mc/README

Contents:
---------
  Requirements
  Features
  Where to get more information
  GNU Midnight Commander
  Mini-docs
  Obtaining GNU Midnight Commander
  Reporting problems.

GNU Midnight Commander (also referred to as MC) is a user shell with
text-mode full-screen interface.  It can be run on the OS console,
in xterm and other terminal emulators.

GNU Midnight Commander allows you to manage files while making most of
you screen and giving you a clear representation of the filesystem, yet
it's simple enough to be run over a telnet or ssh session.


Requirements
------------

To compile the GNU Midnight Commander you need at least to have a copy
of the GLib library, available at ftp://ftp.gtk.org/pub/gtk/.


Features
--------

GNU Midnight Commander was conceived as a free close of John Socha's
Norton Commander (TM).  It also takes the best from more recent software
with similar interfaces.  GNU Midnight Commander comes with mouse support
on xterm and optionally on the Linux console.

Some features are specific to the POSIX environment MC runs on, some are
familiar to the users of similar software for other operating system.
The features include:

	o Built in Virtual File System: manipulate remote file systems
          through the FTP and SMB protocols or over secure shell, browse
          tar, compressed tar, RPM, zip, cpio, lha and rar archives with
          a single click.

	o All of GNU Midnight Commander operations work with the
	  virtual file system, enabling you to do complex tasks.

	o Mouse support on the Linux console and under xterm and rxvt.

	o Learn Keys: GNU Midnight Commander may be configured at run
	  time to support any kind of input keys for a given terminal,
	  making its operation even on the most weird terminals a
	  breeze.

	o Text and hex editors are available for you to use.

	o Hotlist allows you to keep a list of common visited
	  locations (including FTP sites).

	o Command completion: By pressing Alt-Tab in any place where a
	  filename or an executable are expected, GNU Midnight Commander
	  will complete the name for you.  If you press Alt-Tab the second
	  time you can get a list box with all possible completions.

	o Subshell support: Run your commands by a real shell
	  interpreter.  GNU Midnight Commander interacts with bash,
	  tcsh and zsh to provide you with all of the facilities
	  available in your preferred shell.

	o Find file command can search for the file contents.

	o Background operations allows you to copy or move files from
	  any virtual file system while you do other tasks (i.e., you
	  can do background FTP copies).

	o Proxy support with our ftpfs.

	o Linux file recovery: If you are using Linux, you can recover
	  deleted files from an ext2fs partition with the undelete file
	  system.  This is a low level file recovery function that will
	  recover files deleted by any program on Linux.

	o External panelization: You can run any arbitrary external
	  command and GNU Midnight Commander will display the output
	  generated as a file listing that can be manipulated as a
	  regular directory.

	o Emacs like key bindings in all of our widgets.

	o Powerful context dependent actions are available. 

	o Powerful built-in file viewer:  The file viewer, together
	  with the context dependent actions is used to format man
	  pages on the fly, coloring mail messages and more.


Where to get more information:
------------------------------

There is a mailing list for discussion on enhancing the program, future
directions and announcements; if you want to subscribe, visit

http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/mc/

There is a WWW page for GNU Midnight Commander at

http://www.gnome.org/projects/mc/


GNU Midnight Commander:
-----------------------

GNU Midnight Commander is released under the GNU General Public
License version 2.0 or any later version.  A copy of the file is
included with this distribution package.

If you have comments, you can send them to the mailing list:

mc@gnome.org

If you have made a patch send it to the developers' mailing list:

mc-devel@gnome.org

Help develop and enhance free software.


Mini-documentation:
-------------------

These are hints for the text mode edition:

o Use the F-Keys for invoking the commands in the function key bar.
  If your terminal doesn't support F-keys, you can use the <ESC digit>
  sequence to invoke the corresponding F-digit key.

o Tab changes the current panel.

o All input lines have emacs-like key-bindings (command history is
  accessed through the M-p and M-n keys).

o The panels accept C-n, C-p for browsing the panel (like in Emacs).

o M-Enter copies the currently selected file name to the input line.

o M-Tab completes the current word (or tries to).

o The Virtual File System is a cute addition to the project, you may
  browse in tar and compressed tar files as well as browsing remote
  machines with the mcfs file system.

o Please read the manual page.

o Read the file src/TODO for the current projects.

You can access the whole documentation online with the F1 key,
although it's not as nice as the groff printed manual page :-)


Where you may obtain GNU Midnight Commander
-------------------------------------------

You can download the latest version of GNU Midnight Commander at

ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/stable/sources/mc/


Reporting problems
------------------

Please, send a detailed description of your problem to
mc-devel@gnome.org.

Include the version of the program, the operating system that you are
using, the compiler and compiler flags used to compile the program (if
you know them), what kind of distribution you are using (if a GNU/Linux
system).

If the program crashed and produces a core dump, please provide a
stack trace of the program.

You can do this by running dbx or gdb like this:

gdb mc core
(gdb) where