mirror of
https://github.com/MidnightCommander/mc
synced 2024-12-22 20:36:50 +03:00
b644f5a136
configuration.
925 lines
34 KiB
Plaintext
925 lines
34 KiB
Plaintext
GNU Midnight Commander
|
|
Frequently Asked Questions
|
|
|
|
The newest version of this document is available at
|
|
http://savannah.gnu.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs/mc/mc/FAQ?rev=HEAD&content-type=text/plain
|
|
|
|
* 1 Getting started
|
|
+ 1.1 What is Midnight Commander?
|
|
+ 1.2 Does it run on my machine?
|
|
+ 1.3 Does it work with my terminal?
|
|
+ 1.4 What else do I need to run MC?
|
|
+ 1.5 Is GNU Midnight Commander Public Domain? Copyrighted?
|
|
+ 1.6 Where can I get GNU Midnight Commander?
|
|
+ 1.7 I don't have FTP access. Where can I get MC?
|
|
+ 1.8 I cannot compile MC. What should I do?
|
|
|
|
* 2 Keyboard
|
|
+ 2.1 What does documentation mean with the C-?, M-? and F?
|
|
keys?
|
|
+ 2.2 Why don't function keys (or some other key) work?
|
|
+ 2.3 How do I use function keys F11 to F20?
|
|
+ 2.4 Why does the ESC key behave funny?
|
|
+ 2.5 How can I add the plus sign (+) on the command line?
|
|
+ 2.6 C-o doesn't work!
|
|
+ 2.7 What 'keys' are the "a1" and "c1" keys mentioned in the
|
|
manual?
|
|
+ 2.8 How do I change the key bindings?
|
|
|
|
* 3 Mouse
|
|
+ 3.1 How do I enable mouse support?
|
|
+ 3.2 How do I cut and paste text with mouse?
|
|
+ 3.3 How do I get the extension dependent pop-up menu to
|
|
pop up?
|
|
|
|
* 4 Display
|
|
+ 4.1 Why do I keep getting "Terminal not powerful enough for
|
|
SLang" or "Terminal not powerful enough for SLsmg"?
|
|
+ 4.2 Why don't line drawing characters work?
|
|
+ 4.3 Can one use latin-1 characters without losing the lines?
|
|
+ 4.4 I have problems with entering/viewing national
|
|
characters!
|
|
+ 4.5 How can I get colors?
|
|
+ 4.6 My color_xterm goes completely (or partially) black!
|
|
+ 4.7 Where can I get xterm or rxvt?
|
|
+ 4.8 I got colors working with MC but the other programs
|
|
don't work at all anymore!
|
|
+ 4.9 Why are there both terminfo and termcap? Wouldn't one
|
|
database be enough?
|
|
|
|
* 5 Graphical user interface
|
|
+ 5.1 Xview, Tk and Gnome editions?
|
|
+ 5.2 Why is MC linked with X libraries?
|
|
|
|
* 6 Command line problems
|
|
+ 6.1 How do I stay in the last directory when I exit Midnight
|
|
Commander?
|
|
+ 6.2 How can I access command line history?
|
|
+ 6.3 How can I complete commands, file names, variable names
|
|
and so on?
|
|
+ 6.4 I am using ksh. Can I use functions defined in the
|
|
.kshrc within MC?
|
|
+ 6.5 Is there any way to include additional options or hot
|
|
keys to MC?
|
|
+ 6.6 When I use Ctrl-O I don't get a subshell. How do I fix
|
|
this?
|
|
+ 6.7 Ctrl-O doesn't work at all. What happens?
|
|
|
|
* 7 Virtual file systems
|
|
+ 7.1 How can I see the contents of a tar archive?
|
|
+ 7.2 How do I get out of a tar archive?
|
|
+ 7.3 How do I do anonymous ftp with MC?
|
|
+ 7.4 How do I do non-anonymous ftp with MC?
|
|
+ 7.5 How do I close an ftp connection?
|
|
+ 7.6 Why aren't the contents of ftp panel updated?
|
|
+ 7.7 What kind of proxy server works with Midnight Commander?
|
|
|
|
* 8 Internal editor
|
|
+ 8.1 When I try pasting to the internal editor, it indents
|
|
the amount of indenting increases with each line!
|
|
+ 8.2 Is it possible to use Colorer for syntax highlighting?
|
|
|
|
* 9 Other common problems
|
|
+ 9.1 Is there any way to 'bookmark' favorite ftp-fs links?
|
|
+ 9.2 When I start Midnight Commander, nothing happens!
|
|
|
|
* 10 Development
|
|
+ 10.1 Who has written Midnight Commander?
|
|
+ 10.2 Do I dare to use a development version?
|
|
+ 10.3 How can I report a bug/request for a feature?
|
|
+ 10.4 How can I join the development?
|
|
|
|
* 11 More information
|
|
+ 11.1 This document didn't answer my question. Where else
|
|
can I look for an answer?
|
|
+ 11.2 What mailing lists are there for Midnight Commander?
|
|
+ 11.3 Where should I look on the World Wide Web for MC stuff?
|
|
+ 11.4 Are the mailing lists archived anywhere?
|
|
|
|
* 12 Legal issues
|
|
+ 12.1 Authorship
|
|
+ 12.2 Feedback is invited
|
|
+ 12.3 Disclaimer and copyright
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 Getting started
|
|
|
|
1.1 What is Midnight Commander?
|
|
|
|
GNU Midnight Commander is a user-friendly yet powerful file manager
|
|
and visual shell, useful to novice and guru alike. It provides a
|
|
clear, user-friendly, and somewhat protected interface to a Unix
|
|
system while making many frequent file operations more efficient and
|
|
preserving the full power of the command prompt. After some
|
|
practice, you will wonder how you could ever live without it.
|
|
|
|
1.2 Does it run on my machine?
|
|
|
|
GNU Midnight Commander runs on POSIX (Unix-like) operating systems,
|
|
such as GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, Solaris, HP-UX and others. It
|
|
can also be compiled under Cygwin on Windows.
|
|
|
|
GNU Midnight Commander uses GNU Autoconf which should automatically
|
|
configure it for every Unix clone. Following configurations have
|
|
been tested in the past (this list is very old):
|
|
|
|
* i386-*-linux1.x, 2.x
|
|
* alpha-linux-linux2
|
|
* sparc-linux-linux2.x
|
|
* sparc64-linux-linux2.1
|
|
* mips-sgi-irix5.x, 6.x
|
|
* mips-dec-ultrix4.3
|
|
* rs6000-ibm-aix3.2.5
|
|
* sparc-sun-sunos4.1
|
|
* sparc-sun-solaris2.3, 2.4, 2.5
|
|
* sparc-sun-netbsd1.0
|
|
* hppa-hp-hpux9
|
|
* hppa-hp-hpux7
|
|
* m68k-apple-aux
|
|
* unixware
|
|
* mc88110-aviion-dgux5.4R2.01
|
|
* i386-*-sco3.2v4.2
|
|
* i386-*-sco3.2v5
|
|
|
|
1.3 Does it work with my terminal?
|
|
|
|
Yes, it does.
|
|
|
|
Because GNU Midnight Commander is a full screen program it doesn't
|
|
run on dummy terminals but anything more advanced will do (like
|
|
vt100). If your terminal works with vi, emacs, elm or pine it will
|
|
work with GNU Midnight Commander.
|
|
|
|
1.4 What else do I need to run MC?
|
|
|
|
You need a POSIX (Unix compatible) operating system. If you are
|
|
running Windows, use Cygwin.
|
|
|
|
To compile any edition you need to have glib 1.2.x or newer
|
|
installed. It's available at ftp://ftp.gtk.org/pub/gtk/. If you
|
|
don't have glib installed already, please note that glib 2.x is much
|
|
harder to compile, so your first choice should be glib 1.2.10.
|
|
|
|
If you want to use mouse on the Linux console you need the gpm daemon
|
|
from ftp://ftp.systemy.it/pub/develop/. You need nothing extra to
|
|
use mouse on xterm.
|
|
|
|
If you do not want to use the S-Lang library you could try using
|
|
ncurses version 4.1 and above.
|
|
|
|
1.5 Is GNU Midnight Commander Public Domain? Copyrighted?
|
|
|
|
Midnight Commander is under GNU Public License which basically means
|
|
that you may freely copy, change and distribute it, but that you may
|
|
not impose any restrictions on further distribution, and that you
|
|
must make the source code available. This is not the same as Public
|
|
Domain. For details, the GNU license is included in GNU Midnight
|
|
Commander source distribution (the COPYING file).
|
|
|
|
Midnight Commander is now officially a part of the GNU project.
|
|
All the authors of GNU Midnight Commander have given all their rights
|
|
on the program to the Free Software Foundation.
|
|
|
|
1.6 Where can I get GNU Midnight Commander?
|
|
|
|
The main site is ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/stable/sources/mc/
|
|
|
|
1.7 I don't have FTP access. Where can I get MC?
|
|
|
|
Most GNU/Linux distributions include GNU Midnight Commander. For
|
|
example, Debian, Mandrake, Red Hat, Slackware and SuSE.
|
|
|
|
1.8 I cannot compile MC. What should I do?
|
|
|
|
Make sure you have read the INSTALL file in the sources. Report the
|
|
error messages exactly as they appear, mention the versions of your
|
|
OS, your compiler and whatever else software you think is relevant.
|
|
If you have compile problems in the VFS code, try disabling it by
|
|
using "--without-vfs" switch. As the last resort, you can use
|
|
precompiled binaries from the GNU Midnight Commander website.
|
|
|
|
|
|
2 Keyboard
|
|
|
|
2.1 What does documentation mean with the C-?, M-? and F? keys?
|
|
|
|
GNU Midnight Commander documentation uses emacs style names for
|
|
keyboard keys.
|
|
|
|
C stands for the Ctrl key. For example, C-f means that you should
|
|
hold down the Ctrl key and press the f key.
|
|
|
|
M stands for the Meta key. Your terminal might call it Alt or
|
|
Compose instead of Meta. For example, M-f means that you should hold
|
|
down the Meta/Alt/Compose key and press the f key. If your terminal
|
|
doesn't have Meta, Alt or Compose or they don't work you can use Esc.
|
|
For M-f press the Esc key and then press the f key.
|
|
|
|
Sometimes Ctrl and Alt are used instead of C and M for simplicity.
|
|
Keep in mind that Alt can actually be Meta on some keyboards.
|
|
|
|
F? stands for a function key. If your terminal doesn't have function
|
|
keys or they don't work you can use Esc. For example, for F3 press
|
|
the Esc key and then press the 3 key.
|
|
|
|
2.2 Why don't function keys (or some other key) work?
|
|
|
|
Your terminfo or termcap database has missing or incorrect
|
|
definitions for function keys. Type "mc -V" to see what terminal
|
|
database is being used. If the result is "using the S-Lang library
|
|
with terminfo database" and you are using a very old terminfo
|
|
database, consider installing one of the enhanced terminfo files
|
|
included in GNU Midnight Commander source distribution. For example,
|
|
if you are using xterm type "tic xterm.ti".
|
|
|
|
If the result is "using the S-Lang library with termcap database" you
|
|
should fix your /etc/termcap database.
|
|
|
|
Up-to-date termcap and terminfo databases are available here:
|
|
|
|
http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/terminfo/
|
|
ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses/
|
|
|
|
You can force Midnight Commander to use the termcap database by
|
|
giving --with-termcap option to the configure script. The default
|
|
is to use terminfo.
|
|
|
|
If you don't have permissions to edit terminal databases you can use
|
|
Learn keys feature of Midnight Commander instead. Press Esc 9 o k
|
|
and follow instructions.
|
|
|
|
If all else fails you can emulate function keys by first pressing the
|
|
ESC key and then one of the number keys. For example, if you want to
|
|
produce F9, press ESC, then 9. If you don't have a ESC key on your
|
|
keyboard you can try alt-9 or meta-9.
|
|
|
|
2.3 How do I use function keys F11 to F20?
|
|
|
|
These are normally mapped to function keys F1 to F10 with Shift held,
|
|
e.g. function key F13 can be activated by pressing Shift-F3. You can
|
|
define the keys this way in the Options->Learn Keys dialog. The
|
|
convention for PC keyboards is that F11-20 always means Shift with
|
|
F1-10.
|
|
|
|
You may find that on the Linux console with some keyboard layouts
|
|
Shift-Fn is interpreted as F(n+12), not as F(n+10). This is a result
|
|
of non-uniformity of keyboard layouts. This is not an intended
|
|
behavior and it may be fixed some day. In the meantime, use "Learn
|
|
Keys" to remedy this inconvenience.
|
|
|
|
2.4 Why does the ESC key behave funny?
|
|
|
|
Midnight Commander uses the ESC key as a prefix for simulating the
|
|
Meta and Alt keys (for terminals which don't have Meta or Alt, see
|
|
the three previous questions). For example, pressing ESC-a is the
|
|
same as pressing Meta-a. In addition most terminals use ESC for
|
|
internal representation of arrow keys, function keys and other
|
|
enhanced keys. If you want to use ESC to cancel things you have to
|
|
press it twice i.e. ESC-ESC. If you find this cumbersome you can
|
|
generally use F10 to cancel. Alternatively turn on the old_esc_mode
|
|
setting in the ~/.mc/ini file. The old_esc_mode setting makes ESC
|
|
work as a prefix only if another key is pressed within 0.5 seconds.
|
|
After 0.5 seconds the ESC key cancels. There is no way to make ESC
|
|
cancel immediately (if we want to be able to use arrows keys and
|
|
function keys).
|
|
|
|
2.5 How can I add the plus sign (+) on the command line?
|
|
|
|
Press C-q first, then press the + sign.
|
|
|
|
The plus key is the hotkey for the select files command. If you want
|
|
to add a literal plus on to the command line you must quote it by
|
|
pressing C-q first.
|
|
|
|
Another common key which needs the C-q prefix is backslash "\".
|
|
|
|
2.6 C-o doesn't work!
|
|
|
|
Maybe C-o is a stty control character on your terminal. See man stty
|
|
for details on how to list and change stty control characters.
|
|
|
|
2.7 What 'keys' are the "a1" and "c1" keys mentioned in the manual?
|
|
|
|
The "a1" key is the key which has the "a1" caption on it.
|
|
|
|
The "c1" key is the key which has the "c1" caption on it.
|
|
|
|
If you have to ask what these two keys are your keyboard hasn't
|
|
probably got them. Actually, I have never seen a keyboard which has
|
|
got them.
|
|
|
|
2.8 How do I change the key bindings?
|
|
|
|
There is no generic way to reconfigure the key bindings. You can use
|
|
the "Learn Keys" dialog to assign keys to some actions listed in that
|
|
dialog. However, most actions cannot be redefined to use different
|
|
keys.
|
|
|
|
|
|
3 Mouse
|
|
|
|
3.1 How do I enable mouse support?
|
|
|
|
Invoke mc like this (without quotes): "mc -x". If this doesn't work
|
|
upgrade to a terminal which compatible with the Xterm mouse
|
|
sequences.
|
|
|
|
Alternatively, on Linux console you can use gpm.
|
|
|
|
3.2 How do I cut and paste text with mouse?
|
|
|
|
Hold down shift key while using mouse to cut and paste.
|
|
|
|
3.3 How do I get the extension dependent pop-up menu to pop up?
|
|
|
|
It was developed for the GNOME edition. The text-mode edition
|
|
doesn't support this feature yet.
|
|
|
|
|
|
4 Display
|
|
|
|
4.1 Why do I keep getting "Terminal not powerful enough for SLang" or
|
|
"Terminal not powerful enough for SLsmg"?
|
|
|
|
This means that your terminfo databases do not contain the correct
|
|
definitions for your terminal.
|
|
|
|
You could try using a different terminal setting. If you use csh or
|
|
tcsh:
|
|
|
|
setenv TERM vt100
|
|
|
|
or if you use sh, bash, ksh or zsh:
|
|
|
|
export TERM=vt100
|
|
|
|
If this doesn't help you can recompile MC to use termcap instead of
|
|
terminfo:
|
|
|
|
./configure --with-termcap
|
|
make
|
|
|
|
4.2 Why don't line drawing characters work?
|
|
|
|
Since version 4.0.13 there's the command line option -a to force use
|
|
of charaters +, |, - for line drawing (only available when compiled
|
|
with S-Lang). Use the -a option if any of the suggestions below
|
|
doesn't help.
|
|
|
|
In general, there are three cases:
|
|
* Lines are shown as ASCII characters like this
|
|
|
|
+---------+
|
|
| |
|
|
+---------+
|
|
|
|
This also happens when you use the -a option. Other than that
|
|
possible reason is 1 or 2 (see below).
|
|
|
|
* Lines are shown as lower case characters like this
|
|
|
|
lqqqqqqqqqk
|
|
x x
|
|
mqqqqqqqqqj
|
|
|
|
Possible reason is 1 or 2 (see below).
|
|
|
|
* Lines are shown as blanks or missing characters. Possible reason
|
|
is 2 or 3 (see below).
|
|
|
|
The reason for the problem is one of following:
|
|
|
|
1. Your terminal might not support line drawing characters. VT100
|
|
compatible terminals, rxvt and xterm and color_xterm do support
|
|
them.
|
|
2. Your terminfo or termcap database might have missing or incorrect
|
|
definitions for line drawing characters. Set the acsc variable
|
|
in the terminfo database like this:
|
|
acsc=a\376k\277l\332m\300j\331n\305w\302v\301u\264t\303q\304x
|
|
\263h\2600\333
|
|
Don't forget issue 'tic' command. This supposes you are using PC
|
|
character set. The octal values might be different for other
|
|
character sets. If you are using termcap instead of terminfo,
|
|
you should modify above solution appropriately.
|
|
3. Your terminal font might not support line drawing characters.
|
|
Try changing the font.
|
|
|
|
Here is Miguel's answer to Torben on this subject.
|
|
|
|
Torben:
|
|
|
|
When I load consolefonts/iso01.f16, I get perfectly right national
|
|
characters, but the line drawing characters in mc get wrong. Is it
|
|
a mc problem, or is it a problem with the font? (I guess it is).
|
|
|
|
Is there a trick?
|
|
|
|
Miguel:
|
|
|
|
First of all, we should determine whether the font has line drawing
|
|
characters or not.
|
|
|
|
If it has line drawing characters, then a new terminfo entry should
|
|
be written for this specific case. Let's call this linux-iso01.
|
|
The acsc variable should be modified to reflect which characters
|
|
are used to do the line drawing.
|
|
|
|
If it does not have line drawing characters, then we should get rid
|
|
of the switch to acsc sequences and make the acsc sequence be just
|
|
a mapping to the ugly +, -, |, - characters.
|
|
|
|
You can get your terminfo definition by running the infocmp
|
|
program, making the proper changes and running the tic program to
|
|
compile your new terminfo database.
|
|
|
|
4.3 Can one use latin-1 characters without losing the lines?
|
|
|
|
Yes, you need a correct font and a correct termcap/terminfo database.
|
|
|
|
For font, if you use xterm try "xterm -fn fixed".
|
|
|
|
For termcap/terminfo database, change the acsc capability in the
|
|
database.
|
|
|
|
4.4 I have problems with entering/viewing national characters!
|
|
|
|
Upgrade to version 4.0.12 or newer.
|
|
|
|
From the Options - Display Bits dialog select Full 8 bits or ISO
|
|
8859-1. In addition, select 8 bit input from the same dialog.
|
|
|
|
4.5 How can I get colors?
|
|
|
|
Invoke mc like this (without quotes): "mc -c".
|
|
|
|
If you get colors, be happy.
|
|
|
|
If your terminal stays black and white, your terminal doesn't support
|
|
color. You might want to upgrade to a terminal which compatible with
|
|
the ANSI color sequences.
|
|
|
|
If your terminal goes completely black, see the next question.
|
|
|
|
More detailed answer:
|
|
|
|
Check that your terminal supports color. color_xterm, rxvt and Linux
|
|
console do support, most other terminals don't. You can test color
|
|
support with following simple C program:
|
|
|
|
#include <stdio.h>
|
|
|
|
int main (void){
|
|
printf ("\033[32m Hello world! \033[m\n");
|
|
return 0;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
Compile and run it. If you see "Hello world!" text in green your
|
|
terminal supports color, otherwise not (however, for color_xterm see
|
|
also the next question).
|
|
|
|
Check whether you are using Ncurses or the S-Lang library (type
|
|
"mc -V" to find out).
|
|
|
|
With S-Lang library you can force color support by setting the
|
|
environment variable COLORTERM to any value.
|
|
|
|
If you use ncurses library, check that your terminfo database
|
|
supports color. If not, you should install one of the enhanced
|
|
terminfo databases included in GNU Midnight Commander source
|
|
distribution.
|
|
|
|
You might want to set the TERM environment variable so that you are
|
|
using the correct terminfo database or termcap entry.
|
|
|
|
If you use color_xterm (or rxvt) the correct value might be
|
|
xterm-color, xtermc or simply xterm.
|
|
|
|
If you use Linux console the correct value for TERM is linux or
|
|
console.
|
|
|
|
4.6 My color_xterm goes completely (or partially) black!
|
|
|
|
Some color_xterm terminals define all colors as black instead of the
|
|
standard ANSI colors. This makes them go completely black when you
|
|
try to use Midnight Commander with colors.
|
|
|
|
You will have to override the defaults. Create a file
|
|
"color.defaults" which has the following contents:
|
|
|
|
color_xterm*color0: Black
|
|
color_xterm*color1: Red
|
|
color_xterm*color2: Green
|
|
color_xterm*color3: Yellow
|
|
color_xterm*color4: Blue
|
|
color_xterm*color5: Magenta
|
|
color_xterm*color6: Cyan
|
|
color_xterm*color7: White
|
|
color_xterm*background: White
|
|
color_xterm*foreground: Black
|
|
|
|
(replace color_xterm with the name of your color_xterm, color_xterm
|
|
mentions its name in its title bar)
|
|
|
|
Now type:
|
|
|
|
xrdb -merge color.defaults
|
|
|
|
Alternatively you can add the suggested contents of the
|
|
color.defaults file to your .Xdefaults or .Xresources file (or what
|
|
ever the name of your X configuration file is). Or you can replace
|
|
your non-ANSI color_xterm with an ANSI color_xterm.
|
|
|
|
4.7 Where can I get xterm or rxvt?
|
|
|
|
xterm is included with the X Window System, so you probably already
|
|
have it if you have X. This version is not actively maintained, but
|
|
Thomas Dickey maintains his more advanced version of xterm at
|
|
ftp://dickey.his.com/xterm/
|
|
|
|
rxvt has its own site http://www.rxvt.org/ - get the latest version
|
|
there.
|
|
|
|
4.8 I got colors working with MC but the other programs don't work at
|
|
all anymore!
|
|
|
|
Midnight Commander uses terminfo database (if available) but many
|
|
other programs use termcap database. If you set the TERM environment
|
|
variable to a value which has no corresponding entry in termcap
|
|
database those programs stop working. You should add the new value
|
|
of TERM to the termcap database.
|
|
|
|
Example: If you have set TERM to xterm-color locate from /etc/termcap
|
|
the line which starts:
|
|
|
|
xterm|vs100|xterm terminal emulator
|
|
|
|
Change it to start:
|
|
|
|
xterm|xterm-color|vs100|xterm terminal emulator
|
|
|
|
4.9 Why are there both terminfo and termcap? Wouldn't one database be
|
|
enough?
|
|
|
|
You might want to read the Unix-Haters Handbook at
|
|
http://catalog.com/hopkins/unix-haters/handbook.html. It lists many
|
|
more reasons why Unix sucks.
|
|
|
|
You can configure which terminal database you want to use with the
|
|
"--with-termcap" and "--with-terminfo" flags of configure. If you
|
|
don't specify them, the configure script will try to use terminfo if
|
|
available otherwise it will use termcap.
|
|
|
|
|
|
5 Graphical user interface
|
|
|
|
5.1 Xview, Tk and Gnome editions?
|
|
|
|
Xview and Tk and GNOME editions have been removed from the sources.
|
|
|
|
5.2 Why is MC linked with X libraries?
|
|
|
|
GNU Midnight Commander is linked with X libraries to read key
|
|
modifiers from the X Server. It may be helpful to distinguish
|
|
between keys that the terminal emulator reports in the same way, e.g.
|
|
PgUp and Ctrl-PgUp. Versions of GNU Midnight Commander after 4.6.0
|
|
will load X libraries dynamically on the systems that support it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
6 Command line problems
|
|
|
|
6.1 How do I stay in the last directory when I exit Midnight Commander?
|
|
|
|
See the description of the -P option in the Options section of the
|
|
manual.
|
|
|
|
6.2 How can I access command line history?
|
|
|
|
Alt-h shows the last commands you executed from the command line.
|
|
Duplicates are suppressed from the history. Commands executed from
|
|
the subshell prompt are not shown.
|
|
|
|
You can put previous commands to the command line with Alt-p. Alt-n
|
|
moves you forward in history.
|
|
|
|
Since version 4.1.15 all the input widgets have permanent history.
|
|
You can summon the history listbox by pressing M-h.
|
|
|
|
6.3 How can I complete commands, file names, variable names and so on?
|
|
|
|
Just press M-Tab. Press M-Tab again to get a listbox if there are
|
|
multiple possible completions.
|
|
|
|
6.4 I am using ksh. Can I use functions defined in the .kshrc within
|
|
MC?
|
|
|
|
Sorry, MC only supports bash, tcsh and zsh functions. Ksh functions
|
|
are not supported because ksh lacks the necessary hooks needed for
|
|
subshell integration.
|
|
|
|
Switch to bash or zsh. They are both quite compatible with ksh.
|
|
Your ksh functions should work as such or after minimal changes.
|
|
|
|
6.5 Is there any way to include additional options or hot keys to MC?
|
|
|
|
Yes, F2 invokes an user menu, which is fully configurable. You can
|
|
add any shell commands to the user menu. See the mc(1) man page for
|
|
more info.
|
|
|
|
Another way to add functionality is the external panelize feature.
|
|
See the mc(1) man page for more info.
|
|
|
|
And finally, you can code any feature you want yourself. MC source
|
|
code is free which means you can change it anyway you want. There
|
|
are some limitations to make sure MC stays free. See GNU General
|
|
Public License for details.
|
|
|
|
6.6 When I use Ctrl-O I don't get a subshell. How do I fix this?
|
|
|
|
Only bash, tcsh and zsh can be used as subshell. Use one of those
|
|
shells as your default shell, and it will be used as subshell in GNU
|
|
Midnight Commander.
|
|
|
|
6.7 Ctrl-O doesn't work at all. What happens?
|
|
|
|
Ctrl-O works if either the subshell is used or the terminal can save
|
|
the output of the commands so it can be restored. If neither is
|
|
true, there is absolutely nothing interesting behind the panels!
|
|
|
|
Only few terminals support screen saving. It's xterm, rxvt and other
|
|
xterm-like terminals and virtual terminals on Linux and FreeBSD.
|
|
|
|
|
|
7 Virtual file systems
|
|
|
|
7.1 How can I see the contents of a tar archive?
|
|
|
|
If you use keyboard just move the selection bar on the tar file and
|
|
press enter. If you use mouse just double-click on the tar file.
|
|
|
|
The recognized suffixes for tar archives are .tar, .tar.gz and .tgz.
|
|
You can also enter a tar archive by typing "cd filename#utar" where
|
|
filename is the name of the archive. In this case, the suffix is not
|
|
important.
|
|
|
|
7.2 How do I get out of a tar archive?
|
|
|
|
Just press enter on the toplevel ".." file or change to a non-tar
|
|
directory. Just typing "cd" with no parameters is enough (it will
|
|
take you to your home directory).
|
|
|
|
7.3 How do I do anonymous ftp with MC?
|
|
|
|
Just type "cd ftp://hostname" where hostname is the name of the host
|
|
you want to connect. Alternatively, select FTP link from the Left or
|
|
Right menu and type the name of the host you want to connect.
|
|
|
|
7.4 How do I do non-anonymous ftp with MC?
|
|
|
|
Non-anonymous ftp works just like the anonymous ftp but you give the
|
|
login name with the host name. For example, type "cd
|
|
ftp://username@hostname".
|
|
|
|
7.5 How do I close an ftp connection?
|
|
|
|
Just change to a non-ftp directory. Simply typing "cd" with no
|
|
parameters is enough (it will take you to your home directory).
|
|
|
|
GNU Midnight Commander closes ftp connection automatically after a
|
|
timeout or on exit. It's possible to force disconnect by selecting
|
|
"Command" -> "Active VFS List" in the menu and using the "Free VFSs
|
|
Now" button.
|
|
|
|
7.6 Why aren't the contents of ftp panel updated?
|
|
|
|
Update is skipped because there would be a serious performance
|
|
penalty. Constantly updating directory panels through a ftp
|
|
connection would take too much time.
|
|
|
|
You can use C-r to force an update.
|
|
|
|
7.7 What kind of proxy server works with Midnight Commander?
|
|
|
|
There are two kinds of ftp proxies: proxies for ftp clients and
|
|
proxies for web browsers.
|
|
|
|
Midnight Commander only supports ftp proxies which are meant for ftp
|
|
clients. Common WWW proxies (like Squid) are not supported. A rule
|
|
of thumb is that if a ftp proxy requires a web browser, it won't work
|
|
with Midnight Commander.
|
|
|
|
|
|
8 Other common problems
|
|
|
|
8.1 When I try pasting to the internal editor, it indents the amount of
|
|
indenting increases with each line!
|
|
|
|
Either turn off 'Return does autoindent' in the editor options or
|
|
update GNU Midnight Commander to version 4.6.0 or above - it doesn't
|
|
autoindent when you are holding Shift.
|
|
|
|
8.2 Is it possible to use Colorer for syntax highlighting?
|
|
|
|
Yes if you submit the patch. There are no legal problems with it
|
|
because it's licensed under GPL now. The homepage of Colorer is
|
|
http://colorer.sourceforge.net/
|
|
|
|
|
|
9 Other common problems
|
|
|
|
9.1 Is there any way to 'bookmark' favorite ftp-fs links?
|
|
|
|
Use the directory hotlist. Just press control-backslash. If your
|
|
national keyboard layout doesn't have backslash key, just press the
|
|
control key with the key which is the backslash key in the English
|
|
keyboard layout.
|
|
|
|
9.2 When I start Midnight Commander, nothing happens!
|
|
|
|
When MC is compiled with Samba support, have a look at the
|
|
"interfaces = ..." line in your smb.conf file. MC uses pretty old
|
|
Samba code that only expects IP addresses and host names there,
|
|
but not network interface names (like eth0). MC interprets these
|
|
names as host names and tries to resolve them using a DNS server.
|
|
To fix this, ask your system administrator to change the interface
|
|
names to their assigned IP addresses, or (untried) add the interface
|
|
names and their IP addresses to the /etc/hosts file.
|
|
|
|
First, invoke MC without subshell support: "mc -u". If this helps
|
|
check the shell you are using. Subshell support works best with
|
|
bash, although tcsh and zsh are also supported. You might want to
|
|
upgrade your shell to a newer version. If you use something else
|
|
than bash, tcsh or zsh, subshell support is disabled automatically.
|
|
|
|
If disabling subshell doesn't help, try to reconfigure MC with
|
|
"--with-included-slang" and "--with-termcap" options and recompile.
|
|
If this helps, something is wrong with your terminfo database or
|
|
shared S-Lang library. For better terminfo databases see chapter 4
|
|
of this FAQ. For a better S-Lang library, upgrade to a newer version
|
|
or keep using the "--with-included-slang" option.
|
|
|
|
Another reason is problems with gpm. Try using "--nomouse" option to
|
|
see if it makes any difference. Restarting gpm can help. Sometimes
|
|
it's enough to move the mouse.
|
|
|
|
Also, if you have the DISPLAY environment variable set, but the X
|
|
server is unreachable (e.g. it's firewalled), this can also cause a
|
|
delay at startup. Unset DISPLAY to see if that's the case.
|
|
|
|
|
|
10 Development
|
|
|
|
10.1 Who has written Midnight Commander?
|
|
|
|
Midnight Commander was started by Miguel de Icaza and he is the
|
|
maintainer of the package. Other authors have joined the project
|
|
later:
|
|
* Mauricio Plaza (early releases)
|
|
* Janne Kukonlehto (joined Sep 27 1994)
|
|
* Radek Doulik (joined Oct 30 1994)
|
|
* Fred Leeflang (joined Nov 2 1994)
|
|
* Dugan Porter (joined Dec 1 1994)
|
|
* Jakub Jelinek (joined Feb 8 1995)
|
|
* Ching Hui (joined Jun 27 1995)
|
|
* Andrej Borsenkow (joined Jul 1996)
|
|
* Paul Sheer (joined Nov 1 1996)
|
|
* Norbert Warmuth
|
|
* Alex I. Tkachenko
|
|
|
|
Alessandro Rubini has been specially helpful with debugging and
|
|
enhancing of the mouse support. John E. Davis has made his S-Lang
|
|
library available to us and answered many questions about it.
|
|
|
|
Many people have contributed bug reports, feature suggestions and
|
|
small code bits (alphabetical order):
|
|
* Thomasz Cholewo
|
|
* Juan Jose Ciarlante
|
|
* Alexander Dong (OS/2 port, NT port updates)
|
|
* Erwin van Eijk
|
|
* Torben Fjerdingstad
|
|
* Massimo Fontanelli
|
|
* Juan Grigera (NT port)
|
|
* Gerd Knorr
|
|
* Sergey Ya. Korshunoff
|
|
* Jean-Daniel Luiset
|
|
* Wim Osterholt
|
|
* Antonio Palama (old DOS port)
|
|
* Thomas Pundt
|
|
* Marcelo Roccasalva
|
|
* Ilya Rybkin
|
|
* Vadim Sinolits
|
|
* Jon Stevens
|
|
* Adam Tla/lka
|
|
|
|
10.2 Do I dare to use a development version?
|
|
|
|
That's up to you to decide. Development versions may have nasty bugs
|
|
at some points of time. It's up to you to judge whether the new
|
|
features and fixes for the bugs you know outweigh the risk of unknown
|
|
bugs.
|
|
|
|
10.3 How can I report a bug/request for a feature?
|
|
|
|
You might first want to get the newest development version to see if
|
|
the bug is fixed or the feature is added already.
|
|
|
|
Send your report/request to mc-devel@gnome.org or mc@gnome.org.
|
|
These mailing lists are the most certain way to contact the
|
|
developers. Remember to mention if you are not on the mailing list
|
|
to make sure that you will receive a copy of replies.
|
|
|
|
Give as much details as possible. A too long message is a lot better
|
|
than a too short message.
|
|
|
|
For segmentation faults a stack backtrace is appreciated. You can
|
|
produce stack backtrace as follows:
|
|
* If segmentation fault produced a core file:
|
|
1. Load the core file by typing "gdb mc core" or "dbx mc core".
|
|
2. Type "where".
|
|
3. Cut and paste the results to your message.
|
|
* If segmentation fault didn't produce a core file:
|
|
1. Load mc by typing "gdb mc" or "dbx mc".
|
|
2. Start mc by typing "run".
|
|
3. Try to reproduce the segmentation fault by doing whatever
|
|
you did last time when the segmentation fault occurred.
|
|
4. Type "where".
|
|
5. Cut and paste the results to your message.
|
|
6. For the future you might want to check out what is the
|
|
command in your shell to allow producing of the core files.
|
|
Usually it is "limit coredumpsize unlimited" or "ulimit
|
|
coredumpsize" or "ulimit -c unlimited".
|
|
|
|
10.4 How can I join the development?
|
|
|
|
To join the development just code the feature you want to add and
|
|
send your patch for inclusion. Email address is mc-devel@gnome.org.
|
|
Before you start coding check the latest development version. It
|
|
might be that your feature has already been implemented.
|
|
|
|
Note that the authors of GNU Midnight Commander have given all their
|
|
rights on the program to the Free Software Foundation. You will have
|
|
to do the same if you contribute non-trivial patches. Otherwise we
|
|
have to reject your patches in order to avoid copyright problems.
|
|
|
|
|
|
11 More information
|
|
|
|
11.1 This document didn't answer my question. Where else can I look for
|
|
an answer?
|
|
|
|
Read messages from the Discussion (mailing list archive) or read the
|
|
Manual.
|
|
|
|
Upgrade to a newer version of Midnight Commander. Many problems are
|
|
fixed in the new versions.
|
|
|
|
If you still can't find an answer, post your question to the Midnight
|
|
Commander mailing list. Its address is mc@gnome.org.
|
|
|
|
11.2 What mailing lists are there for Midnight Commander?
|
|
|
|
Following mailing lists discuss about Midnight Commander:
|
|
|
|
mc@gnome.org
|
|
General discussion of GNU Midnight Commander
|
|
To subscribe visit
|
|
http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/mc/
|
|
|
|
mc-devel@gnome.org
|
|
Technical development discussion
|
|
To subscribe visit
|
|
http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/mc-devel/
|
|
|
|
11.3 Where should I look on the World Wide Web for MC stuff?
|
|
|
|
There is a WWW page for Midnight Commander. The URL is:
|
|
|
|
http://www.gnu.org/software/mc/
|
|
|
|
11.4 Are the mailing lists archived anywhere?
|
|
|
|
The mc and mc-devel lists are archived on the World Wide Web. There
|
|
are links to the archives on the mailing list pages (see 10.2).
|
|
|
|
|
|
12 Legal issues
|
|
|
|
12.1 Authorship
|
|
|
|
Questions and Answers was written by Janne Kukonlehto. Parts of it
|
|
originate from Ian Jackson, Miguel de Icaza, Dugan Porter, Norbert
|
|
Warmuth and Paul Sheer.
|
|
|
|
12.2 Feedback is invited
|
|
|
|
Send your comments about this document and GNU Midnight Commander to
|
|
mc@gnome.org
|
|
|
|
12.3 Disclaimer and copyright
|
|
|
|
Note that this document is provided as is. The information in it is
|
|
not warranted to be correct; you use it at your own risk.
|
|
|
|
You can use Questions and Answers according to GNU General Public
|
|
License (see the COPYING file in GNU Midnight Commander source
|
|
distribution). Questions and Answers is not public domain.
|