4 The newest version of this document is available at
5 http://www.gnome.org/mc/answers.html
7 The [NEW] tag marks the sections which have been added recently.
9 The [UPDATED] tag marks the sections which have been updated recently.
12 + 1.1 What is Midnight Commander?
13 + 1.2 Does it run on my machine?
14 + 1.3 Does it work with my terminal?
15 + 1.4 What else do I need to run MC?
16 + 1.5 Is Midnight Commander PD? Copyrighted?
17 + 1.6 Where can I get Midnight Commander?
18 + 1.7 I don't have FTP access. Where can I get MC?
20 + 2.1 What does documentation mean with the C-?, M-? and F?
22 + 2.2 [UPDATED] Why don't function keys (or some other key)
24 + 2.3 How do I use function keys F11 to F20?
25 + 2.4 Why does the ESC key behave funny?
26 + 2.5 How can I add the plus sign (+) on the command line?
27 + 2.6 [NEW] C-o doesn't work!
28 + 2.7 [NEW] What 'keys' are the "a1" and "c1" keys mentioned in
31 + 3.1 How do I enable mouse support?
32 + 3.2 How do I cut and paste text with mouse?
33 + 3.3 [NEW] How do I get the extension dependant pop-up menu to
36 + 4.1 Why do I keep getting "Terminal not powerful enough for
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 color_xterm?
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
49 * 5 Graphical user interface
50 + 5.1 [UPDATED] Xview, Tk and Gnome editions?
51 * 6 Command line problems
52 + 6.1 How do I stay in the last directory when I exit Midnight
54 + 6.2 [UPDATED] How can I access command line history?
55 + 6.3 How can I complete commands, file names, variable names
57 + 6.4 I am using ksh. Can I use functions defined in the .kshrc
59 + 6.5 Is there any way to include additional options or hot
61 * 7 Virtual file systems
62 + 7.1 How can I see the contents of a tar archive?
63 + 7.2 How do I get out of a tar archive?
64 + 7.3 How do I do anonymous ftp with MC?
65 + 7.4 How do I do non-anonymous ftp with MC?
66 + 7.5 How do I close an ftp connection?
67 + 7.6 Why aren't the contents of ftp panel updated?
68 + 7.7 [UPDATED] What kind of proxy server works with Midnight
70 * 8 Other common problems
71 + 8.1 How do I get the internal editor to work?
72 + 8.2 [UPDATED] Why doesn't "mcedit newfile" work?
73 + 8.3 Is there any way to 'bookmark' favourite ftp-fs links?
74 + 8.4 When copying the directories lose their original date,
76 + 8.5 Why I keep getting: "There is no disk in the drive.
77 Please insert a disk into drive D:"?
78 + 8.6 [UPDATED] When I start Midnight Commander, nothing
80 + 8.7 When I try to view a file MC hangs!
82 + 9.1 Who has written Midnight Commander?
83 + 9.2 Do I dare to use a development version?
84 + 9.3 How can I report a bug/request for a feature?
85 + 9.4 How can I join the development?
87 + 10.1 This document didn't answer my question. Where else can
89 + 10.2 What mailing lists are there for Midnight Commander?
90 + 10.3 Where should I look on the World Wide Web for MC stuff?
91 + 10.4 Are the mailing lists archived anywhere?
94 + 11.2 [UPDATED] File formats
95 + 11.3 Feedback is invited
96 + 11.4 Disclaimer and copyright
100 1.1 What is Midnight Commander?
102 The Midnight Commander is a user-friendly yet powerful file manager
103 and visual shell, useful to novice and guru alike. It provides a
104 clear, user-friendly, and somewhat protected interface to a Unix
105 system while making many frequent file operations more efficient and
106 preserving the full power of the command prompt. You will wonder how
107 you could ever live without it.
109 For more thorough description take a look at the announcement of
110 Midnight Commander 4.0.
112 1.2 Does it run on my machine?
114 Yes, Midnight Commander can run on almost any machine, including Unix
115 clones, Windows 95/NT and OS/2. Midnight Commander does not run on
118 Midnight Commander uses GNU autoconfigure which can automatically
119 configure Midnight Commander for use on almost any (if not every) Unix
120 clone. Following configurations have been tested:
121 * i386-*-linux1.x, 2.x
123 * sparc-linux-linux2.x
124 * sparc64-linux-linux2.1
125 * mips-sgi-irix5.x, 6.x
127 * rs6000-ibm-aix3.2.5
129 * sparc-sun-solaris2.3, 2.4, 2.5
130 * sparc-sun-netbsd1.0
135 * mc88110-aviion-dgux5.4R2.01
138 * i386-*-windows-nt-3.51, 4.0
142 See http://www.gnome.org/mc/download.html.
144 There is also a preliminary Ms-Dos port at
145 http://www.gnome.org/cgi-bin/mc/download/DOS/.html (but no Ms-Dos
148 Windows 95/NT port can be compiled with Microsoft Visual C++, Borland
149 C++, Cygwin32 and Mingw32.
151 1.3 Does it work with my terminal?
155 Because Midnight Commander is a full screen program it doesn't run on
156 dummy terminals but anything more advanced will do (like vt100). If
157 your terminal works with vi, emacs, elm or pine it will work with
160 The XView and Tk editions currently under development will require an
163 1.4 What else do I need to run MC?
165 You need an Unix compatible operating system or Windows 95/NT or OS/2.
167 If you want to use mouse on the Linux console you need General Purpose
168 Mouse server from iride.unipv.it: /pub/gpm/. You need nothing extra to
171 To compile the XView edition (currently under development) you need
172 XView library. Xpm library and X11 non-rectangular shape extensions
175 To compile the Tk edition (currently under development) you need
176 Tk-4.0 libraries. Compilation of the Tk version won't be easy. Contact
179 If you do not want to use the slang library you could try using
180 ncurses (we recommend only version 4.1 and above).
182 You can get it along with other curses libraries, too, but results may
183 not be pretty or even usable.
185 1.5 Is Midnight Commander PD? Copyrighted?
187 Midnight Commander is under GNU Public License which basically means
188 that you may freely copy, change and distribute it, but that you may
189 not impose any restrictions on further distribution, and that you must
190 make the source code available. This is not the same as Public Domain.
191 For details, the GNU license is included in the Midnight Commander
192 source distribution (the COPYING file).
194 Midnight Commander is nowadays officially a part of GNU project. All
195 the authors of the Midnight Commander have given all their rights on
196 the program to the Free Software Foundation.
198 1.6 Where can I get Midnight Commander?
200 The main site is ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/stable/sources/mc/
202 For older versions and precompiled binaries see
203 http://www.gnome.org/mc/download.html
205 1.7 I don't have FTP access. Where can I get MC?
207 Most Linux CD-ROMs include Midnight Commander. For example, Slackware,
208 Yggdrasil, S.U.S.E., Jurix, RedHat, Caldera and Debian.
212 2.1 What does documentation mean with the C-?, M-? and F? keys?
214 Midnight Commander documentation uses emacs style names for keyboard
217 C stands for the Ctrl key. For example, C-f means that you should hold
218 down the Ctrl key and press the f key.
220 M stands for the Meta key. Your terminal might call it Alt or Compose
221 instead of Meta. For example, M-f means that you should hold down the
222 Meta/Alt/Compose key and press the f key. If your terminal doesn't
223 have Meta, Alt or Compose or they don't work you can use Esc. For M-f
224 press the Esc key and then press the f key.
226 F? stands for a function key. If your terminal doesn't have function
227 keys or they don't work you can use Esc. For example, for F3 press the
228 Esc key and then press the 3 key.
230 2.2 [UPDATED] Why don't function keys (or some other key) work?
232 Your terminfo or termcap database has missing or incorrect definations
233 for function keys. Type "mc -V" to see what terminal database is being
234 used. If the result is "using the S-Lang library with terminfo
235 database" you should install one of the enhanced terminfo databases
236 included in the Midnight Commander source distribution. For example,
237 if you are using xterm type "tic xterm.ti".
239 If the result is "using the S-Lang library with termcap database" you
240 should fix your /etc/termcap database.
242 Better termcap and terminfo databases are available here:
244 http://sagan.earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo/
246 Best terminfo database is bundled with ncurses 4.2.
248 You can select whether Midnight Commander will use terminfo or termcap
249 database by giving --with-terminfo or --with-termcap option to the
250 configure. Default is terminfo if found, otherwise termcap.
252 If you don't have permissions to edit terminal databases you can use
253 Learn keys feature of Midnight Commander instead. Press Esc 9 o k and
256 If all else fails you can emulate function keys by first pressing the
257 ESC key and then one of the number keys. For example, if you want to
258 produce F9, press ESC, then 9. If you don't have a ESC key on your
259 keyboard you can try alt-9 or meta-9.
261 2.3 How do I use function keys F11 to F20?
263 These can mapped to function keys F1 to F10 with Shift held. eg.
264 function key F13 can be activated by pressing Shift-F3. You can define
265 the keys this way in the Options menu. The convention for PC keyboards
266 is that F11-20 always means Shift with F1-10
268 Note! Windows 95/NT and OS/2 ports use F11 and F12 keys to change the
269 current disk drive. In this case F11 and F12 mean the real F11 and F12
270 keys, not shift-F1 and shift-F2.
272 2.4 Why does the ESC key behave funny?
274 Midnight Commander uses the ESC key as a prefix for simulating the
275 Meta and Alt keys (for terminals which don't have Meta or Alt, see the
276 three previous questions). For example, pressing ESC-a is the same as
277 pressing Meta-a. In addition most terminals use ESC for internal
278 representation of arrow keys, function keys and other enhanced keys.
279 If you want to use ESC to cancel things you have to press it twice i.
280 e. ESC-ESC. If you find this cumbersome you can generally use F10 to
281 cancel. Alternatively turn on the old_esc_mode setting in the
282 ~/.mc.ini file. The old_esc_mode setting makes ESC work as a prefix
283 only if another key is pressed within 0.5 seconds. After 0.5 seconds
284 the ESC key cancels. There is no way to make ESC cancel immediately
285 (if we want to be able to use arrows keys and function keys).
287 X terminals allow more control over keyboard, so these ESC limitations
288 might not concern the forthcoming XView and Tk editions of the
291 2.5 How can I add the plus sign (+) on the command line?
293 Press C-q first, then press the + sign.
295 The plus key is the hotkey for the select files command. If you want
296 to add a literal plus on to the command line you must quote it by
299 Another common key which needs the C-q prefix is backslash "\".
301 2.6 [NEW] C-o doesn't work!
303 Maybe C-o is a stty control character on your terminal. See man stty
304 for details on how to list and change stty control characters.
306 2.7 [NEW] What 'keys' are the "a1" and "c1" keys mentioned in the manual?
308 The "a1" key is the key which has the "a1" caption on it.
310 The "c1" key is the key which has the "c1" caption on it.
312 If you have to ask what these two keys are your keyboard hasn't
313 probably got them. Actually, I have never seen a keyboard which has
318 3.1 How do I enable mouse support?
320 Invoke mc like this (without quotes): "mc -x". If this doesn't work
321 upgrade to a terminal which compatible with the Xterm mouse sequences.
323 Alternatively, on Linux console you can use GPM.
325 3.2 How do I cut and paste text with mouse?
327 Hold down shift key while using mouse to cut'n'paste.
329 3.3 [NEW] How do I get the extension dependant pop-up menu to pop up?
331 You need a tk or xview edition (use the --with-tk or --with-xview
332 configure option when compiling). Normal MC (text-mode edition)
333 doesn't support this feature yet.
335 In the tk and xview editions you can access the extension dependent
336 pop-up menu by pressing the right mouse button.
340 4.1 Why do I keep getting "Terminal not powerful enough for SLang"?
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 commandline option -a to force use of
363 +, |, - for line drawing (only available when compiled with SLang).
364 Use this -a option if any of the suggestions below doesn't help.
366 In general, there are three subcases:
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, 2 or 3 (see below).
375 * Lines are shown as lower case characters like this
381 Possible reason is 2 or 3 (see below).
382 * Lines are shown as blanks or missing characters. Possible reason
383 is 3 or 4 (see below).
385 The reason for the problem is one of following:
386 1. Your curses library might not support line drawing characters.
387 Slang, Ncurses and System V curses do support them, BSD curses
388 doesn't. MC uses Slang by default so this is not usually a
390 2. Your terminal might not support line drawing characters. Vt100
391 compatible terminals, rxvt, xterm and color_xterm do support them.
392 3. Your terminfo or termcap database might have missing or incorrect
393 definations for line drawing characters. Set the acsc variable in
394 the terminfo database like this:
395 acsc=a\376k\277l\332m\300j\331n\305w\302v\301u\264t\303q\304x\263h
397 Don't forget issue 'tic' command. This supposes you are using pc
398 character set. The octal values might be different for other
399 character sets. If you are using termcap instead of terminfo, you
400 should modify above solution appropriately.
401 4. Your terminal font might not support line drawing characters. Try
404 Here is Miguel's answer to Torben on this subject.
408 When I load consolefonts/iso01.f16, I get perfectly right national
409 characters, but the line drawing characters in mc get wrong. Is it
410 a mc problem, or is it a problem with the font? (I guess it is).
416 First of all, we should determine whether the font has line drawing
419 If it has line drawing characters, then a new terminfo entry should
420 be written for this specific case. Let's call this linux-iso01. The
421 acsc variable should be modified to reflect which characters are
422 used to do the line drawing.
424 If it does not have line drawing characters, then we should get rid
425 of the switch to acsc sequences and make the acsc sequence be just
426 a mapping to the ugly +, -, |, - characters.
428 You can get your terminfo definition by running the infocmp
429 program, making the proper changes and running the tic program to
430 compile your new terminfo database.
432 4.3 Can one use latin-1 characters without losing the lines?
434 Yes, you need a correct font and a correct termcap/terminfo database.
436 For font, if you use xterm try "xterm -fn fixed".
438 For termcap/terminfo database, change the acsc capability in the
441 4.4 I have problems with entering/viewing national characters!
443 Upgrade to version 4.0.12 or newer.
445 From the Options - Display Bits dialog select Full 8 bits or ISO
446 8859-1. In addition, select 8 bit input from the same dialog.
448 4.5 How can I get colors?
450 Invoke mc like this (without quotes): "mc -c".
452 If you get colors, be happy.
454 If your terminal stays black and white, your terminal doesn't support
455 color. You might want to upgrade to a terminal which compatible with
456 the ANSI color sequences.
458 If your terminal goes compelety black, see the next question.
460 More detailed answer:
462 First, check that your terminal supports color. Color_xterm, rxvt and
463 Linux console do support, most other terminals don't. You can test
464 color support with following simple C program:
469 printf ("\033[32m Hello world! \033[m\n");
473 Compile and run it. If you see "Hello world!" text in green your
474 terminal supports color, otherwise not (however, for color_xterm see
475 also the next question).
477 Second, check that you are using Ncurses or the Slang library (type
478 "mc -V" to find out), in addition some System V curses implementations
479 do support color, most don't.
481 With Slang library you can force color support by setting the
482 environment variable COLORTERM to any value.
484 Third, if you use ncurses library, check that your terminfo database
485 supports color. If not you should install one of the enhanced terminfo
486 databases included in the Midnight Commander source distribution.
488 Fourth, you might want to set the TERM environment variable so that
489 you use the correct terminfo database or termcap entry.
491 If you use color_xterm (or rxvt) the correct value might be
492 xterm-color, xtermc or simply xterm.
494 If you use Linux console the correct value for TERM is linux or
497 4.6 My color_xterm goes completely (or partially) black!
499 Some color_xterm terminals define all colors as black instead of the
500 standard ANSI colors. This makes them go completely black when you try
501 to use Midnight Commander with colors.
503 You will have to override the defaults. Create a file "color.defaults"
504 which has the following contents:
506 color_xterm*color0: Black
507 color_xterm*color1: Red
508 color_xterm*color2: Green
509 color_xterm*color3: Yellow
510 color_xterm*color4: Blue
511 color_xterm*color5: Magenta
512 color_xterm*color6: Cyan
513 color_xterm*color7: White
514 color_xterm*background: White
515 color_xterm*foreground: Black
517 (replace color_xterm with the name of your color_xterm, color_xterm
518 mentions its name in its title bar)
522 xrdb -merge color.defaults
524 Alternatively you can add the suggested contents of the color.defaults
525 file to your .Xdefaults or .Xresources file (or what ever the name of
526 your X configuration file is). Or you can replace your non-ANSI
527 color_xterm with an ANSI color_xterm.
529 4.7 Where can I get color_xterm?
531 Try ftp.x.org: /contrib/utilities/colour_xterm.tar.gz.
533 Alternatively, rxvt is a better choice, see
534 http://www.gnome.org/cgi-bin/mc/download/rxvt/.html
536 4.8 I got colors working with MC but the other programs don't work at all
539 Midnight Commander uses terminfo database (if available) but many
540 other programs use termcap database. If you set the TERM environment
541 variable to a value which has no corresponding entry in termcap
542 database those programs stop working. You should add the new value of
543 TERM to the termcap database.
545 Example: If you have set TERM to xterm-color locate from /etc/termcap
546 the line which starts:
548 xterm|vs100|xterm terminal emulator
552 xterm|xterm-color|vs100|xterm terminal emulator
554 4.9 Why are there both terminfo and termcap? Wouldn't one database be
557 You might want to read the Unix-haters handbook at
558 http://www.digital.de/people/jmh/Unix_Haters/unix-haters.html. It
559 lists many more reasons why Unix sucks.
561 You can configure which terminal database you want to use with the
562 "--with-termcap" and "--with-terminfo" flags of configure. If you
563 don't specify them, the configure script will try to use terminfo if
564 available otherwise it will use termcap.
566 5 Graphical user interface
568 5.1 [UPDATED] Xview, Tk and Gnome editions?
570 Get the newest development version, give the "--with-xview" or
571 "--with-tk" or "--with-gnome" option to the configure and otherwise
572 compile as usual. See Download.
574 Xview, Tk and Gnome editions are work in progress, they are not as
575 robust as the text mode edition.
577 6 Command line problems
579 6.1 How do I stay in the last directory when I exit Midnight Commander?
581 See the description of the -P option in the Options section of the
584 6.2 [UPDATED] How can I access command line history?
586 You can browse previous commands with M-p and M-n. Alternatively, you
587 can summon the command history listbox by pressing F9 c h.
589 Since version 4.1.15 all the input widgets have permanent history. You
590 can summon the history listbox by pressing M-h.
592 6.3 How can I complete commands, file names, variable names and so on?
594 Just press M-Tab. Press M-Tab again to get a listbox if there are
595 multiple possible completions.
597 6.4 I am using ksh. Can I use functions defined in the .kshrc within MC?
599 Sorry, MC only supports bash, tcsh and zsh functions. Ksh functions
600 are not supported because ksh lacks the necessary hooks needed for
601 subshell integration.
603 Switch to bash or zsh. They are both quite compatible with ksh. Your
604 ksh functions should work as such or after minimal changes.
606 6.5 Is there any way to include additional options or hot keys to MC?
608 Yes, F2 invokes an user menu which fully configurable. You can add any
609 shell commands to the user menu. See
610 http://www.gnome.org/mc/manual-d.html#8 for more info.
612 Another way to add functionality is the external panelize feature. See
613 http://www.gnome.org/mc/manual-d.html#4 for more info.
615 And finally, you can code any feature you want yourself. MC source
616 code is free which means you can change it anyway you want. There are
617 some limitations to make sure MC stays free. See GNU General Public
620 7 Virtual file systems
622 Note! Virtual file systems are supported by Unix ports only. The
623 Windows 95/NT and OS/2 ports do NOT support virtual file systems. This
624 means you haven't got ftp, zip or tar support on Windows 95/NT and
627 This chapter describes the behaviour of the 4.1.x versions of the
628 Midnight Commander. The behaviour of the 4.5.x versions is somewhat
629 different. More on that when the 4.5.x versions get more stable.
631 7.1 How can I see the contents of a tar archive?
633 If you use keyboard just move the selection bar on the tar file and
636 If you use mouse just doubleclick on the tar file.
638 If these procedures don't work, your .mc.ext file is faulty. Replace
639 it with one from the MC source distribution.
641 You can also enter a tar archive by typing "cd tar:filename.tar.gz"
642 where filename.tar.gz is the name of the archive.
644 The recognized suffixes for tar archives are .tar, .tar.gz and .tgz.
645 If your tar archive uses different suffix you have to rename it.
647 7.2 How do I get out of a tar archive?
649 Just press enter on the toplevel ".." file or chdir to a non-tar
650 directory. Just typing "cd" with no parameters is enough (it will take
651 you to your home directory).
653 7.3 How do I do anonymous ftp with MC?
655 Just type "cd ftp://hostname" where hostname is the name of the host
656 you want to connect. Alternatively, select FTP link from the Left or
657 Right menu and type the name of the host you want to connect.
659 7.4 How do I do non-anonymous ftp with MC?
661 Non-anonymous ftp works just like the anonymous ftp but you give the
662 login name with the host name. For example, type "cd
663 ftp://username@hostname".
665 7.5 How do I close an ftp connection?
667 Just chdir to a non-ftp directory. Just typing "cd" with no parameters
668 is enough (it will take you to your home directory).
670 Internally Midnight Commander closes ftp connection only after a
671 timeout. This isn't visible to the end user.
673 7.6 Why aren't the contents of ftp panel updated?
675 Update is skipped because there would be a serious performance
676 penalty. Constantly updating directory panels through a ftp connection
677 would take too much time.
679 You can use C-r to force an update.
681 7.7 [UPDATED] What kind of proxy server works with Midnight Commander?
683 There are two kinds of ftp proxies: proxies for ftp clients and
684 proxies for web browsers.
686 Midnight Commander only supports ftp proxies which are meant for ftp
687 clients. Common WWW proxies (like Squid) are not supported. A rule of
688 thumb is that if a ftp proxy works with a web browser, it won't work
689 with Midnight Commander.
691 8 Other common problems
693 8.1 How do I get the internal editor to work?
695 The F4 key used to default to an external editor because that was what
696 most people were used to. The newer versions use internal editor by
699 To use the internal editor with an old version, select Configuration
700 from the Options menu and check the 'use internal edit' option.
702 Alternatively add the line
705 under the [Midnight-Commander] section in your .mc.ini file (which is
706 in your home directory).
708 To make the editor work all the time, go to the default/* section in
709 the file lib/mc/mc.ext file and remove the line
711 Edit=%var{EDITOR:vi} %f
713 The internal editor will now be invoked for anything not specified
714 elsewhere in the mc.ext file.
716 Make sure that you edit the correct mc.ext file. The Midnight
717 Commander first checks the existance of $HOME/.mc.ext. If this file is
718 missing MC will use $prefix/lib/mc/mc.ext instead ($prefix can be
719 changed with configure before compilation and it defaults to
722 When you run `F9/Command/Extension file edit' for the very first time
723 Midnight Commander copies the system-wide mc.ext from $prefix/lib/mc
724 into your home directory because you need write access in order to
727 And please don't forget that "make install" overwrites
728 $prefix/lib/mc/mc.ext.
730 8.2 [UPDATED] Why doesn't "mcedit newfile" work?
734 If the newfile doesn't exist, mcedit fails.
736 Start mcedit with no parameters, this will create a blank file. Then
737 save the file with whatever name you like.
739 This bug has been fixed since 4.1.17.
741 8.3 Is there any way to 'bookmark' favourite ftp-fs links?
743 Use the directory hotlist. Just press control-backslash. If your
744 national keyboard layout doesn't have backslash key, just press the
745 control key with the key which is the backslash key in the English
748 8.4 When copying the directories lose their original date, uid and gid!
750 This is a known bug. At moment only files preserve their original
751 settings when copying, not directories.
753 Uid and gid is fixed since 4.0.1. "Preserve UIDs/GIDs" in the copy
754 dialog needs to be checked and you must be root.
756 Date problem is fixed since 4.0.13.
758 8.5 Why I keep getting: "There is no disk in the drive. Please insert a disk
761 This is a known bug of the Windows 95/NT and OS/2 ports. MC looks its
762 configuration files from the D:\MC directory and if the D: drive is a
763 removable drive (like a CD ROM drive) and there is no disk in drive
764 you get this message everytime you try to do anything.
766 Since version 4.0.6 you can specify the actual location of the
767 Midnight Commander configuration files with the MCHOME environment
770 8.6 [UPDATED] When I start Midnight Commander, nothing happens!
772 First, invoke MC without subshell support: "mc -u". If this helps
773 check the shell you are using. Subshell support works best with bash
774 although tcsh and zsh are also supported. You might want to upgrade
775 your shell to a newer version. If you use something else than bash,
776 tcsh or zsh, subshell support is disabled automatically.
778 If disabling subshell doesn't help, try to reconfigure MC with
779 "--with-included-slang" and "--with-termcap" options and recompile. If
780 this helps, there is something wrong with your terminfo database or
781 shared slang library. For better terminfo databases see chapter 4. For
782 a better slang library, upgrade to a newer version or keep using the
783 "--with-included-slang" option.
785 This problem can also be caused by gpm as noted by Luis Espinoza:
787 In regards to why midnight commander does nothing when invoked. I
788 recently had the same problem. At the same time gpm was not loading
789 properly with my patched kernel (now 2.0.33 from 2.0.30).
790 Downloading version 1.13 of gpm, and got it working :-) MC still
791 appeared locked.... However moving the mouse, brought MC to life.
792 The mouse I am using is a Kensington Expert Mouse (Trackball).
794 8.7 When I try to view a file MC hangs!
796 This is known bug. A quick fix is "chmod 666 /dev/tty". For a more
797 complete fix, see http://www.gnome.org/mc/maillist/97-10/98.html.
799 This bug is fixed since 4.1.6.
803 9.1 Who has written Midnight Commander?
805 Midnight Commander was started by Miguel de Icaza and he is the
806 maintainer of the package. Other authors have joined the project
808 * Mauricio Plaza (early releases)
809 * Janne Kukonlehto (joined Sep 27 1994)
810 * Radek Doulik (joined Oct 30 1994)
811 * Fred Leeflang (joined Nov 2 1994)
812 * Dugan Porter (joined Dec 1 1994)
813 * Jakub Jelinek (joined Feb 8 1995)
814 * Ching Hui (joined Jun 27 1995)
815 * Andrej Borsenkow (joined Jul 1996)
816 * Paul Sheer (joined Nov 1 1996)
820 Alessandro Rubini has been specially helpful with debugging and
821 enhancing of the mouse support. John Davis has made his S-Lang library
822 available to us and answered many questions about it.
824 The photographs of the authors are available as:
826 http://www.gnome.org/mc/authstat.html
828 Many people have contributed bug reports, feature suggestions and
829 small code bits (alphabetical order):
831 * Juan Jose Ciarlante
832 * Alexander Dong (OS/2 port, NT port updates)
834 * Torben Fjerdingstad
836 * Juan Grigera (NT port)
838 * Sergey Ya. Korshunoff
841 * Antonio Palama (old DOS port)
849 9.2 Do I dare to use a development version?
851 I am afraid you have to answer to this question yourself. Development
852 versions seldom cause data loss but they have usually got many bugs.
853 It's up to you to judge whether new features outweight the bugs.
855 9.3 How can I report a bug/request for a feature?
857 You might first want to get the newest development version to see if
858 the bug is fixed or the feature is added already.
860 Send your report/request to mc2-devel@nuclecu.unam.mx or
861 mc2@nuclecu.unam.mx. These mailing lists are the most certain
862 way to contact the developers. Remember to mention if you are not on
863 the mailing list to make sure that you will receive a copy of replies.
865 Give as much details as possible. A too long message is a lot better
866 than a too short message.
868 For segmentation faults a stack backtrace is appreciated. You can
869 produce stack backtrace as follows:
870 * If segmentation fault produced a core file:
871 1. Load the core file by typing "gdb mc core" or "dbx mc core".
873 3. Cut and paste the results to your message.
874 * If segmentation fault didn't produce a core file:
875 1. Load mc by typing "gdb mc" or "dbx mc".
876 2. Start mc by typing "run".
877 3. Try to reproduce the segmentation fault by doing whatever you
878 did last time when the segmentation fault occurred.
880 5. Cut and paste the results to your message.
881 6. For the future you might want to check out what is the
882 command in your shell to allow producing of the core files.
883 Usually it is "limit coredumpsize unlimited" or "ulimit
884 coredumpsize" or "ulimit -c unlimited".
886 9.4 How can I join the development?
888 To join the development just code the feature you want to add and send
889 your patch for inclusion. Email address is mc2-devel@nuclecu.unam.mx.
890 Before you start coding check the latest development version. It might
891 be that your feature has already been implemented.
893 Note that the authors of the Midnight Commander have given all their
894 rights on the program to the Free Software Foundation. You will have
895 to do the same if you contribute non-trivial patches. Otherwise we
896 have to reject your patches in order to avoid copyright problems.
900 10.1 This document didn't answer my question. Where else can I look for an
903 Read messages from the Discussion (mailing list archive) or read the
906 Upgrade to a newer version of Midnight Commander. Many problems are
907 fixed in the new versions.
909 If you still can't find an answer, post your question to the Midnight
910 Commander mailing list. Its address is mc2@nuclecu.unam.mx.
912 10.2 What mailing lists are there for Midnight Commander?
914 Following mailing lists discuss about Midnight Commander:
917 General discussion of the Midnight Commander
920 The mc list, in digest format
923 Major announcements about the Commander
926 The latest Commander patches
929 Technical development discussion
932 Non-MC related chatting by the developers (contact Miguel to
935 To subscribe, send e-mail to majordomo@nuclecu.unam.mx with
936 the following line in the body of the message:
938 subscribe <list-name> [optional-address]
940 Replace <list-name> with the name of the list you want to subscribe
941 and [optional-address] with your email address.
943 10.3 Where should I look on the World Wide Web for MC stuff?
945 There is a WWW page for Midnight Commander. The URL is:
947 http://www.gnome.org/mc/
949 The WWW page features MC screen shots, photographs of the authors,
950 mailing list archive and a few other things.
952 10.4 Are the mailing lists archived anywhere?
954 The mc and mc-devel lists are archived on the World Wide Web page (see
955 the previous question). Other lists are not currently archived though
956 Miguel keeps a private archive. Contact him if you want copies of past
963 Questions and Answers is written by Janne Kukonlehto. Parts of it
964 originate from Ian Jackson, Miguel de Icaza, Dugan Porter, Norbert
965 Warmuth and Paul Sheer.
967 11.2 [UPDATED] File formats
969 This document is available in HTML, postscript and PDF formats at
970 http://www.gnome.org/mc/answers.html.
972 This document is available in ASCII format in the Midnight Commander
975 11.3 Feedback is invited
977 Send your comments about this document to janne@gnome.org
979 Send your comments about the Midnight Commander to mc2@nuclecu.unam.mx
981 11.4 Disclaimer and copyright
983 Note that this document is provided as is. The information in it is
984 not warranted to be correct; you use it at your own risk.
986 You can use Questions and Answers according to GNU Public License (see
987 the COPYING file in the Midnight Commander source distribution).
988 Questions and Answers is not public domain.
989 __________________________________________________________________
991 This document is maintained by Janne Kukonlehto <janne@gnome.org>.