mirror of
https://github.com/MidnightCommander/mc
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3170 lines
100 KiB
Groff
3170 lines
100 KiB
Groff
.\"TOPICS "Topics:"
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.TH mc 1 "30 October 1998"
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.\"SKIP_SECTION"
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.SH "NAME"
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mc \- Visual shell for Unix-like systems.
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.\"SKIP_SECTION"
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.SH "USAGE"
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.B mc
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[\-abcCdfhPstuUVx] [\-l log] [dir1 [dir2]] [-v file]
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.\"NODE "DESCRIPTION"
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.SH "DESCRIPTION"
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The Midnight Commander is a directory browser/file manager for
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Unix-like operating systems.
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.\"NODE "OPTIONS"
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.\".\"DONT_SPLIT"
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.SH "OPTIONS"
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.TP
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.I "\-a"
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Disables the usage of graphic characters for line drawing.
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.TP
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.I "\-b"
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Forces black and white display.
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.TP
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.I "\-c"
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Force color mode, please check the section
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.\"LINK2"
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Colors
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.\"Colors"
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for more information.
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.TP
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.I "\-C arg"
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Used to specify a different color set in the command line. The format
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of arg is documented in the
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.\"LINK2"
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Colors
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.\"Colors"
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section.
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.TP
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.I "\-d"
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Disables mouse support.
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.TP
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.I "\-f"
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Displays the compiled-in search paths for Midnight Commander files.
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.TP
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.I "\-k"
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Reset softkeys to their default from the termcap/terminfo
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database. Only useful on HP terminals when the function keys don't work.
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.TP
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.I "\-l file"
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Save the ftpfs dialog with the server in file.
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.TP
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.I "\-P file"
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At program end, the Midnight Commander will print the last working
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directory to the specified file. This function should not be used
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directly. Instead, it should be used from a special shell function that
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automatically changes the current directory of the shell to the last
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directory the Midnight Commander was in. Source the files
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.B @prefix@/share/mc/bin/mc.sh
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(bash and zsh users) respectively
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.B @prefix@/share/mc/bin/mc.csh
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(tcsh users) in order to have this function defined.
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.TP
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.I "\-s"
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Turns on the slow terminal mode, in this mode the program will not
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draw expensive line drawing characters and will toggle verbose mode
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off.
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.TP
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.I "\-t"
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Used only if the code was compiled with Slang and terminfo: it makes
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the Midnight Commander use the value of the
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.B TERMCAP
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variable for the terminal information instead of the information on
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the system wide terminal database
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.TP
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.I "\-u"
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Disables the use of a concurrent shell (only makes sense if the
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Midnight Commander has been built with concurrent shell support).
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.TP
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.I "\-U"
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Enables the use of the concurrent shell support (only makes sense if
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the Midnight Commander was built with the subshell support set as an
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optional feature).
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.TP
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.I "\-v file"
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Enters the internal viewer to view the file specified.
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.TP
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.I "\-V"
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Displays the version of the program.
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.TP
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.I "\-x"
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Forces xterm mode. Used when running on xterm-capable terminals (two
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screen modes, and able to send mouse escape sequences).
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.PP
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If specified, the first path name is the directory to show in the
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selected panel; the second path name is the directory to be shown in
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the other panel.
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.\"NODE "Overview"
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.SH "Overview"
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The screen of the Midnight Commander is divided into four parts.
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Almost all of the screen space is taken up by two directory panels.
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By default, the second line from the bottom of the screen is the
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shell command line, and the bottom line shows the function key labels.
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The topmost line is the
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.\"LINK2"
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menu bar line\&.
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.\"Menu Bar"
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The menu bar line may not be visible, but appears if you click the
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topmost line with the mouse or press the F9 key.
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.PP
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The Midnight Commander provides a view of two directories at the same
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time. One of the panels is the current panel (a selection bar is in
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the current panel). Almost all operations take place on the current
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panel. Some file operations like Rename and Copy by default use the
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directory of the unselected panel as a destination (don't worry, they
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always ask you for confirmation first). For more information, see the
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sections on the
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.\"LINK2"
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Directory Panels\&,
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.\"Directory Panels"
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the
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.\"LINK2"
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Left and Right Menus
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.\"Left and Right Menus"
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and the
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.\"LINK2"
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File Menu\&.
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.\"File Menu"
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.PP
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You can execute system commands from the Midnight Commander by simply
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typing them. Everything you type will appear on the shell command line,
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and when you press Enter the Midnight Commander will execute the
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command line you typed; read the
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.\"LINK2"
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Shell Command Line
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.\"Shell Command Line"
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and
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.\"LINK2"
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Input Line Keys
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.\"Input Line Keys"
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sections to learn more about the command line.
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.\"NODE "Mouse Support"
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.SH "Mouse Support"
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The Midnight Commander comes with mouse support. It is activated
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whenever you are running on an
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.B xterm(1)
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terminal (it even works if you take a telnet, ssh or rlogin connection to
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another machine from the xterm) or if you are running on a Linux
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console and have the
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.B gpm
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mouse server running.
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.PP
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When you left click on a file in the directory panels, that file is
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selected; if you click with the right button, the file is marked (or
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unmarked, depending on the previous state).
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.PP
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Double-clicking on a file will try to execute the command if it is
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an executable program; and if the
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.\"LINK2"
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extension file
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.\"Extension File Edit"
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has a program specified for the file's extension, the specified
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program is executed.
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.PP
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Also, it is possible to execute the commands assigned to the function
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key labels by clicking on them.
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.PP
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If a mouse button is clicked on the top frame line of the directory panel,
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it is scrolled one page up. Likewise, a click on the bottom frame line
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will cause scrolling one page down. This frame line method works also
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in the
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.\"LINK2"
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Help Viewer
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.\"Contents"
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and the
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.\"LINK2"
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Directory Tree\&.
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.\"Directory Tree"
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.PP
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The default auto repeat rate for the mouse buttons is 400
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milliseconds. This may be changed to other values by editing the
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.\"LINK2"
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\&~/.mc/ini
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.\"Save Setup"
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file and changing the
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.I mouse_repeat_rate
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parameter.
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.PP
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If you are running the Midnight Commander with the mouse support, you
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can get the default mouse behavior (cutting and pasting text) by holding
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down the Shift key.
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.SH ""
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.\"NODE "Keys"
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.SH "Keys"
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Some commands in the Midnight Commander involve the use of the
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.I Control
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(sometimes labeled CTRL or CTL) and the
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.I Meta
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(sometimes labeled ALT or even Compose) keys. In this manual we will
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use the following abbreviations:
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.PP
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C-<chr> means hold the Control key while typing the character
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<chr>. Thus C-f would be: hold the Control key and type f.
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.PP
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M-<chr> means hold the Meta or Alt key down while typing <chr>. If
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there is no Meta or Alt key, type ESC, release it, then type the
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character <chr>.
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.PP
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S-<chr> means hold the Shift key down while typing <chr>.
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.PP
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All input lines in the Midnight Commander use an approximation to
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the GNU Emacs editor's key bindings.
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.PP
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There are many sections which tell about the keys. The following are
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the most important.
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.PP
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The
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.\"LINK2"
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File Menu
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.\"File Menu"
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section documents the keyboard shortcuts for the commands appearing in
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the File menu. This section includes the function keys. Most of these
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commands perform some action, usually on the selected file or the
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tagged files.
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.PP
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The
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.\"LINK2"
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Directory Panels
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.\"Directory Panels"
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section documents the keys which select a file or tag files as a
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target for a later action (the action is usually one from the file
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menu).
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.PP
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The
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.\"LINK2"
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Shell Command Line
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.\"Shell Command Line"
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section list the keys which are used for entering and editing command
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lines. Most of these copy file names and such from the directory
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panels to the command line (to avoid excessive typing) or access the
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command line history.
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.PP
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.\"LINK2"
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Input Line Keys
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.\"Input Line Keys"
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are used for editing input lines. This means both the command line and
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the input lines in the query dialogs.
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.\"NODE " Miscellaneous Keys"
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.SH " Miscellaneous Keys"
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Here are some keys which don't fall into any of the other categories:
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.PP
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.B Enter.
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If there is some text in the command line (the one at the bottom of
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the panels), then that command is executed. If there is no text in the
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command line then if the selection bar is over a directory the
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Midnight Commander does a
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.B chdir(2)
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to the selected directory and reloads the information on the panel;
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if the selection is an executable file then it is executed. Finally,
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if the extension of the selected file name matches one of the
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extensions in the
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.\"LINK2"
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extensions file
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.\"Extension File Edit"
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then the corresponding command is executed.
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.PP
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.B C-l.
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Repaint all the information in the Midnight Commander.
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.PP
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.B C-x c.
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Run the
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.\"LINK2"
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Chmod
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.\"Chmod"
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command on a file or on the tagged files.
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.PP
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.B C-x o.
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Run the
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.\"LINK2"
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Chown
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.\"Chown"
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command on the current file or on the tagged files.
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.PP
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.B C-x l.
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Run the link command.
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.PP
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.B C-x s.
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Run the symbolic link command.
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.PP
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.B C-x i.
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Set the other panel display mode to information.
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.PP
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.B C-x q.
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Set the other panel display mode to quick view.
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.PP
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.B C-x !.
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Execute the
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.\"LINK2"
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External panelize
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.\"External panelize"
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command.
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.PP
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.B C-x h
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Run the
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.\"LINK2"
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add directory to hotlist
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.\"Hotlist"
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command.
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.PP
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.B M-!,
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Executes the Filtered view command, described in the
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.\"LINK2"
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view command\&.
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.\"Internal File Viewer"
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.PP
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.B M-?,
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Executes the
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.\"LINK2"
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Find file
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.\"Find File"
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command.
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.PP
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.B M-c,
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Pops up the
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.\"LINK2"
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quick cd
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.\"Quick cd"
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dialog.
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.PP
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.B C-o,
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When the program is being run in the Linux or SCO console or under an xterm,
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it will show you the output of the previous command. When ran on the
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Linux console, the Midnight Commander uses an external program
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(cons.saver) to handle saving and restoring of information on the
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screen.
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.PP
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When the subshell support is compiled in, you can type C-o at any time
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and you will be taken back to the Midnight Commander main screen, to
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return to your application just type C-o. If you have an application
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suspended by using this trick, you won't be able to execute other
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programs from the Midnight Commander until you terminate the suspended
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application.
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.\"NODE " Directory Panels"
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.SH " Directory Panels"
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This section lists the keys which operate on the directory panels. If
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you want to know how to change the appearance of the panels take a
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look at the section on
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.\"LINK2"
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Left and Right Menus\&.
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.\"Left and Right Menus"
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.PP
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.B Tab, C-i.
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Change the current panel. The old other panel becomes the new current
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panel and the old current panel becomes the new other panel. The
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selection bar moves from the old current panel to the new current
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panel.
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.PP
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.B Insert, C-t.
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To tag files you may use the Insert key (the kich1 terminfo sequence)
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or the C-t (Control-t) sequence. To untag files, just retag a tagged
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file.
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.PP
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.B M-g, M-r, M-j.
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Used to select the top file in a panel, the middle file and the bottom one,
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respectively.
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.PP
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.B C-s, M-s.
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Start a filename search in the directory listing. When the search is
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active, the user input will be added to the search string instead of
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the command line. If the
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.I Show mini-status
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option is enabled the search string is shown on the mini-status
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line. When typing, the selection bar will move to the next file
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starting with the typed letters. The
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.I backspace
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or
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.I DEL
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keys can be used to correct typing mistakes. If C-s is pressed
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again, the next match is searched for.
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.PP
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.B M-t
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Toggle the current display listing to show the next display listing
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mode. With this it is possible to quickly switch from long listing
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to regular listing and the user defined listing mode.
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.PP
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.B C-\\\\ (control-backslash).
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Show the
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.\"LINK2"
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directory hotlist
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.\"Hotlist"
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and change to the selected directory.
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.PP
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.B + \ (plus).
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This is used to select (tag) a group of files. The Midnight Commander
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will prompt for a regular expression describing the group. When
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.I Shell Patterns
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are enabled, the regular expression is much like the regular
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expressions in the shell (* standing for zero or more characters and ?
|
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standing for one character). If
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.I Shell Patterns
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is off, then the tagging of files is done with normal regular
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expressions (see ed (1)).
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.PP
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If the expression starts or ends with a slash (/), then it will select
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directories instead of files.
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.PP
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.B \\\\ (backslash).
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Use the "\\" key to unselect a group of files. This is the opposite of
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the Plus key.
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.PP
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.B up-key, C-p.
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Move the selection bar to the previous entry in the panel.
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.PP
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.B down-key, C-n.
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Move the selection bar to the next entry in the panel.
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.PP
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.B home, a1, M-<.
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Move the selection bar to the first entry in the panel.
|
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.PP
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|
.B end, c1, M->.
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Move the selection bar to the last entry in the panel.
|
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.PP
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|
.B next-page, C-v.
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Move the selection bar one page down.
|
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.PP
|
|
.B prev-page, M-v.
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Move the selection bar one page up.
|
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.PP
|
|
.B M-o,
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If the other panel is a listing panel and you are standing on a
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directory in the current panel, then the other panel contents are set
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to the contents of the currently selected directory (like Emacs' dired
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C-o key) otherwise the other panel contents are set to the parent dir
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of the current dir.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B C-PageUp, C-PageDown
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Only when ran on the Linux console: does a chdir to ".." and to the
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currently selected directory respectively.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B M-y
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Moves to the previous directory in the history, equivalent
|
|
to depressing the '<' with the mouse.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B M-u
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|
Moves to the next directory in the history, equivalent
|
|
to depressing the '>' with the mouse.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B M-S-h, M-H
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|
Displays the directory history, equivalent to depressing the 'v' with
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the mouse.
|
|
.\"NODE " Shell Command Line"
|
|
.SH " Shell Command Line"
|
|
This section lists keys which are useful to avoid excessive typing when
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entering shell commands.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B M-Enter.
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|
Copy the currently selected file name to the command line.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B C-Enter.
|
|
Same a M-Enter, this one only works on the Linux console.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B M-Tab.
|
|
Does the filename, command, variable, username and hostname
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
completion
|
|
.\"Completion"
|
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for you.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B C-x t, C-x C-t.
|
|
Copy the tagged files (or if there are no tagged files, the selected
|
|
file) of the current panel (C-x t) or of the other panel (C-x C-t) to
|
|
the command line.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B C-x p, C-x C-p.
|
|
The first key sequence copies the current path name to the command
|
|
line, and the second one copies the unselected panel's path name to
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the command line.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B C-q.
|
|
The quote command can be used to insert characters that are otherwise
|
|
interpreted by the Midnight Commander (like the '+' symbol)
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B M-p, M-n.
|
|
Use these keys to browse through the command history. M-p takes you
|
|
to the last entry, M-n takes you to the next one.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B M-h.
|
|
Displays the history for the current input line.
|
|
.\"NODE " General Movement Keys"
|
|
.SH " General Movement Keys"
|
|
The help viewer, the file viewer and the directory tree use common
|
|
code to handle moving. Therefore they accept exactly the same
|
|
keys. Each of them also accepts some keys of its own.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Other parts of the Midnight Commander use some of the same movement
|
|
keys, so this section may be of use for those parts too.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B Up, C-p.
|
|
Moves one line backward.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B Down, C-n.
|
|
Moves one line forward.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B Prev Page, Page Up, M-v.
|
|
Moves one page up.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B Next Page, Page Down, C-v.
|
|
Moves one page down.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B Home, A1.
|
|
Moves to the beginning.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B End, C1.
|
|
Move to the end.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The help viewer and the file viewer accept the following keys in
|
|
addition the to ones mentioned above:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B b, C-b, C-h, Backspace, Delete.
|
|
Moves one page up.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B Space bar.
|
|
Moves one page down.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B u, d.
|
|
Moves one half of a page up or down.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B g, G.
|
|
Moves to the beginning or to the end.
|
|
.\"NODE " Input Line Keys"
|
|
.SH " Input Line Keys"
|
|
The input lines (they are used for the
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
command line
|
|
.\"Shell Command Line"
|
|
and for the query dialogs in the program) accept these keys:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B C-a
|
|
puts the cursor at the beginning of line.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B C-e
|
|
puts the cursor at the end of the line.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B C-b, move-left
|
|
move the cursor one position left.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B C-f, move-right
|
|
move the cursor one position right.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B M-f
|
|
moves one word forward.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B M-b
|
|
moves one word backward.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B C-h, backspace
|
|
delete the previous character.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B C-d, Delete
|
|
delete the character in the point (over the cursor).
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B C-@
|
|
sets the mark for cutting.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B C-w
|
|
copies the text between the cursor and the mark to a kill buffer and
|
|
removes the text from the input line.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B M-w
|
|
copies the text between the cursor and the mark to a kill buffer.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B C-y
|
|
yanks back the contents of the kill buffer.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B C-k
|
|
kills the text from the cursor to the end of the line.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B M-p, M-n
|
|
Use these keys to browse through the command history. M-p takes you
|
|
to the last entry, M-n takes you to the next one.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B M-C-h, M-Backspace
|
|
delete one word backward.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B M-Tab
|
|
does the filename, command, variable, username and hostname
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
completion
|
|
.\"Completion"
|
|
for you.
|
|
.SH ""
|
|
.\"NODE "Menu Bar"
|
|
.SH "Menu Bar"
|
|
The menu bar pops up when you press F9 or click the mouse on the top
|
|
row of the screen. The menu bar has five menus: "Left", "File",
|
|
"Command", "Options" and "Right".
|
|
.PP
|
|
The
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Left and Right Menus
|
|
.\"Left and Right Menus"
|
|
allow you to modify the appearance of the left and right directory
|
|
panels.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
File Menu
|
|
.\"File Menu"
|
|
lists the actions you can perform on the currently selected file or
|
|
the tagged files.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Command Menu
|
|
.\"Command Menu"
|
|
lists the actions which are more general and bear no relation to the
|
|
currently selected file or the tagged files.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Options Menu
|
|
.\"Options Menu"
|
|
lists the actions which allow you to customize the Midnight Commander.
|
|
.\"NODE " Left and Right Menus"
|
|
.SH " Left and Right (Above and Below) Menus"
|
|
The outlook of the directory panels can be changed from the
|
|
.B Left
|
|
and
|
|
.B Right
|
|
menus (they are named
|
|
.B Above
|
|
and
|
|
.B Below
|
|
when the horizontal panel split is chosen from the
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Layout
|
|
.\"Layout"
|
|
options dialog).
|
|
.\"NODE " Listing Mode..."
|
|
.SH " Listing Mode..."
|
|
The listing mode view is used to display a listing of files, there are
|
|
four different listing modes available:
|
|
.BR Full ,
|
|
.BR Brief ,
|
|
.B Long
|
|
and
|
|
.BR User .
|
|
The full directory view shows the file name, the size of the file and
|
|
the modification time.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The brief view shows only the file name and it has two columns
|
|
(therefore showing twice as many files as other views). The long view
|
|
is similar to the output of
|
|
.B "ls -l"
|
|
command. The long view takes the whole screen width.
|
|
.PP
|
|
If you choose the "User" display format, then you have to specify
|
|
the display format.
|
|
.PP
|
|
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.
|
|
.PP
|
|
After the panel size, you may specify the two columns mode on the
|
|
panel, this is done by adding the number "2" to the user format
|
|
string.
|
|
.PP
|
|
After this you add the name of the fields with an optional size
|
|
specifier. This are the available fields you may display:
|
|
.TP
|
|
.B name
|
|
displays the file name.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.B size
|
|
displays the file size.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.B bsize
|
|
is an alternative form of the
|
|
.B size
|
|
format. It displays the size of the files and for directories it just
|
|
shows SUB-DIR or UP--DIR.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.B type
|
|
displays a one character field type. This character is similar to
|
|
what is displayed by ls with the -F flag -
|
|
.B *
|
|
for executable files,
|
|
.B /
|
|
for directories,
|
|
.B @
|
|
for links,
|
|
.B =
|
|
for sockets,
|
|
.B -
|
|
for character devices,
|
|
.B +
|
|
for block devices,
|
|
.B |
|
|
for pipes,
|
|
.B ~
|
|
for symbolic links to directories and
|
|
.B !
|
|
for stale symlinks (links that point nowhere).
|
|
.TP
|
|
.B mark
|
|
an asterisk if the file is tagged, a space if it's not.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.B mtime
|
|
file's last modification time.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.B atime
|
|
file's last access time.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.B ctime
|
|
file's creation time.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.B perm
|
|
a string representing the current permission bits of the file.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.B mode
|
|
an octal value with the current permission bits of the file.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.B nlink
|
|
the number of links to the file.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.B ngid
|
|
the GID (numeric).
|
|
.TP
|
|
.B nuid
|
|
the UID (numeric).
|
|
.TP
|
|
.B owner
|
|
the owner of the file.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.B group
|
|
the group of the file.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.B inode
|
|
the inode of the file.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Also you can use following keywords to define the panel layout:
|
|
.TP
|
|
.B space
|
|
a space in the display format.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.B |
|
|
add a vertical line to the display format.
|
|
.PP
|
|
To force one field to a fixed size (a size specifier), you just add
|
|
.B :
|
|
followed by the number of characters you want the field to have. If the
|
|
number is followed by the symbol
|
|
.BR + ,
|
|
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.
|
|
.PP
|
|
For example, the
|
|
.B Full
|
|
display corresponds to this format:
|
|
.PP
|
|
half type name | size | mtime
|
|
.PP
|
|
And the
|
|
.B Long
|
|
display corresponds to this format:
|
|
.PP
|
|
full perm space nlink space owner space group space size space mtime
|
|
space name
|
|
.PP
|
|
This is a nice user display format:
|
|
.PP
|
|
half name | size:7 | type mode:3
|
|
.PP
|
|
Panels may also be set to the following modes:
|
|
.TP
|
|
.B "Info"
|
|
The info view display information related to the currently
|
|
selected file and if possible information about the current file
|
|
system.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.B "Tree"
|
|
The tree view is quite similar to the
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
directory tree
|
|
.\"Directory Tree"
|
|
feature. See the section about it for more information.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.B "Quick View"
|
|
In this mode, the panel will switch to a reduced
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
viewer
|
|
.\"Internal File Viewer"
|
|
that displays the contents of the currently selected file, if you
|
|
select the panel (with the tab key or the mouse), you will have access
|
|
to the usual viewer commands.
|
|
.\"NODE " Sort Order..."
|
|
.SH " Sort Order..."
|
|
The eight sort orders are by name, by extension, by modification time,
|
|
by access time, and by inode information modification time, by size,
|
|
by inode and unsorted. In the Sort order dialog box you can choose
|
|
the sort order and you may also specify if you want to sort in reverse
|
|
order by checking the reverse box.
|
|
.PP
|
|
By default directories are sorted before files but this can be changed
|
|
from the
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Options menu
|
|
.\"Options Menu"
|
|
(option
|
|
.BR "Mix all files" ).
|
|
.\"NODE " Filter..."
|
|
.SH " Filter..."
|
|
The filter command allows you to specify a shell pattern (for example
|
|
.BR "*.tar.gz" )
|
|
which the files must match to be shown. Regardless
|
|
of the filter pattern, the directories and the links to directories
|
|
are always shown in the directory panel.
|
|
.\"NODE " Reread"
|
|
.SH " Reread"
|
|
The reread command reload the list of files in the directory. It is
|
|
useful if other processes have created or removed files. If you
|
|
have panelized file names in a panel this will reload the directory
|
|
contents and remove the panelized information (See the section
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
External panelize
|
|
.\"External panelize"
|
|
for more information).
|
|
.\"NODE " File Menu"
|
|
.SH " File Menu"
|
|
The Midnight Commander uses the F1 - F10 keys as keyboard shortcuts
|
|
for commands appearing in the file menu. The escape sequences for the
|
|
function keys are terminfo capabilities kf1 trough kf10. On terminals
|
|
without function key support, you can achieve the same functionality by
|
|
pressing the ESC key and then a number in the range 1 through 9 and 0
|
|
(corresponding to F1 to F9 and F10 respectively).
|
|
.PP
|
|
The File menu has the following commands (keyboard shortcuts in parentheses):
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B Help (F1)
|
|
.PP
|
|
Invokes the built-in hypertext help viewer. Inside the
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
help viewer\&,
|
|
.\"Contents"
|
|
you can use the Tab key to select the next link and the Enter key to
|
|
follow that link. The keys Space and Backspace are used to move
|
|
forward and backward in a help page. Press F1 again to get the full
|
|
list of accepted keys.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B Menu (F2)
|
|
.PP
|
|
Invoke the
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
user menu\&.
|
|
.\"Menu File Edit"
|
|
The user menu provides an easy way to provide users with a menu and
|
|
add extra features to the Midnight Commander.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B View (F3, Shift-F3)
|
|
.PP
|
|
View the currently selected file. By default this invokes the
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Internal File Viewer
|
|
.\"Internal File Viewer"
|
|
but if the option "Use internal view" is off, it invokes an external
|
|
file viewer specified by the
|
|
.B PAGER
|
|
environment variable. If
|
|
.B PAGER
|
|
is undefined, the "view" command is invoked. If you use Shift-F3
|
|
instead, the viewer will be invoked without doing any formatting or
|
|
preprocessing to the file.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B Filtered View (M-!)
|
|
.PP
|
|
this command prompts for a command
|
|
and it's arguments (the argument defaults to the currently selected
|
|
file name), the output from such command is shown in the internal file
|
|
viewer.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B Edit (F4)
|
|
.PP
|
|
Currently it invokes the
|
|
.B vi
|
|
editor, or the editor specified in the
|
|
.B EDITOR
|
|
environment variable, or the
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Internal File Editor
|
|
.\"Internal File Editor"
|
|
if the use_internal_edit option is on.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B Copy (F5)
|
|
.PP
|
|
Pop up an input dialog with destination that defaults to the directory
|
|
in the non-selected panel and copies the currently selected file (or
|
|
the tagged files, if there is at least one file tagged) to the
|
|
directory specified by the user in the input dialog. During this
|
|
process, you can press C-c or ESC to abort the operation. For details
|
|
about source mask (which will be usually either * or ^\\(.*\\)$ depending
|
|
on setting of Use shell patterns) and possible wildcards in the destination
|
|
see
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Mask copy/rename\&.
|
|
.\"Mask Copy/Rename"
|
|
.PP
|
|
On some systems, it is possible to do the copy in the background by
|
|
clicking on the background button (or pressing M-b in the dialog
|
|
box). The
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Background Jobs
|
|
.\"Background jobs"
|
|
is used to control the background process.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B Link (C-x l)
|
|
.PP
|
|
Create a hard link to the current file.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B SymLink (C-x s)
|
|
.PP
|
|
Create a symbolic link to the current file. To those of you who don't
|
|
know what links are: creating a link to a file is a bit like copying
|
|
the file, but both the source filename and the destination filename
|
|
represent the same file image. For example, if you edit one of these
|
|
files, all changes you make will appear in both files. Some people call
|
|
links aliases or shortcuts.
|
|
.PP
|
|
A hard link appears as a real file. After making it, there is no way of
|
|
telling which one is the original and which is the link. If you delete
|
|
either one of them the other one is still intact. It is very difficult
|
|
to notice that the files represent the same image. Use hard links when
|
|
you don't even want to know.
|
|
.PP
|
|
A symbolic link is a reference to the name of the original file. If
|
|
the original file is deleted the symbolic link is useless. It is quite
|
|
easy to notice that the files represent the same image. The Midnight
|
|
Commander shows an "@"-sign in front of the file name if it is a
|
|
symbolic link to somewhere (except to directory, where it shows a tilde (~)).
|
|
The original file which the link points to is shown on mini-status line if the
|
|
.I "Show mini-status"
|
|
option is enabled. Use symbolic links when you want to avoid the
|
|
confusion that can be caused by hard links.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B Rename/Move (F6)
|
|
.PP
|
|
Pop up an input dialog that defaults to the directory in the
|
|
non-selected panel and moves the currently selected file (or the
|
|
tagged files if there is at least one tagged file) to the directory
|
|
specified by the user in the input dialog. During the process, you
|
|
can press C-c or ESC to abort the operation. For more details look at Copy
|
|
operation above, most of the things are quite similar.
|
|
.PP
|
|
On some systems, it is possible to do the copy in the background by
|
|
clicking on the background button (or pressing M-b in the dialog
|
|
box). The
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Background Jobs
|
|
.\"Background jobs"
|
|
is used to control the background process.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B Mkdir (F7)
|
|
.PP
|
|
Pop up an input dialog and creates the directory specified.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B Delete (F8)
|
|
.PP
|
|
Delete the currently selected file or the tagged files in the
|
|
currently selected panel. During the process, you can press C-c or
|
|
ESC to abort the operation.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B Quick cd (M-c)
|
|
Use the
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
quick cd
|
|
.\"Quick cd"
|
|
command if you have full command line and want to cd somewhere.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B Select group (+)
|
|
.PP
|
|
This is used to select (tag) a group of files. The Midnight Commander
|
|
will prompt for a regular expression describing the group. When
|
|
.I Shell Patterns
|
|
are enabled, the regular expression is much like the filename globbing
|
|
in the shell (* standing for zero or more characters and ? standing
|
|
for one character). If
|
|
.I Shell Patterns
|
|
is off, then the tagging of files is done with normal regular
|
|
expressions (see ed (1)).
|
|
.PP
|
|
To mark directories instead of files, the expression must start or end
|
|
with a '/'.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B Unselect group (\\\\)
|
|
.PP
|
|
Used to unselect a group of files. This is the opposite of the
|
|
.I "Select group"
|
|
command.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B Quit (F10, Shift-F10)
|
|
.PP
|
|
Terminate the Midnight Commander. Shift-F10 is used when you want to
|
|
quit and you are using the shell wrapper. Shift-F10 will not take you
|
|
to the last directory you visited with the Midnight Commander, instead
|
|
it will stay at the directory where you started the Midnight Commander.
|
|
.\"NODE " Quick cd"
|
|
.SH " Quick cd"
|
|
This command is useful if you have a full command line and want to
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
cd
|
|
.\"The cd internal command"
|
|
somewhere without having to yank and paste the command line. This command
|
|
pops up a small dialog, where you enter everything you would enter after
|
|
.B cd
|
|
on the command line and then you press enter. This features all the things
|
|
that are already in the
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
internal cd command\&.
|
|
.\"The cd internal command"
|
|
.\"NODE " Command Menu"
|
|
.SH " Command Menu"
|
|
The
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Directory tree
|
|
.\"Directory Tree"
|
|
command shows a tree figure of the directories.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Find file
|
|
.\"Find File"
|
|
command allows you to search for a specific file. The "Swap panels"
|
|
command swaps the contents of the two directory panels.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The "Panels on/off" command shows the output of the last shell
|
|
command. This works only on xterm and on Linux and SCO console.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The Compare directories (C-x d) command compares the directory
|
|
panels with each other. You can then use the Copy (F5) command to make
|
|
the panels identical. There are three compare methods. The quick method
|
|
compares only file size and file date. The thorough method makes a
|
|
full byte-by-byte compare. The thorough method is not available if the
|
|
machine does not support the mmap(2) system call. The size-only
|
|
compare method just compares the file sizes and does not check the
|
|
contents or the date times, it just checks the file size.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The Command history command shows a list of typed commands. The
|
|
selected command is copied to the command line. The command history
|
|
can also be accessed by typing M-p or M-n.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Directory hotlist (C-\\)
|
|
.\"Hotlist"
|
|
command makes changing of the current directory to often used directories
|
|
faster.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
External panelize
|
|
.\"External panelize"
|
|
allows you to execute an external program, and make the output of that
|
|
program the contents of the current panel.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Extension file edit
|
|
.\"Extension File Edit"
|
|
command allows you to specify programs to executed when you try to
|
|
execute, view, edit and do a bunch of other thing on files
|
|
with certain extensions (filename endings). The
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Menu file edit
|
|
.\"Menu File Edit"
|
|
command may be used for editing the user menu (which appears by
|
|
pressing F2).
|
|
.\"NODE " Directory Tree"
|
|
.SH " Directory Tree"
|
|
The Directory Tree command shows a tree figure of the directories. You
|
|
can select a directory from the figure and the Midnight Commander will
|
|
change to that directory.
|
|
.PP
|
|
There are two ways to invoke the tree. The real directory tree command
|
|
is available from Commands menu. The other way is to select tree view
|
|
from the Left or Right menu.
|
|
.PP
|
|
To get rid of long delays the Midnight Commander creates the tree
|
|
figure by scanning only a small subset of all the directories. If the
|
|
directory which you want to see is missing, move to its parent
|
|
directory and press C-r (or F2).
|
|
.PP
|
|
You can use the following keys:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
General movement keys
|
|
.\"General Movement Keys"
|
|
are accepted.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B Enter.
|
|
In the directory tree, exits the directory tree and changes to this
|
|
directory in the current panel. In the tree view, changes to this
|
|
directory in the other panel and stays in tree view mode in the
|
|
current panel.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B C-r, F2 (Rescan).
|
|
Rescan this directory. Use this when the tree figure is out of date:
|
|
it is missing subdirectories or shows some subdirectories which don't
|
|
exist any more.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B F3 (Forget).
|
|
Delete this directory from the tree figure. Use this to remove clutter
|
|
from the figure. If you want the directory back to the tree figure
|
|
press F2 in its parent directory.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B F4 (Static/Dynamic).
|
|
Toggle between the dynamic navigation mode (default) and the static
|
|
navigation mode.
|
|
.PP
|
|
In the static navigation mode you can use the Up and Down keys to
|
|
select a directory. All known directories are shown.
|
|
.PP
|
|
In the dynamic navigation mode you can use the Up and Down keys to
|
|
select a sibling directory, the Left key to move to the parent
|
|
directory, and the Right key to move to a child directory. Only the
|
|
parent, sibling and children directories are shown, others are left
|
|
out. The tree figure changes dynamically as you traverse.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B F5 (Copy).
|
|
Copy the directory.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B F6 (RenMov).
|
|
Move the directory.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B F7 (Mkdir).
|
|
Make a new directory below this directory.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B F8 (Delete).
|
|
Delete this directory from the file system.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B C-s, M-s.
|
|
Search the next directory matching the search string. If there is
|
|
no such directory these keys will move one line down.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B C-h, Backspace.
|
|
Delete the last character of the search string.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B Any other character.
|
|
Add the character to the search string and move to the next directory
|
|
which starts with these characters. In the tree view you must first
|
|
activate the search mode by pressing C-s. The search string is shown
|
|
in the mini status line.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The following actions are available only in the directory tree. They
|
|
aren't supported in the tree view.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B F1 (Help).
|
|
Invoke the help viewer and show this section.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B Esc, F10.
|
|
Exit the directory tree. Do not change the directory.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The mouse is supported. A double-click behaves like Enter. See
|
|
also the section on
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
mouse support\&.
|
|
.\"Mouse Support"
|
|
.\"NODE " Find File"
|
|
.SH " Find File"
|
|
The Find File feature first asks for the start directory for the
|
|
search and the filename to be searched for. By pressing the Tree
|
|
button you can select the start directory from the
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
directory tree
|
|
.\"Directory Tree"
|
|
figure.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The contents field accepts regular expressions similar to egrep(1). That
|
|
means you have to escape characters with a special meaning to egrep with "\\",
|
|
e.g. if you search for "strcmp (" you will have to input "strcmp \\("
|
|
(without the double quotes).
|
|
.PP
|
|
You can start the search by pressing the Ok button.
|
|
During the search you can stop from the Stop button and continue from
|
|
the Start button.
|
|
.PP
|
|
You can browse the filelist with the up and down arrow keys. The Chdir
|
|
button will change to the directory of the currently selected
|
|
file. The Again button will ask for the parameters for a new
|
|
search. The Quit button quits the search operation. The Panelize
|
|
button will place the found files to the current directory panel so
|
|
that you can do additional operations on them (view, copy, move,
|
|
delete and so on). After panelizing you can press C-r to return to the
|
|
normal file listing.
|
|
.PP
|
|
It is possible to have a list of directories that the Find File
|
|
command should skip during the search (for example, you may want to
|
|
avoid searches on a CDROM or on a NFS directory that is mounted across
|
|
a slow link).
|
|
.PP
|
|
Directories to be skipped should be set on the variable
|
|
.B find_ignore_dirs
|
|
in the
|
|
.B Misc
|
|
section of your ~/.mc/ini file.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Directory components should be separated with a colon, here is an
|
|
example:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.nf
|
|
[Misc]
|
|
find_ignore_dirs=/cdrom:/nfs/wuarchive:/afs
|
|
.fi
|
|
.PP
|
|
You may consider using the
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
External panelize
|
|
.\"External panelize"
|
|
command for some operations. Find file command is for simple queries
|
|
only, while using External panelize you can do as mysterious searches
|
|
as you would like.
|
|
.\"NODE " External panelize"
|
|
.SH " External panelize"
|
|
The External panelize allows you to execute an external program, and
|
|
make the output of that program the contents of the current panel.
|
|
.PP
|
|
For example, if you want to manipulate in one of the panels all the
|
|
symbolic links in the current directory, you can use external
|
|
panelization to run the following command:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.nf
|
|
find . -type l -print
|
|
.fi
|
|
.PP
|
|
Upon command completion, the directory contents of the panel will no
|
|
longer be the directory listing of the current directory, but all the
|
|
files that are symbolic links.
|
|
.PP
|
|
If you want to panelize all of the files that have been downloaded
|
|
from your ftp server, you can use this awk command to extract the file
|
|
name from the transfer log files:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.nf
|
|
awk '$9 ~! /incoming/ { print $9 }' < /usr/adm/xferlog
|
|
.fi
|
|
.PP
|
|
You may want to save often used panelize commands under a descriptive name,
|
|
so that you can recall them quickly. You do this by typing the command on
|
|
the input line and pressing Add new button. Then you enter a name under
|
|
which you want the command to be saved. Next time, you just choose that
|
|
command from the list and do not have to type it again.
|
|
.\"NODE " Hotlist"
|
|
.SH " Hotlist"
|
|
The Directory hotlist command shows the labels of the directories
|
|
in the directory hotlist. The Midnight Commander will change to the
|
|
directory corresponding to the selected label. From the hotlist dialog,
|
|
you can remove already created label/directory pairs and add new ones.
|
|
To add new directories quickly, you can use the Add to hotlist command
|
|
(C-x h), which adds the current directory into the directory hotlist,
|
|
asking just for the label for the directory.
|
|
.PP
|
|
This makes cd to often used directories faster. You may consider using the
|
|
CDPATH variable as described in
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
internal cd command
|
|
.\"The cd internal command"
|
|
description.
|
|
.\"NODE " Extension File Edit"
|
|
.SH " Extension File Edit"
|
|
This will invoke your editor on the file
|
|
.IR ~/.mc/bindings .
|
|
The format of this file is as follows (the format has changed with
|
|
version 3.0):
|
|
.PP
|
|
All lines starting with # or empty lines are thrown away.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Lines starting in the first column should have following format:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.IR keyword/desc ,
|
|
i.e. everything after
|
|
.I keyword/
|
|
until new line is
|
|
.I desc
|
|
.PP
|
|
keyword can be:
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I shell
|
|
(desc is then any extension (no wildcards), i.e. matches all the files
|
|
*desc . Example: .tar matches *.tar)
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I regex
|
|
(desc is a regular expression)
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I type
|
|
(file matches this if `file %f` matches regular expression desc
|
|
(the filename: part from `file %f` is removed))
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I default
|
|
(matches any file no matter what desc is)
|
|
.PP
|
|
Other lines should start with a space or tab and should be of the format:
|
|
.I keyword=command
|
|
(with no spaces around =), where
|
|
.I keyword
|
|
should be:
|
|
.I Open
|
|
(if the user presses Enter or doubleclicks it),
|
|
.I View
|
|
(F3) or
|
|
.I Edit
|
|
(F4).
|
|
.I command
|
|
is any one-line shell command, with the simple
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
macro substitution\&.
|
|
.\"Macro Substitution"
|
|
.PP
|
|
Rules are matched from top to bottom, thus the order is important. If
|
|
the appropriate action is missing, search continues as if this rule
|
|
didn't match (i.e. if a file matches the first and second entry and View
|
|
action is missing in the first one, then on pressing F3 the View action
|
|
from the second entry will be used).
|
|
.I default
|
|
should match all the actions.
|
|
.\"NODE " Background jobs"
|
|
.SH " Background Jobs"
|
|
This lets you control the state of any background Midnight Commander
|
|
process (only copy and move files operations can be done in the
|
|
background). You can stop, restart and kill a background job from
|
|
here.
|
|
.\"NODE " Menu File Edit"
|
|
.SH " Menu File Edit"
|
|
The user menu is a menu of useful actions that can be customized by
|
|
the user. When you access the user menu, the
|
|
file .mc.menu from the current directory is used if it exists,
|
|
but only if it is owned by user or root and is not world-writable.
|
|
If no such file found, ~/.mc/menu is tried in the same way,
|
|
and otherwise mc uses the default system-wide menu
|
|
@prefix@/share/mc/mc.menu.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The format of the menu file is very simple. Lines that start with
|
|
anything but space or tab are considered entries for the menu (in
|
|
order to be able to use it like a hot key, the first character should
|
|
be a letter). All the lines that start with a space or a tab are the
|
|
commands that will be executed when the entry is selected.
|
|
.PP
|
|
When an option is selected all the command lines of the option are
|
|
copied to a temporary file in the temporary directory (usually
|
|
/usr/tmp) and then that file is executed. This allows the user to put
|
|
normal shell constructs in the menus. Also simple macro substitution
|
|
takes place before executing the menu code. For more information, see
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
macro substitution\&.
|
|
.\"Macro Substitution"
|
|
.PP
|
|
Here is a sample mc.menu file:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.nf
|
|
A Dump the currently selected file
|
|
od -c %f
|
|
|
|
B Edit a bug report and send it to root
|
|
vi /tmp/mail.$$
|
|
mail -s "Midnight Commander bug" root < /tmp/mail.$$
|
|
|
|
M Read mail
|
|
emacs -f rmail
|
|
|
|
N Read Usenet news
|
|
emacs -f gnus
|
|
|
|
H Call the info hypertext browser
|
|
info
|
|
|
|
J Copy current directory to other panel recursively
|
|
tar cf - . | (cd %D && tar xvpf -)
|
|
|
|
K Make a release of the current subdirectory
|
|
echo -n "Name of distribution file: "
|
|
read tar
|
|
ln -s %d `dirname %d`/$tar
|
|
cd ..
|
|
tar cvhf ${tar}.tar $tar
|
|
|
|
= f *.tar.gz | f *.tgz & t n
|
|
X Extract the contents of a compressed tar file
|
|
tar xzvf %f
|
|
.fi
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B Default Conditions
|
|
.PP
|
|
Each menu entry may be preceded by a condition. The condition must
|
|
start from the first column with a '=' character. If the condition is
|
|
true, the menu entry will be the default entry.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.nf
|
|
Condition syntax: = <sub-cond>
|
|
or: = <sub-cond> | <sub-cond> ...
|
|
or: = <sub-cond> & <sub-cond> ...
|
|
|
|
Sub-condition is one of following:
|
|
|
|
y <pattern> syntax of current file matching pattern?
|
|
(for edit menu only)
|
|
f <pattern> current file matching pattern?
|
|
F <pattern> other file matching pattern?
|
|
d <pattern> current directory matching pattern?
|
|
D <pattern> other directory matching pattern?
|
|
t <type> current file of type?
|
|
T <type> other file of type?
|
|
x <filename> is it executable filename?
|
|
! <sub-cond> negate the result of sub-condition
|
|
.fi
|
|
.PP
|
|
Pattern is a normal shell pattern or a regular expression, according
|
|
to the shell patterns option. You can override the global value of
|
|
the shell patterns option by writing "shell_patterns=x" on the first
|
|
line of the menu file (where "x" is either 0 or 1).
|
|
.PP
|
|
Type is one or more of the following characters:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.nf
|
|
n not directory
|
|
r regular file
|
|
d directory
|
|
l link
|
|
c char special
|
|
b block special
|
|
f fifo (pipe)
|
|
s socket
|
|
x executable
|
|
t tagged
|
|
.fi
|
|
.PP
|
|
For example 'rlf' means either regular file, link or fifo. The 't'
|
|
type is a little special because it acts on the panel instead of the
|
|
file. The condition '=t t' is true if there are tagged files in the
|
|
current panel and false if not.
|
|
.PP
|
|
If the condition starts with '=?' instead of '=' a debug trace will be
|
|
shown whenever the value of the condition is calculated.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The conditions are calculated from left to right. This means
|
|
.nf
|
|
= f *.tar.gz | f *.tgz & t n
|
|
.fi
|
|
is calculated as
|
|
.nf
|
|
( (f *.tar.gz) | (f *.tgz) ) & (t n)
|
|
.fi
|
|
.PP
|
|
Here is a sample of the use of conditions:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.nf
|
|
= f *.tar.gz | f *.tgz & t n
|
|
L List the contents of a compressed tar-archive
|
|
gzip -cd %f | tar xvf -
|
|
.fi
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B Addition Conditions
|
|
.PP
|
|
If the condition begins with '+' (or '+?') instead of '=' (or '=?') it
|
|
is an addition condition. If the condition is true the menu entry will
|
|
be included in the menu. If the condition is false the menu entry will
|
|
not be included in the menu.
|
|
.PP
|
|
You can combine default and addition conditions by starting condition
|
|
with '+=' or '=+' (or '+=?' or '=+?' if you want debug trace). If you
|
|
want to use two different conditions, one for adding and another for
|
|
defaulting, you can precede a menu entry with two condition lines, one
|
|
starting with '+' and another starting with '='.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Comments are started with '#'. The additional comment lines must start
|
|
with '#', space or tab.
|
|
.\"NODE " Options Menu"
|
|
.SH " Options Menu"
|
|
The Midnight Commander has some options that may be toggled on and
|
|
off in several dialogs which are accessible from this menu. Options
|
|
are enabled if they have an asterisk or "x" in front of them.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Configuration
|
|
.\"Configuration"
|
|
command pops up a dialog from which you can change most of settings of
|
|
the Midnight Commander.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Layout
|
|
.\"Layout"
|
|
command pops up a dialog from which you specify a bunch of options how mc
|
|
looks like on the screen.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Confirmation
|
|
.\"Confirmation"
|
|
command pops up a dialog from which you specify which actions you want to
|
|
confirm.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Display bits
|
|
.\"Display bits"
|
|
command pops up a dialog from which you may select which characters is your
|
|
terminal able to display.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Learn keys
|
|
.\"Learn keys"
|
|
command pops up a dialog from which you test some keys which are not working
|
|
on some terminals and you may fix them.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Virtual FS
|
|
.\"Virtual FS"
|
|
command pops up a dialog from which you specify some VFS related options.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Save setup
|
|
.\"Save Setup"
|
|
command saves the current settings of the Left, Right and Options
|
|
menus. A small number of other settings is saved, too.
|
|
.\"NODE " Configuration"
|
|
.SH " Configuration"
|
|
The options in this dialog are divided into three groups:
|
|
Panel Options, Pause after run and Other Options.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B Panel Options
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I Show Backup Files.
|
|
If enabled, the Midnight Commander will show files ending with a tilde.
|
|
Otherwise, they won't be shown (like GNU's ls option -B).
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I Show Hidden Files.
|
|
If enabled, the Midnight Commander will show all files that start with
|
|
a dot (like ls -a).
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I Mark moves down.
|
|
If enabled, the selection bar will move down when you mark a file (with
|
|
either C-t or the Insert key).
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I Drop down menus.
|
|
When this option is enabled, the pull down menus will be activated as
|
|
soon as you press the
|
|
.B F9
|
|
key. Otherwise, you will only get the menu title, and you will have
|
|
to activate the menu either with the arrow keys or with the hotkeys.
|
|
It is recommended if you are using hotkeys.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I Mix all files.
|
|
If this option is enabled, all files and directories are shown mixed
|
|
together. If the option is off, directories (and links to directories)
|
|
are shown at the beginning of the listing, and other files below.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I Fast directory reload.
|
|
If this option is enabled, the Midnight Commander will use a trick to
|
|
determine if the directory contents have changed. The trick is to reload
|
|
the directory only if the i-node of the directory has changed; this means
|
|
that reloads only happen when files are created or deleted. If what
|
|
changes is the i-node for a file in the directory (file size changes,
|
|
mode or owner changes, etc) the display is not updated. In these cases,
|
|
if you have the option on, you have to rescan the directory manually
|
|
(with C-r).
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B Pause after run
|
|
.PP
|
|
After executing your commands, the Midnight Commander can pause, so
|
|
that you can examine the output of the command. There are three
|
|
possible settings for this variable:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I Never.
|
|
Means that you do not want to see the output of your command. If you
|
|
are using the Linux or SCO console or an xterm, you will be able to see the
|
|
output of the command by typing C-o.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I On dumb terminals.
|
|
You will get the pause message on terminals that are not capable of
|
|
showing the output of the last command executed (any terminal that is
|
|
not an xterm or the Linux console).
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I Always.
|
|
The program will pause after executing all of your commands.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B Other Options
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I Verbose operation.
|
|
This toggles whether the file Copy, Rename and Delete operations are
|
|
verbose (i.e., display a dialog box for each operation). If you have a
|
|
slow terminal, you may wish to disable the verbose operation. It is
|
|
automatically turned off if the speed of your terminal is less than
|
|
9600 bps.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I Compute totals.
|
|
If this option is enabled, the Midnight
|
|
Commander computes total byte sizes and total number of files
|
|
prior to any Copy, Rename and Delete operations. This will
|
|
provide you with a more accurate progress bar at the expense
|
|
of some speed. This option has no effect, if
|
|
.I Verbose operation
|
|
is disabled.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I Shell Patterns.
|
|
By default the Select, Unselect and Filter commands will use shell-like
|
|
regular expressions. The following conversions are performed to achieve
|
|
this: the '*' is replaced by '.*' (zero or more characters); the '?'
|
|
is replaced by '.' (exactly one character) and '.' by the literal
|
|
dot. If the option is disabled, then the regular expressions are the
|
|
ones described in ed(1).
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I Auto Save Setup.
|
|
If this option is enabled, when you exit the Midnight Commander the
|
|
configurable options of the Midnight Commander are saved in the
|
|
~/.mc/ini file.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I Auto menus.
|
|
If this option is enabled, the user menu will be invoked at startup.
|
|
Useful for building menus for non-unixers.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I Use internal editor.
|
|
If this option is enabled, the built-in file editor is used to edit
|
|
files. If the option is disabled, the editor specified in the
|
|
.B EDITOR
|
|
environment variable is used.
|
|
If no editor is specified,
|
|
.B vi
|
|
is used. See the section on the
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
internal file editor\&.
|
|
.\"Internal File Editor"
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I Use internal viewer.
|
|
If this option is enabled, the built-in file viewer is used to view
|
|
files. If the option is disabled, the pager specified in the
|
|
.B PAGER
|
|
environment variable is used.
|
|
If no pager is specified, the
|
|
.B view
|
|
command is used. See the section on the
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
internal file viewer\&.
|
|
.\"Internal File Viewer"
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I Complete: show all.
|
|
By default the Midnight Commander pops up all possible
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
completions
|
|
.\"Completion"
|
|
if the completion is ambiguous only when you press
|
|
.B M-Tab
|
|
for the second time. For the first time, it just completes as much as
|
|
possible and beeps in the case of ambiguity. Enable this option if you
|
|
want to see all possible completions even after pressing
|
|
.B M-Tab
|
|
the first time.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I Rotating dash.
|
|
If this option is enabled, the
|
|
Midnight Commander shows a rotating dash in the upper right corner
|
|
as a work in progress indicator.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I Lynx-like motion.
|
|
If this option is enabled,
|
|
you may use the arrows keys to automatically chdir if the
|
|
current selection is a subdirectory and the shell command
|
|
line is empty. By default, this setting is off.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I Cd follows links.
|
|
This option, if set, causes the Midnight Commander to follow the
|
|
logical chain of directories when changing current directory
|
|
either in the panels, or using the cd command. This is the default
|
|
behavior of bash. When unset, the Midnight Commander follows the
|
|
real directory structure, so cd .. if you've entered that directory
|
|
through a link will move you to the current directory's real parent
|
|
and not to the directory where the link was present.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I Safe delete.
|
|
If this option is enabled, deleting files unintentionally becomes more
|
|
difficult. The default selection in the confirmation dialogs for
|
|
deletion changes from "Yes" to "No". This option is disabled by
|
|
default.
|
|
.\"NODE " Layout"
|
|
.SH " Layout"
|
|
The layout dialog gives you a possibility to change the general layout
|
|
of screen. You can specify whether the menubar, the command prompt,
|
|
the hintbar and the function keybar are visible. On the Linux or SCO console
|
|
you can specify how many lines are shown in the output window.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The rest of the screen area is used for the two directory panels. You
|
|
can specify whether the area is split to the panels in vertical or
|
|
horizontal direction. The split can be equal or you can specify an
|
|
unequal split.
|
|
.PP
|
|
By default all contents of the directory panels are displayed with
|
|
the same color, but you can specify whether
|
|
.I permissions
|
|
and
|
|
.I file types
|
|
are highlighted with special
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Colors\&.
|
|
.\"Colors"
|
|
If permission highlighting is enabled, the parts of the
|
|
.I perm
|
|
and
|
|
.I mode
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
display fields
|
|
.\"Listing Mode..."
|
|
which are valid for the user running Midnight Commander
|
|
are highlighted with the color defined with the
|
|
.I selected
|
|
keyword. If file type highlighting is enabled, files are colored according
|
|
to their file type (e.g. directory, core file, executable, ...).
|
|
.PP
|
|
If the
|
|
.I Show Mini-Status
|
|
option is enabled, one line of status
|
|
information about the currently selected item is showed at the bottom
|
|
of the panels.
|
|
.\"NODE " Confirmation"
|
|
.SH " Confirmation"
|
|
In this menu you configure the confirmation options for file deletion,
|
|
overwriting, execution by pressing enter and quitting the program.
|
|
.\"NODE " Display bits"
|
|
.SH " Display bits"
|
|
This is used to configure the range of visible characters on the
|
|
screen. This setting may be 7-bits if your terminal/curses supports
|
|
only seven output bits, ISO-8859-1 displays all the characters in the
|
|
ISO-8859-1 map and full 8 bits is for those terminals that can display
|
|
full 8 bit characters.
|
|
.\"NODE " Learn keys"
|
|
.SH " Learn keys"
|
|
This dialog allows you to test and redefine functional keys, cursor
|
|
arrows and some other keys to make them work properly on your terminal.
|
|
They often don't, since many terminal databases are incomplete or broken.
|
|
.PP
|
|
You can move around with the Tab key and with the vi moving keys ('h'
|
|
left, 'j' down, 'k' up and 'l' right). Once you press any cursor movement
|
|
key and it is recognized, you can use that key as well.
|
|
.PP
|
|
You can test keys just by pressing each of them. When you press a
|
|
key and it is recognized properly, OK should appear next to the name
|
|
of that key. Once a key is marked OK it starts working as usually,
|
|
e.g. F1 pressed the first time will just check that the F1 key works,
|
|
but after that it will show help. The same applies to the arrow keys.
|
|
The Tab key should be working always.
|
|
.PP
|
|
If some keys do not work properly then you won't see OK appear after
|
|
pressing that key. Then you may want to redefine it. Do it by pressing
|
|
the button with the name of that key (either by the mouse or by Enter
|
|
or Space after selecting the button with Tab or arrows). Then a message
|
|
box will appear asking you to press that key. Do it and wait until the
|
|
message box disappears. If you want to abort, just press Escape once
|
|
and wait.
|
|
.PP
|
|
When you finish with all the keys, you can Save them. The definitions
|
|
for the keys you have redefined will be written into the [terminal:TERM]
|
|
section of your ~/.mc/ini file (where TERM is the name of your current
|
|
terminal). The definitions of the keys that were already working properly
|
|
are not saved.
|
|
.\"NODE " Virtual FS"
|
|
.SH " Virtual FS"
|
|
This option gives you control over the settings of the
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Virtual File System
|
|
.\"Virtual File System"
|
|
information cache.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The Midnight Commander keeps in memory the information
|
|
related to some of the virtual file systems to speed up
|
|
the access to the files in the file system (for example,
|
|
directory listings fetched from ftp servers).
|
|
.PP
|
|
Moreover in order to access the contents of compressed files
|
|
(for example, compressed tar files) the Midnight Commander
|
|
has to create a temporary uncompressed file on your disk.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Since both the information in memory and the temporary files on
|
|
disk take up resources, you may want to tune the parameters of
|
|
the cached information to decrease your resource usage or to maximize
|
|
the speed of access to frequently used file systems.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The Tar file system is quite clever about how it handles
|
|
tar files: it just loads the directory entries and when it
|
|
needs to use the information contained in the tar file, it
|
|
goes and grab it.
|
|
.PP
|
|
In the wild, tar files are usually kept compressed (plain
|
|
tar files are species in extinction), and because of the
|
|
nature of those files (the directory entries for the tar
|
|
files is not there waiting for us to be loaded), the tar
|
|
file system has to uncompress the file
|
|
on the disk in a temporary location and then access the
|
|
uncompressed file as a regular tar file.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Now, since we all love to browse files and tar files all
|
|
over the disk, it's common that you will leave a tar file
|
|
and the re-enter it later. Since uncompression is slow,
|
|
the Midnight Commander will cache the information in
|
|
memory for a limited amount of time, after you hit the
|
|
timeout, all of the resources associated with the
|
|
file system will be freed. The default timeout is set to
|
|
one minute.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
FTP File System
|
|
.\"FTP File System"
|
|
keeps the directory listing it fetches from a ftp server
|
|
in a cache. The cache
|
|
expire time is configurable with the
|
|
.I ftpfs directory cache timeout
|
|
option.
|
|
A low value for this
|
|
option may slow down every operation on the ftp file System
|
|
because every operation is accompanied by a query of the
|
|
ftp server.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Moreover you can define a proxy host for doing ftp transfers
|
|
and configure the Midnight Commander to always use the proxy host.
|
|
See
|
|
the section on
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
FTP File System
|
|
.\"FTP File System"
|
|
for more information.
|
|
.\"NODE " Save Setup"
|
|
.SH " Save Setup"
|
|
At startup the Midnight Commander will try to load initialization
|
|
information from the ~/.mc/ini file. If this file doesn't exist,
|
|
it will load the information from the system-wide configuration file,
|
|
located in @prefix@/share/mc/mc.ini. If the system-wide configuration
|
|
file doesn't exist, MC uses the default settings.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The
|
|
.I Save Setup
|
|
command creates the ~/.mc/ini file by saving the current settings
|
|
of the
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Left, Right
|
|
.\"Left and Right Menus"
|
|
and
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Options
|
|
.\"Options Menu"
|
|
menus.
|
|
.PP
|
|
If you activate the
|
|
.I auto save setup
|
|
option, MC will always save the current settings when exiting.
|
|
.PP
|
|
There also exist settings which can't be changed from the menus. To
|
|
change these settings you have to edit the setup file with your
|
|
favorite editor. See the section on
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Special Settings
|
|
.\"Special Settings"
|
|
for more information.
|
|
.SH ""
|
|
.\"NODE "Executing operating system commands"
|
|
.SH "Executing operating system commands"
|
|
You may execute commands by typing them directly in the Midnight
|
|
Commander's input line, or by selecting the program you want to
|
|
execute with the selection bar in one of the panels and hitting Enter.
|
|
.PP
|
|
If you press Enter over a file that is not executable, the Midnight
|
|
Commander checks the extension of the selected file against the
|
|
extensions in the
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Extensions File\&.
|
|
.\"Extension File Edit"
|
|
If a match is found then the code associated with that extension is
|
|
executed. A very simple
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
macro expansion
|
|
.\"Macro Substitution"
|
|
takes place before executing the command.
|
|
.\"NODE " The cd internal command"
|
|
.SH " The cd internal command"
|
|
The
|
|
.I cd
|
|
command is interpreted by the Midnight Commander, it is not passed to
|
|
the command shell for execution. Thus it may not handle all of the
|
|
nice macro expansion and substitution that your shell does, although it
|
|
does some of them:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I Tilde substitution.
|
|
The (~) will be substituted with your home directory, if you append a
|
|
username after the tilde, then it will be substituted with the login
|
|
directory of the specified user.
|
|
.PP
|
|
For example, ~guest is the home directory for the user guest, while
|
|
~/guest is the directory guest in your home directory.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I Previous directory.
|
|
You can jump to the directory you were previously by using the special
|
|
directory name '-' like this:
|
|
.B cd -
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I CDPATH directories.
|
|
If the directory specified to the
|
|
.B cd
|
|
command is not in the current directory, then The Midnight Commander
|
|
uses the value in the environment variable
|
|
.B CDPATH
|
|
to search for the directory in any of the named directories.
|
|
.PP
|
|
For example you could set your
|
|
.B CDPATH
|
|
variable to ~/src:/usr/src, allowing you to change your directory to
|
|
any of the directories inside the ~/src and /usr/src directories, from
|
|
any place in the file system by using it's relative name (for example
|
|
cd linux could take you to /usr/src/linux).
|
|
.\"NODE " Macro Substitution"
|
|
.SH " Macro Substitution"
|
|
When accessing a
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
user menu\&,
|
|
.\"Menu File Edit"
|
|
or executing an
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
extension dependent command\&,
|
|
.\"Extension File Edit"
|
|
or running a command from the command line input, a simple macro
|
|
substitution takes place.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The macros are:
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I %i
|
|
The indent of blank space, equal the cursor column position. For edit
|
|
menu only.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I %y
|
|
The syntax type of current file. For edit menu only.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I %k
|
|
The block file name.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I %e
|
|
The error file name.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I %m
|
|
The current menu name.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.IR %f " and " %p
|
|
The current file name.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I %x
|
|
The extension of current file name.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I %b
|
|
The current file name without extension.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I %d
|
|
The current directory name.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I %F
|
|
The current file in the unselected panel.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I %D
|
|
The directory name of the unselected panel.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I %t
|
|
The currently tagged files.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I %T
|
|
The tagged files in the unselected panel.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.IR %u " and " %U
|
|
Similar to the %t and %T macros, but in addition the files are untagged.
|
|
You can use this macro only once per menu file entry or extension file
|
|
entry, because next time there will be no tagged files.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.IR %s " and " %S
|
|
The selected files: The tagged files if there are any. Otherwise the
|
|
current file.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I %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
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Virtual File System\&.
|
|
.\"Virtual File System"
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I %view
|
|
This macro is used to invoke the internal viewer. This macro can be
|
|
used alone, or with arguments. If you pass any arguments to this
|
|
macro, they should be enclosed in brackets.
|
|
.IP
|
|
The arguments are:
|
|
.I ascii
|
|
to force the viewer into ascii mode;
|
|
.I hex
|
|
to force the viewer into hex mode;
|
|
.I nroff
|
|
to tell the viewer that it should interpret the bold and underline
|
|
sequences of nroff;
|
|
.I unformatted
|
|
to tell the viewer to not interpret nroff commands for making the text
|
|
bold or underlined.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I %%
|
|
The % character
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I %{some text}
|
|
Prompt for the substitution. An input box is shown and the text inside
|
|
the braces is used as a prompt. The macro is substituted by the text
|
|
typed by the user. The user can press ESC or F10 to cancel. This macro
|
|
doesn't work on the command line yet.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I %var{ENV:default}
|
|
If environment variable
|
|
.I ENV
|
|
is unset, the
|
|
.I default
|
|
is substituted. Otherwise, the value of
|
|
.I ENV
|
|
is substituted.
|
|
.\"NODE " The subshell support"
|
|
.SH " The subshell support"
|
|
The subshell support is a compile time option, that works with the
|
|
shells: bash, tcsh and zsh.
|
|
.PP
|
|
When the subshell code is activated the Midnight Commander will
|
|
spawn a concurrent copy of your shell (the one defined in the
|
|
.B SHELL
|
|
variable and if it is not defined, then the one in the /etc/passwd
|
|
file) and run it in a pseudo terminal, instead of invoking a new shell
|
|
each time you execute a command, the command will be passed to the
|
|
subshell as if you had typed it. This also allows you to change the
|
|
environment variables, use shell functions and define aliases that are
|
|
valid until you quit the Midnight Commander.
|
|
.PP
|
|
If you are using
|
|
.B bash
|
|
you can specify startup
|
|
commands for the subshell in your ~/.mc/bashrc file and
|
|
special keyboard maps in the ~/.mc/inputrc file.
|
|
.B tcsh
|
|
users may specify startup commands in the ~/.mc/tcshrc file.
|
|
.PP
|
|
When the subshell code is used, you can suspend applications at any
|
|
time with the sequence C-o and jump back to the Midnight Commander, if
|
|
you interrupt an application, you will not be able to run other
|
|
external commands until you quit the application you interrupted.
|
|
.PP
|
|
An extra added feature of using the subshell is that the prompt
|
|
displayed by the Midnight Commander is the same prompt that you are
|
|
currently using in your shell.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
OPTIONS
|
|
.\"OPTIONS"
|
|
section has more information on how you can control the subshell code.
|
|
.\"NODE "Chmod"
|
|
.SH "Chmod"
|
|
The Chmod window is used to change the attribute bits in a group of
|
|
files and directories. It can be invoked with the C-x c key combination.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The Chmod window has two parts -
|
|
.I Permissions
|
|
and
|
|
.IR File .
|
|
.PP
|
|
In the File section are displayed the name of the file or directory
|
|
and its permissions in octal form, as well as its owner and group.
|
|
.PP
|
|
In the Permissions section there is a set of check buttons which
|
|
correspond to the file attribute bits. As you change the attribute
|
|
bits, you can see the octal value change in the File section.
|
|
.PP
|
|
To move between the widgets (buttons and check buttons) use the
|
|
.I arrow keys
|
|
or the
|
|
.I Tab
|
|
key. To change the state of the check buttons or to select a button
|
|
use
|
|
.I Space.
|
|
You can also use the hotkeys on the buttons to quickly activate them.
|
|
Hotkeys are shown as highlighted letters on the buttons.
|
|
.PP
|
|
To set the attribute bits, use the Enter key.
|
|
.PP
|
|
When working with a group of files or directories, you just click on
|
|
the bits you want to set or clear. Once you have selected the bits
|
|
you want to change, you select one of the action buttons (Set marked
|
|
or Clear marked).
|
|
.PP
|
|
Finally, to set the attributes exactly to those specified, you can use
|
|
the
|
|
.B [Set all]
|
|
button, which will act on all the tagged files.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B [Marked all]
|
|
set only marked attributes to all selected files
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B [Set marked]
|
|
set marked bits in attributes of all selected files
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B [Clean marked]
|
|
clear marked bits in attributes of all selected files
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B [Set]
|
|
set the attributes of one file
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B [Cancel]
|
|
cancel the Chmod command
|
|
.\"NODE "Chown"
|
|
.SH "Chown"
|
|
The Chown command is used to change the owner/group of a file. The hot
|
|
key for this command is C-x o.
|
|
.\"NODE "Advanced Chown"
|
|
.SH "Advanced Chown"
|
|
The Advanced Chown command is the
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Chmod
|
|
.\"Chmod"
|
|
and
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Chown
|
|
.\"Chown"
|
|
command combined into one window. You can change the permissions and
|
|
owner/group of files at once.
|
|
.\"NODE "File Operations"
|
|
.SH "File Operations"
|
|
When you copy, move or delete files the Midnight Commander shows the
|
|
file operations dialog. It shows the files currently being operated on
|
|
and there are at most three progress bars. The file bar tells how big
|
|
part of the current file has been copied so far. The count bar tells
|
|
how many of tagged files have been handled so far. The bytes bar tells
|
|
how big part of total size of the tagged files has been handled so
|
|
far. If the verbose option is off the file and bytes bars are not
|
|
shown.
|
|
.PP
|
|
There are two buttons at the bottom of the dialog. Pressing the Skip
|
|
button will skip the rest of the current file. Pressing the Abort
|
|
button will abort the whole operation, the rest of the files are
|
|
skipped.
|
|
.PP
|
|
There are three other dialogs which you can run into during the file
|
|
operations.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The error dialog informs about error conditions and has three
|
|
choices. Normally you select either the Skip button to skip the file
|
|
or the Abort button to abort the operation altogether. You can also
|
|
select the Retry button if you fixed the problem from another
|
|
terminal.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The replace dialog is shown when you attempt to copy or move a file on
|
|
the top of an existing file. The dialog shows the dates and sizes of
|
|
the both files. Press the Yes button to overwrite the file, the No
|
|
button to skip the file, the alL button to overwrite all the files,
|
|
the nonE button to never overwrite and the Update button to overwrite
|
|
if the source file is newer than the target file. You can abort the
|
|
whole operation by pressing the Abort button.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The recursive delete dialog is shown when you try to delete a
|
|
directory which is not empty. Press the Yes button to delete the
|
|
directory recursively, the No button to skip the directory, the alL
|
|
button to delete all the directories and the nonE button to skip all
|
|
the non-empty directories. You can abort the whole operation by
|
|
pressing the Abort button. If you selected the Yes or alL button you
|
|
will be asked for a confirmation. Type "yes" only if you are really
|
|
sure you want to do the recursive delete.
|
|
.PP
|
|
If you have tagged files and perform an operation on them only the
|
|
files on which the operation succeeded are untagged. Failed and
|
|
skipped files are left tagged.
|
|
.\"NODE "Mask Copy/Rename"
|
|
.SH "Mask Copy/Rename"
|
|
The copy/move operations lets you translate the names of files in an easy
|
|
way. To do it, you have to specify the correct source mask and usually in
|
|
the trailing part of the destination specify some wildcards.
|
|
All the files matching the source mask are copied/renamed according to
|
|
the target mask. If there are tagged files, only the tagged files
|
|
matching the source mask are renamed.
|
|
.PP
|
|
There are other options which you can set:
|
|
.PP
|
|
Follow links tells whether make the symlinks and hardlinks in the source
|
|
directory (recursively in subdirectories) new links in the target
|
|
directory or whether would you like to copy their content.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Dive into subdirs tells what to do if in the target
|
|
directory exists a directory with the same name as the
|
|
file/directory being copied. The default action is to copy
|
|
it's content into that directory, by enabling this
|
|
you can copy the source directory into that directory.
|
|
Perhaps an example will help:
|
|
.PP
|
|
You want to copy content of a directory foo to /bla/foo,
|
|
which is an already existing directory. Normally (when
|
|
Dive is not set), mc would copy it exactly into /bla/foo.
|
|
By enabling this option you will copy the content into /bla/foo/foo,
|
|
because the directory already exists.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Preserve attributes tells whether to preserve the original files'
|
|
permissions, timestamps and if you are root whether to preserve
|
|
the original files' UID and GID. If this option is not set the current
|
|
value of the umask will be respected.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B "Use shell patterns on"
|
|
.PP
|
|
When the shell patterns option is on you can use the '*' and '?'
|
|
wildcards in the source mask. They work like they do in the shell. In
|
|
the target mask only the '*' and '\\<digit>' wildcards are allowed. The
|
|
first '*' wildcard in the target mask corresponds to the first
|
|
wildcard group in the source mask, the second '*' corresponds to the
|
|
second group and so on. The '\\1' wildcard corresponds to the first
|
|
wildcard group in the source mask, the '\\2' wildcard corresponds to
|
|
the second group and so on all the way up to '\\9'. The '\\0' wildcard
|
|
is the whole filename of the source file.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Two examples:
|
|
.PP
|
|
If the source mask is "*.tar.gz", the destination is "/bla/*.tgz" and the
|
|
file to be copied is "foo.tar.gz", the copy will be "foo.tgz" in "/bla".
|
|
.PP
|
|
Let's suppose you want to swap basename and extension so that "file.c"
|
|
will become "c.file" and so on. The source mask for this is "*.*" and
|
|
the destination is "\\2.\\1".
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B "Use shell patterns off"
|
|
.PP
|
|
When the shell patterns option is off the MC doesn't do automatic
|
|
grouping anymore. You must use '\\(...\\)' expressions in the source
|
|
mask to specify meaning for the wildcards in the target mask. This is
|
|
more flexible but also requires more typing. Otherwise target masks
|
|
are similar to the situation when the shell patterns option is on.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Two examples:
|
|
.PP
|
|
If the source mask is "^\\(.*\\)\\.tar\\.gz$", the destination is
|
|
"/bla/*.tgz" and the file to be copied is "foo.tar.gz", the copy
|
|
will be "/bla/foo.tgz".
|
|
.PP
|
|
Let's suppose you want to swap basename and extension so that "file.c"
|
|
will become "c.file" and so on. The source mask for this is
|
|
"^\\(.*\\)\\.\\(.*\\)$" and the destination is "\\2.\\1".
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B "Case Conversions"
|
|
.PP
|
|
You can also change the case of the filenames. If you use '\\u'
|
|
or '\\l' in the target mask, the next character will be converted to
|
|
uppercase or lowercase correspondingly.
|
|
.PP
|
|
If you use '\\U' or '\\L' in the target mask, the next characters will
|
|
be converted to uppercase or lowercase correspondingly up to the
|
|
next '\\E' or next '\\U', '\\L' or the end of the file name.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The '\\u' and '\\l' are stronger than '\\U' and '\\L'.
|
|
.PP
|
|
For example, if the source mask is '*' (shell patterns on) or '^\\(.*\\)$'
|
|
(shell patterns off) and the target mask is '\\L\\u*' the file names
|
|
will be converted to have initial upper case and otherwise lower case.
|
|
.PP
|
|
You can also use '\\' as a quote character. For example, '\\\\' is
|
|
a backslash and '\\*' is an asterisk.
|
|
.\"NODE "Internal File Viewer"
|
|
.SH "Internal File Viewer"
|
|
The internal file viewer provides two display modes: ASCII and hex.
|
|
To toggle between modes, use the F4 key. If you have the GNU gzip
|
|
program installed, it will be used to automatically decompress the
|
|
files on demand.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The viewer will try to use the best method provided by your system or
|
|
the file type to display the information. The internal file viewer
|
|
will interpret some string sequences to set the bold and underline
|
|
attributes, thus making a pretty display of your files.
|
|
.PP
|
|
When in hex mode, the search function accepts text in quotes and
|
|
constant numbers. Text in quotes is matched exactly after removing
|
|
the quotes. Each number matches one byte. You can mix quoted text
|
|
with constants like this:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.nf
|
|
"String" -1 0xBB 012 "more text"
|
|
.fi
|
|
.PP
|
|
Note that 012 is an octal number. -1 is converted to 0xFF.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Some internal details about the viewer: On systems that provide the
|
|
mmap(2) system call, the program maps the file instead of loading it;
|
|
if the system does not provide the mmap(2) system call or the file
|
|
matches an action that requires a filter, then the viewer will use
|
|
it's growing buffers, thus loading only those parts of the file that
|
|
you actually access (this includes compressed files).
|
|
.PP
|
|
Here is a listing of the actions associated with each key that the
|
|
Midnight Commander handles in the internal file viewer.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B F1
|
|
Invoke the builtin hypertext help viewer.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B F2
|
|
Toggle the wrap mode.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B F4
|
|
Toggle the hex mode.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B F5
|
|
Goto line. This will prompt you for a line number and will display
|
|
that line.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B F6, /.
|
|
Regular expression search.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B ?,
|
|
Reverse regular expression search.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B F7
|
|
Normal search / hex mode search.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B C-s, F17, n.
|
|
Start normal search if there was no previous search expression else
|
|
find next match.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B C-r.
|
|
Start reverse search if there was no previous search expression else
|
|
find next match.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B F8
|
|
Toggle Raw/Parsed mode: This will show the file as found on disk or if
|
|
a processing filter has been specified in the mc.ext file, then the
|
|
output from the filter. Current mode is always the other than written
|
|
on the button label, since on the button is the mode which you enter
|
|
by that key.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B F9
|
|
Toggle the format/unformat mode: when format mode is on the viewer
|
|
will interpret some string sequences to show bold and underline with
|
|
different colors. Also, on button label is the other mode than current.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B F10, Esc.
|
|
Exit the internal file viewer.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B next-page, space, C-v.
|
|
Scroll one page forward.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B prev-page, M-v, C-b, backspace.
|
|
Scroll one page backward.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B down-key
|
|
Scroll one line forward.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B up-key
|
|
Scroll one line backward.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B C-l
|
|
Refresh the screen.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B C-o
|
|
Switch to the subshell and show the command screen.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B !
|
|
Like C-o, but run a new shell if the subshell is not running.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B "[n] m"
|
|
Set the mark n.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B "[n] r"
|
|
Jump to the mark n.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B C-f
|
|
Jump to the next file.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B C-b
|
|
Jump to the previous file.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B M-r
|
|
Toggle the ruler.
|
|
.PP
|
|
It's possible to instruct the file viewer how to display a file, look
|
|
at the
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Extension File Edit section
|
|
.\"Extension File Edit"
|
|
.\"NODE "Internal File Editor"
|
|
.SH "Internal File Editor"
|
|
The internal file editor provides most of the features of
|
|
common full screen editors. It is invoked using
|
|
.B F4
|
|
provided the
|
|
.I use_internal_edit
|
|
option is set in the initialization file. It has an extendable file size
|
|
limit of sixteen megabytes and edits binary files flawlessly.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The features it presently supports are: Block
|
|
copy, move, delete, cut and paste;
|
|
.IR "key for key undo" ;
|
|
pull-down menus; file insertion; macro definition; regular expression
|
|
search and replace (and our own scanf-printf search and
|
|
replace); shift-arrow MSW-MAC text highlighting (for the
|
|
linux console only); insert-overwrite toggle; and an option
|
|
to pipe text blocks through shell commands like indent.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The editor is very easy to use and requires no tutoring.
|
|
To see what keys do what, just consult the appropriate
|
|
pull-down menu. Other keys are: Shift movement
|
|
keys do text highlighting.
|
|
.B Ctrl-Ins
|
|
copies to the file
|
|
.B cooledit.clip
|
|
and
|
|
.B Shift-Ins
|
|
pastes from cooledit.clip.
|
|
.B Shift-Del
|
|
cuts to
|
|
.BR cooledit.clip ,
|
|
and
|
|
.B Ctrl-Del
|
|
deletes highlighted text. Mouse highlighting also works, and you
|
|
can override the mouse as usual by holding down the shift key
|
|
while dragging the mouse to let normal terminal mouse highlighting
|
|
work.
|
|
.PP
|
|
To define a macro, press
|
|
.B Ctrl-R
|
|
and then type out the key
|
|
strokes you want to be executed. Press
|
|
.B Ctrl-R
|
|
again when finished. You can then assign the macro to any key you
|
|
like by pressing that key. The macro is executed when you press
|
|
.B Ctrl-A
|
|
and then the assigned key. The macro is also executed if
|
|
you press Meta, Ctrl, or Esc and the assigned key, provided that the
|
|
key is not used for any other function. Once defined, the macro
|
|
commands go into the file
|
|
.B .mc/cedit/cooledit.macros
|
|
in your home directory. You can delete a macro by deleting the
|
|
appropriate line in this file.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.B F19
|
|
will format the currently highlighted block (plain text or
|
|
.B C
|
|
or
|
|
.B C++
|
|
code or another). This is controlled by the
|
|
file
|
|
.B @prefix@/share/mc/edit.indent.rc
|
|
which is copied to
|
|
.B .mc/cedit/edit.indent.rc
|
|
in your home directory the first time you use it.
|
|
.PP
|
|
You can use scanf search and replace to search and replace
|
|
a C format string. First take a look at the
|
|
.B sscanf
|
|
and
|
|
.B sprintf
|
|
man pages to see what a format string
|
|
is and how it works. An example is as follows: Suppose you want
|
|
to replace all occurrences of say, an open bracket, three
|
|
comma separated numbers, and a close bracket, with the
|
|
word
|
|
.IR apples ,
|
|
the third number, the word
|
|
.I oranges
|
|
and then the second number, I would fill in the Replace dialog
|
|
box as follows:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.nf
|
|
Enter search string
|
|
(%d,%d,%d)
|
|
Enter replace string
|
|
apples %d oranges %d
|
|
Enter replacement argument order
|
|
3,2
|
|
.fi
|
|
.PP
|
|
The last line specifies that the third and then the second
|
|
number are to be used in place of the first and second.
|
|
.PP
|
|
It is advisable to use this feature with Prompt on replace on, because
|
|
a match is thought to be found whenever the number of arguments found
|
|
matches the number given, which is not always a real match. Scanf also
|
|
treats whitespace as being elastic. Note that the scanf format % is
|
|
very useful for scanning strings, and whitespace.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The editor also displays non-us characters (160+). When editing
|
|
binary files, you should set
|
|
.B display bits
|
|
to 7 bits in the options menu to keep the spacing clean.
|
|
.\"NODE "Completion"
|
|
.SH "Completion"
|
|
Let the Midnight Commander type for you.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Attempt to perform completion on the text before current position. MC
|
|
attempts completion treating the text as variable (if the text begins with
|
|
.BR $ ),
|
|
username (if the text begins with
|
|
.BR ~ ),
|
|
hostname (if the text begins with
|
|
.BR @ )
|
|
or command (if you are on the command line in the
|
|
position where you might type a command, possible completions then include
|
|
shell reserved words and shell builtin commands as well) in turn. If none
|
|
of these produces a match, filename completion is attempted.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Filename, username, variable and hostname completion works on all input
|
|
lines, command completion is command line specific.
|
|
If the completion is ambiguous (there are more different possibilities),
|
|
MC beeps and the following action depends on the setting of the
|
|
.I Complete: show all
|
|
option in the
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Configuration
|
|
.\"Configuration"
|
|
dialog. If it is enabled, a list of all
|
|
possibilities pops up next to the current position and you can select with
|
|
the arrow keys and
|
|
.B Enter
|
|
the correct entry. You can also type the first letters in which the
|
|
possibilities differ to move to a subset of all possibilities and complete
|
|
as much as possible. If you press
|
|
.B M-Tab
|
|
again, only the subset will be shown in the listbox, otherwise the first
|
|
item which matches all the previous characters will be highlighted. As soon
|
|
as there is no ambiguity, dialog disappears, but you can hide it by
|
|
canceling keys
|
|
.B Esc,
|
|
.B F10
|
|
and left and right arrow keys. If
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Complete: show all
|
|
.\"Configuration"
|
|
is disabled, the dialog pops up only if you press
|
|
.B M-Tab
|
|
for the second time, for the first time MC just beeps.
|
|
.\"NODE "Virtual File System"
|
|
.SH "Virtual File System"
|
|
The Midnight Commander is provided with a code layer to access the
|
|
file system; this code layer is known as the virtual file system
|
|
switch. The virtual file system switch allows the Midnight Commander
|
|
to manipulate files not located on the Unix file system.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Currently the Midnight Commander is packaged with some Virtual File
|
|
Systems (VFS): the local file system, used for accessing the regular
|
|
Unix file system; the ftpfs, used to manipulate files on remote
|
|
systems with the FTP protocol; the tarfs, used to manipulate tar and
|
|
compressed tar files; the undelfs, used to recover deleted files on
|
|
ext2 file systems (the default file system for Linux systems), fish
|
|
(for manipulating files over shell connections such as rsh and ssh) and
|
|
finally the mcfs (Midnight Commander file system), a network based
|
|
file system. If the code was compiled with smbfs support, you can
|
|
manipulate files on remote systems with the SMB (CIFS) protocol.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The VFS switch code will interpret all of the path names used and will
|
|
forward them to the correct file system, the formats used for each one
|
|
of the file systems is described later in their own section.
|
|
.\"NODE " FTP File System"
|
|
.SH " FTP File System"
|
|
The ftpfs allows you to manipulate files on remote machines, to
|
|
actually use it, you may try to use the panel command FTP link
|
|
(accessible from the menubar) or you may directly change your current
|
|
directory to it using the cd command to a path name that looks like this:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I /#ftp:[!][user[:pass]@]machine[:port][remote-dir]
|
|
.PP
|
|
The
|
|
.I user, port
|
|
and
|
|
.I remote-dir
|
|
elements are optional. If you specify the
|
|
.I user
|
|
element, then the Midnight Commander will try to logon on the remote
|
|
machine as that user, otherwise it will use your login name. The
|
|
optional
|
|
.I pass
|
|
element, if present is the password used for the connection. This is not
|
|
recommended (nor keeping the password in your hotlist, unless you set the
|
|
appropriate permissions there, and even then it may not be entirely safe).
|
|
.PP
|
|
Examples:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.nf
|
|
/#ftp:ftp.nuclecu.unam.mx/linux/local
|
|
/#ftp:tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/packages
|
|
/#ftp:!behind.firewall.edu/pub
|
|
/#ftp:guest@remote-host.com:40/pub
|
|
/#ftp:miguel:xxx@server/pub
|
|
.fi
|
|
.PP
|
|
To connect to sites behind a firewall, you will need to use the prefix
|
|
/#ftp:! (i.e. add a bang character before the hostname) to make the
|
|
Midnight Commander use a proxy host for doing the ftp transfer. You can
|
|
define the proxy host in the
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Virtual File System
|
|
.\"Virtual FS"
|
|
dialog box.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Another option to set is the
|
|
.I Always use ftp proxy
|
|
option in the
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Virtual File System
|
|
.\"Virtual FS"
|
|
dialog box. This will configure the program
|
|
to always use the proxy host. If this variable is set, the program
|
|
will do two things: consult the @prefix@/share/mc/mc.no_proxy file for
|
|
lines containing host names that are local (if the host name starts
|
|
with a dot, it is assumed to be a domain) and to assume that any
|
|
hostnames without dots in their names are directly accessible.
|
|
.PP
|
|
If you are using the ftpfs code with a filtering packet router that
|
|
does not allow you to use the regular mode of opening files, you may
|
|
want to force the program to use the passive-open mode. To use this,
|
|
set the ftpfs_use_passive_connections option in the initialization file.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The Midnight Commander keeps the directory listing in a cache. The cache
|
|
expire time is configurable in the
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Virtual File System
|
|
.\"Virtual FS"
|
|
dialog box. This has the funny behavior that even if you make changes to a
|
|
directory, they will not be reflected in the directory listing until you
|
|
force a cache reload with the C-r key. This is a feature (when you think
|
|
it's a bug, think about manipulating files on the other side of the Atlantic
|
|
with ftpfs).
|
|
.\"NODE " Tar File System"
|
|
.SH " Tar File System"
|
|
The tar file system provides you with read-only access to your tar
|
|
files and compressed tar files by using the chdir command. To change
|
|
your directory to a tar file, you change your current directory to the
|
|
tar file by using the following syntax:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I /filename.tar#utar/[dir-inside-tar]
|
|
.PP
|
|
The mc.ext file already provides a shortcut for tar files, this means
|
|
that usually you just point to a tar file and press return to enter
|
|
into the tar file, see the
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Extension File Edit
|
|
.\"Extension File Edit"
|
|
section for details on how this is done.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Examples:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.nf
|
|
mc-3.0.tar.gz#utar/mc-3.0/vfs
|
|
/ftp/GCC/gcc-2.7.0.tar#utar
|
|
.fi
|
|
.PP
|
|
The latter specifies the full path of the tar archive.
|
|
.\"NODE " FIle transfer over SHell filesystem"
|
|
.SH " FIle transfer over SHell filesystem"
|
|
The fish 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 use
|
|
this, the other side has to either run fish server, or has to have
|
|
bash-compatible shell.
|
|
.PP
|
|
To connect to a remote machine, you just need to chdir
|
|
into a special directory which name is in the following
|
|
format:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.nf
|
|
/#sh:[user@]machine[:options]/[remote-dir]
|
|
.fi
|
|
The
|
|
.I user,
|
|
.I options
|
|
and
|
|
.I remote-dir
|
|
elements are optional. If
|
|
you specify the
|
|
.I user
|
|
element then the Midnight Commander
|
|
will try to logon on the remote machine as that user,
|
|
otherwise it will use your login name.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The
|
|
.I options
|
|
are 'C' - use compression and 'rsh' use rsh instead
|
|
of ssh. If the
|
|
.I remote-dir
|
|
element is present, your current directory on the remote machine will
|
|
be set to this one.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Examples:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.nf
|
|
/#sh:onlyrsh.mx:r/linux/local
|
|
/#sh:joe@want.compression.edu:C/private
|
|
/#sh:joe@noncompressed.ssh.edu/private
|
|
.fi
|
|
.\"NODE " Network File System"
|
|
.SH " Network File System"
|
|
The Midnight Commander file system is a network base file system that
|
|
allows you to manipulate the files in a remote machine as if they
|
|
were local. To use this, the remote machine must be running the
|
|
mcserv(8) server program.
|
|
.PP
|
|
To connect to a remote machine, you just need to chdir into a special
|
|
directory which name is in the following format:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I /#mc:[user@]machine[:port][remote-dir]
|
|
.PP
|
|
The
|
|
.I user, port
|
|
and
|
|
.I remote-dir
|
|
elements are optional. If you specify the
|
|
.I user
|
|
element then the Midnight Commander will try to logon on the remote
|
|
machine as that user, otherwise it will use your login name.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The
|
|
.I port
|
|
element is used when the remote machine running on a special port
|
|
(see the mcserv(8) manual page for more information about ports);
|
|
finally, if the
|
|
.I remote-dir
|
|
element is present, your current directory on the remote machine will
|
|
be set to this one.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Examples:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.nf
|
|
/#mc:ftp.nuclecu.unam.mx/linux/local
|
|
/#mc:joe@foo.edu:11321/private
|
|
.fi
|
|
.\"NODE " Undelete File System"
|
|
.SH " Undelete File System"
|
|
On Linux systems, if you asked configure to use the ext2fs undelete
|
|
facilities, you will have the undelete file system available.
|
|
Recovery of deleted files is only available on ext2 file systems. The
|
|
undelete file system is just an interface to the ext2fs library to:
|
|
retrieve all of the deleted files names on an ext2fs and provides and
|
|
to extract the selected files into a regular partition.
|
|
.PP
|
|
To use this file system, you have to chdir into the special file name
|
|
formed by the "/#undel" prefix and the file name where the actual
|
|
file system resides.
|
|
.PP
|
|
For example, to recover deleted files on the second partition of the
|
|
first SCSI disk on Linux, you would use the following path name:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.nf
|
|
/#undel:sda2
|
|
.fi
|
|
.PP
|
|
It may take a while for the undelfs to load the required information
|
|
before you start browsing files there.
|
|
.\"NODE " SMB File System"
|
|
.SH " SMB File System"
|
|
The smbfs allows you to manipulate files on remote machines with SMB
|
|
(or CIFS) protocol. These include Windows for Workgroups,
|
|
Windows 9x/ME/XP, Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Samba.
|
|
To actually use it, you may try to use the panel command "SMB link..."
|
|
(accessible from the menubar) or you may directly change your current
|
|
directory to it using the cd command to a path name that looks like this:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I /#smb:[user@]machine[/service][/remote-dir]
|
|
.PP
|
|
The
|
|
.I user, service
|
|
and
|
|
.I remote-dir
|
|
elements are optional.
|
|
The
|
|
.I user, domain
|
|
and
|
|
.I password
|
|
can be specified in input dialog.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Examples:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.nf
|
|
/#smb:machine/Share
|
|
/#smb:other_machine
|
|
/#smb:guest@machine/Public/Irlex
|
|
.fi
|
|
.\"NODE "Colors"
|
|
.SH "Colors"
|
|
The Midnight Commander will try to detect if your terminal supports
|
|
color using the terminal database and your terminal name. Sometimes
|
|
it gets confused, so you may force color mode or disable color mode
|
|
using the -c and -b flag respectively.
|
|
.PP
|
|
If the program is compiled with the Slang screen manager instead of
|
|
ncurses, it will also check the variable
|
|
.B COLORTERM,
|
|
if it is set, it has the same effect as the -c flag.
|
|
.PP
|
|
You may specify terminals that always force color mode
|
|
by adding the
|
|
.I color_terminals
|
|
variable to the Colors section of the initialization file. This will
|
|
prevent the Midnight Commander from trying to detect if your terminal
|
|
supports color. Example:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.nf
|
|
[Colors]
|
|
color_terminals=linux,xterm
|
|
color_terminals=terminal-name1,terminal-name2...
|
|
.fi
|
|
.PP
|
|
The program can be compiled with both ncurses and slang, ncurses does
|
|
not provide a way to force color mode: ncurses uses just the
|
|
information in the terminal database.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The Midnight Commander provides a way to change the default colors.
|
|
Currently the colors are configured using the environment variable
|
|
.B MC_COLOR_TABLE
|
|
or the Colors section in the initialization file.
|
|
.PP
|
|
In the Colors section, the default color map is loaded from the
|
|
.I base_color
|
|
variable. You can specify an alternate color map for a terminal by
|
|
using the terminal name as the key in this section. Example:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.nf
|
|
[Colors]
|
|
base_color=
|
|
xterm=menu=magenta:marked=,magenta:markselect=,red
|
|
.fi
|
|
.PP
|
|
The format for the color definition is:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.nf
|
|
<keyword>=<foregroundcolor>,<backgroundcolor>:<keyword>= ...
|
|
.fi
|
|
.PP
|
|
The colors are optional, and the keywords are: normal, selected, marked,
|
|
markselect, errors, input, reverse, gauge. Menu colors are: menu,
|
|
menusel, menuhot, menuhotsel. Dialog colors are: dnormal, dfocus,
|
|
dhotnormal, dhotfocus. Help colors are: helpnormal, helpitalic,
|
|
helpbold, helplink, helpslink. Viewer color is: viewunderline. Special
|
|
highlighting colors are: executable, directory, link, stalelink, device,
|
|
special, core. Editor colors are: editnormal, editbold, editmarked.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I input
|
|
determines the color of input lines used in query dialogs.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I gauge
|
|
determines the color of the filled part of the progress bar
|
|
(gauge), which shows how many percent of files were copied
|
|
etc. in a graphical way.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The dialog boxes use the following colors:
|
|
.I dnormal
|
|
is used for the normal text,
|
|
.I dfocus
|
|
is the color used for the currently selected component,
|
|
.I dhotnormal
|
|
is the color used to differentiate the hotkey color in normal
|
|
components, whereas the
|
|
.I dhotfocus
|
|
color is used for the highlighted color in the currently selected
|
|
component.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Menus use the same scheme but uses the menu, menusel, menuhot and
|
|
menuhotsel tags instead.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Help uses the following colors:
|
|
.I helpnormal
|
|
is used for normal text,
|
|
.I helpitalic
|
|
is used for text which is emphasized in italic in the manual page,
|
|
.I helpbold
|
|
is used for text which is emphasized in bold in the manual page,
|
|
.I helplink
|
|
is used for not selected hyperlinks and
|
|
.I helpslink
|
|
is used for selected hyperlink.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Special highlight colors determine how files are displayed
|
|
when file highlighting is enabled (see the section on
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
Layout\&).
|
|
.\"Layout"
|
|
.I directory
|
|
is used for directories or symbolic links to directories;
|
|
.I executable
|
|
for executable files;
|
|
.I link
|
|
is used for symbolic links which are neither stale nor linked
|
|
to a directory;
|
|
.I stalelink
|
|
is used for stale symbolic links;
|
|
.I device
|
|
- character and block devices;
|
|
.I special
|
|
is used for special files, such as pipes and sockets;
|
|
.I core
|
|
is for core files.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The possible colors are: black, gray, red, brightred, green,
|
|
brightgreen, brown, yellow, blue, brightblue, magenta, brightmagenta,
|
|
cyan, brightcyan, lightgray and white. And there is a special keyword
|
|
for transparent background. It is 'default'. The 'default' can only be
|
|
used for background color. Example:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.nf
|
|
[Colors]
|
|
base_color=normal=white,default:marked=magenta,default
|
|
.fi
|
|
.\"NODE "Special Settings"
|
|
.SH "Special Settings"
|
|
Most of the settings of the Midnight Commander can be changed from the
|
|
menus. However, there are a small number of settings which can only be
|
|
changed by editing the setup file.
|
|
.PP
|
|
These variables may be set in your ~/.mc/ini file:
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I clear_before_exec
|
|
By default the Midnight Commander clears the screen before executing a
|
|
command. If you would prefer to see the output of the command at the
|
|
bottom of the screen, edit your ~/.mc/ini file and change the value of
|
|
the field clear_before_exec to 0.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I confirm_view_dir
|
|
If you press F3 on a directory, normally MC enters that directory. If
|
|
this flag is set to 1, then MC will ask for confirmation before
|
|
changing the directory if you have files tagged.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I ftpfs_retry_seconds
|
|
This value is the number of seconds the Midnight Commander will wait
|
|
before attempting to reconnect to an ftp server that has denied the login.
|
|
If the value is zero, the login will no be retried.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I ftpfs_use_passive_connections
|
|
This option is off by default. This makes the ftpfs code use the
|
|
passive open mode for transferring files. This is used by people that
|
|
are behind a filtering packet router. This option just works if you
|
|
are not using an ftp proxy.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I max_dirt_limit
|
|
Specifies how many screen updates can be skipped at most in the internal
|
|
file viewer. Normally this value is not significant, because the code
|
|
automatically adjusts the number of updates to skip according to the rate
|
|
of incoming keystrokes. However, on very slow machines or terminals
|
|
with a fast keyboard auto repeat, a big value can make screen updates
|
|
too jumpy.
|
|
.IP
|
|
It seems that setting max_dirt_limit to 10 causes the best behavior,
|
|
and that is the default value.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I mouse_move_pages
|
|
Controls whenever scrolling with the mouse is done by pages or line by
|
|
line on the panels.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I mouse_move_pages_viewer
|
|
Controls if scrolling with the mouse is done by pages or line by line
|
|
on the internal file viewer.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I old_esc_mode
|
|
By default the Midnight Commander treats the ESC key as a key prefix
|
|
(old_esc_mode=0), if you set this option (old_esc_mode=1), then the
|
|
ESC key will act as a prefix key for one second, and if no extra keys
|
|
have arrived, then the ESC key is interpreted as a cancel key (ESC
|
|
ESC).
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I only_leading_plus_minus
|
|
Allow special treatment for '+', '-', '*' in the command line (select,
|
|
unselect, reverse selection) only if the command line is empty. You
|
|
don't need to quote those characters in the middle of the command line.
|
|
On the other hand, you cannot use them to change selection when the
|
|
command line is not empty.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I panel_scroll_pages
|
|
If set (the default), panel will scroll by half the display when the
|
|
cursor reaches the end or the beginning of the panel, otherwise it
|
|
will just scroll a file at a time.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I show_output_starts_shell
|
|
This variable only works if you are not using the subshell support.
|
|
When you use the C-o keystroke to go back to the user screen, if this
|
|
one is set, you will get a fresh shell. Otherwise, pressing any key
|
|
will bring you back to the Midnight Commander.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I torben_fj_mode
|
|
If this flag is set, then the home and end keys will work slightly
|
|
different on the panels, instead of moving the selection to the first
|
|
and last files in the panels, they will act as follows:
|
|
.IP
|
|
The home key will: Go up to the middle line, if below it; else go to
|
|
the top line unless it is already on the top line, in this case it
|
|
will go to the first file in the panel.
|
|
.IP
|
|
The end key has a similar behavior: Go down to the middle line, if
|
|
over it; else go to the bottom line unless you already are at the
|
|
bottom line, in such case it will move the selection to the last file
|
|
name in the panel.
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I use_file_to_guess_type
|
|
If this variable is on (the default) it will spawn the file command to
|
|
match the file types listed on the
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
mc.ext file\&.
|
|
.\"Extension File Edit"
|
|
.TP
|
|
.I xterm_mode
|
|
If this variable is on (default is off) when you browse the file
|
|
system on a Tree panel, it will automatically reload the other panel
|
|
with the contents of the selected directory.
|
|
.\"NODE "Terminal databases"
|
|
.SH "Terminal databases"
|
|
The Midnight Commander provides a way to fix your system terminal
|
|
database without requiring root privileges. The Midnight Commander
|
|
searches in the system initialization file (the mc.lib file located in
|
|
the Midnight Commander library directory) and in the ~/.mc/ini file
|
|
for the section "terminal:your-terminal-name" and then for the section
|
|
"terminal:general", each line of the section contains a key symbol
|
|
that you want to define, followed by an equal sign and the definition
|
|
for the key. You can use the special \\e form to represent the escape
|
|
character and the ^x to represent the control-x character.
|
|
.PP
|
|
The possible key symbols are:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.nf
|
|
f0 to f20 Function keys f0-f20
|
|
bs backspace
|
|
home home key
|
|
end end key
|
|
up up arrow key
|
|
down down arrow key
|
|
left left arrow key
|
|
right right arrow key
|
|
pgdn page down key
|
|
pgup page up key
|
|
insert the insert character
|
|
delete the delete character
|
|
complete to do completion
|
|
.fi
|
|
.PP
|
|
For example, to define the key insert to be the Escape + [ + O + p, you
|
|
set this in the ini file:
|
|
.PP
|
|
.nf
|
|
insert=\\e[Op
|
|
.fi
|
|
.PP
|
|
The
|
|
.I complete
|
|
key symbol represents the escape sequences used to invoke the
|
|
completion process, this is invoked with M-tab, but you can define
|
|
other keys to do the same work (on those keyboard with tons of nice
|
|
and unused keys everywhere).
|
|
.SH ""
|
|
.\"NODE "FILES"
|
|
.SH "FILES"
|
|
The program will retrieve all of its information relative to the
|
|
MC_DATADIR environment variable, if this variable is not set, then it will
|
|
fall back to the @prefix@/share/mc directory.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I @prefix@/share/mc/mc.hlp
|
|
.IP
|
|
The help file for the program.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I @prefix@/share/mc/mc.ext
|
|
.IP
|
|
The default system-wide extensions file.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I ~/.mc/bindings
|
|
.IP
|
|
User's own extension, view configuration and edit configuration
|
|
file. They override the contents of the system wide files if present.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I @prefix@/share/mc/mc.ini
|
|
.IP
|
|
The default system-wide setup for the Midnight Commander, used only if
|
|
the user doesn't have his own ~/.mc/ini file.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I @prefix@/share/mc/mc.lib
|
|
.IP
|
|
Global settings for the Midnight Commander. Settings in this file
|
|
affect all users, whether they have ~/.mc/ini or not. Currently, only
|
|
.\"LINK2"
|
|
terminal settings
|
|
.\"Terminal databases"
|
|
are loaded from mc.lib.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I ~/.mc/ini
|
|
.IP
|
|
User's own setup. If this file is present then the setup is loaded
|
|
from here instead of the system-wide startup file.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I @prefix@/share/mc/mc.hint
|
|
.IP
|
|
This file contains the hints (cookies) displayed by the program.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I @prefix@/share/mc/mc.menu
|
|
.IP
|
|
This file contains the default system-wide applications menu.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I ~/.mc/menu
|
|
.IP
|
|
User's own application menu. If this file is present it is used
|
|
instead of the system-wide applications menu.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I ~/.mc/Tree
|
|
.IP
|
|
The directory list for the directory tree and tree view features.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.I ./.mc.menu
|
|
.IP
|
|
Local user-defined menu. If this file
|
|
is present it is used instead of the home or system-wide
|
|
applications menu.
|
|
.\"SKIP_SECTION"
|
|
.SH "LICENSE"
|
|
This program is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public
|
|
License as published by the Free Software Foundation. See the built-in
|
|
help for details on the License and the lack of warranty.
|
|
.\"NODE "AVAILABILITY"
|
|
.SH "AVAILABILITY"
|
|
The latest version of this program can be found at
|
|
ftp://ftp.gnome.org/mirror/gnome.org/stable/sources/mc/ and on the
|
|
mirrors listed on the GNOME site http://www.gnome.org/.
|
|
.\"NODE "SEE ALSO"
|
|
.SH "SEE ALSO"
|
|
ed(1), gpm(1), mcserv(8), terminfo(1), view(1), sh(1), bash(1),
|
|
tcsh(1), zsh(1).
|
|
.PP
|
|
.nf
|
|
The Midnight Commander page on the World Wide Web:
|
|
http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/
|
|
.fi
|
|
.\"NODE "AUTHORS"
|
|
.SH "AUTHORS"
|
|
Miguel de Icaza (miguel@ximian.com), Janne Kukonlehto
|
|
(jtklehto@paju.oulu.fi), Radek Doulik (rodo@ucw.cz), Fred
|
|
Leeflang (fredl@nebula.ow.org), Dugan Porter (dugan@b011.eunet.es),
|
|
Jakub Jelinek (jj@sunsite.mff.cuni.cz), Ching Hui
|
|
(mr854307@cs.nthu.edu.tw), Andrej Borsenkow (borsenkow.msk@sni.de),
|
|
Norbert Warmuth (nwarmuth@privat.circular.de),
|
|
Mauricio Plaza (mok@roxanne.nuclecu.unam.mx), Paul Sheer
|
|
(psheer@icon.co.za), Pavel Machek (pavel@ucw.cz) and Pavel Roskin
|
|
(proski@gnu.org) are the developers of this package.
|
|
Alessandro Rubini (rubini@ipvvis.unipv.it) has been especially helpful
|
|
debugging and enhancing the program's mouse support, John Davis
|
|
(davis@space.mit.edu) also made his S-Lang library available to us
|
|
under the GPL and answered my questions about it, and the following
|
|
people have contributed code and many bug fixes (in alphabetical
|
|
order):
|
|
.PP
|
|
Adam Tla/lka (atlka@sunrise.pg.gda.pl),
|
|
alex@bcs.zp.ua (Alex I. Tkachenko), Antonio Palama,
|
|
DOS port (palama@posso.dm.unipi.it), Erwin van Eijk
|
|
(wabbit@corner.iaf.nl), Gerd Knorr (kraxel@cs.tu-berlin.de),
|
|
Jean-Daniel Luiset (luiset@cih.hcuge.ch), Jon Stevens
|
|
(root@dolphin.csudh.edu), Juan Francisco Grigera, Win32 port
|
|
(j-grigera@usa.net), Juan Jose Ciarlante (jjciarla@raiz.uncu.edu.ar),
|
|
Ilya Rybkin (rybkin@rouge.phys.lsu.edu), Marcelo Roccasalva
|
|
(mfroccas@raiz.uncu.edu.ar), Massimo Fontanelli (MC8737@mclink.it),
|
|
Sergey Ya. Korshunoff (root@seyko.msk.su), Thomas Pundt
|
|
(pundtt@math.uni-muenster.de), Timur Bakeyev
|
|
(timur@goff.comtat.kazan.su), Tomasz Cholewo
|
|
(tjchol01@mecca.spd.louisville.edu), Torben Fjerdingstad
|
|
(torben.fjerdingstad@uni-c.dk), Vadim Sinolitis (vvs@nsrd.npi.msu.su)
|
|
and Wim Osterholt (wim@djo.wtm.tudelft.nl).
|
|
.\"NODE "BUGS"
|
|
.SH "BUGS"
|
|
See the file TODO in the distribution for information on what
|
|
remains to be done.
|
|
.PP
|
|
If you want to report a problem with the program, please send mail to
|
|
this address: mc-devel@gnome.org.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Provide a detailed description of the bug, the version of the program
|
|
you are running (mc -V display this information), the operating system
|
|
you are running the program on and if the program crashes, we would
|
|
appreciate a stack trace.
|
|
|