2 Frequently Asked Questions
4 The newest version of this document is available at
5 http://cvs.gnome.org/lxr/source/mc/FAQ?raw=1
8 + 1.1 What is Midnight Commander?
9 + 1.2 Does it run on my machine?
10 + 1.3 Does it work with my terminal?
11 + 1.4 What else do I need to run MC?
12 + 1.5 Is GNU Midnight Commander Public Domain? Copyrighted?
13 + 1.6 Where can I get GNU Midnight Commander?
14 + 1.7 I don't have FTP access. Where can I get MC?
15 + 1.8 I cannot compile MC. What should I do?
18 + 2.1 What does documentation mean with the C-?, M-? and F?
20 + 2.2 Why don't function keys (or some other key) work?
21 + 2.3 How do I use function keys F11 to F20?
22 + 2.4 Why does the ESC key behave funny?
23 + 2.5 How can I add the plus sign (+) on the command line?
24 + 2.6 C-o doesn't work!
25 + 2.7 What 'keys' are the "a1" and "c1" keys mentioned in the
27 + 2.8 How do I change the key bindings?
30 + 3.1 How do I enable mouse support?
31 + 3.2 How do I cut and paste text with mouse?
32 + 3.3 How do I get the extension dependent pop-up menu to
36 + 4.1 Why do I keep getting "Terminal not powerful enough for
37 SLang" or "Terminal not powerful enough for SLsmg"?
38 + 4.2 Why don't line drawing characters work?
39 + 4.3 Can one use latin-1 characters without losing the lines?
40 + 4.4 I have problems with entering/viewing national
42 + 4.5 How can I get colors?
43 + 4.6 My color_xterm goes completely (or partially) black!
44 + 4.7 Where can I get xterm or rxvt?
45 + 4.8 I got colors working with MC but the other programs don't
47 + 4.9 Why are there both terminfo and termcap? Wouldn't one
50 * 5 Graphical user interface
51 + 5.1 Xview, Tk and Gnome editions?
52 + 5.2 Why is MC linked with X libraries?
54 * 6 Command line problems
55 + 6.1 How do I stay in the last directory when I exit Midnight
57 + 6.2 How can I access command line history?
58 + 6.3 How can I complete commands, file names, variable names
60 + 6.4 I am using ksh. Can I use functions defined in the
62 + 6.5 Is there any way to include additional options or hot
65 * 7 Virtual file systems
66 + 7.1 How can I see the contents of a tar archive?
67 + 7.2 How do I get out of a tar archive?
68 + 7.3 How do I do anonymous ftp with MC?
69 + 7.4 How do I do non-anonymous ftp with MC?
70 + 7.5 How do I close an ftp connection?
71 + 7.6 Why aren't the contents of ftp panel updated?
72 + 7.7 What kind of proxy server works with Midnight Commander?
74 * 8 Other common problems
75 + 8.1 How do I get the internal editor to work?
76 + 8.2 Is there any way to 'bookmark' favorite ftp-fs links?
77 + 8.3 Why I keep getting: "There is no disk in the drive.
78 Please insert a disk into drive D:"?
79 + 8.4 When I start Midnight Commander, nothing happens!
80 + 8.5 When I try pasting to the internal editor, it indents
81 the amount of indenting increases with each line!
84 + 9.1 Who has written Midnight Commander?
85 + 9.2 Do I dare to use a development version?
86 + 9.3 How can I report a bug/request for a feature?
87 + 9.4 How can I join the development?
90 + 10.1 This document didn't answer my question. Where else can
92 + 10.2 What mailing lists are there for Midnight Commander?
93 + 10.3 Where should I look on the World Wide Web for MC stuff?
94 + 10.4 Are the mailing lists archived anywhere?
98 + 11.2 Feedback is invited
99 + 11.3 Disclaimer and copyright
104 1.1 What is Midnight Commander?
106 GNU Midnight Commander is a user-friendly yet powerful file manager
107 and visual shell, useful to novice and guru alike. It provides a
108 clear, user-friendly, and somewhat protected interface to a Unix
109 system while making many frequent file operations more efficient and
110 preserving the full power of the command prompt. You will wonder how
111 you could ever live without it.
113 For more thorough description take a look at the announcement of
114 Midnight Commander 4.0.
116 1.2 Does it run on my machine?
118 GNU Midnight Commander runs on POSIX (Unix-like) operating systems,
119 such as GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, Solaris, HP-UX and others. It
120 can also be compiled under Cygwin on Windows. There is an unfinished
123 GNU Midnight Commander uses GNU Autoconf which should automatically
124 configure it for every Unix clone. Following configurations have
127 * i386-*-linux1.x, 2.x
129 * sparc-linux-linux2.x
130 * sparc64-linux-linux2.1
131 * mips-sgi-irix5.x, 6.x
133 * rs6000-ibm-aix3.2.5
135 * sparc-sun-solaris2.3, 2.4, 2.5
136 * sparc-sun-netbsd1.0
141 * mc88110-aviion-dgux5.4R2.01
145 Windows 95/NT port can be compiled with Microsoft Visual C++, Borland
146 C++, RSX and Mingw32.
148 1.3 Does it work with my terminal?
152 Because Midnight Commander is a full screen program it doesn't run on
153 dummy terminals but anything more advanced will do (like vt100). If
154 your terminal works with vi, emacs, elm or pine it will work with
157 1.4 What else do I need to run MC?
159 You need a POSIX (Unix compatible) operating system. Native support
160 for Windows is incomplete - you should be prepared to fix things.
162 To compile any edition you need to have glib 1.2.x or newer
163 installed. It's available at ftp://ftp.gtk.org/pub/gtk/. If you
164 don't have glib installed already, please note that glib 2.x is much
165 harder to compile, so your first choice should be glib 1.2.10.
167 If you want to use mouse on the Linux console you need the gpm daemon
168 from ftp://ftp.systemy.it/pub/develop/. You need nothing extra to use
171 If you do not want to use the S-Lang library you could try using
172 ncurses version 4.1 and above.
174 1.5 Is GNU Midnight Commander Public Domain? Copyrighted?
176 Midnight Commander is under GNU Public License which basically means
177 that you may freely copy, change and distribute it, but that you may
178 not impose any restrictions on further distribution, and that you must
179 make the source code available. This is not the same as Public Domain.
180 For details, the GNU license is included in GNU Midnight Commander
181 source distribution (the COPYING file).
183 Midnight Commander is now officially a part of the GNU project.
184 All the authors of GNU Midnight Commander have given all their rights
185 on the program to the Free Software Foundation.
187 1.6 Where can I get GNU Midnight Commander?
189 The main site is ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/stable/sources/mc/
191 1.7 I don't have FTP access. Where can I get MC?
193 Most GNU/Linux distributions include GNU Midnight Commander. For
194 example, Debian, Mandrake, Red Hat, Slackware and SuSE.
196 1.8 I cannot compile MC. What should I do?
198 Make sure you have read the INSTALL file in the sources. Report the
199 error messages exactly as they appear, mention the versions of your
200 OS, your compiler and whatever else software you think is relevant.
201 If you have compile problems in the VFS code, try disabling it by
202 using "--without-vfs" switch. As the last resort, you can use
203 precompiled binaries from the GNU Midnight Commander website.
208 2.1 What does documentation mean with the C-?, M-? and F? keys?
210 GNU Midnight Commander documentation uses emacs style names for
213 C stands for the Ctrl key. For example, C-f means that you should
214 hold down the Ctrl key and press the f key.
216 M stands for the Meta key. Your terminal might call it Alt or
217 Compose instead of Meta. For example, M-f means that you should hold
218 down the Meta/Alt/Compose key and press the f key. If your terminal
219 doesn't have Meta, Alt or Compose or they don't work you can use Esc.
220 For M-f press the Esc key and then press the f key.
222 Sometimes Ctrl and Alt are used instead of C and M for simplicity.
223 Keep in mind that Alt can actually be Meta on some keyboards.
225 F? stands for a function key. If your terminal doesn't have function
226 keys or they don't work you can use Esc. For example, for F3 press
227 the Esc key and then press the 3 key.
229 2.2 Why don't function keys (or some other key) work?
231 Your terminfo or termcap database has missing or incorrect definitions
232 for function keys. Type "mc -V" to see what terminal database is being
233 used. If the result is "using the S-Lang library with terminfo
234 database" you should install one of the enhanced terminfo databases
235 included in GNU Midnight Commander source distribution. For example,
236 if you are using xterm type "tic xterm.ti".
238 If the result is "using the S-Lang library with termcap database" you
239 should fix your /etc/termcap database.
241 Better termcap and terminfo databases are available here:
243 http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/terminfo/
244 ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses/
246 You can force Midnight Commander to use the termcap database by
247 giving --with-termcap option to the configure script. The default
250 If you don't have permissions to edit terminal databases you can use
251 Learn keys feature of Midnight Commander instead. Press Esc 9 o k and
254 If all else fails you can emulate function keys by first pressing the
255 ESC key and then one of the number keys. For example, if you want to
256 produce F9, press ESC, then 9. If you don't have a ESC key on your
257 keyboard you can try alt-9 or meta-9.
259 2.3 How do I use function keys F11 to F20?
261 These can mapped to function keys F1 to F10 with Shift held. e.g.
262 function key F13 can be activated by pressing Shift-F3. You can define
263 the keys this way in the Options menu. The convention for PC keyboards
264 is that F11-20 always means Shift with F1-10
266 Note! The native Windows port uses F11 and F12 keys to change the
267 current disk drive. In this case F11 and F12 mean the real F11 and
268 F12 keys, not shift-F1 and shift-F2.
270 2.4 Why does the ESC key behave funny?
272 Midnight Commander uses the ESC key as a prefix for simulating the
273 Meta and Alt keys (for terminals which don't have Meta or Alt, see the
274 three previous questions). For example, pressing ESC-a is the same as
275 pressing Meta-a. In addition most terminals use ESC for internal
276 representation of arrow keys, function keys and other enhanced keys.
277 If you want to use ESC to cancel things you have to press it twice i.
278 e. ESC-ESC. If you find this cumbersome you can generally use F10 to
279 cancel. Alternatively turn on the old_esc_mode setting in the
280 ~/.mc.ini file. The old_esc_mode setting makes ESC work as a prefix
281 only if another key is pressed within 0.5 seconds. After 0.5 seconds
282 the ESC key cancels. There is no way to make ESC cancel immediately
283 (if we want to be able to use arrows keys and function keys).
285 2.5 How can I add the plus sign (+) on the command line?
287 Press C-q first, then press the + sign.
289 The plus key is the hotkey for the select files command. If you want
290 to add a literal plus on to the command line you must quote it by
293 Another common key which needs the C-q prefix is backslash "\".
295 2.6 C-o doesn't work!
297 Maybe C-o is a stty control character on your terminal. See man stty
298 for details on how to list and change stty control characters.
300 2.7 What 'keys' are the "a1" and "c1" keys mentioned in the manual?
302 The "a1" key is the key which has the "a1" caption on it.
304 The "c1" key is the key which has the "c1" caption on it.
306 If you have to ask what these two keys are your keyboard hasn't
307 probably got them. Actually, I have never seen a keyboard which has
310 2.8 How do I change the key bindings?
312 There is no generic way to reconfigure the key bindings. You can use
313 the "Learn Keys" dialog to assign keys to some actions listed in that
314 dialog. However, most actions cannot be redefined to use different
320 3.1 How do I enable mouse support?
322 Invoke mc like this (without quotes): "mc -x". If this doesn't work
323 upgrade to a terminal which compatible with the Xterm mouse sequences.
325 Alternatively, on Linux console you can use gpm.
327 3.2 How do I cut and paste text with mouse?
329 Hold down shift key while using mouse to cut and paste.
331 3.3 How do I get the extension dependent pop-up menu to pop up?
333 It was developed for the GNOME edition. The text-mode edition doesn't
334 support this feature yet.
339 4.1 Why do I keep getting "Terminal not powerful enough for SLang" or
340 "Terminal not powerful enough for SLsmg"?
342 This means that your terminfo databases do not contain the correct
343 definitions for your terminal.
345 You could try using a different terminal setting. If you use csh or
350 or if you use sh, bash, ksh or zsh:
354 If this doesn't help you can recompile MC to use termcap instead of
357 ./configure --with-termcap
360 4.2 Why don't line drawing characters work?
362 Since version 4.0.13 there's the command line option -a to force use of
363 +, |, - for line drawing (only available when compiled with S-Lang).
364 Use this -a option if any of the suggestions below doesn't help.
366 In general, there are three cases:
367 * Lines are shown as ASCII characters like this
373 This also happens when you use the -a option. Other than that
374 possible reason is 1 or 2 (see below).
376 * Lines are shown as lower case characters like this
382 Possible reason is 1 or 2 (see below).
384 * Lines are shown as blanks or missing characters. Possible reason
385 is 2 or 3 (see below).
387 The reason for the problem is one of following:
389 1. Your terminal might not support line drawing characters. Vt100
390 compatible terminals, rxvt, xterm and color_xterm do support them.
391 2. Your terminfo or termcap database might have missing or incorrect
392 definitions for line drawing characters. Set the acsc variable in
393 the terminfo database like this:
394 acsc=a\376k\277l\332m\300j\331n\305w\302v\301u\264t\303q\304x\263h
396 Don't forget issue 'tic' command. This supposes you are using PC
397 character set. The octal values might be different for other
398 character sets. If you are using termcap instead of terminfo, you
399 should modify above solution appropriately.
400 3. Your terminal font might not support line drawing characters. Try
403 Here is Miguel's answer to Torben on this subject.
407 When I load consolefonts/iso01.f16, I get perfectly right national
408 characters, but the line drawing characters in mc get wrong. Is it
409 a mc problem, or is it a problem with the font? (I guess it is).
415 First of all, we should determine whether the font has line drawing
418 If it has line drawing characters, then a new terminfo entry should
419 be written for this specific case. Let's call this linux-iso01. The
420 acsc variable should be modified to reflect which characters are
421 used to do the line drawing.
423 If it does not have line drawing characters, then we should get rid
424 of the switch to acsc sequences and make the acsc sequence be just
425 a mapping to the ugly +, -, |, - characters.
427 You can get your terminfo definition by running the infocmp
428 program, making the proper changes and running the tic program to
429 compile your new terminfo database.
431 4.3 Can one use latin-1 characters without losing the lines?
433 Yes, you need a correct font and a correct termcap/terminfo database.
435 For font, if you use xterm try "xterm -fn fixed".
437 For termcap/terminfo database, change the acsc capability in the
440 4.4 I have problems with entering/viewing national characters!
442 Upgrade to version 4.0.12 or newer.
444 From the Options - Display Bits dialog select Full 8 bits or ISO
445 8859-1. In addition, select 8 bit input from the same dialog.
447 4.5 How can I get colors?
449 Invoke mc like this (without quotes): "mc -c".
451 If you get colors, be happy.
453 If your terminal stays black and white, your terminal doesn't support
454 color. You might want to upgrade to a terminal which compatible with
455 the ANSI color sequences.
457 If your terminal goes completely black, see the next question.
459 More detailed answer:
461 Check that your terminal supports color. color_xterm, rxvt and Linux
462 console do support, most other terminals don't. You can test color
463 support with following simple C program:
468 printf ("\033[32m Hello world! \033[m\n");
472 Compile and run it. If you see "Hello world!" text in green your
473 terminal supports color, otherwise not (however, for color_xterm see
474 also the next question).
476 Check whether you are using Ncurses or the S-Lang library (type
477 "mc -V" to find out).
479 With S-Lang library you can force color support by setting the
480 environment variable COLORTERM to any value.
482 If you use ncurses library, check that your terminfo database supports
483 color. If not, you should install one of the enhanced terminfo
484 databases included in GNU Midnight Commander source distribution.
486 You might want to set the TERM environment variable so that you are
487 using the correct terminfo database or termcap entry.
489 If you use color_xterm (or rxvt) the correct value might be
490 xterm-color, xtermc or simply xterm.
492 If you use Linux console the correct value for TERM is linux or
495 4.6 My color_xterm goes completely (or partially) black!
497 Some color_xterm terminals define all colors as black instead of the
498 standard ANSI colors. This makes them go completely black when you try
499 to use Midnight Commander with colors.
501 You will have to override the defaults. Create a file "color.defaults"
502 which has the following contents:
504 color_xterm*color0: Black
505 color_xterm*color1: Red
506 color_xterm*color2: Green
507 color_xterm*color3: Yellow
508 color_xterm*color4: Blue
509 color_xterm*color5: Magenta
510 color_xterm*color6: Cyan
511 color_xterm*color7: White
512 color_xterm*background: White
513 color_xterm*foreground: Black
515 (replace color_xterm with the name of your color_xterm, color_xterm
516 mentions its name in its title bar)
520 xrdb -merge color.defaults
522 Alternatively you can add the suggested contents of the color.defaults
523 file to your .Xdefaults or .Xresources file (or what ever the name of
524 your X configuration file is). Or you can replace your non-ANSI
525 color_xterm with an ANSI color_xterm.
527 4.7 Where can I get xterm or rxvt?
529 xterm is included with the X Window System, so you probably already
530 have it if you have X. This version is not actively maintained, but
531 Thomas Dickey maintains his more advanced version of xterm at
532 ftp://dickey.his.com/xterm/
534 rxvt has its own site http://www.rxvt.org/ - get the latest version
537 4.8 I got colors working with MC but the other programs don't work at all
540 Midnight Commander uses terminfo database (if available) but many
541 other programs use termcap database. If you set the TERM environment
542 variable to a value which has no corresponding entry in termcap
543 database those programs stop working. You should add the new value of
544 TERM to the termcap database.
546 Example: If you have set TERM to xterm-color locate from /etc/termcap
547 the line which starts:
549 xterm|vs100|xterm terminal emulator
553 xterm|xterm-color|vs100|xterm terminal emulator
555 4.9 Why are there both terminfo and termcap? Wouldn't one database be
558 You might want to read the Unix-Haters Handbook at
559 http://catalog.com/hopkins/unix-haters/handbook.html. It lists many
560 more reasons why Unix sucks.
562 You can configure which terminal database you want to use with the
563 "--with-termcap" and "--with-terminfo" flags of configure. If you
564 don't specify them, the configure script will try to use terminfo if
565 available otherwise it will use termcap.
568 5 Graphical user interface
570 5.1 Xview, Tk and Gnome editions?
572 Xview and Tk and GNOME editions have been removed from the sources.
574 5.2 Why is MC linked with X libraries?
576 GNU Midnight Commander is linked with X libraries to read key
577 modifiers from the X Server. It may be helpful to distinguish
578 between keys that the terminal emulator reports in the same way, e.g.
579 PgUp and Ctrl-PgUp. Versions of GNU Midnight Commander after 4.6.0
580 will load X libraries dynamically on the systems that support it.
583 6 Command line problems
585 6.1 How do I stay in the last directory when I exit Midnight Commander?
587 See the description of the -P option in the Options section of the
590 6.2 How can I access command line history?
592 Alt-h shows the last commands you executed from the command line.
593 Duplicates are suppressed from the history. Commands executed from
594 the subshell prompt are not shown.
596 You can put previous commands to the command line with Alt-p. Alt-n
597 moves you forward in history.
599 Since version 4.1.15 all the input widgets have permanent history. You
600 can summon the history listbox by pressing M-h.
602 6.3 How can I complete commands, file names, variable names and so on?
604 Just press M-Tab. Press M-Tab again to get a listbox if there are
605 multiple possible completions.
607 6.4 I am using ksh. Can I use functions defined in the .kshrc within MC?
609 Sorry, MC only supports bash, tcsh and zsh functions. Ksh functions
610 are not supported because ksh lacks the necessary hooks needed for
611 subshell integration.
613 Switch to bash or zsh. They are both quite compatible with ksh. Your
614 ksh functions should work as such or after minimal changes.
616 6.5 Is there any way to include additional options or hot keys to MC?
618 Yes, F2 invokes an user menu which fully configurable. You can add
619 any shell commands to the user menu. See the mc(1) man page for more
622 Another way to add functionality is the external panelize feature.
623 See the mc(1) man page for more info.
625 And finally, you can code any feature you want yourself. MC source
626 code is free which means you can change it anyway you want. There are
627 some limitations to make sure MC stays free. See GNU General Public
631 7 Virtual file systems
633 Note! Virtual file systems are supported by Unix ports only. The
634 native Windows port doesn't support virtual file systems.
636 7.1 How can I see the contents of a tar archive?
638 If you use keyboard just move the selection bar on the tar file and
641 If you use mouse just double-click on the tar file.
643 If these procedures don't work, your .mc.ext file is faulty. Replace
644 it with one from the MC source distribution.
646 You can also enter a tar archive by typing "cd tar:filename.tar.gz"
647 where filename.tar.gz is the name of the archive.
649 The recognized suffixes for tar archives are .tar, .tar.gz and .tgz.
650 If your tar archive uses different suffix you have to rename it.
652 7.2 How do I get out of a tar archive?
654 Just press enter on the toplevel ".." file or change to a non-tar
655 directory. Just typing "cd" with no parameters is enough (it will
656 take you to your home directory).
658 7.3 How do I do anonymous ftp with MC?
660 Just type "cd ftp://hostname" where hostname is the name of the host
661 you want to connect. Alternatively, select FTP link from the Left or
662 Right menu and type the name of the host you want to connect.
664 7.4 How do I do non-anonymous ftp with MC?
666 Non-anonymous ftp works just like the anonymous ftp but you give the
667 login name with the host name. For example, type "cd
668 ftp://username@hostname".
670 7.5 How do I close an ftp connection?
672 Just chdir to a non-ftp directory. Just typing "cd" with no parameters
673 is enough (it will take you to your home directory).
675 Internally Midnight Commander closes ftp connection only after a
676 timeout. This isn't visible to the end user.
678 7.6 Why aren't the contents of ftp panel updated?
680 Update is skipped because there would be a serious performance
681 penalty. Constantly updating directory panels through a ftp connection
682 would take too much time.
684 You can use C-r to force an update.
686 7.7 What kind of proxy server works with Midnight Commander?
688 There are two kinds of ftp proxies: proxies for ftp clients and
689 proxies for web browsers.
691 Midnight Commander only supports ftp proxies which are meant for ftp
692 clients. Common WWW proxies (like Squid) are not supported. A rule
693 of thumb is that if a ftp proxy requires a web browser, it won't work
694 with Midnight Commander.
697 8 Other common problems
699 8.1 How do I get the internal editor to work?
701 The F4 key used to default to an external editor because that was what
702 most people were used to. The newer versions use internal editor by
705 To use the internal editor with an old version, select Configuration
706 from the Options menu and check the 'use internal edit' option.
708 Alternatively add the line
711 under the [Midnight-Commander] section in your .mc.ini file (which is
712 in your home directory).
714 To make the editor work all the time, go to the default/* section in
715 the file lib/mc/mc.ext file and remove the line
717 Edit=%var{EDITOR:vi} %f
719 The internal editor will now be invoked for anything not specified
720 elsewhere in the mc.ext file.
722 Make sure that you edit the correct mc.ext file. The Midnight
723 Commander first checks the existence of $HOME/.mc.ext. If this file
724 is missing MC will use $prefix/lib/mc/mc.ext instead ($prefix can be
725 changed with configure before compilation and it defaults to
728 When you run `F9/Command/Extension file edit' for the very first time
729 Midnight Commander copies the system-wide mc.ext from $prefix/lib/mc
730 into your home directory because you need write access in order to
733 And please don't forget that "make install" overwrites
734 $prefix/lib/mc/mc.ext.
736 8.2 Is there any way to 'bookmark' favorite ftp-fs links?
738 Use the directory hotlist. Just press control-backslash. If your
739 national keyboard layout doesn't have backslash key, just press the
740 control key with the key which is the backslash key in the English
743 8.3 Why I keep getting: "There is no disk in the drive. Please insert a disk
746 This is a known bug of the native Windows port. MC looks its
747 configuration files from the D:\MC directory and if the D: drive is a
748 removable drive (like a CD ROM drive) and there is no disk in drive
749 you get this message every time you try to do anything.
751 Since version 4.0.6 you can specify the actual location of the
752 Midnight Commander configuration files with the MCHOME environment
755 8.4 When I start Midnight Commander, nothing happens!
757 First, invoke MC without subshell support: "mc -u". If this helps
758 check the shell you are using. Subshell support works best with
759 bash, although tcsh and zsh are also supported. You might want to
760 upgrade your shell to a newer version. If you use something else
761 than bash, tcsh or zsh, subshell support is disabled automatically.
763 If disabling subshell doesn't help, try to reconfigure MC with
764 "--with-included-slang" and "--with-termcap" options and recompile.
765 If this helps, something is wrong with your terminfo database or
766 shared S-Lang library. For better terminfo databases see chapter 4
767 of this FAQ. For a better S-Lang library, upgrade to a newer version
768 or keep using the "--with-included-slang" option.
770 Another reason is problems with gpm. Try using "--nomouse" option to
771 see if it makes any difference. Restarting gpm can help. Sometimes
772 it's enough to move the mouse.
774 Also, if you have the DISPLAY environment variable set, but the X
775 server is unreachable (e.g. it's firewalled), this can also cause a
776 delay at startup. Unset DISPLAY to see if that's the case.
778 8.5 When I try pasting to the internal editor, it indents the amount of
779 indenting increases with each line!
781 Either turn of 'Return does autoindent' in the editor options or
782 update GNU Midnight Commander to version 4.6.0 or above - it doesn't
783 autoindent when you are holding Shift.
788 9.1 Who has written Midnight Commander?
790 Midnight Commander was started by Miguel de Icaza and he is the
791 maintainer of the package. Other authors have joined the project
793 * Mauricio Plaza (early releases)
794 * Janne Kukonlehto (joined Sep 27 1994)
795 * Radek Doulik (joined Oct 30 1994)
796 * Fred Leeflang (joined Nov 2 1994)
797 * Dugan Porter (joined Dec 1 1994)
798 * Jakub Jelinek (joined Feb 8 1995)
799 * Ching Hui (joined Jun 27 1995)
800 * Andrej Borsenkow (joined Jul 1996)
801 * Paul Sheer (joined Nov 1 1996)
805 Alessandro Rubini has been specially helpful with debugging and
806 enhancing of the mouse support. John E. Davis has made his S-Lang
807 library available to us and answered many questions about it.
809 Many people have contributed bug reports, feature suggestions and
810 small code bits (alphabetical order):
812 * Juan Jose Ciarlante
813 * Alexander Dong (OS/2 port, NT port updates)
815 * Torben Fjerdingstad
817 * Juan Grigera (NT port)
819 * Sergey Ya. Korshunoff
822 * Antonio Palama (old DOS port)
830 9.2 Do I dare to use a development version?
832 That's up to you to decide. Development versions may have nasty bugs
833 at some points of time. It's up to you to judge whether the new
834 features and fixes for the bugs you know outweigh the risk of unknown
837 9.3 How can I report a bug/request for a feature?
839 You might first want to get the newest development version to see if
840 the bug is fixed or the feature is added already.
842 Send your report/request to mc-devel@gnome.org or mc@gnome.org.
843 These mailing lists are the most certain way to contact the
844 developers. Remember to mention if you are not on the mailing list
845 to make sure that you will receive a copy of replies.
847 Give as much details as possible. A too long message is a lot better
848 than a too short message.
850 For segmentation faults a stack backtrace is appreciated. You can
851 produce stack backtrace as follows:
852 * If segmentation fault produced a core file:
853 1. Load the core file by typing "gdb mc core" or "dbx mc core".
855 3. Cut and paste the results to your message.
856 * If segmentation fault didn't produce a core file:
857 1. Load mc by typing "gdb mc" or "dbx mc".
858 2. Start mc by typing "run".
859 3. Try to reproduce the segmentation fault by doing whatever you
860 did last time when the segmentation fault occurred.
862 5. Cut and paste the results to your message.
863 6. For the future you might want to check out what is the
864 command in your shell to allow producing of the core files.
865 Usually it is "limit coredumpsize unlimited" or "ulimit
866 coredumpsize" or "ulimit -c unlimited".
868 9.4 How can I join the development?
870 To join the development just code the feature you want to add and send
871 your patch for inclusion. Email address is mc-devel@gnome.org.
872 Before you start coding check the latest development version. It might
873 be that your feature has already been implemented.
875 Note that the authors of GNU Midnight Commander have given all their
876 rights on the program to the Free Software Foundation. You will have
877 to do the same if you contribute non-trivial patches. Otherwise we
878 have to reject your patches in order to avoid copyright problems.
883 10.1 This document didn't answer my question. Where else can I look for an
886 Read messages from the Discussion (mailing list archive) or read the
889 Upgrade to a newer version of Midnight Commander. Many problems are
890 fixed in the new versions.
892 If you still can't find an answer, post your question to the Midnight
893 Commander mailing list. Its address is mc@gnome.org.
895 10.2 What mailing lists are there for Midnight Commander?
897 Following mailing lists discuss about Midnight Commander:
900 General discussion of GNU Midnight Commander
902 http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/mc/
905 Technical development discussion
907 http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/mc-devel/
909 10.3 Where should I look on the World Wide Web for MC stuff?
911 There is a WWW page for Midnight Commander. The URL is:
913 http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/
915 10.4 Are the mailing lists archived anywhere?
917 The mc and mc-devel lists are archived on the World Wide Web. There are
918 links to the archives on the mailing list pages (see 10.2).
925 Questions and Answers was written by Janne Kukonlehto. Parts of it
926 originate from Ian Jackson, Miguel de Icaza, Dugan Porter, Norbert
927 Warmuth and Paul Sheer.
929 11.2 Feedback is invited
931 Send your comments about this document and GNU Midnight Commander to
934 11.3 Disclaimer and copyright
936 Note that this document is provided as is. The information in it is
937 not warranted to be correct; you use it at your own risk.
939 You can use Questions and Answers according to GNU Public License (see
940 the COPYING file in GNU Midnight Commander source distribution).
941 Questions and Answers is not public domain.