3 - Installation instructions for GNU Midnight Commander
4 - Where to get more information on GNU Midnight Commander
5 - Notes about GNU Midnight Commander installation
6 - Obtaining related software
9 Installation instructions for GNU Midnight Commander
10 ----------------------------------------------------
12 The `configure' shell script attempts to guess correct values for
13 various system-dependent variables used during compilation, and creates
14 the makefiles. It also creates a file `config.status' that you can run
15 in the future to recreate the current configuration.
17 To compile this package:
19 1. Configure the package for your system.
21 Normally, you just `cd' to the directory containing the package's source
22 code and type `./configure'. If you're using `csh' on an old version of
23 SystemV, you might need to type `sh configure' instead to prevent `csh'
24 from trying to execute `configure' itself. Under AIX, you may need to
25 use ksh instead of sh.
27 Running `configure' takes a while. While it is running, it prints some
28 messages that tell what it is doing. If you don't want to see any
29 messages, run `configure' with the `--quiet' option.
31 To compile the package in a different directory than the one containing
32 the source code, you must use a version of `make' supporting the `VPATH'
33 variable, such as GNU `make'. Change to the directory where you want
34 the object files and executables to go and run the `configure' script
35 with the full path. If for some reason `configure' cannot find the
36 source code directory, run `configure' with the option `--srcdir=DIR',
37 where DIR is the directory that contains the source code.
39 By default, `make install' will install the package's files in
40 `/usr/local/bin', `/usr/local/man', etc. You can specify an
41 installation prefix other than `/usr/local' by giving `configure' the
42 option `--prefix=PATH'.
44 You can specify separate installation prefixes for architecture specific
45 files and architecture-independent files. If you give `configure' the
46 option `--exec-prefix=PATH', the package will use PATH as the prefix for
47 installing binary programs and libraries. Data files and documentation
48 will still use the regular prefix. Normally, all files are installed
49 using the same prefix.
51 If compiled on GNU/Linux, Midnight Commander detects if you have the gpm
52 library installed. If you installed the gpm mouse library in a
53 non-standard place, you will need to use the --with-gpm-mouse flag with
54 the directory base where you installed the gpm package.
56 `configure' recognizes the following options (the list may be
57 incomplete, use `configure --help' to get the full list):
60 Print a summary of the options to `configure' and exit.
64 Do not print messages saying which checks are being made.
67 Print the results of the checks.
70 Print the version of Autoconf used to generate the `configure'
74 Look for glib 2.0 and newer. Otherwise, only glib 1.2.x will be
75 used. Note that you need pkgconfig installed to use this option.
78 Configure GNU Midnight Commander to be compiled without the
79 built-in file editor. The built-in editor is compiled in by
82 `--with-ext2undel[=PATH]'
83 On systems that use the ext2 or ext3 file system and have the
84 libext2fs library available, this option add support for recovering
85 deleted files (the undel virtual file system).
86 Use =PATH if libext2fs is installed in a non-standard place.
87 The configure will append `lib' and `include' to PATH to find the
88 ext2fs library and include files respectively.
90 `--with-gpm-mouse[=PATH]'
91 Use this flag if the gpm mouse package cannot be detected by the
92 configure. Use =PATH if it is installed in a non-standard place.
93 The configure will append `lib' and `include' to PATH to find the
94 gpm library and include files respectively.
97 Use this flag to disable gpm mouse support (e.g. if you want to
98 use mouse only on X terminals).
100 `--with-mmap', `--without-mmap'
101 Force using or not using the mmap function. It is currently used
102 in the internal viewer. `--with-mmap' may be useful on some
103 versions of AIX where the `configure' script decides that mmap is
104 broken, but it's actually suitable for the internal viewer.
106 `--with-subshell[=optional]', `--without-subshell'
107 The subshell support is by default turned on, you can disable
108 this by using the --without-subshell option. If you pass the
109 =optional parameter, then the subshell support is turned off by
110 default. To turn it on, specify the `-U' option to the program.
112 `--with-tm-x-support'
113 This option enables minimal support for X Window System events.
114 It enables MC to query the status of the keyboard modifiers, such
115 as Control, Shift and Alt, when invoked in a terminal emulator
116 under X11. This is necessary (but not always sufficient) to
117 recognize some optional but handy key combinations like Ctrl-Home
118 and Shift-Cursor keys.
121 This option disables the Virtual File System switch code in the
122 Midnight Commander and uses the standard file system calls for
123 file access. If you specify this option, you won't get the
124 transparent access to archives and remote directories.
127 This option enables mcfs - a non-standard remote filesystem
128 designed specifically for the Midnight Commander. It also enables
129 a server for that filesystem, mcserv. Please note that the
130 implementation of mcfs is not optimized for speed. There may be
131 security issues with mcserv - don't run it if you don't need it.
134 This option enables remote VFS over the SMB protocol. A stripped
135 down version of samba distributed with the sources is compiled and
136 linked with the mc executable. It is recommended that you install
137 Samba client, since mc uses some files from Samba under certain
138 conditions. Please visit http://www.samba.org/ to learn more.
140 `--disable-largefile'
141 This option disables support for large files (2 gigabytes and more)
142 on the systems where file operations use 32-bit offsets by default,
143 but support for 64-bit offsets is available. May be useful for
144 slow processors and embedded systems.
146 You may also tell configure which display library you want to use with the
147 Midnight Commander. The configure script will use S-Lang as default, but
148 you can override this by using any of the following flags (please note
149 that S-Lang is included as part of the distribution and is tested much
150 better than ncurses),
152 `--with-slang' (default)
153 This is used to configure the program to use the S-Lang screen
154 library. This is included as part of GNU Midnight Commander,
155 you don't need it installed on your system. If S-Lang is installed
156 on your system it will be used if possible. You can force usage of
157 the included S-Lang with the `--with-included-slang' option.
159 S-Lang tries to use the terminfo database if it's available,
160 otherwise it uses the termcap database. At the compile time, you
161 may force using the termcap database by using the option
162 `--with-termcap', which also enables `--with-included-slang'.
164 `--with-ncurses[=PATH]'
165 Use this flag (either with or without the =PATH part) if
166 you want to compile with ncurses instead of the default S-Lang.
168 Use the =PATH part if ncurses cannot be found by the configure
169 script. The configure will append lib and include to PATH to find
170 the ncurses library and headers respectively. For example, if you
171 have installed ncurses under /gnu/lib and /gnu/include, you
172 specify `--with-ncurses=/gnu'
174 On systems that require unusual options for compilation or linking that
175 the package's `configure' script does not know about, you can give
176 `configure' initial values for variables by placing them in the command
179 ./configure CC='gcc -traditional' LIBS=-lposix
181 Here are the variables that you might want to override when running
185 C compiler program. The default is `gcc' if found, otherwise `cc'.
188 The default flags used to build the program.
191 Program to use to install files. The default is `install' if you
192 have it, `cp' otherwise.
194 For these variables, any value given in the command line is added to the
195 value that `configure' decides to use:
198 Libraries to link with, in the form `-lfoo -lbar...'.
200 If you need to do unusual things to compile the package, we encourage
201 you to figure out how `configure' could check whether to do them, and
202 mail diffs or instructions to the address given in the README so we can
203 include them in the next release.
205 2. Type `make' to compile the package.
207 3. Type `make install' to install programs, data files, and the
208 documentation. On GNU/Linux the console screen saver is installed as
211 4. You can remove the program binaries and object files from the source
212 directory by typing `make clean'. If you want to clean the source tree
213 completely, so that it contains only those files that should be packaged
214 in the archive, issue `make distclean'. If you've run configure in a
215 different directory than the source tree, distclean won't remove your
216 *.o and linked programs in that directory.
218 5. GNU Midnight Commander allows you to stay in the last current
219 directory after exiting MC. This is done with a shell function, the man
220 page has more information about this.
222 The file `configure.in' is used to create `configure' by a program
223 called `autoconf'. You only need it if you want to regenerate
224 `configure' using a newer version of `autoconf'.
227 Where to get more information on GNU Midnight Commander
228 -------------------------------------------------------
230 There are two mailing lists for the program:
232 mc@gnome.org: Discussion on GNU Midnight Commander file manager.
233 mc-devel@gnome.org: Discussion between the developers of the program.
235 To subscribe to the mailing lists, visit their respective pages:
237 http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/mc/
238 http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/mc-devel/
241 Notes about GNU Midnight Commander installation
242 -----------------------------------------------
244 GNU Midnight Commander has been run in the following configurations:
251 mips-dec-{open,net}bsd1.0
261 mc88110-aviion-dgux5.4
266 Midnight Commander is written in a portable manner and uses GNU Autoconf
267 for configuration, so it is expected to compile without changes on many
268 other operating systems.
270 You will need an ANSI C Compiler (such as GCC) and glib library to
271 compile the source. GNU Midnight Commander now comes with the S-Lang
272 screen manager, a fast screen manager, but you may want to use the
273 already installed S-Lang or ncurses library.
275 If you insist on using ncurses, it's recommended to use ncurses 4.1 and
276 above, since the older versions don't support resizing in the xterm
279 GNU Midnight Commander comes with the mouse support on xterms and in the
280 Linux console. In order to take advantage of the mouse support on the
281 Linux console you will need the gpm mouse server (see the section
282 "Obtaining related software" in this file).
284 Once you get gpm, compile it and install it, then you will have to
285 specify the `--with-gpm-mouse' flag to the configure program if you
286 installed it in a non-standard directory. If you installed the gpm
287 package under /usr or /usr/local, you don't need to specify this flag;
288 configure will find gpm for you. The support for mice on xterms is
291 We are working on further enhancements to the program, but we're not
292 sure which ones must go first. If you would like to point us in the
293 Right Direction we will be glad to hear from you (you could check the
294 file TODO included with this distribution for the current projects).
296 If you happen to find a feature that doesn't do what you expect, please
297 write to mc@gnome.org telling as much as you can about the problem
298 you're experiencing. Please don't send personal messages to the
302 Obtaining related software
303 --------------------------
308 The only "hard" dependency of GNU Midnight Commander is glib. You can
311 ftp://ftp.gtk.org/pub/gtk/
313 Note that only versions 1.2.x are fully supported. Older versions won't
314 even be detected. Newer versions will be detected if `--with-glib2' is
315 specified. Support for glib 2.0 is considered experimental.
320 There are many incomplete terminal databases out there, however, a
321 complete terminfo is bundled with ncurses. (It is simple to generate
322 the termcap database using the infocmp utility in ncurses).
324 Some terminfo data are included with the mc distribution (lib/*.ti).
325 Particularly linux, xterm and vt100. Use e.g. ''tic linux.ti'' to use
328 If you want to run mc on xterm/color_xterm/ansi_xterm (not rxvt), then
329 you might read lib/README.xterm for further information.
334 GNU Midnight Commander can use the included version of S-Lang, but you
335 can get the latest version here:
337 http://www.s-lang.org/
339 Alternatively, you can use ncurses:
341 http://www.gnu.org/software/ncurses/ncurses.html
346 The general purpose mouse (gpm) daemon is available from
348 ftp://arcana.linux.it/pub/gpm/
353 If your C compiler is not powerful enough to compile GNU Midnight
354 Commander, you should report is as a bug to the GNU Midnight Commander
355 team. Sometimes there is no solution than upgrading to a modern and
356 free compiler - GCC (Compiler Collection):