3 - Build requirements for GNU Midnight Commander
4 - Installation instructions for GNU Midnight Commander
5 - Where to get more information on GNU Midnight Commander
6 - Notes about GNU Midnight Commander installation
7 - Obtaining related software
9 Build requirements for GNU Midnight Commander
10 ----------------------------------------------------
19 - pcre (if glib < 2.14)
23 - libssh2 >= 1.2.5 is required only for sftp vfs (1.2.7 if you need ssh-agent support)
26 Installation instructions for GNU Midnight Commander
27 ----------------------------------------------------
29 The `configure' shell script attempts to guess correct values for
30 various system-dependent variables used during compilation, and creates
31 the makefiles. It also creates a file `config.status' that you can run
32 in the future to recreate the current configuration.
34 To compile this package:
36 1. Configure the package for your system.
38 Normally, you just `cd' to the directory containing the package's source
39 code and type `./configure'. If you're using `csh' on an old version of
40 SystemV, you might need to type `sh configure' instead to prevent `csh'
41 from trying to execute `configure' itself. Under AIX, you may need to
42 use ksh instead of sh.
44 Running `configure' takes a while. While it is running, it prints some
45 messages that tell what it is doing. If you don't want to see any
46 messages, run `configure' with the `--quiet' option.
48 To compile the package in a different directory than the one containing
49 the source code, you must use a version of `make' supporting the `VPATH'
50 variable, such as GNU `make'. Change to the directory where you want
51 the object files and executables to go and run the `configure' script
52 with the full path. If for some reason `configure' cannot find the
53 source code directory, run `configure' with the option `--srcdir=DIR',
54 where DIR is the directory that contains the source code.
56 By default, `make install' will install the package's files in
57 `/usr/local/bin', `/usr/local/man', etc. You can specify an
58 installation prefix other than `/usr/local' by giving `configure' the
59 option `--prefix=PATH'.
61 You can specify separate installation prefixes for architecture specific
62 files and architecture-independent files. If you give `configure' the
63 option `--exec-prefix=PATH', the package will use PATH as the prefix for
64 installing binary programs and libraries. Data files and documentation
65 will still use the regular prefix. Normally, all files are installed
66 using the same prefix.
68 If compiled on GNU/Linux, Midnight Commander detects if you have the gpm
69 library installed. If you installed the gpm mouse library in a
70 non-standard place, you will need to use the --with-gpm-mouse flag with
71 the directory base where you installed the gpm package.
73 `configure' recognizes the following options (the list may be
74 incomplete, use `configure --help' to get the full list):
77 Print a summary of the options to `configure' and exit.
81 Do not print messages saying which checks are being made.
84 Print the version of Autoconf used to generate the `configure'
88 Configure GNU Midnight Commander to be compiled without the
89 built-in file editor. The built-in editor is compiled in by
93 Use this flag to disable gpm mouse support (e.g. if you want to
94 use mouse only on X terminals).
97 Force linking against glib statically. This option is intended for
98 building binaries for distribution purposes and may not work on
99 some operating systems.
101 `--with-mmap', `--without-mmap'
102 Force using or not using the mmap function. It is currently used
103 in the internal viewer. `--with-mmap' may be useful on some
104 versions of AIX where the `configure' script decides that mmap is
105 broken, but it's actually suitable for the internal viewer.
107 `--with-subshell[=optional]', `--without-subshell'
108 The subshell support is by default turned on, you can disable
109 this by using the --without-subshell option. If you pass the
110 =optional parameter, then the subshell support is turned off by
111 default. To turn it on, specify the `-U' option to the program.
114 By default, the Midnight Commander tries to connect to the X Window
115 System events to query the status of the keyboard modifiers, such
116 as Control, Shift and Alt, when invoked in a terminal emulator
117 under X11. This is necessary (but not always sufficient) to
118 recognize some optional but handy key combinations like Ctrl-Home
119 and Shift-Cursor keys. Use `--without-x' if the dependency on
120 X11 libraries is not desired.
122 `--disable-largefile'
123 This option disables support for large files (2 gigabytes and more)
124 on the systems where file operations use 32-bit offsets by default,
125 but support for 64-bit offsets is available. May be useful for
126 slow processors and embedded systems.
129 This option adds support for selecting character set of the text in
130 the internal viewer and editor and converting it on the fly. The
131 implementation of this option is currently incomplete.
133 `--disable-background'
134 This option disables support for background operations. Background
135 operations allow to perform some tasks such as copying files in a
136 separate background process. Any messages from the background
137 process are forwarded to the foreground process. More advanced
138 dialogs cannot be forwarded yet, so the background process uses the
139 default. Background code is known to be less stable than the rest
140 of the code, so you may want to disable it at the compile time.
143 This option allow users to place user config directories in any
144 place. By default value is 'XDG', this mean, mc will respect XDG
145 standards. If other value is specified, this will used as directory
146 name (relative to $HOME if path is relative, or as is if path is
153 This option disables the Virtual File System switch code in the
154 Midnight Commander and uses the standard file system calls for
155 file access. If you specify this option, you won't get the
156 transparent access to archives and remote directories.
160 Support for cpio filesystem
164 Support for tar filesystem
186 `--enable-vfs-undelfs'
188 Support for ext2 undelete filesystem.
189 On systems that use the ext2 or ext3 file system and have the
190 libext2fs library available, this option adds support for
191 recovering deleted files (the undel virtual file system).
195 This option enables remote VFS over the SMB protocol. A stripped
196 down version of samba distributed with the sources is compiled and
197 linked with the mc executable. It is recommended that you install
198 Samba client, since mc uses some files from Samba under certain
199 conditions. Please visit http://www.samba.org/ to learn more.
205 You may also tell configure which screen library you want to use with
206 the Midnight Commander. The configure script will use S-Lang as
207 default, and prefers an already installed S-Lang library over the
208 included one, but you can override this by using the following flag
209 (please note that since S-Lang is default, it is tested better than
212 `--with-screen={slang|ncurses}'
213 Choose the library used to manage interaction with the terminal.
214 `slang' means S-Lang library already installed on the system,
215 `ncurses' means ncurses library already installed on the system.
216 The S-Lang library is used by default if found.
218 `--with-slang-includes=[DIR]'
219 Set path to SLANG includes [default=/usr/include]; make sense
220 only if --with-screen=slang is used.
222 `--with-slang-libs=[DIR]'
223 Set path to SLANG library [default=/usr/lib]; mke sense only
224 if --with-screen=slang is used.
226 `--with-ncurses-includes=[DIR]'
227 Set path to ncurses includes [default=/usr/include]; make
228 sense only if --with-screen=ncurses is used;
229 for /usr/local/include/ncurses specify /usr/local/include.
231 `--with-ncurses-libs=[DIR]'
232 Set path to ncurses library [default=/usr/lib]; make sense
233 only if --with-screen=ncurses is used.
238 On systems that require unusual options for compilation or linking that
239 the package's `configure' script does not know about, you can give
240 `configure' initial values for variables by placing them in the command
243 ./configure CC='gcc -traditional' LIBS=-lposix
245 Here are the variables that you might want to override when running
249 C compiler program. The default is `gcc' if found, otherwise `cc'.
252 The default flags used to build the program.
255 Program to use to install files. The default is `install' if you
256 have it, `cp' otherwise.
258 For these variables, any value given in the command line is added to the
259 value that `configure' decides to use:
262 Libraries to link with, in the form `-lfoo -lbar...'.
265 Linker flags, e.g. -L<lib dir> if you have libraries in a
266 nonstandard directory <lib dir>
269 C/C++ preprocessor flags, e.g. -I<include dir> if you have
270 headers in a nonstandard directory <include dir>
272 If you need to do unusual things to compile the package, we encourage
273 you to figure out how `configure' could check whether to do them, and
274 mail diffs or instructions to the address given in the README so we can
275 include them in the next release.
277 2. Type `make' to compile the package.
279 3. Type `make install' to install programs, data files, and the
280 documentation. On GNU/Linux the console screen saver is installed as
283 4. You can remove the program binaries and object files from the source
284 directory by typing `make clean'. If you want to clean the source tree
285 completely, so that it contains only those files that should be packaged
286 in the archive, issue `make distclean'. If you've run configure in a
287 different directory than the source tree, distclean won't remove your
288 *.o and linked programs in that directory.
290 5. GNU Midnight Commander allows you to stay in the last current
291 directory after exiting MC. This is done with a shell function, the man
292 page has more information about this.
294 The file `configure.in' is used to create `configure' by a program
295 called `autoconf'. You only need it if you want to regenerate
296 `configure' using a newer version of `autoconf'.
299 Where to get more information on GNU Midnight Commander
300 -------------------------------------------------------
302 There are two mailing lists for the program:
304 mc@gnome.org: Discussion on GNU Midnight Commander file manager.
305 mc-devel@gnome.org: Discussion between the developers of the program.
307 To subscribe to the mailing lists, visit their respective pages:
309 http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/mc/
310 http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/mc-devel/
313 Notes about GNU Midnight Commander installation
314 -----------------------------------------------
316 GNU Midnight Commander has been run in the following configurations:
323 mips-dec-{open,net}bsd1.0
326 powerpc-ibm-aix5.3.0.0 (IBM XL C, IBM XL C/C++)
333 mc88110-aviion-dgux5.4
338 Midnight Commander is written in a portable manner and uses GNU Autoconf
339 for configuration, so it is expected to compile without changes on many
340 other operating systems.
342 You will need an ANSI C Compiler (such as GCC) and glib library to
343 compile the source. GNU Midnight Commander now comes with the S-Lang
344 screen manager, a fast screen manager, but you may want to use the
345 already installed S-Lang or ncurses library.
347 If you insist on using ncurses, it's recommended to use ncurses 4.1 and
348 above, since the older versions don't support resizing in the xterm
351 GNU Midnight Commander comes with the mouse support on xterms and in the
352 Linux console. In order to take advantage of the mouse support on the
353 Linux console you will need the gpm mouse server (see the section
354 "Obtaining related software" in this file).
356 Once you get gpm, compile it and install it, then you will have to
357 specify the `--with-gpm-mouse' flag to the configure program if you
358 installed it in a non-standard directory. If you installed the gpm
359 package under /usr or /usr/local, you don't need to specify this flag;
360 configure will find gpm for you. The support for mice on xterms is
363 We are working on further enhancements to the program, but we're not
364 sure which ones must go first. If you would like to point us in the
365 Right Direction we will be glad to hear from you.
367 If you happen to find a feature that doesn't do what you expect, please
368 write to mc@gnome.org telling as much as you can about the problem
369 you're experiencing. Please don't send personal messages to the
373 Obtaining related software
374 --------------------------
379 The only "hard" dependency of GNU Midnight Commander is glib. You can
382 ftp://ftp.gtk.org/pub/glib/
384 Minimal version of glib: 2.8.x
385 Recommended version: 2.14.x and higher.
387 Newer versions may work, but haven't been tested.
392 If the version of glib you have installed is older than 2.14.x, then you
393 also need to install PCRE library.
395 You can get PCRE from
402 There are many incomplete terminal databases out there, however, a
403 complete terminfo is bundled with ncurses. (It is simple to generate
404 the termcap database using the infocmp utility in ncurses).
406 Some terminfo data are included with the mc distribution (lib/*.ti).
407 Particularly linux, xterm and vt100. Use e.g. ''tic linux.ti'' to use
410 If you want to run mc on xterm/color_xterm/ansi_xterm (not rxvt), then
411 you might read lib/README.xterm for further information.
416 GNU Midnight Commander can use the included version of S-Lang, but you
417 can get the latest version here:
419 http://www.s-lang.org/
421 Alternatively, you can use ncurses:
423 http://www.gnu.org/software/ncurses/ncurses.html
428 The general purpose mouse (gpm) daemon is available from
430 http://unix.schottelius.org/gpm/
435 If your C compiler is not powerful enough to compile GNU Midnight
436 Commander, you should report is as a bug to the GNU Midnight Commander
437 team. Sometimes there is no solution than upgrading to a modern and
438 free compiler - GCC (Compiler Collection):
444 Currently you can not use gcc 4.2.4 (and probably other versions) on
445 AIX to compile the S-Lang version. Please use IBM XL C or IBM XL C/C++
448 If you compile a ncurses version you need to set TERM=dtterm to get
449 working color support. Furthermore it is important to specify the
450 --with-ncurses-includes/--with-ncurses-lib parameters because otherwise
451 mc will pick up term.h from AIX which does not work with the ncurses
454 The AIX S-Lang build was tested with S-Lang 2.0.7. Later versions may
455 also work but are not tested yet.
457 Here is an example for S-Lang, it is assumed that the S-Lang library
458 is installed under /user/local and that you also want want to install
463 export CONFIG_SHELL=/usr/bin/bash (if installed)
464 export SHELL=/usr/bin/bash (if installed)
467 --prefix=/usr/local \
468 --with-screen=slang \
469 --with-slang-includes=/usr/local/include \
470 --with-slang-libs=/usr/local/lib