter
the " dnormal " color pair, such as changing it from
dnormal=black,lightgray:\
into
dnormal=white,default:\
You may notice that the input fields stay cyan, as well; you find
these fields in quite a lot of dialog boxes. To alter this, I
changed
input=black,cyan:\
into
input=black,green:\
One thing which I consider useful is to have symbolic links
displayed in bright cyan (as in the colored listings in the
terminal). So I just changed
link=lightgray,default:\
into
link=brightcyan,default:\
Now, regarding the rest of the color pairs, I don't really know
what they do. However, if at some point after using Midnight
Commander more with this new, neat, transparent/green color
scheme you'll notice unwanted leftovers, you can try out other
changes in the color pairs values, one at a time, until you
determine the troublesome one.
After operating the changes above, my [Colors] section in ~/.mc/
ini now looks like this:
[Colors]
base_color=lightgray,default:\
normal=lightgray,default:\
selected=black,green:\
marked=yellow,default:\
markselect=white,green:\
errors=white,red:\
menu=lightgray,default:\
reverse=black,lightgray:\
dnormal=white,default:\
dfocus=black,green:\
dhotnormal=brightgreen,default:\
dhotfocus=brightgreen,green:\
viewunderline=brightred,default:\
menuhot=yellow,default:\
menusel=white,black:\
menuhotsel=yellow,black:\
helpnormal=black,lightgray:\
helpitalic=red,lightgray:\
helpbold=blue,lightgray:\
helplink=black,cyan:\
helpslink=yellow,default:\
gauge=white,black:\
input=black,green:\
directory=white,default:\
executable=brightgreen,default:\
link=brightcyan,default:\
stalelink=brightred,default:\
device=brightmagenta,default:\
core=red,default:\
special=black,default:\
editnormal=lightgray,default:\
editbold=yellow,default:\
editmarked=black,cyan:\
errdhotnormal=yellow,red:\
errdhotfocus=yellow,lightgray
I need to direct you to the " IMPORTANT NOTE " above. The final
[Colors] section above is written like this - one pair on each
row, followed by a backslash - for clarity's sake. The actual
final [Colors] section in your ~/.mc/ini file will have to be a
one-liner, with no blanks and no backslashes. So it will probably
look similar to this:
base_color=lightgray,default:normal=lightgray,default:selected=
black,green:marked=yellow,default:markselect=white,green:errors=
white,red:menu=lightgray,default:reverse=black,lightgray:dnormal=
white,default:dfocus=black,green:dhotnormal=
brightgreen,default:dhotfocus=brightgreen,green:viewunderline=
brightred,default:menuhot=yellow,default:menusel=
white,black:menuhotsel=yellow,black:helpnormal=
black,lightgray:helpitalic=red,lightgray:helpbold=
blue,lightgray:helplink=black,cyan:helpslink=yellow,default:gauge
=white,black:input=black,green:directory=white,default:executable
=brightgreen,default:link=brightcyan,default:stalelink=
brightred,default:device=brightmagenta,default:core=
red,default:special=black,default:editnormal=
lightgray,default:editbold=yellow,default:editmarked=
black,cyan:errdhotnormal=yellow,red:errdhotfocus=yellow,lightgray
Now, the next time you start mc , the new color scheme will take
effect.
As a bonus, here's a picture of how my Midnight Commander looks
like, with this new "skin" on:
[mc_transpa] Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to
Facebook
# # #
[Aug 10, 2019] Midnight Commander colors and themes
Aug 10, 2019 | ajnasz.hu
Koszti Lajos Midnight Commander is the most pupular file manager
on unix like systems. It's fast and it has all features what you
need. But it's only blue and we know, that everyone loves the
eyecandy, everyone likes customizing his/her own desktop. But is
there any way to custimize the mc ?
Yes, and I try to show you, how can you create your theme .
+ Midnight Commander Skin
You can change the Midnight Commander colors if you edit the ~
/.mc/ini file, where you have to add a new section, named
[Colors] . You should define the new colors in this section, for
example:
[Colors] base_color=lightgray,green:normal=green,default:selected
=white,gray ...
As you see, it has a simple syntax:
=,:= ...
The colors are optional, so you can use this:
[Colors] base_color=lightgray,green:normal=green:selected=,gray
...
It's not the exactly the same as the first version!
Fine, you can change some colors of the filemanager, but which
are the keywords? These are:
+ Base colors: normal, selected, marked, markselect, errors,
input, reverse, gauge
+ Menu colors: menu, menusel, menuhot, menuhotsel
+ Dialog colors: dnormal, dfocus, dhotnormal, dhotfocus
+ Help colors: helpnormal, helpitalic, helpbold, helplink,
helpslink
+ Viewer color: viewunderline
+ Special highlighting colors: executable, directory, link,
stalelink, device, special, core
+ Editor colors: editnormal, editbold, editmarked
And which are the colors? I don't know all, but here are some of
them:
white, gray, blue, green, yellow, magenta, cyan, red, brown,
birghtgreen, brightblue, brightmagenta, brightcyan, brightred,
default
Here is the config, what I use:
[Colors] base_color=lightgray,green:normal=green,default:selected
=white,gray:marked=yellow,default:markselect=
yellow,gray:directory=blue,default:executable=
brightgreen,default:link=cyan,default:device=
brightmagenta,default:special=lightgray,default:errors=
red,default:reverse=green,default:gauge=green,default:input=
white,gray:dnormal=green,gray:dfocus=brightgreen,gray:dhotnormal=
cyan,gray:dhotfocus=brightcyan,gray:menu=green,default:menuhot=
cyan,default:menusel=green,gray:menuhotsel=
cyan,default:helpnormal=cyan,default:editnormal=
green,default:editbold=blue,default:editmarked=
gray,blue:stalelink=red,default
Screenshot about my redesigned Midnight Commander
On the screenshot you can see, that the directory color is blue,
the files are green, the executable files are birghtgreen and the
selected line is white on a gray background.
And another one, what I use recently:
[Colors] base_color=lightgray,blue:normal=blue,default:selected=
white,brightblue:marked=yellow,default:markselect=
yellow,gray:directory=brightblue,default:executable=
brightgreen,default:link=cyan,default:device=
brightmagenta,default:special=lightgray,default:errors=
red,default:reverse=green,default:gauge=green,default:input=
white,gray:dnormal=green,gray:dfocus=brightgreen,gray:dhotnormal=
cyan,gray:dhotfocus=brightcyan,gray:menu=green,default:menuhot=
cyan,default:menusel=green,gray:menuhotsel=
cyan,default:helpnormal=cyan,default:editnormal=
green,default:editbold=blue,default:editmarked=
gray,blue:stalelink=red,default
Screenshot about my redesigned Midnight Commander
And here is a small shell script, which will help for you to test
your new theme:
#!/bin/sh mc --colors normal=green,default:selected=
brightmagenta,gray:marked=yellow,default:markselect=
yellow,gray:directory=blue,default:executable=
brightgreen,default:link=cyan,default:device=
brightmagenta,default:special=lightgray,default:errors=
red,default:reverse=green,default:gauge=green,default:input=
white,gray:dnormal=green,gray:dfocus=brightgreen,gray:dhotnormal=
cyan,gray:dhotfocus=brightcyan,gray:menu=green,default:menuhot=
cyan,default:menusel=green,gray:menuhotsel=
cyan,default:helpnormal=cyan,default:editnormal=
green,default:editbold=blue,default:editmarked=
gray,blue:stalelink=red,default
Download the shell script to make your own mc theme
Save it as mccolortest.sh, make it executable with the chmod +x
mccolortest.sh command, and run it with the ./mccolortest.sh
command. If you want to change a color, just edit this file. When
you done, copy the colors and paste it below the [Colors] section
in the ~/.mc/ini . If it doesn't exists, make it yourself.
For more information of the mc redesigning check its manual page
.
-
Mauricio * 2 honapja ,
Awesome!
Thank you for your clear explanation.
Anonymous * 6 eve ,
Thank you for theme. I tried your last theme and it is
exactly what I was searching for.
Anonymous * 6 eve ,
Also, in 4.8.3 here, I copied the first example scheme line
and my colors are different. I can't even set the background
of the select bar to gray (or "grey"): it gets replaced with
black. Also, the panel headings remain blue here, unlike the
(first) screenshot, and I can see no corresponding tag in the
line anyway.
Good intro, regardless. Someone should post a pointer to a
more up-to-date one, though, as Google seems to find this old
thread within the top few hits. Kiraly! ;)
--lunakid
Ajnasz Anonymous * 6 eve ,
The colors are depends on the color settings of your
terminal. I don't have those settings anymore which was when
I posted this article, but here is my current. If I'm right,
it's similar to that. Put it into your .Xdefaults
*background: #000000
*foreground: #EEEEEC
! Default
! 0: black
*color0: #1C1C1C
*color8: #333333
! 1: red
*color1: #C14242
*color9: #EF2929
! 2: green
*color2: #6AA037
*color10: #9DCF70
! 3: yellow
*color3: #CFAB2F
*color11: #FCDA4F
! 4: blue
*color4: #2D578A
*color12: #729FCF
! 5: magenta
*color5: #A85EB4
*color13: #AD7FA8
! 6: cyan
*color6: #2F8D8F
*color14: #34E2E2
! 7: white
*color7: #D3D7CF
*color15: #EEEEEC
Anonymous * 7 eve ,
Now ~/.mc dir is ignored. Now is ~/.config/mc ;)
Anonymous * 10 eve ,
Midnight Commander supports skins starting from 4.7.0-pre3
version. You can download a skin with black as a main color
from here:
http://zool.in.ua/software/bluemoon/
Anonymous * 10 eve ,
I am using MC on my router ASUS WL-500GP and I am developing
php scripts on it. but as I see MC in openwrt (kmaikaze 8.09)
does not use syntax-highlighting and it is very
unconfortable.
Do you know how could I turn it on? I have already downloaded
php.syntax file and put it into /usr/share/syntax dir but it
does not seem to work. is it possible that some support is
not compiled into my version or the syntax file must be
compiled to another format?
Br Ze.
Anonymous Anonymous * 10 eve ,
I found it. in ~/.mc/cedit/Syntax must be this:
file ..\*\\.(php|PHP)$ PHP\sFile
include php.syntax
and in the same dir php.syntax file must be placed. (copied
out from a source distrib)
Ze
Anonymous * 10 eve ,
hei ajnasz, your color theme so very nice, keep my eye on my
pc longer than usual. Well, i don't have much time to do more
explore with this tricks. I think your taste so cool. If you
have any kind of theme, i should be try it. :-)
Regards,
Dedi
Anonymous * 10 eve ,
Any chance to change the color of the files by extension?
Anonymous Anonymous * 10 eve ,
Midnight Commander supports this starting from 4.7.0-pre3
version.
Ajnasz Anonymous * 10 eve ,
I didn't find anything about it. By the way, since the
extension doesn't determinate the file type in UNIX like
systems, it wouldn't make any sense to do it.
Anonymous Ajnasz * 9 eve ,
Don't be silly. Mp3 is just music, txt is text, doc is
document. The only thing, which is not exactly determinable
is the executables, but whatever, it has +x flag.
Anonymous * 11 eve ,
Also, you should know that most modern terminal applications
allow you to redefine the exact shade of those 16 colors.
Some of them (such as the Gnome or KDE terminals) may have a
place under their preferences where you can redefine the
colors.
Older terminals, such as aterm, use ~/.Xdefaults for this.
You can edit that file and add lines like this:
"aterm*color1: OrangeRed" (without the quotes). What I've
done with that is tell aterm that the "color1" (which was
red) should now be "OrangeRed". See /usr/share/X11/rgb.txt
for valid color names. You can use *color0 through *color15.
So when you'll say "red" in MC's ini file, and if you use
aterm, it will get replaced by color1 in ~/.Xdefaults and
changed to OrangeRed. (Sorry, I don't remember the mappings
between the names used by MC and 0-15 in Xdefaults by heart.)
Anonymous * 12 eve ,
On the same subject:
http://www.zagura.ro/index....
# # #
[Jul 30, 2019] The difference between tar and tar.gz archives
With tar.gz to extract a file archiver first creates an intermediary
tarball x.tar file from x.tar.gz by uncompressing the whole archive
then unpack requested files from this intermediary tarball. In tar.gz
archive is large unpacking can take several hours or even days.
Jul 30, 2019 | askubuntu.com
+ @ChristopheDeTroyer Tarballs are compressed in such a way
that you have to decompress them in full, then take out the
file you want. I think that .zip folders are different, so if
you want to be able to take out individual files fast, try
them. - GKFX Jun 3 '16 at 13:04
# # #
[Jul 28, 2019] command line - How do I extract a specific file from a
tar archive - Ask Ubuntu
Jul 28, 2019 | askubuntu.com
CMCDragonkai, Jun 3, 2016 at 13:04
1. Using the Command-line tar
Yes, just give the full stored path of the file after the
tarball name.
Example: suppose you want file etc/apt/sources.list from
etc.tar :
tar -xf etc.tar etc/apt/sources.list
Will extract sources.list and create directories etc/apt
under the current directory.
o You can use the -t listing option instead of -x , maybe
along with grep , to find the path of the file you want
o You can also extract a single directory
o tar has other options like --wildcards , etc. for more
advanced partial extraction scenarios; see man tar
2. Extract it with the Archive Manager
Open the tar in Archive Manager from Nautilus, go down into
the folder hierarchy to find the file you need, and extract
it.
o On a server or command-line system, use a text-based file
manager such as Midnight Commander ( mc ) to accomplish
the same.
3. Using Nautilus/Archive-Mounter
Right-click the tar in Nautilus, and select Open with
ArchiveMounter.
The tar will now appear similar to a removable drive on the
left, and you can explore/navigate it like a normal drive and
drag/copy/paste any file(s) you need to any destination.
# # #
[Jul 28, 2019] iso - midnight commander rules for accessing archives
through VFS - Unix Linux Stack Exchange
Jul 28, 2019 | unix.stackexchange.com
,
Midnight Commander uses virtual filesystem ( VFS ) for
displying files, such as contents of a .tar.gz archive, or of
.iso image. This is configured in mc.ext with rules such as
this one ( Open is Enter , View is F3 ):
regex/\.([iI][sS][oO])$
Open=%cd %p/iso9660://
View=%view{ascii} isoinfo -d -i %f
When I press Enter on an .iso file, mc will open the .iso and
I can browse individual files. This is very useful.
Now my question: I have also files which are disk images,
i.e. created with pv /dev/sda1 > sda1.img
I would like mc to "browse" the files inside these images in
the same fashion as .iso .
Is this possible ? How would such rule look like ?
# # #
[Jul 28, 2019] How to Use Midnight Commander, a Visual File Manager
Jul 28, 2019 | www.linode.com
1. Another tool that can save you time is Midnight Commander's
user menu. Go back to /tmp/test where you created nine files.
Press F2 and bring up the user menu. Select Compress the
current subdirectory (tar.gz) . After you choose the name for
the archive, this will be created in /tmp (one level up from
the directory being compressed). If you highlight the .tar.gz
file and press ENTER you'll notice it will open like a
regular directory. This allows you to browse archives and
extract files by simply copying them ( F5 ) to the opposite
panel's working directory.
Midnight Commander User Menu
2. To find out the size of a directory (actually, the size of
all the files it contains), highlight the directory and then
press CTRL+SPACE .
3. To search, go up in your directory tree until you reach the
top level, / , called root directory. Now press F9 , then c ,
followed by f . After the Find File dialog opens, type *.gz .
This will find any accessible gzip archive on the system. In
the results dialog, press l (L) for Panelize . All the
results will be fed to one of your panels so you can easily
browse, copy, view and so on. If you enter a directory from
that list, you lose the list of found files, but you can
easily return to it with F9 , l (L) then z (to select
Panelize from the Left menu).
Midnight Commander - Find File Dialog
4. Managing files is not always done locally. Midnight Commander
also supports accessing remote filesystems through SSH's
Secure File Transfer Protocol, SFTP . This way you can easily
transfer files between servers.
Press F9 , followed by l (L), then select the SFTP link menu
entry. In the dialog box titled SFTP to machine enter sftp://
example@203.0.113.0 . Replace example with the username you
have created on the remote machine and 203.0.113.1 with the
IP address of your server. This will work only if the server
at the other end accepts password logins. If you're logging
in with SSH keys, then you'll first need to create and/or
edit ~/.ssh/config . It could look something like this:
~/.ssh/config
1 Host sftp_server
2 HostName 203.0.113.1
3 Port 22
4 User your_user
5 IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa
You can choose whatever you want as the Host value, it's only
an identifier. IdentityFile is the path to your private SSH
key.
After the config file is setup, access your SFTP server by
typing the identifier value you set after Host in the SFTP to
machine dialog. In this example, enter sftp_server .
# # #
[Jul 28, 2019] Bartosz Kosarzycki's blog Midnight Commander how to
compress a file-directory; Make a tar archive with midnight commander
Jul 28, 2019 | kosiara87.blogspot.com
Midnight Commander how to compress a file/directory; Make a tar
archive with midnight commander
To compress a file in Midnight Commader (e.g. to make a tar.gz
archive) navigate to the directory you want to pack and press
'F2'. This will bring up the 'User menu'. Choose the option
'Compress the current subdirectory'. This will compress the WHOLE
directory you're currently in - not the highlighted directory.
# # #
[Jan 01, 2019] Re: customize columns in single panel view
Jun 12, 2017 | mail.gnome.org
On 6/12/17, Karel wrote:
Hello,
Is it possible to customize the columns in the single panel view ?
For my default (two panel) view, I have customized it using:
-> Listing Mode
(*) User defined:
half type name | size:15 | mtime
however, when I switch to the single panel view, there are different
columns (obviously):
Permission Nl Owner Group Size Modify time Name
For instance, I need to change the width of "Size" to 15.
No, you can't change the format of the "Long" listing-mode.
(You can make the "User defined" listing-mode display in one panel (by
changing "half" to "full"), but this is not what you want.)
So, you have two options:
(1) Modify the source code (search panel.c for "full perm space" and
tweak it); or:
(2) Use mc^2. It allows you to do this. (It already comes with a
snippet that enlarges the "Size" field a bit so there'd be room for
the commas (or other locale-dependent formatting) it adds. This makes
reading long numbers much easier.)
# # #
[Jan 01, 2019] Re- Help- meaning of the panelize command in
left-right menus
Feb 17, 2017 | mail.gnome.org
-----------------------------------------------------------------
+ From : Cristian Rigamonti
+ To : mc gnome org
+ Subject : Re: Help: meaning of the panelize command in left/
right menus
+ Date : Fri, 17 Feb 2017 15:00:16 +0100
-----------------------------------------------------------------
On Thu, Feb 16, 2017 at 01:25:22PM +1300, William Kimber wrote:
Briefly, if you do a search over several directories you can put all those
files into a single panel. Not withstanding that they are from different
directories.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean here; anyway I noticed that if you do a
search using the "Find file" (M-?) command, choose "Panelize" (at the bottom
of the "Find File" popup window), then change to some other directory (thus
exiting from panelized mode), if you now choose Left -> Panelize, you can recall
the panelized view of the last "Find file" results. Is this what you mean?
However this seems to work only with panelized results coming from the
"Find file" command, not with results from the "External panelize" command:
if I change directory, and then choose Left -> Panelize I get an empty panel.
Is this a bug?
Cri
# # #
[Jan 01, 2019] Re- Help- meaning of the panelize command in
left-right menus
Jan 01, 2019 | mail.gnome.org
Re: Help: meaning of the panelize command in left/right menus
-----------------------------------------------------------------
+ From : Cristian Rigamonti
+ To : mc gnome org
+ Subject : Re: Help: meaning of the panelize command in left/
right menus
+ Date : Fri, 17 Feb 2017 15:00:16 +0100
-----------------------------------------------------------------
On Thu, Feb 16, 2017 at 01:25:22PM +1300, William Kimber wrote:
Briefly, if you do a search over several directories you can put all those
files into a single panel. Not withstanding that they are from different
directories.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean here; anyway I noticed that if you do a
search using the "Find file" (M-?) command, choose "Panelize" (at the bottom
of the "Find File" popup window), then change to some other directory (thus
exiting from panelized mode), if you now choose Left -> Panelize, you can recall
the panelized view of the last "Find file" results. Is this what you mean?
However this seems to work only with panelized results coming from the
"Find file" command, not with results from the "External panelize" command:
if I change directory, and then choose Left -> Panelize I get an empty panel.
Is this a bug?
Cri
# # #
[Jan 01, 2019] Re- customize columns in single panel view
Jan 01, 2019 | mail.gnome.org
On 6/12/17, Karel wrote:
Hello,
Is it possible to customize the columns in the single panel view ?
For my default (two panel) view, I have customized it using:
-> Listing Mode
(*) User defined:
half type name | size:15 | mtime
however, when I switch to the single panel view, there are different
columns (obviously):
Permission Nl Owner Group Size Modify time Name
For instance, I need to change the width of "Size" to 15.
No, you can't change the format of the "Long" listing-mode.
(You can make the "User defined" listing-mode display in one panel (by
changing "half" to "full"), but this is not what you want.)
So, you have two options:
(1) Modify the source code (search panel.c for "full perm space" and
tweak it); or:
(2) Use mc^2. It allows you to do this. (It already comes with a
snippet that enlarges the "Size" field a bit so there'd be room for
the commas (or other locale-dependent formatting) it adds. This makes
reading long numbers much easier.)
# # #
[Jan 01, 2019] %f macro in mcedit
Jan 01, 2019 | mail.gnome.org
+ From : Sergiy Vovk
+ To : mc-devel gnome org
+ Subject : %f macro in mcedit
+ Date : Tue, 26 Sep 2017 17:19:08 +0300
Hi!
My mc version:
$ mc --version
GNU Midnight Commander 4.8.19
System: Fedora 24
I just want to tell you that %f macro in mcedit is not correct. It
contains the current file name that is selected in the panel but not
the actual file name that is opened in mcedit.
I created the mcedit item to run C++ program:
+= f \.cpp$
r Run
clear
app_path=/tmp/$(uuidgen)
if g++ -o $app_path "%f"; then
$app_path
rm $app_path
fi
echo 'Press any key to exit.'
read -s -n 1
Imagine that I opened the file a.cpp in mcedit.
Then I pressed alt+` and switched to panel.
Then I selected (or even opened in mcedit) the file b.cpp.
Then I pressed alt+` and switched to mcedit with a.cpp.
Then I executed the "Run" item from user menu.
And... The b.cpp will be compiled and run. This is wrong! Why b.cpp???
I executed "Run" from a.cpp!
I propose you to do the new macros for mcedit.
%opened_file
- the file name that is opened in current instance of mcedit.
%opened_file_full_path
- as %opened_file but full path to that file.
I think that %opened_file may be not safe because the current
directory may be changed in mc panel. So it is better to use
%opened_file_full_path.
%opened_file_dir
- full path to directory where %opened_file is.
%save
- save opened file before executing the menu commands. May be useful
in some cases. For example I don't want to press F2 every time before
run changed code.
Thanks for the mc.
Best regards, Sergiy Vovk.
# # #
[Jan 01, 2019] Re- Setting left and right panel directories at
startup
Jan 01, 2019 | mail.gnome.org
Re: Setting left and right panel directories at startup
-----------------------------------------------------------------
+ From : Lynn Bradshaw
+ To : Keith Roberts
+ Cc : mc gnome org, wwp
+ Subject : Re: Setting left and right panel directories at
startup
+ Date : Mon, 19 Mar 2018 14:21:15 -0400
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry, forgot to reply all.
[msg00007]
I said that, personally, I would put ~/Documents in the directory
hotlist and get there via C-\.
On Sun, Mar 18, 2018 at 5:38 PM, Keith Roberts < keith karsites
net > wrote:
On 18/03/18 20:14, wwp wrote:
Hello Keith,
On Sun, 18 Mar 2018 19:14:33 +0000 Keith Roberts < keith
karsites net > wrote:
Hi all,
I found this in /home/keith/.config/mc/panels. ini
[Dirs]
current_is_left=true
other_dir=/home/keith/Document s/
I'd like mc to open /home/keith/Documents/ in the
left panel as well whenever I start mc up, so both
panels are showing the /home/keith/Documents/
directory.
Is there some way to tell mc how to do this please?
I think you could use: `mc `, for instance:
`mc /home/keith/Documents/ /tmp`, but of course this
requires you to know
the second path to open in addition to your ~/Documents.
Not really
satisfying?
Regards,
Hi wwp,
Thanks for your suggestion and that seems to work OK - I just
start mc with the following command:
mc ~/Documents
and both panes are opened at the ~Documents directories now
which is fine.
Kind Regards,
Keith Roberts
# # #
[Jan 01, 2019] Mc2 by mooffie
Notable quotes:
"... Future Releases ..."
Jan 01, 2019 | midnight-commander.org
#3745 (Integration mc with mc2(Lua)) - Midnight Commander
Ticket #3745 (closed enhancement: invalid)
Opened 2 years ago
Last modified 2 years ago Integration mc with mc2(Lua)
Reported by: q19l405n5a Owned by:
Priority: major Milestone:
Component: mc-core Version: master
Keywords: Cc:
Blocked By: Blocking:
Branch state: no branch Votes for changeset:
Description I think that it is necessary that code base mc and
mc2 correspond each other. mooffie? can you check that patches
from andrew_b easy merged with mc2 and if some patch conflict
with mc2 code hold this changes by writing about in corresponding
ticket. zaytsev can you help automate this( continues
integration, travis and so on). Sorry, but some words in Russian:
Rebiata, ia ne pytaius' davat' TsU, Vy delaete klassnuiu rabotu.
Prosto iakhotel obratit' vnimanie, chto Muf'ia pytaetsia podderzhivat'
svoi kod v aktual'nom sostoianii, no vidia kak u nego voznikaiut
problemy na rovnom meste boius' entuziazm u nego mozhet propast'.
Change History comment:1 Changed 2 years ago by zaytsev-work
+ Status changed from new to closed
+ Resolution set to invalid
https://mail.gnome.org/archives/mc-devel/2016-February/
msg00021.html
I have asked what plans does mooffie have for mc ^2 sometime ago
and never got an answer. Note that I totally don't blame him for
that. Everyone here is working at their own pace. Sometimes I
disappear for weeks or months, because I can't get a spare 5
minutes not even speaking of several hours due to the non-mc
related workload. I hope that one day we'll figure out the way
towards merging it, and eventually get it done.
In the mean time, he's working together with us by offering
extremely important and well-prepared contributions, which are a
pleasure to deal with and we are integrating them as fast as we
can, so it's not like we are at war and not talking to each
other.
Anyways, creating random noise in the ticket tracking system will
not help to advance your cause. The only way to influence the
process is to invest serious amount of time in the development.
comment:2 Changed 2 years ago by zaytsev
+ Milestone Future Releases deleted
Lua-l - [ANN] mc^2
Selected post Oct 15, 2015; 12:13pm [ANN] mc^2
mc^2 is a fork of Midnight Commander with Lua
support:
http://www.typo.co.il/~mooffie/mc-lua/docs/html/
...but let's skip the verbiage and go directly to
the screenshots:
http://www.typo.co.il/~mooffie/mc-lua/docs/html/
guide/SCREENSHOTS.md.html
Now, I assume most of you here aren't users of MC.
So I won't bore you with description of how Lua
makes MC a better
file-manager. Instead, I'll just list some details
that may interest
any developer who works on extending some
application.
And, as you'll shortly see, you may find mc^2
useful even if you
aren't a user of MC!
So, some interesting details:
* Programmer Goodies
- You can restart the Lua system from within MC.
- Since MC has a built-in editor, you can edit Lua
code right there
and restart Lua. So it's somewhat like a live IDE:
http://www.typo.co.il/~mooffie/mc-lua/docs/html/
images/screenshots/game.png
- It comes with programmer utilities: regular
expressions; global scope
protected by default; good pretty printer for Lua
tables; calculator
where you can type Lua expressions; the editor can
"lint" Lua code (and
flag uses of global variables).
- It installs a /usr/bin/mcscript executable
letting you use all the
goodies from "outside" MC:
Mooffie http://www.typo.co.il/~mooffie/mc-lua/docs/html/
11 posts guide/60-standalone.md.html
* User Interface programming (UI)
- You can program a UI (user interface) very
easily. The API is fun
yet powerful. It has some DOM/JavaScript borrowings
in it: you can
attach functions to events like on_click,
on_change, etc. The API
uses "properties", so your code tends to be short
and readable:
http://www.typo.co.il/~mooffie/mc-lua/docs/html/
guide/40-user-interface.md.html
- The UI has a "canvas" object letting you draw
your own stuff. The
system is so fast you can program arcade games.
Pacman, Tetris,
Digger, whatever:
http://www.typo.co.il/~mooffie/mc-lua/docs/html/
classes/ui.Canvas.html
Need timers in your game? You've got them:
http://www.typo.co.il/~mooffie/mc-lua/docs/html/
modules/timer.html
- This UI API is an ideal replacement for utilities
like dialog(1).
You can write complex frontends to command-line
tools with ease:
http://www.typo.co.il/~mooffie/mc-lua/docs/html/
images/screenshots/frontend-scanimage.png
- Thanks to the aforementioned /usr/bin/mcscript,
you can run your
games/frontends from "outside" MC:
http://www.typo.co.il/~mooffie/mc-lua/docs/html/
images/screenshots/standalone-game.png
* Misc
- You can compile it against Lua 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, or
LuaJIT.
- Extensive documentation.
# # #
[Jan 01, 2019] mc - How can I set the default (user defined) listing
mode in Midnight Commander- - Unix Linux Stack Exchange
Jan 01, 2019 | unix.stackexchange.com
Ask Question 0
papaiatis ,Jul 14, 2016 at 11:51
I defined my own listing mode and I'd like to make it
permanent so that on the next mc start my defined listing
mode will be set. I found no configuration file for mc.
,
You have probably Auto save setup turned off in Options->
Configuration menu.
You can save the configuration manually by Options->Save
setup .
Panels setup is saved to ~/.config/mc/panels.ini .
# # #
[Jan 01, 2019] Lua-l - [ANN] mc^2
Jan 01, 2019 | n2.nabble.com
Selected post Oct 15, 2015; 12:13pm [ANN] mc^2
mc^2 is a fork of Midnight Commander with Lua support:
http://www.typo.co.il/~mooffie/mc-lua/docs/html/
...but let's skip the verbiage and go directly to the
screenshots:
http://www.typo.co.il/~mooffie/mc-lua/docs/html/guide/
SCREENSHOTS.md.html
Now, I assume most of you here aren't users of MC.
So I won't bore you with description of how Lua makes
MC a better
file-manager. Instead, I'll just list some details
that may interest
any developer who works on extending some application.
And, as you'll shortly see, you may find mc^2 useful
even if you
aren't a user of MC!
So, some interesting details:
* Programmer Goodies
- You can restart the Lua system from within MC.
- Since MC has a built-in editor, you can edit Lua
code right there
and restart Lua. So it's somewhat like a live IDE:
http://www.typo.co.il/~mooffie/mc-lua/docs/html/images
/screenshots/game.png
- It comes with programmer utilities: regular
expressions; global scope
protected by default; good pretty printer for Lua
tables; calculator
where you can type Lua expressions; the editor can
"lint" Lua code (and
flag uses of global variables).
- It installs a /usr/bin/mcscript executable letting
you use all the
goodies from "outside" MC:
http://www.typo.co.il/~mooffie/mc-lua/docs/html/guide/
Mooffie 11 60-standalone.md.html
posts
* User Interface programming (UI)
- You can program a UI (user interface) very easily.
The API is fun
yet powerful. It has some DOM/JavaScript borrowings in
it: you can
attach functions to events like on_click, on_change,
etc. The API
uses "properties", so your code tends to be short and
readable:
http://www.typo.co.il/~mooffie/mc-lua/docs/html/guide/
40-user-interface.md.html
- The UI has a "canvas" object letting you draw your
own stuff. The
system is so fast you can program arcade games.
Pacman, Tetris,
Digger, whatever:
http://www.typo.co.il/~mooffie/mc-lua/docs/html/
classes/ui.Canvas.html
Need timers in your game? You've got them:
http://www.typo.co.il/~mooffie/mc-lua/docs/html/
modules/timer.html
- This UI API is an ideal replacement for utilities
like dialog(1).
You can write complex frontends to command-line tools
with ease:
http://www.typo.co.il/~mooffie/mc-lua/docs/html/images
/screenshots/frontend-scanimage.png
- Thanks to the aforementioned /usr/bin/mcscript, you
can run your
games/frontends from "outside" MC:
http://www.typo.co.il/~mooffie/mc-lua/docs/html/images
/screenshots/standalone-game.png
* Misc
- You can compile it against Lua 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, or
LuaJIT.
- Extensive documentation.
# # #
[Jan 01, 2019] Re change default configuration
Jan 01, 2019 | mail.gnome.org
On Fri, 27 Jul 2018 17:01:17 +0300 Sergey Naumov via mc-devel wrote:
I'm curious whether there is a way to change default configuration that is
generated when user invokes mc for the first time?
For example, I want "use_internal_edit" to be true by default instead of
false for any new user.
In vanilla mc the initial value of use_internal_edit is true. Some distros
(Debian and some others) change this to false.
If there is a way to do it, then is it possible to just use lines that I
want to change, not the whole configuration, say
[Midnight-Commander]
use_internal_edit=true
Before first run, ~/.config/mc/ini doesn't exist.
If ~/.config/mc/ini doesn't exist, /etc/mc/mc.ini is used.
If /etc/mc/mc.ini doesn't exist, /usr/share/mc/mc.ini is used.
You can create one of these files with required default settings set.
Unfortunately, there is no info about /etc/mc/mc.ini in the man page.
I'll fix that at this weekend.
# # #
[Jan 01, 2019] Re does mc support sftp
Jan 01, 2019 | mail.gnome.org
+ From : "Yury V. Zaytsev"
+ To : Fourhundred Thecat <400thecat gmx ch>
+ Cc : mc gnome org
+ Subject : Re: does mc support sftp ?
+ Date : Thu, 15 Nov 2018 21:53:25 +0100 (CET)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Yes, it does, if it has been compiled accordingly.
http://www.linux-databook.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/MC-02.jpeg
On Thu, 15 Nov 2018, Fourhundred Thecat wrote:
Hello,
I need to connect to server where I don't have shell access (no ssh)
the server only allows sftp. I can connect with winscp, for instance.
does mc support sftp as well ?
thanks,
_______________________________________________
mc mailing list
https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/mc
--
Sincerely yours,
Yury V. Zaytsev
# # #
[Jan 01, 2019] Re: Ctrl+J in mc
Jan 01, 2019 | mail.gnome.org
, Thomas Zajic
* Ivan Pizhenko via mc-devel, 28.10.18 21:52
Hi, I'm wondering why following happens:
In Ubuntu and FreeBSD, when I am pressing Ctrl+J in MC, it puts name
of file on which file cursor is currently on. But this doesn't work in
CentOS and RHEL.
How to fix that in CentOS and RHEL?
Ivan.
Never heard about Ctrl+j, I always used Alt+Enter for that purpose.
Alt+a does the same thing for the path, BTW (just in case you didn't
know). :-)
HTH,
Thomas
_______________________________________________
mc-devel mailing list
https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/mc-devel
# # #
[Jun 14, 2018] Changing shortcuts in midnight commander by rride Last
Updated 20:01 PM
Feb 04, 2018 | www.queryxchange.com
I haven't found anything on the topic in the Internet. The only
line from .mc/ini that looks related to the question is keymap=
mc.keymap but I have no idea what to do with it.
Tags : linux keyboard-shortcuts midnight-commander
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Okiedokie... lets see
$ man-section mc | head -n20
mc (1)
--
Name
Usage
Description
Options
Overview
Mouse support
Keys
Redefine hotkey bindings
8th section... is that possible? Lets look
man mc (scroll,scroll,scroll)
Redefine hotkey bindings
Hotkey bindings may be read from external file (keymap-file). A keymap-
file is searched on the following algorithm (to the first one found):
1) command line option -K or --keymap=
2) Environment variable MC_KEYMAP
3) Parameter keymap in section [Midnight-Commander] of config file.
4) File ~/.config/mc/mc.keymap
5) File /etc/mc/mc.keymap
6) File /usr/share/mc/mc.keymap
Bingo!
cp /etc/mc/mc.keymap ~/.config/mc/
Now edit the key mappings as you like and save ~/.config/mc/
mc.keymap when done
For more info, read the Keys ( man mc ) section and the three
sections following that.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
$ cat /home/jaroslav/bin/man-sections
#!/bin/sh
MANPAGER=cat man $@ | grep -E '^^[[1m[A-Z]{3,}'
# # #
[Jun 13, 2018] Opening editor in another screen or tmux window
Jun 13, 2018 | www.queryxchange.com
by user2252728 Last Updated May 15, 2015 11:14 AM
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The problem
I'm using tmux and I want MC to open files for editing in another
tmux window, so that I can keep browsing files while editing.
What I've tried
MC checks if EDITOR variable is set and then interprets it as a
program for editing, so if I do export EDITOR=vim then MC will
use vim to open files.
I've tried to build on that:
function foo () { tmux new-window "vim $1"; }
export EDITOR=foo
If I do $EDITOR some_file then I get the file open in vim in
another tmux windows - exactly what I wanted.
Sadly, when I try to edit in MC it goes blank for a second and
then returns to normal MC window. MC doesn't seem to keep any
logs and I don't get any error message.
The question(s)
+ Do you know what I'm doing wrong?
+ Do you have a usable workaround for what I want?
+ Should I create a feature request/bug for MC?
Tags : midnight-commander
-----------------------------------------------------------------
[INS::INS]
-----------------------------------------------------------------
`Answers 1'
-----------------------------------------------------------------
You are defining a shell function, which is unknown for mc when
it is trying to start the editor.
The correct way is to create a bash script, not a function. Then
set EDITOR value to it, for example:
$ cat ~/myEditor.sh
#!/bin/sh
tmux new-window "vim $1"
export EDITOR=~/myEditor.sh
# # #
[Jun 13, 2018] Mcedit is actually a multiwindow editor
Opening another file in editor will create the second window. You can
list windows using F9/Window/List\
That allows to copy and paste selections to different files while in
editor
Jun 13, 2018 | www.unix.com
Many people don't know that mc has a multi-window text-editor
built-in (eerily disabled by default) with macro capability and
all sorts of goodies. run
mc -e my.txt
to edit directly.
# # #
[Jun 13, 2018] How mc.init is stored
Jun 13, 2018 | superuser.com
The configuration is stored in
$HOME/.config/mc/
In your case edit the file $HOME/.config/mc/ini . You can check
which files are actually read in by midnight-commander using
strace :
strace -e trace=open -o mclog mc
# # #
[Jun 13, 2018] Temporary Do Something Else while editing/viewing a
file
Jun 13, 2018 | www.nawaz.org
+ Problem
I'm viewing/editing a file and I suddenly realize I need to
copy a file somewhere. It's a pain to quit the viewer to do
this task.
+ Solution
While viewing/editing, press Alt-`.
# # #
[Jun 13, 2018] My Screen is Garbled Up
Jun 13, 2018 | www.nawaz.org
+ Image B_ignoreheading BMCOL
images/garbled.png
+ Problem B_alertblock BMCOL
My display got messed up!
+ Solution B_alertblock
Press \alert{Ctrl-l} to redraw the display.
# # #
[Jun 13, 2018] Find file shows no results
Jun 13, 2018 | wiki.archlinux.org
If the Find file dialog (accessible with Alt+? ) shows no
results, check the current directory for symbolic links. Find
file does not follow symbolic links, so use bind mounts (see
mount(8) ) instead, or the External panelize command.
# # #
[Jun 13, 2018] Draft of documentation for Midnight Commander
Jun 13, 2018 | midnight-commander.org
Table of content P
1. Introduction
2. Getting sources
3. Making and installing?
o List of required programs and libraries
o Options of 'configure' script
o Building of binary packages
4. Ini-options setup?
5. Usage
o Common
# Actions and default shortcuts
# Select charsets
# Search
# Colored skins
# Ini-options
# Multiple viewers and editors
o File panels
# Commands of menu?
# User-defined menu?
# Hotkeys by default
# Dialog windows
@ Search Files and search by content of files?
@ Selecting/unselecting files ind directoryes?
@ Copy, move/rename and delete files/directories
@ Operations with files (change owner/group, change
permissions)?
o Viewer
# Cases of work
@ Plain viewer?
@ Hex viewer/editor?
@ Filter viewer?
# Hotkeys by default?
o Editor
# Hotkeys by default
# Redefinition of hotkeys
# Syntax highlighting?
# User-defined menu?
# Navigation across source code
o Virtual file system (VFS)
6. Migration to keybindings in 4.8.x series
7. How to report about bugs
o Report crashes
8. Frequently asked questions
# # #
[Jun 13, 2018] Trash support
Jun 13, 2018 | wiki.archlinux.org
Midnight Commander does not support a trash can by default.
`Using libtrash'
Install the libtrash ^AUR package, and create an mc alias in the
initialization file of your shell (e.g., ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc ):
alias mc='LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libtrash.so.3.3 mc'
To apply the changes, reopen your shell session or source the
shell initialization file.
Default settings are defined in /etc/libtrash.conf.sys . You can
overwrite these settings per-user in ~/.libtrash , for example:
TRASH_CAN = .Trash
INTERCEPT_RENAME = NO
IGNORE_EXTENSIONS= o;exe;com
UNCOVER_DIRS=/dev
Now files deleted by Midnight Commander (launched with mc ) will
be moved to the ~/.Trash directory.
Warning:
+ Applications launched from mc inherit LD_PRELOAD , which may
cause problems with some applications. [1]
+ With GLOBAL_PROTECTION = YES set (default), files deleted
outside the home directory are moved to the trash, even if
they are on a different partition. Depending on the file,
this may cause a significant delay.
See also [2] .
# # #
[Jun 13, 2018] Make both panels display the same directory
Jun 13, 2018 | www.fredshack.com
ALT+i. If NOK, try ESC+i
# # #
[Jun 13, 2018] Copy and paste text in midnight commander (MC) via
putty in Linux
Jun 13, 2018 | www.queryxchange.com
I use Midnight Commander (MC) editor over putty to edit files
I want to know how to copy text from one file, close it then open
another file and paste it?
If it is not possible with Midnight Commander, is there another
easy way to copy and paste specific text from different files?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I would do it like this:
1. switch to block selection mode by pressing F3
2. select a block
3. switch off block selection mode with F3
4. press Ctrl+F which will open Save block dialog
5. press Enter to save it to the default location
6. open the other file in the editor, and navigate to the target
location
7. press Shift+F5 to open Insert file dialog
8. press Enter to paste from the default file location (which is
same as the one in Save block dialog)
# # #
[Jun 13, 2018] How to exclude some pattern when doing a search in MC
Mar 25, 2018 | www.queryxchange.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------
In Midnight Commander, is it possible to exclude some directories
/patterns/... when doing search? ( M-? ) I'm specifically
interested in skipping the .hg subdirectory.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
`Answers 1'
-----------------------------------------------------------------
In the "[Misc]" section of your ~/.mc/ini file, you can specify
the directories you wish to skip in the "find_ignore_dirs"
setting.
To specify multiple directories, use a colon (":") as the
delimiter.
# # #
[Jun 13, 2018] Midnight Commander tab completion
Sep 17, 2011 | superuser.com
You can get tab-completion by pressing ESC then TAB . You can
also get the currently highlighted file/subdir name onto the
command line with ESC-ENTER.
# # #
[Jun 13, 2018] mc-wrapper does not exit to MC_PWD directory
Jun 13, 2018 | www.queryxchange.com
I recently installed openSUSE 13.1 and set up the mc in typical
why by aliasing mc with mc-wrapper.sh to have it exit into the
last working directory in mc instance. However this does not seem
to be working. I tried to debug the mc-wrapper.sh script - the
echo commands.
MC_USER=`id | sed 's/[^(]*(//;s/).*//'`
MC_PWD_FILE="${TMPDIR-/tmp}/mc-$MC_USER/mc.pwd.$$"
/usr/bin/mc -P "$MC_PWD_FILE" "$@"
if test -r "$MC_PWD_FILE"; then
MC_PWD="`cat "$MC_PWD_FILE"`"
if test -n "$MC_PWD" && test -d "$MC_PWD"; then
echo "will cd in : $MC_PWD"
cd $MC_PWD
echo $(pwd)
fi
unset MC_PWD
fi
rm -f "$MC_PWD_FILE"
unset MC_PWD_FILE
echo $(pwd)
To my surprise, mc-wrapper-sh does change the directory and is in
the directory before exiting but back in bash prompt the working
directory is the one from which the script was invoked.
Can it be that some bash settings is required for this to work?
Tags : linux bash shell midnight-commander
-----------------------------------------------------------------
[INS::INS]
-----------------------------------------------------------------
`Answers 1'
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Using answer above working solution for bash shell is this:
alias mc='source /usr/lib/mc/mc-wrapper.sh'
OR
alias mc='. /usr/lib/mc/mc-wrapper.sh'
# # #
[Jun 13, 2018] How to enable find-as-you-type behavior
Jun 13, 2018 | www.queryxchange.com
Alt + S will show the "quick search" in Midnight Commander.
# # #
[Jun 13, 2018] How to expand the command line to the whole screen in
MC
Jun 13, 2018 | www.queryxchange.com
You can hide the Midnight Commander Window by pressing Ctrl + O .
Press Ctrl + O again to return back to Midnight Commander.
# # #
[Jun 13, 2018] MC Tips Tricks
Jun 13, 2018 | www.fredshack.com
If MC displays funny characters, make sure the terminal emulator
uses UTF8 encoding. Smooth scrolling
vi ~/.mc/ini (per user) or /etc/mc/mc.ini (system-wide):
panel_scroll_pages=0
Make both panels display the same directory
ALT+i. If NOK, try ESC+i
Navigate through history
ESC+y to go back to the previous directory, ESC+u to go the next
Options > Configuration > Lynx-like motion doesn't go through the
navigation history but rather jumps in/out of a directory so the
user doesn't have to hit PageUp followed by Enter
Loop through all items starting with the same letter
CTRL+s followed by the letter to jump to the first occurence,
then keep hitting CTRL+s to loop through the list
Customize keyboard shortcuts
Check mc.keymap
# # #
[Jun 13, 2018] MC_HOME allows you to run mc with alternative mc.init
Notable quotes:
"... MC_HOME variable can be set to alternative path prior to
starting mc. Man pages are not something you can find the answer
right away =) ..."
"... A small drawback of this solution: if you set MC_HOME to a
directory different from your usual HOME, mc will ignore the content
of your usual ~/.bashrc so, for example, your custom aliases defined
in that file won't work anymore. Workaround: add a symlink to your ~
/.bashrc into the new MC_HOME directory ..."
"... at the same time ..."
Jun 13, 2018 | unix.stackexchange.com
Tagwint ,Dec 19, 2014 at 16:41
That turned out to be simpler as one might think. MC_HOME
variable can be set to alternative path prior to starting mc.
Man pages are not something you can find the answer right
away =)
here's how it works: - usual way
[jsmith@wstation5 ~]$ mc -F
Root directory: /home/jsmith
[System data]
[User data]
Config directory: /home/jsmith/.config/mc/
Data directory: /home/jsmith/.local/share/mc/
skins: /home/jsmith/.local/share/mc/skins/
extfs.d: /home/jsmith/.local/share/mc/extfs.d/
fish: /home/jsmith/.local/share/mc/fish/
mcedit macros: /home/jsmith/.local/share/mc/mc.macros
mcedit external macros: /home/jsmith/.local/share/mc/mcedit/macros.d/macro.*
Cache directory: /home/jsmith/.cache/mc/
and the alternative way:
[jsmith@wstation5 ~]$ MC_HOME=/tmp/MCHOME mc -F
Root directory: /tmp/MCHOME
[System data]
[User data]
Config directory: /tmp/MCHOME/.config/mc/
Data directory: /tmp/MCHOME/.local/share/mc/
skins: /tmp/MCHOME/.local/share/mc/skins/
extfs.d: /tmp/MCHOME/.local/share/mc/extfs.d/
fish: /tmp/MCHOME/.local/share/mc/fish/
mcedit macros: /tmp/MCHOME/.local/share/mc/mc.macros
mcedit external macros: /tmp/MCHOME/.local/share/mc/mcedit/macros.d/macro.*
Cache directory: /tmp/MCHOME/.cache/mc/
Use case of this feature:
You have to share the same user name on remote server (access
can be distinguished by rsa keys) and want to use your
favorite mc configuration w/o overwriting it. Concurrent
sessions do not interfere each other.
This works well as a part of sshrc-approach described in
https://github.com/Russell91/sshrc
Cri ,Sep 5, 2016 at 10:26
A small drawback of this solution: if you set MC_HOME to a
directory different from your usual HOME, mc will ignore the
content of your usual ~/.bashrc so, for example, your custom
aliases defined in that file won't work anymore. Workaround:
add a symlink to your ~/.bashrc into the new MC_HOME
directory - Cri Sep 5 '16 at 10:26
goldilocks ,Dec 18, 2014 at 16:03
If you mean, you want to be able to run two instances of mc
as the same user at the same time with different config
directories, as far as I can tell you can't. The path is
hardcoded.
However, if you mean, you want to be able to switch which
config directory is being used, here's an idea (tested,
works). You probably want to do it without mc running:
o Create a directory $HOME/mc_conf , with a subdirectory,
one .
o Move the contents of $HOME/.config/mc into the $HOME/
mc_conf/one subdirectory
o Duplicate the one directory as $HOME/mc_conf/two .
o Create a script, $HOME/bin/switch_mc :
#!/bin/bash
configBase=$HOME/mc_conf
linkPath=$HOME/.config/mc
if [ -z $1 ] || [ ! -e "$configBase/$1" ]; then
echo "Valid subdirecory name required."
exit 1
fi
killall mc
rm $linkPath
ln -sv $configBase/$1 $linkPath
o Run this, switch_mc one . rm will bark about no such
file, that doesn't matter.
Hopefully it's clear what's happening there -- this sets a
the config directory path as a symlink. Whatever
configuration changes you now make and save will be int the
one directory. You can then exit and switch_mc two ,
reverting to the old config, then start mc again, make
changes and save them, etc.
You could get away with removing the killall mc and playing
around; the configuration stuff is in the ini file, which is
read at start-up (so you can't switch on the fly this way).
It's then not touched until exit unless you "Save setup", but
at exit it may be overwritten, so the danger here is that you
erase something you did earlier or outside of the running
instance.
Tagwint ,Dec 18, 2014 at 16:52
that works indeed, your idea is pretty clear, thank you for
your time However my idea was to be able run differently
configured mc's under the same account not interfering each
other. I should have specified that in my question. The path
to config dir is in fact hardcoded, but it is hardcoded
RELATIVELY to user's home dir, that is the value of $HOME,
thus changing it before mc start DOES change the config dir
location - I've checked that. the drawback is $HOME stays
changed as long as mc runs, which could be resolved if mc had
a kind of startup hook to put restore to original HOME into -
Tagwint Dec 18 '14 at 16:52
Tagwint ,Dec 18, 2014 at 17:17
I've extended my original q with 'same time' condition - it
did not fit in my prev comment size limitation - Tagwint Dec
18 '14 at 17:17
# # #
[Jun 13, 2018] Editing mc.ini
Jun 07, 2014 | superuser.com
mc / mcedit has a config option called auto_save_setup which is
enabled by default. This option automatically saves your current
setup upon exiting. The problem occurs when you try to edit ~
/.config/mc/ini using mcedit . It will overwrite whatever changes
you made upon exiting, so you must edit the ~/.config/mc/ini
using a different editor such as nano .
Source: https://linux.die.net/man/1/mc (search for "Auto Save
Setup")
# # #
[Jun 13, 2018] Running mc with you own skin
Jun 13, 2018 | help.ubuntu.com
put
export TERM="xterm-256color"
at the bottom (top, if ineffective) of your ~/.bashrc file. Thus
you can load skins as in
mc -S sand256.ini
In
/home/you/.config/mc/ini
have the lines:
[Midnight-Commander]
skin=sand256
for preset skin. Newer mc version offer to choose a preset skin
from within the menu and save it in the above ini file, relieving
you of the above manual step.
Many people don't know that mc has a multi-window text-editor
built-in (eerily disabled by default) with macro capability and
all sorts of goodies. run
mc -e my.txt
to edit directly.
Be aware that many skins break the special characters for sorting
filenames reverse up/down unless one works hard with locale
parameters and what not. Few people in the world know how to do
that properly. In below screenshot you see "arrowdown n" over the
filename list to indicate sort order. In many xterm, you will get
??? instead so you might resort to unskin and go to "default
skin" setting with ugly colours.
The below CTRL-O hotkey starts what mc calls a subshell. If you
run mc a second time in a "subshell", mc will not remind you of
the CTRL-O hotkey (as if the world only knows 3 hotkeys) but will
start mc with no deeper "subshell" iteration possible, unless one
modifies the sources.
# # #
[Jun 13, 2018] mcdiff - Internal diff viewer of GNU Midnight
Commander
Jun 13, 2018 | www.systutorials.com
mcdiff: Internal diff viewer of GNU Midnight Commander. Index of
mcdiff man page
Read mcdiff man page on Linux: $ man 1 mcdiff NAME mcdiff -
Internal diff viewer of GNU Midnight Commander. USAGE mcdiff
[-bcCdfhstVx?] file1 file2 DESCRIPTION
mcdiff is a link to mc , the main GNU Midnight Commander
executable. Executing GNU Midnight Commander under this name
requests starting the internal diff viewer which compares file1
and file2 specified on the command line.
OPTIONS
-b Force black and white display.
-c Force color mode on terminals where mcdiff defaults to black
and white.
-C =,,:= ...
Specify a different color set. See the Colors section in mc
(1) for more information.
-d Disable mouse support.
-f Display the compiled-in search paths for Midnight Commander
files.
-t Used only if the code was compiled with S-Lang and terminfo:
it makes the Midnight Commander use the value of the TERMCAP
variable for the terminal information instead of the
information on the system wide terminal database
-V Displays the version of the program.
-x Forces xterm mode. Used when running on xterm-capable
terminals (two screen modes, and able to send mouse escape
sequences).
COLORS The default colors may be changed by appending to the
MC_COLOR_TABLE environment variable. Foreground and background
colors pairs may be specified for example with:
MC_COLOR_TABLE="$MC_COLOR_TABLE:\
normal=lightgray,black:\
selected=black,green"
FILES /usr/share/mc/mc.hlp
The help file for the program.
/usr/share/mc/mc.ini
The default system-wide setup for GNU Midnight Commander,
used only if the user's own ~/.config/mc/ini file is missing.
/usr/share/mc/mc.lib
Global settings for the Midnight Commander. Settings in this
file affect all users, whether they have ~/.config/mc/ini or
not.
~/.config/mc/ini
User's own setup. If this file is present, the setup is
loaded from here instead of the system-wide startup file.
# # #
[Jun 13, 2018] MC (Midnight Commmander) mc/ini settings file location
Jun 13, 2018 | unix.stackexchange.com
UVV ,Oct 13, 2014 at 7:51
It's in the following file: ~/.config/mc/ini .
obohovyk ,Oct 13, 2014 at 7:53
Unfortunately not... - obohovyk Oct 13 '14 at 7:53
UVV ,Oct 13, 2014 at 8:02
@alexkowalski then it's ~/.config/mc/ini - UVV Oct 13 '14 at
8:02
obohovyk ,Oct 13, 2014 at 8:41
Yeah, thanks!!! - obohovyk Oct 13 '14 at 8:41
,
If you have not made any changes, the config file does not
yet exist.
The easy way to change from the default skin:
1. Start Midnight Commander
sudo mc
2. F9 , O for Options, or cursor to "Options" and press
Enter
3. A for Appearance, or cursor to Appearance and press Enter
You will see that default is the current skin.
4. Press Enter to see the other skin choices
5. Cursor to the skin you want and select it by pressing
Enter
6. Click OK
After you do this, the ini file will exist and can be edited,
but it is easier to change skins using the method I
described.
# # #
[Jun 13, 2018] Hide/view of hidden files
Sep 17, 2011 | superuser.com
Something I discovered which I REALLY appreciated was the hide/
view of hidden files can be toggled by pressing ALT-.
(ALT-PERIOD). Be aware that often the RIGHT ALT key is NOT seen
as an ALT key by the system, so you usually need to use
Left-ALT-. to toggle this. I forgot about the Right-ALT weirdness
and thought I'd broken mc one day. {sigh} Such a blonde...
Just checked (xev!), I guess the ALT-. toggle is mapped to
ALT_L-., and the right ALT key gives an ALT_R keycode... which
doesn't match the mc mapping, causing it to not work... now I
know why! Hooray!
# # #
[Jun 13, 2018] Loss of output problem
Sep 17, 2011 | superuser.com
1) If the panels are active and I issue a command that has a lot
of output, it appears to be lost forever.
i.e., if the panels are visible and I cat something (i.e., cat /
proc/cpuinfo), that info is gone forever once the panels get
redrawn.
If you use Cygwin's mintty terminal, you can use its Flip Screen
context menu command (or Alt+F12 shortcut) to switch between the
so-called alternate screen, where fullscreen applications like mc
normally run, and the primary screen where output from commands
such as cat appears.
# # #
[Jun 13, 2018] I Can't Select Text With My Mouse
Jun 13, 2018 | www.nawaz.org
`I Can't Select Text With My Mouse'
+ Problem
I can't select text with my mouse!
+ Solution
o Hold down the Shift button while selecting your text.
o Do likewise when pasting with the mouse.
# # #
[May 20, 2018] Midnight Commander (mc): convenient hard links
creation from user menu
Notable quotes:
"... Future Releases ..."
May 20, 2018 | bogdan.org.ua
3rd December 2015
Midnight Commander is a convenient two-panel file manager with
tons of features.
You can create hard links and symbolic links using C-x l and C-x
s keyboard shortcuts. However, these two shortcuts invoke two
completely different dialogs.
While for C-x s you get 2 pre-populated fields (path to the
existing file, and path to the link - which is pre-populated with
your opposite file panel path plus the name of the file under
cursor; simply try it to see what I mean), for C-x l you only get
1 empty field: path of the hard link to create for a file under
cursor. Symlink's behaviour would be much more convenient
Fortunately, a good man called Wiseman1024 created a feature
request in the MC's bug tracker 6 years ago. Not only had he done
so, but he had also uploaded a sample mc user menu script ( local
copy ), which works wonderfully! You can select multiple files,
then F2 l (lower-case L), and hard-links to your selected files
(or a file under cursor) will be created in the opposite file
panel. Great, thank you Wiseman1024 !
Word of warning: you must know what hard links are and what their
limitations are before using this menu script. You also must
check and understand the user menu code before adding it to your
mc (by F9 C m u , and then pasting the script from the file).
Word of hope: 4 years ago Wiseman's feature request was assigned
to Future Releases version, so a more convenient C-x l will
(sooner or later) become the part of mc. Hopefully.
# # #
[May 20, 2018] Midnight Commander: panelize or select all files newer
than specified date
May 20, 2018 | bogdan.org.ua
3rd February 2017
If you ever need to select lots (hundreds, thousands) of files by
their modification date, and your directory contains many more
files (thousands, tens of thousands), then angel_il has the
answer for you:
1. touch -d "Jun 01 00:00 2011'' /tmp/.date1
2. enter into your BIG dir
3. press C-x ! (External panelize)
4. add new command like a "find . -type f \( -newer /tmp
/.date1 \) -print"
I've used a slightly different approach, specifying desired date
right in the command line of External Panelize:
1. enter your directory with many files
2. press C-x ! (External Panelize)
3. add a command like find . -type f -newermt "2017-02-01
23:55:00" -print ( man find for more details)
In both cases, the created panel will only have files matching
your search condition.
# # #
[Oct 05, 2017] How can I set the default (user defined) listing mode
in Midnight Commander?
Jul 14, 2016
papaiatis
I defined my own listing mode and I'd like to make it
permanent so that on the next mc start my defined listing
mode will be set. I found no configuration file for mc.
1 Answer 1
You have probably Auto save setup turned off in Options->
Configuration menu.
You can save the configuration manually by Options->Save
setup.
Panels setup is saved to ~/.config/mc/panels.ini
# # #
mc - Midnight Commander file size format
Unix & Linux Stack Exchange
You can adjust the displayed digits with the column size option,
see the "Listing mode" section in the manual. The file to edit is
~/.config/mc/panels.ini.
To list the file sizes as K, M or G use a narrow size column
using the user_format key:
[New Left Panel]
user_format=half type name mark size:4 space mtime
If you want the size without abbreviation, reserve enough space
for it:
[New Right Panel]
user_format=half type name mark size:16 space mtime
share|improve this answeranswered May 23 '13 at 16:55
Marco
21.8k56897 but this will not display the filesize as: 123,456,789
-
user1968963 May 23 '13 at 17:01
You didn't exactly specify what you want, you said "nicely
formatted". What is wrong with this, is it the missing comma?
user1968963 May 23 '13 at 17:43
# # #
[Jun 29, 2017] An Introduction to the Midnight Commander
* Home, or Alt-< - move to the top of the directory listing
* End, or Alt-> - move to the end of the directory listing
# # #
[Mar 29, 2017] SDB: Midnight Commander tips
openSUSE
Using the mouse
Although Midnight Commander is a text mode application it can
make use of mouse. The openSUSE delivered mc will make use of the
mouse when used with a GUI console, without any further
configuration needed.
The text mode terminal that we get when booting in runlevels 2 or
3 is a bit different story. You have to install the package gpm
("general purpose mouse") which is also called mouse server. The
gpm is used in Linux to receive movements and clicks from mouse.
Start gpm and then start Midnight commander.
If you come to the text terminal using Ctrl + Alt + F1, then gpm
will not work as another driver that belongs to GUI (X Server)
claims control over the mouse.
... ... ...
FTP browsing
This is file browsing on remote FTP server just as it is on your
computer.
1. Press F9 to select drop down menus on the top of the screen.
2. Press Alt + L if you want to use left side panel, or Alt + R
for right panel.
3. Press Alt + P for input box where you have enter server name.
Enter for instance
ftp.gwdg.de/pub
and press Enter.
Now mc will try anonymous connection to remote machine. If
machine responds, you'll get directory listing of /pub on remote
server.
It is possible to do the same from mc command line by typing:
cd /#ftp:ftp.gwdg.de/pub
Archive browsing
Archive in classic meaning is compressed file. In Linux you can
recognize them by suffix like:
tgz, tar.gz, tbz, tar.bz2
and many more, but above few are the most used
1. Highlight the file
2. Press Enter
That's it. Midnight Commander will decompress file for you and
present it's internal structure like any other directory. If you
want to extract one or all files from archive mark what you want
toextract and use F5 to copy in another panel. Done.
RPM browsing
The package installation files for any SUSE are RPM and mc will
let you browse them.
1. Highlight the file
2. Press Enter
You'll see few files:
/INFO
CONTENTS.cpio
HEADER
*INSTALL
*UPGRADE
Browse to see details of your RPM.
The CONTENTS.cpio is actual archive with files, and if you want
to see within:
1. Highlight the file
2. Press Enter
(You know the drill)
The *INSTALL and *UPGRADE will do what the name tells, but if you
want only to extract one or more files from CONTENTS.cpio than
use F5 to copy them in the directory in the other panel.
PuTTY and line drawing
PuTTY is terminal application used to access remote computers
running Linux via ssh (SSH tunnels from Microsoft Windows see
details). The line drawing in Midnight Commander, YaST and
another applications that draw lines using special characters can
be displayed wrong as something else. The solution is to change
settings:
+ menu: Window > Translation:
o Received data assumed to be in which character set: UTF-8
o Handling of line drawing characters: Use Unicode for line
drawing
If that doesn't help, you may set this too:
+ menu: Connection > Connection-type string: linux
+ menu: Terminal > Keyboard > The Function keys and keypad:
Linux
Found on webmilhouse.com.
User menu (F2 key) add-on
Diffs in color
Tip by James Ogley:
+ t r & ! t t
d Diff against file of same name in other directory
if [ "%d" = "%D" ]; then
echo "The two directores must be different"
exit 1
fi
if [ -f %D/%f ]; then # if two of them, then
diff -up %f %D/%f | sed -e 's/\(^-.*\)/\x1b[1;31m\1\x1b[0m/g' \
-e 's/\(^\+.*\)/\x1b[1;32m\1\x1b[0m/g' \
-e 's/\(^@.*\)/\x1b[36m\1\x1b[0m/g' | less -R
else
echo %f: No copy in %D/%f
fi
D Diff current directory against other directory
if [ "%d" = "%D" ]; then
echo "The two directores must be different"
exit 1
fi
diff -up %d %D | sed -e 's/\(^-.*\)/\x1b[1;31m\1\x1b[0m/g' \
-e 's/\(^\+.*\)/\x1b[1;32m\1\x1b[0m/g' \
-e 's/\(^@.*\)/\x1b[36m\1\x1b[0m/g' | less -R
fi
# # #
[Feb 11, 2017] Use Midnight Commander like a pro
May 1, 2015 | klimer.eu
Use Midnight Commander like a pro
If you've used an *nix system, at some point you've stumbled upon
Midnight Commander, a file manager based on the venerable Norton
Commander. You're probably familiar with the basic operations (F5
for copying, F6 for moving, F8 for deleting, etc.) and how to
switch panels (ummm, the Tab key). But mc offers so much more
than that. This article aims to show all the useful (YMMV)
shortcuts and functionalities that are often overlooked. Most of
them can be accessed using the menu (F9), but who has the time to
do that?
Before we get started, let's establish some facts. This article
was written and tested on the following software:
+ Midnight Commander 4.8.13
+ GNU bash 4.2.53
Oh, and make sure you're running a modern and UTF-8 friendly
terminal - for example, rxvt-unicode.
Hold your horses
There's actually one thing I'd recommend doing before you run mc.
mc has the ability to exit to its current directory. Meaning, you
can navigate the filesystem using mc (sometimes it's easier than
cping into that one directory buried deep down somewhere) and
when you quit mc (F10), your shell will automagically cd to that
directory. This is done thanks to the mc-wrapper script that
should be bundled with your installation of mc. The exact
location is dependent on your distribution - in mine (Gentoo)
it's /usr/libexec/mc/, in Ubuntu supposedly it's in /usr/share/mc
/bin/. Once found, modify your ~/.bashrc:
alias mc='. /usr/libexec/mc/mc-wrapper.sh'
Restart your shell, launch mc, change to another directory, exit
and your shell should be set to that new directory.
Selecting files
+ Insert (Ctrl + t alternatively) - select files (for example,
for copying, moving or deleting).
+ + - select files based on a pattern.
+ \ -unselect files based on a pattern.
+ * - reverse selection. If nothing was selected, all files
will get selected.
Accessing the shell
+ There's a shell awaiting your command at the bottom of the
screen - just start typing (when no other command dialog is
open, of course).
+ Since Tab is bound to switching panels (or moving the focus
in dialogs), you have to use Esc Tab to use autocompletion.
Hit it twice to get all the possible completions (just like
in a shell). This works in dialogs too.
+ If you want inspect the output of the command, do some input
or just prefer a bigger console, no need to quit mc. Just hit
Ctrl + o - the effect will be similar to putting mc in the
background but with a nice perk. Your current working
directory from mc will be passed on to the shell... and vice
versa! Hit Ctrl + o again to return to mc.
+ Ctrl + Enter or Alt + Enter - copy the currently selected
file's name to the shell.
+ Ctrl + Shift + Enter - same as above, but the full path is
copied.
Internal viewer (F3) and editor (F4)
+ The internal viewer has many built in modes for "previewing"
the content of the file. Try "viewing" a binary, an archive,
a DOC document or an image. In some cases, external programs
are needed in order for this "previewing" to work.
+ If you want to preview the "raw" contents of the file, hit
Shift + F3.
+ While the internal viewer and editor are powerful, sometimes
you want to use your preferred software (coughvimcough). You
can do so by setting the PAGER (for viewer) and EDITOR (for
editor) variables (for example, in your ~/.bashrc file). Then
toggle the Options -> Configuration -> Use interal edit/view
option (access the top menu by pressing F9).
Panels
+ Alt + , - switch mc's layout from left-right to top-bottom.
Mind = blown. Useful for operating on files with long names.
+ Alt + t - switch the panel's listing mode in a loop: default,
brief, long, user-defined. "long" is especially useful,
because it maximises one panel so that it takes full width of
the window and longer filenames fit on screen.
+ Alt + i - synchronize the active panel with the other panel.
That is, show the current directory in the other panel.
+ Ctrl + u - swap panels.
+ Alt + o - if the currently selected file is a directory, load
that directory on the other panel and move the selection to
the next file. If the currently selected file is not a
directory, load the parent directory on the other panel and
moves the selection to the next file. This is useful for
quick checking the contents of a list of directories.
+ Ctrl + PgUp (or just left arrow, if you've enabled Lynx-like
motion, see later) - move to the parent directory.
+ Alt + Shift + h - show the directory history. Might be easier
to navigate than going back one entry at a time.
+ Alt + y - move to the previous directory in history.
+ Alt + u - move to the next directory in history.
Searching files
+ Alt + ? - shows the full Find dialog.
+ Alt + s or Ctrl + s - quick search mode. Start typing and the
selection will move to the first matching file. Press the
shortcut again to jump to another match. Use wildcards (*, ?)
for easier matching.
Common actions
+ Ctrl + Space - calculate the size of the selected
directories. Press this shortcut when the selection is on ..
to calculate the size of all the directories in the current
directory.
+ Ctrl + x s (that is press Ctrl + x, let it go and then press
s) - create a symbolic link (change s to l for a hardlink). I
find it very useful and intuitive - the link will, of course,
be created in the other panel. You can change it's
destination and name, like with any other file operation.
+ Ctrl + x c - open the chmod dialog.
+ Ctrl + x o - open the chown dialog.
Virtual File System (VFS)
mc has a concept known as Virtual File System. Try "entering" an
archive (*.tar.gz, *.rpm or even *.jar) - you'll be able to
browse the contents of the archive like a normal folder, without
unpacking it first. You extract selected files from the archive
by just copying them to the other panel. Bonus points: try
"entering" a... *.patch file.
This concept is even more powerful when you realize that remote
locations can be viewed the same way. A quick way to browse an
FTP location is to just cd to it: cd ftp://mirrors.tera-byte.com/
pub/gentoo (first Gentoo FTP mirror I found). You'll be able to
interact with files as you normally do. To exit this remote
location, cd to a local directory. Just typing cd will suffice as
it will take you to your home directory.
VFS works for SFTP and Samba shares too. Check the manpages for
more information on how to specify user/pass, etc.
Useful options
+ Configuration
o Verbose operation and Compute totals - so that operations
like copy/move have a more detailed progress dialogs.
+ Layout
o Equal split - uncheck to define your own ratio for
panels. Maybe you prefer one panel bigger than the other?
Useful especially if you keep one of the panels in tree
mode (or maybe info/quick view, too).
o Uncheck Hintbar visible - one more line available, one
less line of noise.
+ Panel options
o Show backup files and Show hidden files - I keep both
enabled, as I often work with configuration files, etc.
o Lynx-like motion - mentioned above, makes left arrow go
to parent directory, while the right arrow enters the
directory under selection. Faster than Home, Enter, Home,
Enter, etc. This options is quite smart, that is if the
shell command line is not empty, the arrows work as usual
and allow moving the cursor in the command line.
o File highlight -> File types is useful, as it uses a
different color for example for executable files.
Permissions, for me, is not that useful, but I can
definitely see it's use, for example, for sysadmins.
+ ... ... ...
Bonus assignments
+ Define your own listing mode (Right/Left -> Listing mode...
-> User defined). Hit F1 to see available columns and
options.
+ Play around in tree mode: Right/Left -> Tree or Command ->
Directory tree.
+ Compare directories (Ctrl + x d)
+ Fill up the directory hotlist (Ctrl + \)
Well, that was a lot to take in. Of course, this list is not
complete (that's what man mc is there for), but I've selected the
commands and functionalities that are the most useful to me.
Embrace the ones you find useful, forget the rest and learn about
the other ones I've missed!
# # #
SFTP filesystem in Midnight Commander 4.8.17 and later
The SFTP file system is a network based file system that allows
you to
manipulate the files in a remote machine as if they were local.
To connect to a remote machine, you just need to chdir into a
special directory
which name is in the following format:
sftp://fuser@dnsname:[port]/[remote-dir]
The user, port and remote-dir elements are optional. If you
specify the user
element, the Midnight Commander will try to login on the remote
machine as that
user, otherwise it will use your login name, port - specify the
port used by
remote server (22 by default). If the remote-dir element is
present, your
current directory on the remote machine will be set to this one.
Examples:
sftp://onlvrsh.mx/linux/local
sftp://joe:password@want.compression.edu/private
sftp://joe@pclab.university.edu/private
sftp://joe@somehost.university.edu:2222/private
# # #
SDB: Midnight Commander tips
openSUSE
Using the mouse
Although Midnight Commander is a text mode application it can
make use of mouse. The openSUSE delivered mc will make use of the
mouse when used with a GUI console, without any further
configuration needed.
The text mode terminal that we get when booting in runlevels 2 or
3 is a bit different story. You have to install the package gpm
("general purpose mouse") which is also called mouse server. The
gpm is used in Linux to receive movements and clicks from mouse.
Start gpm and then start Midnight commander.
If you come to the text terminal using Ctrl + Alt + F1, then gpm
will not work as another driver that belongs to GUI (X Server)
claims control over the mouse.
... ... ...
FTP browsing
This is file browsing on remote FTP server just as it is on your
computer.
1. Press F9 to select drop down menus on the top of the screen.
2. Press Alt + L if you want to use left side panel, or Alt + R
for right panel.
3. Press Alt + P for input box where you have enter server name.
Enter for instance
ftp.gwdg.de/pub
and press Enter.
Now mc will try anonymous connection to remote machine. If
machine responds, you'll get directory listing of /pub on remote
server.
It is possible to do the same from mc command line by typing:
cd /#ftp:ftp.gwdg.de/pub
Happy browsing.
Archive browsing
Archive in classic meaning is compressed file. In Linux you can
recognize them by suffix like:
tgz, tar.gz, tbz, tar.bz2
and many more, but above few are the most used
1. Highlight the file
2. Press Enter
That's it. Midnight Commander will decompress file for you and
present it's internal structure like any other directory. If you
want to extract one or all files from archive mark what you want
toextract and use F5 to copy in another panel. Done.
RPM browsing
The package installation files for any SUSE are RPM and mc will
let you browse them.
1. Highlight the file
2. Press Enter
You'll see few files:
/INFO
CONTENTS.cpio
HEADER
*INSTALL
*UPGRADE
Browse to see details of your RPM.
The CONTENTS.cpio is actual archive with files, and if you want
to see within:
1. Highlight the file
2. Press Enter
(You know the drill)
The *INSTALL and *UPGRADE will do what the name tells, but if you
want only to extract one or more files from CONTENTS.cpio than
use F5 to copy them in the directory in the other panel.
PuTTY and line drawing
PuTTY is terminal application used to access remote computers
running Linux via ssh (SSH tunnels from Microsoft Windows see
details). The line drawing in Midnight Commander, YaST and
another applications that draw lines using special characters can
be displayed wrong as something else. The solution is to change
settings:
+ menu: Window > Translation:
o Received data assumed to be in which character set: UTF-8
o Handling of line drawing characters: Use Unicode for line
drawing
If that doesn't help, you may set this too:
+ menu: Connection > Connection-type string: linux
+ menu: Terminal > Keyboard > The Function keys and keypad:
Linux
Found on webmilhouse.com.
User menu (F2 key) add-on
Diffs in color
Tip by James Ogley:
+ t r & ! t t
d Diff against file of same name in other directory
if [ "%d" = "%D" ]; then
echo "The two directores must be different"
exit 1
fi
if [ -f %D/%f ]; then # if two of them, then
diff -up %f %D/%f | sed -e 's/\(^-.*\)/\x1b[1;31m\1\x1b[0m/g' \
-e 's/\(^\+.*\)/\x1b[1;32m\1\x1b[0m/g' \
-e 's/\(^@.*\)/\x1b[36m\1\x1b[0m/g' | less -R
else
echo %f: No copy in %D/%f
fi
D Diff current directory against other directory
if [ "%d" = "%D" ]; then
echo "The two directores must be different"
exit 1
fi
diff -up %d %D | sed -e 's/\(^-.*\)/\x1b[1;31m\1\x1b[0m/g' \
-e 's/\(^\+.*\)/\x1b[1;32m\1\x1b[0m/g' \
-e 's/\(^@.*\)/\x1b[36m\1\x1b[0m/g' | less -R
fi
# # #
Diff viewer 4.7.2
A built-in tool to visual compare and merge two files (#120, #
2159)
# # #
[Mar 14, 2016] Macros in McEdit
To define a macro, press Ctrl-R and then type out the keystrokes you want to be executed..
Press Ctrl-R again when finished..
You can then assign the macro to any key you..
like by pressing that key..
The macro is executed by: Ctrl-A and then the assigned key.
===========
The simple example is to delete all "=" [from current cursor - forward].
The = function of mcedit is the basis of the macro.
So:
Ctrl-r
= o l
Ctrl-r
=========
# # #
[Mar 14, 2016] Ctrl+w clears the editboxes and Meta+h triggers the
history drop-down
# # #
[Dec 06, 2015] www.trembath.co.za/mctutorial.html
Years ago I wrote an mc tutorial which gets 90% of the traffic on
my website. Hope it is of use to you, Bryce.
# # #
[Dec 06, 2015] Garbled graphic characters in mc on particular
terminal
You should first try to use export LANG=C mc that might help.
mc usually works out of the box on Xfce Terminal, the gnome terminal
and xterm.
Midnight Commander works great with URxvt, the unicode version of
rxvt.
Daryl Styrk, 3/1/09
Frank McCormick wrote:
> What's the best terminal for running Midnight
Commander...it seems all
> the ones I try ( rxvt, aterm) can't handle the acsii
drawing characters
> so the display is wierd.
I've never used Midnight Commander, but here is my notes on
how I got the BBS's to display much better..
cd /usr/share/fonts/X11/misc
wget http://home.earthlink.net/~us5zahns/enl/vga11x19.pcf
mkfontdir
xset fp rehash
## need rxvt ##
rxvt -bg black -fg white -fn vga11x19
##from http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Bash-Prompt-HOWTO/x606.html ##
Maybe that will get you somewhere.. Hope this helps.
Daryl
Midnight Commander works great with URxvt, the unicode version of
rxvt.
The Debian package I have installed is 'rxvt-unicode.' There are
two other packages that may work as well, 'rxvt-unicode-light'
and 'rxvt-unicode-ml' (the latter for multilingual support). This
is with Lenny.
# # #
[Dec 06, 2015] ALT+S or CTRL+S for file searching
My other tip: ALT+S or CTRL+S for file searching.
Allows searching for names - with wildcards: Example: CTRL+S then
sy jumps to first file starting with sy CTRL+S then *sy jumps to
first file containing sy
Further presses of CTRL+S jump to next matching file
If your keyboard or terminal does not have function keys: ESC
[num] does equivalent of F[num] Example: to exit mc hit ESC then
0 (same as F10) But why would you ever want to do that?
# # #
[Dec 06, 2015] mc - How to set default editor-viewer for Midnight
Commander to Sublime
If you want specific editor for specific type of file, the config
file 'mc.ext' provides the opportunity to bind a command to the
actions: Open ([enter]), View ([F3]) and Edit ([F4]).
You can have both: the build in editor at [F4] being a fall back in
lack of X and your preferred GUI-editor on just hitting [enter]. That
needs some shell-script skills.
MattDMo Jun 27 '13 at 16:07
Because other tools, for example crontab, are using it. Such
tools may be used without X (for example from a virtual
terminal in single user mode for maintenance operations) or
by user who has no running X instance (for example through su
-). So better keep EDITOR set to a text mode editor.
manatwork Jun 27 '13 at 16:12
Why 'EDITOR='sublime -w' does not work? (It seems MC ignore
any supplied options) -
Eugen Konkov Sep 14 at 9:31
Run MC as usual. On the command line right above the bottom
row of menu selections type
select-editor
This should open a menu with a list of all of your installed
editors. This is working for me on all my current Linux
machines.
# # #
[Dec 06, 2015] Lynx-like motion
On Sat, 2015-11-21 at 19:00 +0200, Kertesz Zoltan wrote:
Hi :)
I'd like to share one tip regarding mc.
mc is the first program always to install on a new Linux, and
the following setting is the first to make to mc once
installed.
Navigate to Options/Panel options and there (on the top
right) at Navigation tick "Lynx-like motion".
What this does it activates the navigation within mc with the
four arrow keys (up and down the tree, left is out of and
right is into a folder). It is called Lynx-like motion as the
Lynx text based browser has this - I have to admit - really
intuitive way of navigating.
It comes extremely handy on headless systems, speeding up
getting around in mc. I found that this is really handy, try
it and see if you find it useful too :)
Cheers,
Zoli
# # #
[Mar 20, 2015] Re: mc.keymap
Jan 14, 2015
From: Frank Dietrich
Hello Chris,
chris glur wrote:
locate mc.keymap == nX
man mc -> seek keymap = nX
Where's mc.keymap ?
Following "man mc" the file is searched in below directories in
the given order
1) ~/.config/mc
2) /etc/mc/
3) /usr/share/mc/
"Initially, Mignight Commander creates key bindings using keymap
defined in the source code. Then, two files /usr/share/mc/
mc.keymap and /etc/mc/mc.keymap are loaded always, ..."
If on your system the file does not exist at any location, you
should create one or take one from the source and modify it.
cheers, Frank
# # #
[Feb 09, 2015] If you put the program you want to test on the left
(passive panel) and file that this program works with on the right
(active panel) you can have a shortcut for testing.
For example for Perl you can put the following command in the
user menu:
perl %D/%F %d/%f
# # #
[Feb 09, 2015] There is the ScreenList functionality in MC bound by
default to Alt-Prime(`)
Message: 1
Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2015 17:13:58 +0100
From: Jack Epps
To: mc@gnome.org
Subject: ScreenList functionality
Message-ID:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Hi,
there is the ScreenList functionality bound by default to Alt-Prime
(`) in the default mc.keymap:
ScreenList = alt-prime
Pressing the combination displays "Screens" dialog, which says
"Panels" in the actual listing.
How to add panels or screens?
--
Best Regards,
Jack Epps
# # #
[Jan 18, 2015] How can I create file in mc? shift+f4 not working
1/13/2015 | Andrew Samoilov
Hello,
Use F9 - Options - Learn Keys.
P.S. If Shift-F4 is move file for you, use Shift-F2
On Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 3:30 PM, Mike Smithson wrote:
Message: 2
Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 20:47:07 +0600
From: "Igor"
To: mc-devel@gnome.org
Subject: error or i don't understend some thing
Message-ID:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
hello, my name is Igor i have a question
how can i create file in mc? shift+f4 not working
now i using echo > flie.name in terminal mode(ctrl+o)
mc version 4.8.11
os ubuntu 14.04
shift+F4 is "move file" for me. If I want to edit a new file
I type "vim file" and hit enter. After that F4 will edit it if
it exists. "touch file" will also create new empty file (easier
to type than "echo > file).
--
Peace and Cheer
# # #
[Jan 12, 2015] opening *.xz files (Kevin Wilson)
HI Kevin,
Kevin Wilson wrote:
Is there a way to open *.xz files in mc ?
If the file command indetifies them as "XZ compressed data" then it
works out of the box (IIRC since version 4.7.0).
when I open mc, and navigate to a folder where there are compressed
files (for example, in *.tar.gz format), pressing enter on these
compressed files opens them temporarily.
If I do it on *.xz files, then garbage is displayed.
To "change into" such file it must contain an archive of a directory
structure, for example *.tar.xz. If the file *.xz contains only is a
single compressed file you can only view the uncompressed file
(pressing F3).
F9 -> C -> shows me:-
# .tar.xz, .txz
regex/\.t(ar\.xz|xz)$
Open=%cd %p#utar
View=%view{ascii} xz -dc %f 2>/dev/null | tar tvvf -
.....
regex/([^0-9]|^[^\.]*)\.([1-9][A-Za-z]*|[ln])\.xz$
Open=case %d/%f in */log/*|*/logs/*) xz -dc %f ;; *) xz -dc %f | nroff -
View=%view{ascii,nroff} case %d/%f in */log/*|*/logs/*) xz -dc %f ;; *)
... and more ...
Yes: good explanation.------
File: mc.ext Line 629 Col 1 16958 bytes 100%
# xz
regex/\.xz$
Open=xz -dc %f | %var{PAGER:more}
View=%view{ascii} xz -dc %f 2>/dev/null
===
-> which xz == /usr/bin/xz
So I'd expect: `xz -dc SomeFile.xz` to the expanded file
in a terminal, and for mc to show via .
On 12/29/14, mc-request@gnome.org wrote:
Send mc mailing list submissions to
mc@gnome.org
To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/mc
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
mc-request@gnome.org
You can reach the person managing the list at
mc-owner@gnome.org
When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of mc digest..."
Today's Topics:
1. Re: opening *.xz files (basti)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 14:49:03 +0100
From: basti
To: mc@gnome.org
Subject: Re: opening *.xz files
Message-ID: <54A00A4F.2070302@arcor.de>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Hello,
I'm no expert but i would say this depends on the file which is compressed.
First of all you need xz-utils installed.
I can't open an xz compressed dd image in mc BUT
I can open an xz compressed text file in mc.
In /etc/mc or in ~/.config/mc is an mc.ext file which define the file
extensions handled by mc.
I hope that would help you.
Best regards,
Basti
Am 28.12.2014 12:43, schrieb Kevin Wilson:
Hi,
Is there a way to open *.xz files in mc ?
when I open mc, and navigate to a folder where there are compressed
files (for example, in *.tar.gz format), pressing enter on these
compressed files opens them temporarily.
If I do it on *.xz files, then garbage is displayed.
Any ideas ?
Regards,
Kevin
4>
# # #
[Jan 12, 2015] Re: mc on high resolution monitor with konsole
On Sat, 27 Dec 2014 16:11:34 -0800, Outback Dingo
wrote:
ive got a samsung 4k, running kde in the proper mode, however
in konsole
when i launch mc
it only fills 1/3 of the screen... how can i get it to be
full screen? ive
attached an image
How many $COLUMNS in that window? 500 or something? I thought I
was getting
out of hand with 236 on 1920x1080. :)
Check F9-> Options -> Layout. It looks like mc is not expecting a
super-wide
screen and thinks it's in 80 column mode or something. Note that
with really
wide screen like that your scrolling may be slow. You may want to
use smaller
terminal window, or much bigger font.
Also, sending SIGWINCH to mc may help fix it automatically: try
un-maximizing
the window, then re-maximizing it. mc may adjust properly. Then
SAVE the
options so it remembers for next time.
# # #
[Jan 12, 2015] Re: External editor with parameters not working?
On Sat, 06 Dec 2014 03:14:38 -0800, Stevko
wrote:
Hello.
I tried the following thing:
1) export EDITOR="emacs -nw"
2) mc
3) (with internal editor disabled) go to some file and press
F4
This opens emacs with the file, however it does not open it
in terminal (which should be done with -nw switch) but in new
window in X. (as if it somehow ignored -nw). If I run the
following in shell:
$EDITOR file
it opens file as expected. Why does mc not do that?
I tried setting EDITOR to "vim -R" and again when run from
mc, it does
not honor -R switch.
I have version 4.8.12 (which comes from Fedora 21 package).
Stevko
I am not subscribed to mailing list (so send replies also to
me).
_______________________________________________
mc mailing list
https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/mc
Hello Stevko.
I recall being confounded by this very thing.
In my mc/ini file ($HOME/.config/mc/ini)
I have this:
[External editor or viewer parameters]
vi=%filename +%lineno
vim=%filename +%lineno
ed=+%lineno %filename
/bin/mo=%filename +%lineno
mo=+%lineno %filename
less=%filename +%lineno
joe=%filename +%lineno
more=%filename +%lineno
You can add the command line options here.
It seems mc doesn't *really* call $EDITOR.
# # #
Re: How to know when mc is running in a terminal
Mon, 10 Nov 2014 13:21:39 -0800 (PST)
Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 13:21:25 -0800
From: Mike Smithson
Subject: Re: How to know when mc is running in a terminal
In-reply-to: <54608E22.9090600@gmail.com>
Sender: mc
To: "mc@gnome.org"
Errors-to: mc-bounces@gnome.org
Message-id:
On 11/10/2014 4:21 PM, Mike Smithson wrote:
Thanks frank. The answer was in front of my nose the whole time.
Environment variable MC_TMPDIR can be used to know that you're
being
called from mc. For some reason MC_SID disappears but MC_TMPDIR
does
not.
I needed something more specific than just knowing whether I'm
in pts or not. I want to know if it's mc's F4 EDIT command
calling, or
at least being called from a terminal with mc running in it.
if [ -n "$DISPLAY" -a -n "$MC_TMPDIR" ]; then
# we're being called from mc in XWindow terminal
do_something_odd
fi
On Mon, 10 Nov 2014 02:06:26 -0800, frank
wrote:
On 10/11/2014 01:25, Mike Smithson wrote:
how can a script know whether it is being called from F4
in mc or just a terminal?
Try the shell command 'tty'. In the Linux console it will
reply e.g. /dev/tty1. In a graphic terminal the reply will be
/dev/pts/0.
# # #
linux mc keyboard shortcuts
Ctrl+o toggle panes on/off
Ctrl+l redraw screen This is on all
terminals
Ctrl+PgUp goto parent dir
Ctrl+Enter copy selected filename to command %f is equivalent
line
Ctrl+x+p copy unselected panel's path to %D is equivalent
command line
# # #
MC Tutorial
All shortcuts are noted in the menus. In mc's keyboard shortcut
notation, 'C-x i' would mean press Ctrl and x simultaneously,
release both then press i. M refers to the Alt key. A few common
shortcuts:
* Ctrl R - refresh or rescan directory view
* Alt-shift ? - find file
* Ctrl-x d - compare directories (release ctrl-x before pressing
d)
* Ctrl \ - open directory hotlist
* Ctrl-x c (o,s,l) - chmod, chown, symlink, link
* Alt c - quick cd (opens a box, quicker to type than arrowing
through if you know its full path)
* (Shift) + - select group. Can enter wildcards to highlight a
certain type or name of file.
* (Shift) * - reverse selection. Changes highlighting to all
unselected files. Handy to use these two in combination if you
are trying to quickly select all but a certain group.
* \ - unselect group. Opposite of +.
The command line
Although I don't use the command line much in mc, it should
execute whatever you have typed into it. If you wish to su, it
will return you to the terminal to type in your password. Then
relaunch mc as root; if you ctl-o, it will take you back as user.
While anything remains typed into the command line, the sideways
arrow keys move through the text and won't work to navigate in
the panels. If your arrow keys suddenly don't work, check and
clear the command line.
To scroll back and forth through command history, use alt - p for
previous and alt - n for next command instead of the the up and
down arrow keys (as in the terminal window), since mc uses them
for navigating.
# # #
[Oct 28, 2013] Re: behavior changed.
From: lists@homerow.info
On 2013-10-10 James Wonnacott wrote:
I've recently built a couple of Debian 7.1 boxes and
installed mc using the package manager, all works fine except
that mouse clicking at the top of the panel changes the sort
order rather than scrolling up, as it used to.
I didn't even know you can use the mouse in mc.
I find this very confusing!
Not that I ever used it myself, but I'd argue that it's a common
idiom. Clicking the table head reverses the sort order and the
mouse wheel is used for scrolling.
Marco
# # #
[Oct 28, 2013] mc startup with single specified path
From: mdooligan@gmail.com
Q:
Hello.
I'm having some puzzlement over the initial startup behavior
of mc-4.8.10 when paths are specified on the command line.
To quote the manual:
[quote]
If both paths are specified, the first path name is the
directory to
show in the left panel; the second path name is the directory
to be
shown in the right panel.
If one path is specified, the path name is the directory to
show in the
active panel; current directory is shown in the passive
panel.
If no paths are specified, current directory is shown in the
active
panel; value of "other_dir" from panels.ini is the directory
to be
shown in the passive panel.
[/quote]
Paragraph #1:
This seems correct and intuitive.
Paragraph #2:
What I *expect* to happen when I specify only one path on the
command line, is for that directory to appear in the left
panel with the focus on it. As it works right now, it appears
to be random which panel it shows up in, and which panel has
focus. I know that it depends on the last time I hit "Save
Setup" and the setting of current_is_left in panels.ini, but
it always seems to do the wrong thing. As a matter of fact,
the behavior I'm witnessing, is that that specified directory
appears in the *inactive* panel, and the CWD appears in the
*active* panel. I think that is counter-intuitive, a bit
annoying, and exactly *not* what the manual says.
Paragraph #3:
This also seems correct and intuitive. Resort to default
behavior if nothing is specified.
A:
Please start with looking around in the bugtracker or compiling the
development version next time :) The issue is already fixed for the
forthcoming 4.8.11.
# # #
[Oct 27, 2013] re: How to switch two -> single panel modes?
From: mdooligan@gmail.com
Hello.
Does anyone know how to hide the second panel in one keyboard hot key?
Currently, we may do this by pressing three times and manually set
user_format (from "panels.ini") from
user_format=full name type size:4
to
user_format=half name type size:4
and vice versa.
Thanks.
I don't know of a way, but ALT-T seems to cycle through the Listing Modes:
Full File List
Brief File List
Long File List <-- this one is single panel
User Defined
This begs a question:
In my panels.ini I have this:
...
list_mode=user
user_format=name|size
user_status0=half type,name,|,size,|,perm
user_status1=half type,name,|,size,|,perm
user_status2=half type,name,|,size,|,perm
user_status3=name
user_status4=half type,name,|,size,|,perm
user_mini_status=1
...
What are these user_status[0-4] lines for? Apparently user_status3 is the format of the user_mini_status, but what are the others for? I can change them, but they don't seem to do anything.
I have a guess that they have something to do with this:
static const char *
panel_format (WPanel * panel)
{
switch (panel->list_type)
{
case list_long:
return "full perm space nlink space owner space group space size space mtime space name";
case list_brief:
return "half 2 type name";
case list_user:
return panel->user_format;
default:
case list_full:
return "half type name | size | mtime";
}
}
Perhaps sometime in the misty past, the user was allowed to define these himself, instead of being hard-coded. Come to think of it, that would be a nice feature.
# # #
[Apr 11, 2013] MC major changes and fixes since 4.8.7
What is funny is that the web page for Midnight Commander does not
have a link to a stable release. I am assuming that all releases are
now unstable ;-). In reality the last (more or less) stable version
4.8.1.7
Core:
+ Make copy/move progress dialog window wider up to 2/3 of
screen width (#2076)
+ Ask file name before create new file in editor (#2585)
+ Support newer extended mouse protocol SGR-1006 instead of
URXVT-1015 (#2956)
+ Allow skip directory scanning before file operation. Print
directory count and size in addition to directory name (#2101
)
+ Add jump support to target line in some external editors and
viewers (#2206)
# # #
[Mar 28, 2013] Re midnight commander internal cd in scripts
On Fri, 22 Feb 2013 20:16:17 +0200 Elad Rom wrote:
Is there a way to cd into a folder (be it ssh, ftp or local folders)
from an existing instance of midnight commander through a shell script?
Example:
Inside an open MC instance, in my home folder, there is a file called "somessh.sh".
When I hit enter on this executable, I want mc to cd into the directory I specify inside the file (E.g.
~/Downloads)
as if I'm using the cd in the mini-command line or via quick cd.
When you run shell script, you run new shell which is child process of MC.
When you do cd in the script, you change working directory of that child
shell. Working directory of parent is unchanged. You unable to change working
directory of parent from child.
You have to use the "source" built-in shell command to run script in current
process context. This allows you change current directory from script.
# # #
[Mar 28, 2013] Re nlink
On Fri, 04 Jan 2013 18:48:09 +0000
frank wrote:
In Midnight Commander, nlink is supposed to be the number of symlinks
to a file. So far so good.
hardlinks? You can't count amount of symlinks to a file without
probing every file on your filesystem to be a symlink on requested file.
Hardlinks to a new dir come from 2 nodes:
- '$your_dir/..'
- '$your_dir/.'
'stat -c%h /path/to/dir' should show the same value.
But I have created a new subdir '123456789' in my home directory
for which I have to assume no symlinks exist.
Well, MC says nlink is 2 in this case. Where are those two
symlinks?
Should be not different from 'stat' call.
# # #
[Mar 28, 2013] Re external diff
In reality external diff can be implemented via user menu.
On Wed, 28 Nov 2012 19:42:47 +0100 Frank Dietrich wrote:
is it possible to configure an external diff tool?
I would like to use meld in case I need to diff a directory.
Current I do it like this
in panel1: cd ..
in panel2: cd ..
type command 'meld '
in panel2: CTRL-SHIFT-ENTER
in panel1: CTRL-SHIFT-ENTER
press ENTER to execute the command
I would like to reduce the number of steps needed to compare the two
selected directories without leaving them.
A: Read the "Macro Substitution" subsection in mc manual page.
-- Andrew
# # #
[Mar 28, 2013] Re Creating Symlinks with defaul relative path
Am Freitag, den 28.09.2012, 15:37 +0200 schrieb Carsten Richter:
Hi there,
When I am creating Symlinks in MC (using Ctrl-x s) i am spending quite
some time for replacing the absolute by the relative one and I was
wondering if it is possible to have the default path in the address line
to be the relative one.
Is there such an option or can it be implemented?
I think Ctrl-x v does the job
# # #
polishlinux.org " Midnight Commander in Action
Hi,
Try to make two MC flavors for a common user and a superuser like
this:
prog "mc user" mcg_01 xterm -bg darkgreen -cr yellow -fg white
-sl 1500 -e mc
prog "mc root" mcr_01 sudo xterm -bg darkred -cr yellow -fg white
-sl 1500 -e mc
Examples of the colored xterm windows with MCs within them and
their icons on the Desktop can be found here:
http://wiki.cdlinux.pl/images/0/08/Wiki_warpman_01_col.png
http://wiki.cdlinux.pl/images/9/9b/Wiki_warpman_06_col.png
The excerpts above come from my IceWM Toolbar config file. mcg_01
denotes MC User's Icon (g for green, r for red). Do not forget to
install sudo application.
It suffices to make two aliases or scripts for the xterm (...)
invocations:
mcu.sh:
#!/bin/bash
xterm -bg darkgreen -cr yellow -fg white -sl 1500 -e mc
mcr.sh:
#!/bin/bash
sudo xterm -bg darkred -cr yellow -fg white -sl 1500 -e mc
Cheers,
P2O2
# # #
[Nov 14, 2012] M-! allows to execute arbitrary Unix command and see
output in built-in viewer.
# # #
[Nov 13, 2012] Compensating for deficiencies of built-in search with
panelize command
No ability to search for files belonging to certain data range in
available in built-in search in mc, but because script panelize
command is available Unix find can be used to compensate for this
shortcoming.
# # #
[Nov 06, 2012] Windows XP+/32 bit native port of GNU Midnight
Commander, based on the current 4.8.4 development stream.
Sourceforge.net
Windows XP+/32 bit native port of GNU Midnight Commander, based
on the current 4.8.4 development stream.
Midnight Commander (also known as mc) is a free cross-platform
orthodox file manager and a clone of Norton Commander.
Features include the ability work with common archive formats as
if they were simply another directory, and to function as an FTP
client. Midnight Commander also includes an builtin editor/
viewer, features include syntax highlighting for many languages,
macros, code snippets, simple integration with external tools,
automatic indentation, mouse support, clipboard and the ability
to work in both ASCII and hex modes.
Midnight Commander can also rename groups of files, move files to
a different directory at the same time as it renames them. It
lets the user specify the original and resulting file names using
wildcard characters.
# # #
[Nov 06, 2012] Mc allows one panel to be full screen and the other
half screen. In this case tab essentially expands the other panel to
full screen
This is an interesting consequence of having wide mode and it is
also present in FAR. I come across it quite accidentally testing
mc for compatibility with OFM1999 standard.
# # #
[Nov 06, 2012] Diffs in color by James Ogley
openSUSE
Tip :
+ t r & ! t t
d Diff against file of same name in other directory
if [ "%d" = "%D" ]; then
echo "The two directores must be different"
exit 1
fi
if [ -f %D/%f ]; then # if two of them, then
diff -up %f %D/%f | sed -e 's/\(^-.*\)/\x1b[1;31m\1\x1b[0m/g' \
-e 's/\(^\+.*\)/\x1b[1;32m\1\x1b[0m/g' \
-e 's/\(^@.*\)/\x1b[36m\1\x1b[0m/g' | less -R
else
echo %f: No copy in %D/%f
fi
D Diff current directory against other directory
if [ "%d" = "%D" ]; then
echo "The two directores must be different"
exit 1
fi
diff -up %d %D | sed -e 's/\(^-.*\)/\x1b[1;31m\1\x1b[0m/g' \
-e 's/\(^\+.*\)/\x1b[1;32m\1\x1b[0m/g' \
-e 's/\(^@.*\)/\x1b[36m\1\x1b[0m/g' | less -R
fi
# # #
[Nov 05, 2012] NEWS-4.8.2 - Midnight Commander
Added new flag -X (--no-x11) to allow not to use X11 to get the
state of modifiers Alt, Ctrl, Shift (#86)
# # #
[Nov 05, 2012] Mcedit allows to edit many files in one mcedit window
4.8.4 - Midnight Commander
+ Multieditor: allow edit many files in one mcedit window (#
2261, #2839)
It would be nice if editor could open several files
simultaneously in one window. Window could be split up
vertically or horizontally. And it would be perfect if
one could use copy/move/paste functions (F5/F6) between
these files without using intermediate clipboard file ~
/.mc/mcedit/cooledit.clip
+ Aspell support for spell check (#2788)
# # #
[Nov 04, 2012] Multiple viewers and editorsP
Multi-screen feature: support of many opened editors and viewers (#
1490)
You can concurrently run multiple viewers and editors (screens).
Use following default hotkeys:
shortcut description
Meta + ` Show list of screens: viewers, editors and file panel
Meta + { Switch to previous screen
Meta + } Switch to next screen
# # #
[Oct 30, 2012] History of commands entered in command line is
available by clicking [^] in the right corner with the mouse.
# # #
[Oct 29, 2012] Midnight Commander Development Revived - Slashdot
great for patch work (Score:5, Interesting)
by nevets (39138) writes: on Monday January 26 2009, @05:09PM (#
26612777) Homepage Journal
I love mc!
I use it all the time for patch management. One little tidbit
that most people do not know about mc is that you can cd into a
patch. Edit the diffs in the patch, and copy a diff from one
patch to another patch file, just like copying or moving a file.
# # #
Performing some operation on multiple files with the help of mc
Aye, that's a standard (and heavily used) feature here. it
doesn't do much however for the "I want to run this command on
some arbitrary selection of those files" case.
mc can be used then, even though the order of operations is
slightly different:
1: mc
2a: select files
2b: type the command
3: hit ctrl-x t
then F10 if you don't want to use mc anymore...
it has the same effect as you describe, it's a little bit less
effective as far as typing goes (but not much) - it shouldn't
matter if you use it rarely, if you'd use it more often you would
probably already
be in mc.
2a and 2b can be done in any order.
2a: there are several ways to select files you want to use:
insert tags/untags files
+ enables you to type in shell patter or regexp (configurable)
meta-? is a simple version of find+grep
ctrl-x ! let's you run any program that returns list of files
(e.g.
find)
you do not have to use all the fancy file picking mechanizms, if
you want to stay simple you can use insert and possibly +
3: you can edit the resulting command line before hitting enter
(unfortunately not using your shell, it gets into shell history
though).
you have to know the ctrl-x t spell though. then again, you have
to know select if you want to use it so it's basically the same
(and there's context sensitive help in mc when you forget the
keybinding).
note that while what I describe is somewhat complicated you can
use it in very simple form, in that case it's basically the same
as select. the additional functionality does not stand in your
way...
...
> Err, to repeat the point, I don't. File management is perhaps
less
> than 3% of my time, if that.
what I was saying is that I am not all the way on the other side
(as you suggested). In fact if it weren't for mc I would probably
use file managers less than 10% (at least that was the case
before I've found mc) and be quite happy.
...> > I don't get it. What is it that LIST does that mc does
not?
>
> Faster, smaller, lighter, more unobtrustive, easier/
more-intuitive
> cross-directory operations, default/expected key bindings, less
> cruft. I don't want a swiss army knife. I just want a small
fruit
> knife.
smaller: yes (but who cares?)
faster: NO, see the timing of startup/exit below, and there
doesn't seem to be any detectable speed difference during
operation.
more unobtrusive: mc even let's you work in your shell, how can
it be any less obtrusive? you can have nothing but panel on the
screen...
intuitive: list is not intuitive at all, without using the help
screen you wouldn't be able to do almost anything. 'c' does not
copy. v is for NV (arc viewer) [linux version, IIRC it is
somewhat better in DOS
version] etc. mc is not anymore intuitive than that but at least
it is easy to get help, it displays basic keys on the screen (if
you want it to) and lot of keys are the same as nc uses (which is
/was sort of de
facto standard)
cross directory ops: linux list doesn't seem to have any. haven't
find a way to copy a file (intuitive???). what I remember from
dos version is that it brings up dialog where you can type in the
destination, which is exactly what mc does. mc provides the
oposite panel's directory as default but you can start typing
your own destination right away so it doesn't slow you down at
all, it even provides auto-completion (meta-tab).
key bindings: list definitely does NOT provide expected key
bindings, specially the linux version. the dos version - perhaps
and if you like those then that's a valid point against mc. still
- you cannot change
them so how is it that you know what to expect when you hit r? is
it remove or rename? intuitive?
the knife analogy is not a valid one in this case. the extra
functionality of mc does not come at significant cost - the only
difference is that the program is bigger, it does not have almost
any
difference on start-up time (that's the only possible
difference). the HD space it takes up is not of concern (today
and even less concern in the future). How is the extra
functionality of mc standing in your way? If you don't know about
the extra keybindings you simply don't use them.
What's the problem?
...
> >> mc enforces a UI which I find nearly unusable and supports a
raft
> >> of features that I find distracting from what I'm
>
> > ? every UI program enforces its UI. every CLI program
enforces
> > its UI as well. LIST does. not sure why you are singling mc
out.
>
> Because I don't like mc's choices?
in one panel configuration it is basically the same as list...
...
> Silly examples: The may MC handles cross-directory operations
is the
> exact opposite of what I prefer. mc requires the other pane to
be
> on the target and the current pane to be the source. Aaaargh!
That
(sort of repeated from above) no it does not. it just provides it
as
default, you can immediately type in your own destination just as
if the
default wasn't there. it even provides auto-completion. what more
(or
less) do you want? how is list better than that?
> catches me almost every time. The second confirm/edit/etc step
> under mc when doing a tagged file operation is something I've
never
> wanted (or used) and would really like to never see.
you get the same dialog in list. how else would you specify the
destination? it does not make any sense. what do you mean?
> ObNote: I'd also much prefer it if mc left me in the directory
it
> was viewing when I exited, rather than the directory I started
it
> from.
list or any other program does not do that either. and cannot.
that's
why cd is internal shell command (child cannot change the parent
process
environment, cwd etc.)
however, there's a sort of solution for this, here's a relevant
quote
from man page:
-P At program end, the Midnight Commander will print
the last working directory. This function should
not be used directly, instead, it should be used
from a special shell function that will automati
cally change the current directory of the shell to
the last directory the Midnight Commander was in
(thanks to Torben Fjerdingstad and Sergey for con
tributing this function and the code implementing
this option). Source the files
/usr/lib/mc/bin/mc.sh (bash and zsh users) respec
tively /usr/lib/mc/bin/mc.csh (tcsh users) in order
to have this function defined.
> > you can fire it off anytime you want and quit it with single
> > keystroke, it's not a monster that would take forever to
start up:
>
> Arguably that's little different from list.
>
> > jojda:~>time mc
>
> $ time mc
> real 0m0.469s
> user 0m0.000s
> sys 0m0.040s
>
> $ time list
> real 0m0.098s
> user 0m0.070s
> sys 0m0.020s
jojda:~/skusobna/list>time ./list
0.010u 0.000s 0:00.10 10.0% 0+0k 0+0io 217pf+0w
jojda:~/skusobna/list>time mc
0.020u 0.000s 0:00.10 20.0% 0+0k 0+0io 388pf+0w
jojda:~/skusobna/list>
I compiled the list (crowe's version for linux) and above are the
results on my machine. I would say that you cannot distinguish
between
list and mc (as far as start-up time goes). Not sure how to
measure
anything else but from visually judging the speed I don't think
there's
any significant difference.
btw on your computer it says that real time was 0.469s while the
sum
of other times was a lot less - that means that there was
something else
going on on the system. Or perhaps it was waiting for a disk to
load the
file (mc itself, that would mean that you'd have to wait for
about .5s
when you start mc first time/after a very long time - that's not
such a
big deal). Since I already ran mc I obviously cannot test the
first
start right now...
> No promises on not having a slow finger, tho I tried not to.
>
> > you can even run it with command line, it's not some internal
> > funky CLI, it's your login shell, basically unchanged, you
just
> > hit ctrl-o to make panels disappear (but you _don't_ _have_
to use
> > this feature, you can just quit mc or use ctrl-z)
>
> I like the bash command line and want it to be my default CLI
UI.
good. as far as comparison between list and mc goes: mc is
basically
the same but provides you with you shell even from within mc (and
yes,
it's bash shell (or whatever your login shell is), not some
internal
funky shell).
> Nothing else, just bash as configured by my .bashrc, under an
xterm
> as configured (and keys re-bound) as per my .Xdefaults. I like
> that and would like to stay with it, augmenting it only in the
areas
> mentioned, not replacing or changing large chunks of it.
OK. that's what I do as well. whether you augment it using list
or
using mc there's no difference in obtrusiveness, I would argue
that mc
is less obtrusive because it lets you use you shell even when you
run mc
(again, this functionality does not come at a price - if you
don't want
it just don't use it, it does not prevent you from using ctrl-z
or quite
mc etc.).
> > also: menu bar, command line, status line, hint line can all
be
> > turned off so you're left with panel(s) only.
>
> I'd rather (almost always) have visible the bottom end of
scrollback
> (usually the last 20 or 100 lines depending on window size,
with a
> further 5K lines available under PgUp/PgDn)). That I find
useful
> and use dozens of times a day. The vast majority of the time I
> don't have a use for the panes.
so at those time do not run the file manager or use ctrl-o with
mc (or
ctrl-z), that's what I do as well. have an xterm, sometime run mc
in it,
depending on what I do. when I want to use command line again (in
the
same xterm) I either quit mc or use ctrl-o (depending on what I
think I
will be doing).
ctrl-o has an advantage of keeping the directories of shell and
mc in
synch - if you are in mc and change directory the shell's cwd
changes as
well, if you hit ctrl-o and cd in shell the mc's cwd changes too
(that
wouldn't happen if you used ctrl-z). again: you do not have to
use this
feature and it doesn't cost you anything... IMO it makes perfect
sense,
specially for people who do significant amount of work using
command
line but that's just me - you might not find it useful and you do
not
have to use it (or even know about it). it's not forced on you.
> > mc is not an integrated solution.
>
> We disagree.
how is mc more integrated solution than list? you can use it in
the
same way that you use list (in principle, it's, of course, not
exactly
the same).
> Stylistically I'd prefer something that handled mail far closer
to
> the way MH approaches handling mail than the way that any of
the
> mbox-based tools do.
what is this about? and BTW as far as email goes the best way to
store
it is to use IMAP (which IIRC is what you do, or at least
advocate).
> >> Hurm. John Crowe's list (OSS) seems a fairly good starting
> >> point. Its got most of the basic supports there already. I
> >> really should take some time off and just hack it into
shape.
>
> > he recommends mc as well:-) just checked the web page.
>
> Yeah, I know.
>
> > the more you're explaining the more I find your position
strange.
> > everything that you write (apart from keybindings
configuration)
> > points to mc. yet you don't like it. is it something
personal?
>
> Nope, just what I've written.
but based on what you've written you want mc! (overall, apart
from the
keybindings) I am quite confused - what you're saying about how
you work
makes sense (I work in similar way even though not on the same
kind of
tasks) but when it comes to mc you're suddenly strange... well,
one way
or another, I guess that's it from me, I hope you didn't find it
too
pushy... (=unless you want to continue discussion I am not goin
to
continue with my mc evangelism).
erik
# # #
[Oct 19, 2012] mc 4.8.1.3 correctly implements command window making
it probably the first Unix OFM really helpful for Unix sysadmins
You are great guys !!!
My sincere congratulations to the development team
Name Nickname Country Additional info
Andrew andrew_b Russia aborodin at vmail
Borodin dot ru
Stan. S. iNode Russia pashelper at gmail
Krupoderov dot com
Ilia angel_il Russia (il.smind at gmail
Maslakov dot com)
Sergei slyfox,sjotroll,skogtroll Belarus
Trofimovich
(jabber+gmail:
Slava Zanko slavaz, slavazanko Belarus slavazanko at gmail
dot com)
Yury V. ZYV Germany
Zaytsev
# # #
[Oct 18, 2012] Midnight Commander tips
openSUSE
Using the mouse
Although Midnight Commander is a text mode application it can
make use of mouse. The openSUSE delivered mc will make use of the
mouse when used with a GUI console, without any further
configuration needed.
The text mode terminal that we get when booting in runlevels 2 or
3 is a bit different story. You have to install the package gpm
("general purpose mouse") which is also called mouse server. The
gpm is used in Linux to receive movements and clicks from mouse.
Start gpm and then start Midnight commander.
If you come to the text terminal using Ctrl + Alt + F1, then gpm
will not work as another driver that belongs to GUI (X Server)
claims control over the mouse.
Lynx like motion
This is browsing using the cursor keys. You have never seen
graphical applications (like Konqueror) run this fast through
directories.
openSUSE 11.4 and later
Main difference to older versions of Midnight Commander is
different menu, so now we need Panel options instead of
Configuration.
To enable it
1. Press F9 to select drop down menus on the top of the
screen.
2. Press Alt + o or move highlight with cursor keys for left
or right to the Options, then press arrow down, to get
drop down menu with options.
3. Press arrow down to select Panel options and Enter key to
open window with setup
4. Press arrow down until you have selected [ ] Lynx-like
motion, or , or ALT + y to jump directly.
5. Press Space to check option. It will show [x] Lynx-like
motion if it is active (enabled)
6. Press Alt + s or move highlight to the [ Save ] and press
Enter to save setting.
openSUSE 11.3 and earlier
To enable it
1. Press F9 to select drop down menus on the top of the
screen.
2. Press Alt + o or move highlight with cursor keys for left
or right to the Options, then press arrow down, to get
drop down menu with options.
3. Press Alt + c or Enter to get dialog window Configuration
with options.
4. Now don't use key shortcut, but use cursor key to move
highlight to [ ] Lynx-like motion option,
5. Press Space to check option. It will show [x] Lynx-like
motion if it is active (enabled)
6. Press Alt + s or move highlight to the [ Save ] and press
Enter to save setting.
FTP browsing
This is file browsing on remote FTP server just as it is on
your computer.
1. Press F9 to select drop down menus on the top of the
screen.
2. Press Alt + L if you want to use left side panel, or Alt
+ R for right panel.
3. Press Alt + P for input box where you have enter server
name. Enter for instance
ftp.gwdg.de/pub
and press Enter.
Now mc will try anonymous connection to remote machine. If
machine responds, you'll get directory listing of /pub on
remote server.
It is possible to do the same from mc command line by typing:
cd /#ftp:ftp.gwdg.de/pub
Archive browsing
Archive in classic meaning is compressed file. In Linux you
can recognize them by suffix like:
tgz, tar.gz, tbz, tar.bz2
and many more, but above few are the most used
1. Highlight the file
2. Press Enter
That's it. Midnight Commander will decompress file for you
and present it's internal structure like any other directory.
If you want to extract one or all files from archive mark
what you want toextract and use F5 to copy in another panel.
Done.
RPM browsing
The package installation files for any SUSE are RPM and mc
will let you browse them.
1. Highlight the file
2. Press Enter
You'll see few files:
/INFO
CONTENTS.cpio
HEADER
*INSTALL
*UPGRADE
Browse to see details of your RPM.
The CONTENTS.cpio is actual archive with files, and if you
want to see within:
1. Highlight the file
2. Press Enter
(You know the drill)
The *INSTALL and *UPGRADE will do what the name tells, but if
you want only to extract one or more files from CONTENTS.cpio
than use F5 to copy them in the directory in the other panel.
PuTTY and line drawing
PuTTY is terminal application used to access remote computers
running Linux via ssh (SSH tunnels from Microsoft Windows see
details). The line drawing in Midnight Commander, YaST and
another applications that draw lines using special characters
can be displayed wrong as something else. The solution is to
change settings:
o menu: Window > Translation:
# Received data assumed to be in which character set:
UTF-8
# Handling of line drawing characters: Use Unicode for
line drawing
If that doesn't help, you may set this too:
o menu: Connection > Connection-type string: linux
o menu: Terminal > Keyboard > The Function keys and keypad:
Linux
Found on webmilhouse.com.
User menu (F2 key) add-on
Diffs in color
Tip by James Ogley:
+ t r & ! t t
d Diff against file of same name in other directory
if [ "%d" = "%D" ]; then
echo "The two directores must be different"
exit 1
fi
if [ -f %D/%f ]; then # if two of them, then
diff -up %f %D/%f | sed -e 's/\(^-.*\)/\x1b[1;31m\1\x1b[0m/g' \
-e 's/\(^\+.*\)/\x1b[1;32m\1\x1b[0m/g' \
-e 's/\(^@.*\)/\x1b[36m\1\x1b[0m/g' | less -R
else
echo %f: No copy in %D/%f
fi
D Diff current directory against other directory
if [ "%d" = "%D" ]; then
echo "The two directores must be different"
exit 1
fi
diff -up %d %D | sed -e 's/\(^-.*\)/\x1b[1;31m\1\x1b[0m/g' \
-e 's/\(^\+.*\)/\x1b[1;32m\1\x1b[0m/g' \
-e 's/\(^@.*\)/\x1b[36m\1\x1b[0m/g' | less -R
fi
# # #
[Sep 28, 2012] Midnight Commander Guide
Everything is nice but implementation of third (command line) window
remains completely screwed in Midnight Commander. This is the key OFM
feature that Miguel de Icara never understood and we are still paying
for that.
mailinglists@nawaz.org
I've written a guide to Midnight Commander in presentation
format: http://nawaz.org/media/docs/mc/mc.pdf
For those who really don't want to look at the PDF and are
just curious about the content, I put the HTML version here:
http://www.nawaz.org/media/docs/mc/mc.html
It'll have a bunch of LaTeX formatting interspersed with the
text, but much of it should be readable.
-- Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a
misprint. - Mark Twain
Guus Bonnema:
Man, this rocks! Excellent job. Many problems and solutions
discussed plus a lot of tips. And I like the presentation. I
am proud to see LaTeX still leads to beautiful products.
Natalie
...Maybe you could add that the copy and move dialogs (F5 and
F6) have a very useful history. With Alt-H you get a list of
dirs that you have used earlier to copy or move to. Clicking
with the mouse on the [^] at the end of the input line has
the same effect.
xxx
Carsten Richter wrote:
> Nice work, there are some key bindings which don't work
here, maybe due to my
> terminal emulator (such as Alt-'). But for sure Ctrl-I
doesn't redraw
> the display wenn it's messed up. I need to do the
Ctrl-o twice.
It's Alt-` (backtick) and Ctrl-l (lowercase L). That should
work.
xxx
Carsten Richter writes:
there are some key bindings which don't work here, maybe
due to my terminal emulator (such as Alt-'). But for sure
Ctrl-I doesn't redraw
As someone pointed out, it's a backtick and Ctrl-L. I'll see
if I can conveniently change the font where those key
bindings are listed...
the display wenn it's messed up. I need to do the Ctrl-O
twice.
Ctrl-L is somewhat common and good to remember. I think a
bunch of other Linux programs use it.
I also would like to know how to change the default
keybindings. I was able to change the autocompletion
keybinding in an old mc using the "learn keys" option. But
with never ones it's not working apparently.
I'm pretty sure there's a way - you'll find it in the release
notes for some release in the last 2-3 years. I think I once
found some places that describe how to change them, but it
seemed quite painful. I only really wanted it to be able to
sort files rather than having to go to the menu - but then
they allowed sorting by clicking the headers, and that
sufficed.
-- Heard the one about the dyslexic devil worshiper? He sold
his soul to Santa.
Hallo, mailinglists:
there are some key bindings which don't work here, maybe
due to my terminal emulator (such as Alt-?). But for sure
Ctrl-I doesn't redraw
As someone pointed out, it's a backtick and Ctrl-l. I'll see
if I can conveniently change the font where those key
bindings are listed...
Helmut:
Just additional: sometimes (especially with some remote
terminals) the function keys don't work. But (p.e.) esc 3
instead of f3 seems still to work.
# # #
[Sep 21, 2010] Pseudo-graphic border
Should be export LANG=C mc
gnome.apps.mc.general
> Please, a small question - I made the new installation (FC3,
KDE)
> and run MC (the great SW!!). Everything works, except that
borders on
> the panels are drawn by 'a umlaut' instead of pseudo-graphic
(lines)
This is a locale and termcap issue which I do not fully
understand.
Fortunately I do know a workaround. :) Use this:
LANG=C mc
to start mc.
Sergiy Grudskiy
So far I've been able to change the color of text, but not
the default, blue background.
jayeola@tp20$ mc -V
GNU Midnight Commander 4.6.1a
Virtual File System: tarfs, extfs, cpiofs, ftpfs, fish,
smbfs, undelfs
With builtin Editor
Using system-installed S-Lang library with terminfo database
With subshell support as default
With support for background operations
With mouse support on xterm
With internationalization support
With multiple codepages support
Data types: char 8 int 32 long 32 void * 32 off_t 64 ecs_char
8
in xterm i put this line into ~/.Xresources
===========================
XTerm*color4: rgb:0/5/D
===========================
u can use from 0/0/0 to F/F/F afaik, then restart X
On Friday 25 February 2005 07:49, Duane Frederici wrote:
I'm running SuSe 9.0 and when I exit MC with F10.....I return to my home directory. Under Red Hat
when I exit MC with F10 it is the last directory I was in, in MC......can I make MC under SuSe 9.0
behave the same way and if so how?
I do not want to return to my user home directory when exiting MC....I want to stay in that current directory.
MC is at level 4.6.0
Thanks for the help,
> MC......can I make MC under SuSe 9.0 behave the same way
Yes.
> and if so how?
"mc" is probably a shell alias:
$ alias mc
alias mc='. /usr/share/mc/bin/mc- per.sh'
(This is bash in Slackware.)
Simply set the alias in your shell. You probably have the mc- per.sh
script there somewhere; if not, just copy it from the RH box.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
On Thursday 03 March 2005 07:14, leonp@plris.com wrote:
> Please, a small question - I made the new installation (FC3, KDE)
> and run MC (the great SW!!). Everything works, except that borders on
> the panels are drawn by 'a umlaut' instead of pseudo-graphic (lines)
This is a locale and termcap issue which I do not fully understand.
Fortunately I do know a workaround. :) Use this:
LANG=C mc
to start mc.
# # #
Way to make F6 put the current name on the input line for editing
(renaming)
Q: [Felix Miata]:
Surely there must be some way to make F6 put the current name on the
input line for editing (renaming) instead of moving to some other
location, but I am at a loss to find it. I'm really tired of retyping
complete filenames. Someone please tell me how to easily just add or
deleting one character in a filename.
A[Pavel Roskin]: Shift-F16 (in the latest versions). Also, file
completion (Escape-Tab) works in the rename dialog, which makes
it easy to rename to any exisitng filename.
Pavel Roskin wrote:
>
> On Fri, 2005-03-04 at 14:53 -0500, Felix Miata wrote:
> > Surely there must be some way to make F6 put the current name on the
> > input line for editing (renaming) instead of moving to some other
> > location, but I am at a loss to find it. I'm really tired of retyping
> > complete filenames. Someone please tell me how to easily just add or
> > deleting one character in a filename.
>
> Shift-F16 (in the latest versions).
I don't have any F16 key. :-P F6 tries to move. Shift-F6 doesn't do
anything at all where most needed, on tty[1-6].
> Also, file completion (Escape-Tab) works in the rename dialog, which
> makes it easy to rename to any exisitng filename.
This is unintuitive and doesn't seem to work right. When I try esc-tab,
it brings up a list of local files. If I pick one, it pastes it in front
of the proposed path to move to that came up with F6.
-- "In everything, do to others what you would have them do to
you." Matthew 7:12 NIV
# # #
/etc/mc/mc.ext file are some entries for common file types.
Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 22:30:03 +0100
From: Frank Dietrich
Subject: Re: ENTER key behavior
In-reply-to: <200412180945.iBI9jhSn064731@fe08.axelero.hu>
Sender: mc-bounces@gnome.org
To: mc@gnome.org
Errors-to: mc-bounces@gnome.org
Original-recipient: rfc822;speditor@optonline.net
Hi Andras,
"Andras Varga" wrote:
> Almost, but not really. I expect MC to launch the program which is
> registered for that file in the KDE (or GNOME) mime database. Why
> should I have to duplicate that information manually in MC...?
No. You don't have realy to duplicate it.
In the /etc/mc/mc.ext file are some entries for common file types.
e.g. PDF
-----------------------------------------------
# PDF
type/^PDF
Open=run-mailcap application/pdf:%f &
-----------------------------------------------
This entry start your default application for this mime type.
> In Windows, the feature works like this: it uses the "start" command
> (of cmd.exe) which "opens" the file (or folder) as if I'd
> double-clicked it in the Explorer.
'start' does the same thing under Windows as run-mailcap will do under
Linux.
> OFF: Also a good thing in Windows is that "start ." (or "start
> any-directory") opens the folder in Explorer. I also miss that on
> KDE, where I have to type "konqueror ." (or is there a "start"
> equivalent)?
Do you wan't to have only one command to do all the above magically
for you? Write your own. ;-)
Create an script named 'start', place it in a dir in your binary
search path and make it executeable.
--- start ------------------------------------
#!/bin/sh
if test -d "$1"
then
nautilus "$1"
else if test -e "$1"
then
run-mailcap "$1"
else
echo "Can't find directory or file: '$1'"
fi
fi
-----------------------------------------------
Nautlius is a Gnome filemanager. I don't know what you should use
under KDE. May be konqueror will do the same.
start . - opens nautilus in the current dir
start /var/log - opens nautilus in the /var/log dir
start /docs/test.pdf - opens the test.pdf in the dir /doc
with the default mime application
for PDF documents
regards
Frank
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