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 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 GNOME edition requires an X terminal.
162 1.4 What else do I need to run MC?
164 You need an Unix compatible operating system. Support for Windows 95/NT
165 and OS/2 is incomplete - you should be prepared to fix things.
167 To compile any edition you need to have glib installed. It's available
168 in ftp://ftp.gtk.org/pub/gtk.
170 If you want to use mouse on the Linux console you need General Purpose
171 Mouse server from ftp://ftp.systemy.it/pub/develop/. You need nothing
172 extra to use mouse on xterm.
174 To compile the GNOME edition you need GNOME libraries as well as the
175 libraries they depend on. See http://www.gnome.org/ for details.
177 If you do not want to use the slang library you could try using
178 ncurses (we recommend only version 4.1 and above).
180 You can get it along with other curses libraries, too, but results may
181 not be pretty or even usable.
183 1.5 Is Midnight Commander PD? Copyrighted?
185 Midnight Commander is under GNU Public License which basically means
186 that you may freely copy, change and distribute it, but that you may
187 not impose any restrictions on further distribution, and that you must
188 make the source code available. This is not the same as Public Domain.
189 For details, the GNU license is included in the Midnight Commander
190 source distribution (the COPYING file).
192 Midnight Commander is nowadays officially a part of GNU project. All
193 the authors of the Midnight Commander have given all their rights on
194 the program to the Free Software Foundation.
196 1.6 Where can I get Midnight Commander?
198 The main site is ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/stable/sources/mc/
200 For older versions and precompiled binaries see
201 http://www.gnome.org/mc/download.html
203 1.7 I don't have FTP access. Where can I get MC?
205 Most Linux CD-ROMs include Midnight Commander. For example, Slackware,
206 Yggdrasil, S.U.S.E., Jurix, RedHat, Caldera and Debian.
210 2.1 What does documentation mean with the C-?, M-? and F? keys?
212 Midnight Commander documentation uses emacs style names for keyboard
215 C stands for the Ctrl key. For example, C-f means that you should hold
216 down the Ctrl key and press the f key.
218 M stands for the Meta key. Your terminal might call it Alt or Compose
219 instead of Meta. For example, M-f means that you should hold down the
220 Meta/Alt/Compose key and press the f key. If your terminal doesn't
221 have Meta, Alt or Compose or they don't work you can use Esc. For M-f
222 press the Esc key and then press the f key.
224 F? stands for a function key. If your terminal doesn't have function
225 keys or they don't work you can use Esc. For example, for F3 press the
226 Esc key and then press the 3 key.
228 2.2 [UPDATED] Why don't function keys (or some other key) work?
230 Your terminfo or termcap database has missing or incorrect definations
231 for function keys. Type "mc -V" to see what terminal database is being
232 used. If the result is "using the S-Lang library with terminfo
233 database" you should install one of the enhanced terminfo databases
234 included in the Midnight Commander source distribution. For example,
235 if you are using xterm type "tic xterm.ti".
237 If the result is "using the S-Lang library with termcap database" you
238 should fix your /etc/termcap database.
240 Better termcap and terminfo databases are available here:
242 http://sagan.earthspace.net/~esr/terminfo/
244 Best terminfo database is bundled with ncurses 4.2.
246 You can select whether Midnight Commander will use terminfo or termcap
247 database by giving --with-terminfo or --with-termcap option to the
248 configure. Default is terminfo if found, otherwise termcap.
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. eg.
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! Windows 95/NT and OS/2 ports use F11 and F12 keys to change the
267 current disk drive. In this case F11 and F12 mean the real F11 and F12
268 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 X terminals allow more control over keyboard, so these ESC limitations
286 does not concern the GNOME edition of the Midnight Commander.
288 2.5 How can I add the plus sign (+) on the command line?
290 Press C-q first, then press the + sign.
292 The plus key is the hotkey for the select files command. If you want
293 to add a literal plus on to the command line you must quote it by
296 Another common key which needs the C-q prefix is backslash "\".
298 2.6 [NEW] C-o doesn't work!
300 Maybe C-o is a stty control character on your terminal. See man stty
301 for details on how to list and change stty control characters.
303 2.7 [NEW] What 'keys' are the "a1" and "c1" keys mentioned in the manual?
305 The "a1" key is the key which has the "a1" caption on it.
307 The "c1" key is the key which has the "c1" caption on it.
309 If you have to ask what these two keys are your keyboard hasn't
310 probably got them. Actually, I have never seen a keyboard which has
315 3.1 How do I enable mouse support?
317 Invoke mc like this (without quotes): "mc -x". If this doesn't work
318 upgrade to a terminal which compatible with the Xterm mouse sequences.
320 Alternatively, on Linux console you can use GPM.
322 3.2 How do I cut and paste text with mouse?
324 Hold down shift key while using mouse to cut'n'paste.
326 3.3 How do I get the extension dependant pop-up menu to pop up?
328 You need a GNOME edition. Normal MC (text-mode edition) doesn't
329 support this feature yet.
331 In the GNOME edition you can access the extension dependent
332 pop-up menu by pressing the right mouse button.
336 4.1 Why do I keep getting "Terminal not powerful enough for SLang"?
338 This means that your terminfo databases do not contain the correct
339 definitions for your terminal.
341 You could try using a different terminal setting. If you use csh or
346 or if you use sh, bash, ksh or zsh:
350 If this doesn't help you can recompile MC to use termcap instead of
353 ./configure --with-termcap
356 4.2 Why don't line drawing characters work?
358 Since version 4.0.13 there's the commandline option -a to force use of
359 +, |, - for line drawing (only available when compiled with SLang).
360 Use this -a option if any of the suggestions below doesn't help.
362 In general, there are three subcases:
363 * Lines are shown as ASCII characters like this
369 This also happens when you use the -a option. Other than that
370 possible reason is 1, 2 or 3 (see below).
371 * Lines are shown as lower case characters like this
377 Possible reason is 2 or 3 (see below).
378 * Lines are shown as blanks or missing characters. Possible reason
379 is 3 or 4 (see below).
381 The reason for the problem is one of following:
382 1. Your curses library might not support line drawing characters.
383 Slang, Ncurses and System V curses do support them, BSD curses
384 doesn't. MC uses Slang by default so this is not usually a
386 2. Your terminal might not support line drawing characters. Vt100
387 compatible terminals, rxvt, xterm and color_xterm do support them.
388 3. Your terminfo or termcap database might have missing or incorrect
389 definations for line drawing characters. Set the acsc variable in
390 the terminfo database like this:
391 acsc=a\376k\277l\332m\300j\331n\305w\302v\301u\264t\303q\304x\263h
393 Don't forget issue 'tic' command. This supposes you are using pc
394 character set. The octal values might be different for other
395 character sets. If you are using termcap instead of terminfo, you
396 should modify above solution appropriately.
397 4. Your terminal font might not support line drawing characters. Try
400 Here is Miguel's answer to Torben on this subject.
404 When I load consolefonts/iso01.f16, I get perfectly right national
405 characters, but the line drawing characters in mc get wrong. Is it
406 a mc problem, or is it a problem with the font? (I guess it is).
412 First of all, we should determine whether the font has line drawing
415 If it has line drawing characters, then a new terminfo entry should
416 be written for this specific case. Let's call this linux-iso01. The
417 acsc variable should be modified to reflect which characters are
418 used to do the line drawing.
420 If it does not have line drawing characters, then we should get rid
421 of the switch to acsc sequences and make the acsc sequence be just
422 a mapping to the ugly +, -, |, - characters.
424 You can get your terminfo definition by running the infocmp
425 program, making the proper changes and running the tic program to
426 compile your new terminfo database.
428 4.3 Can one use latin-1 characters without losing the lines?
430 Yes, you need a correct font and a correct termcap/terminfo database.
432 For font, if you use xterm try "xterm -fn fixed".
434 For termcap/terminfo database, change the acsc capability in the
437 4.4 I have problems with entering/viewing national characters!
439 Upgrade to version 4.0.12 or newer.
441 From the Options - Display Bits dialog select Full 8 bits or ISO
442 8859-1. In addition, select 8 bit input from the same dialog.
444 4.5 How can I get colors?
446 Invoke mc like this (without quotes): "mc -c".
448 If you get colors, be happy.
450 If your terminal stays black and white, your terminal doesn't support
451 color. You might want to upgrade to a terminal which compatible with
452 the ANSI color sequences.
454 If your terminal goes compelety black, see the next question.
456 More detailed answer:
458 First, check that your terminal supports color. Color_xterm, rxvt and
459 Linux console do support, most other terminals don't. You can test
460 color support with following simple C program:
465 printf ("\033[32m Hello world! \033[m\n");
469 Compile and run it. If you see "Hello world!" text in green your
470 terminal supports color, otherwise not (however, for color_xterm see
471 also the next question).
473 Second, check that you are using Ncurses or the Slang library (type
474 "mc -V" to find out), in addition some System V curses implementations
475 do support color, most don't.
477 With Slang library you can force color support by setting the
478 environment variable COLORTERM to any value.
480 Third, if you use ncurses library, check that your terminfo database
481 supports color. If not you should install one of the enhanced terminfo
482 databases included in the Midnight Commander source distribution.
484 Fourth, you might want to set the TERM environment variable so that
485 you use the correct terminfo database or termcap entry.
487 If you use color_xterm (or rxvt) the correct value might be
488 xterm-color, xtermc or simply xterm.
490 If you use Linux console the correct value for TERM is linux or
493 4.6 My color_xterm goes completely (or partially) black!
495 Some color_xterm terminals define all colors as black instead of the
496 standard ANSI colors. This makes them go completely black when you try
497 to use Midnight Commander with colors.
499 You will have to override the defaults. Create a file "color.defaults"
500 which has the following contents:
502 color_xterm*color0: Black
503 color_xterm*color1: Red
504 color_xterm*color2: Green
505 color_xterm*color3: Yellow
506 color_xterm*color4: Blue
507 color_xterm*color5: Magenta
508 color_xterm*color6: Cyan
509 color_xterm*color7: White
510 color_xterm*background: White
511 color_xterm*foreground: Black
513 (replace color_xterm with the name of your color_xterm, color_xterm
514 mentions its name in its title bar)
518 xrdb -merge color.defaults
520 Alternatively you can add the suggested contents of the color.defaults
521 file to your .Xdefaults or .Xresources file (or what ever the name of
522 your X configuration file is). Or you can replace your non-ANSI
523 color_xterm with an ANSI color_xterm.
525 4.7 Where can I get color_xterm?
527 Try ftp.x.org: /contrib/utilities/colour_xterm.tar.gz.
529 Alternatively, rxvt is a better choice, see
530 http://www.gnome.org/cgi-bin/mc/download/rxvt/.html
532 4.8 I got colors working with MC but the other programs don't work at all
535 Midnight Commander uses terminfo database (if available) but many
536 other programs use termcap database. If you set the TERM environment
537 variable to a value which has no corresponding entry in termcap
538 database those programs stop working. You should add the new value of
539 TERM to the termcap database.
541 Example: If you have set TERM to xterm-color locate from /etc/termcap
542 the line which starts:
544 xterm|vs100|xterm terminal emulator
548 xterm|xterm-color|vs100|xterm terminal emulator
550 4.9 Why are there both terminfo and termcap? Wouldn't one database be
553 You might want to read the Unix-haters handbook at
554 http://www.digital.de/people/jmh/Unix_Haters/unix-haters.html. It
555 lists many more reasons why Unix sucks.
557 You can configure which terminal database you want to use with the
558 "--with-termcap" and "--with-terminfo" flags of configure. If you
559 don't specify them, the configure script will try to use terminfo if
560 available otherwise it will use termcap.
562 5 Graphical user interface
564 5.1 [UPDATED] Xview, Tk and Gnome editions?
566 Xview and Tk editions have been removed from the sources.
568 GNOME edition will compile by default if the necessary libraries are
569 present on the system. If it's not desired, give the "--without-gnome"
570 option to the configure script and otherwise compile as usual.
572 The GNOME edition is work in progress. It may lack some functionality
575 6 Command line problems
577 6.1 How do I stay in the last directory when I exit Midnight Commander?
579 See the description of the -P option in the Options section of the
582 6.2 [UPDATED] How can I access command line history?
584 You can browse previous commands with M-p and M-n. Alternatively, you
585 can summon the command history listbox by pressing F9 c h.
587 Since version 4.1.15 all the input widgets have permanent history. You
588 can summon the history listbox by pressing M-h.
590 6.3 How can I complete commands, file names, variable names and so on?
592 Just press M-Tab. Press M-Tab again to get a listbox if there are
593 multiple possible completions.
595 6.4 I am using ksh. Can I use functions defined in the .kshrc within MC?
597 Sorry, MC only supports bash, tcsh and zsh functions. Ksh functions
598 are not supported because ksh lacks the necessary hooks needed for
599 subshell integration.
601 Switch to bash or zsh. They are both quite compatible with ksh. Your
602 ksh functions should work as such or after minimal changes.
604 6.5 Is there any way to include additional options or hot keys to MC?
606 Yes, F2 invokes an user menu which fully configurable. You can add any
607 shell commands to the user menu. See
608 http://www.gnome.org/mc/manual-d.html#8 for more info.
610 Another way to add functionality is the external panelize feature. See
611 http://www.gnome.org/mc/manual-d.html#4 for more info.
613 And finally, you can code any feature you want yourself. MC source
614 code is free which means you can change it anyway you want. There are
615 some limitations to make sure MC stays free. See GNU General Public
618 7 Virtual file systems
620 Note! Virtual file systems are supported by Unix ports only. The
621 Windows 95/NT and OS/2 ports do NOT support virtual file systems. This
622 means you haven't got ftp, zip or tar support on Windows 95/NT and
625 This chapter describes the behaviour of the 4.1.x versions of the
626 Midnight Commander. The behaviour of the 4.5.x versions is somewhat
627 different. More on that when the 4.5.x versions get more stable.
629 7.1 How can I see the contents of a tar archive?
631 If you use keyboard just move the selection bar on the tar file and
634 If you use mouse just doubleclick on the tar file.
636 If these procedures don't work, your .mc.ext file is faulty. Replace
637 it with one from the MC source distribution.
639 You can also enter a tar archive by typing "cd tar:filename.tar.gz"
640 where filename.tar.gz is the name of the archive.
642 The recognized suffixes for tar archives are .tar, .tar.gz and .tgz.
643 If your tar archive uses different suffix you have to rename it.
645 7.2 How do I get out of a tar archive?
647 Just press enter on the toplevel ".." file or chdir to a non-tar
648 directory. Just typing "cd" with no parameters is enough (it will take
649 you to your home directory).
651 7.3 How do I do anonymous ftp with MC?
653 Just type "cd ftp://hostname" where hostname is the name of the host
654 you want to connect. Alternatively, select FTP link from the Left or
655 Right menu and type the name of the host you want to connect.
657 7.4 How do I do non-anonymous ftp with MC?
659 Non-anonymous ftp works just like the anonymous ftp but you give the
660 login name with the host name. For example, type "cd
661 ftp://username@hostname".
663 7.5 How do I close an ftp connection?
665 Just chdir to a non-ftp directory. Just typing "cd" with no parameters
666 is enough (it will take you to your home directory).
668 Internally Midnight Commander closes ftp connection only after a
669 timeout. This isn't visible to the end user.
671 7.6 Why aren't the contents of ftp panel updated?
673 Update is skipped because there would be a serious performance
674 penalty. Constantly updating directory panels through a ftp connection
675 would take too much time.
677 You can use C-r to force an update.
679 7.7 [UPDATED] What kind of proxy server works with Midnight Commander?
681 There are two kinds of ftp proxies: proxies for ftp clients and
682 proxies for web browsers.
684 Midnight Commander only supports ftp proxies which are meant for ftp
685 clients. Common WWW proxies (like Squid) are not supported. A rule of
686 thumb is that if a ftp proxy works with a web browser, it won't work
687 with Midnight Commander.
689 8 Other common problems
691 8.1 How do I get the internal editor to work?
693 The F4 key used to default to an external editor because that was what
694 most people were used to. The newer versions use internal editor by
697 To use the internal editor with an old version, select Configuration
698 from the Options menu and check the 'use internal edit' option.
700 Alternatively add the line
703 under the [Midnight-Commander] section in your .mc.ini file (which is
704 in your home directory).
706 To make the editor work all the time, go to the default/* section in
707 the file lib/mc/mc.ext file and remove the line
709 Edit=%var{EDITOR:vi} %f
711 The internal editor will now be invoked for anything not specified
712 elsewhere in the mc.ext file.
714 Make sure that you edit the correct mc.ext file. The Midnight
715 Commander first checks the existance of $HOME/.mc.ext. If this file is
716 missing MC will use $prefix/lib/mc/mc.ext instead ($prefix can be
717 changed with configure before compilation and it defaults to
720 When you run `F9/Command/Extension file edit' for the very first time
721 Midnight Commander copies the system-wide mc.ext from $prefix/lib/mc
722 into your home directory because you need write access in order to
725 And please don't forget that "make install" overwrites
726 $prefix/lib/mc/mc.ext.
728 8.2 [UPDATED] Why doesn't "mcedit newfile" work?
732 If the newfile doesn't exist, mcedit fails.
734 Start mcedit with no parameters, this will create a blank file. Then
735 save the file with whatever name you like.
737 This bug has been fixed since 4.1.17.
739 8.3 Is there any way to 'bookmark' favourite ftp-fs links?
741 Use the directory hotlist. Just press control-backslash. If your
742 national keyboard layout doesn't have backslash key, just press the
743 control key with the key which is the backslash key in the English
746 8.4 When copying the directories lose their original date, uid and gid!
748 This is a known bug. At moment only files preserve their original
749 settings when copying, not directories.
751 Uid and gid is fixed since 4.0.1. "Preserve UIDs/GIDs" in the copy
752 dialog needs to be checked and you must be root.
754 Date problem is fixed since 4.0.13.
756 8.5 Why I keep getting: "There is no disk in the drive. Please insert a disk
759 This is a known bug of the Windows 95/NT and OS/2 ports. MC looks its
760 configuration files from the D:\MC directory and if the D: drive is a
761 removable drive (like a CD ROM drive) and there is no disk in drive
762 you get this message everytime you try to do anything.
764 Since version 4.0.6 you can specify the actual location of the
765 Midnight Commander configuration files with the MCHOME environment
768 8.6 [UPDATED] When I start Midnight Commander, nothing happens!
770 First, invoke MC without subshell support: "mc -u". If this helps
771 check the shell you are using. Subshell support works best with bash
772 although tcsh and zsh are also supported. You might want to upgrade
773 your shell to a newer version. If you use something else than bash,
774 tcsh or zsh, subshell support is disabled automatically.
776 If disabling subshell doesn't help, try to reconfigure MC with
777 "--with-included-slang" and "--with-termcap" options and recompile. If
778 this helps, there is something wrong with your terminfo database or
779 shared slang library. For better terminfo databases see chapter 4. For
780 a better slang library, upgrade to a newer version or keep using the
781 "--with-included-slang" option.
783 This problem can also be caused by gpm as noted by Luis Espinoza:
785 In regards to why midnight commander does nothing when invoked. I
786 recently had the same problem. At the same time gpm was not loading
787 properly with my patched kernel (now 2.0.33 from 2.0.30).
788 Downloading version 1.13 of gpm, and got it working :-) MC still
789 appeared locked.... However moving the mouse, brought MC to life.
790 The mouse I am using is a Kensington Expert Mouse (Trackball).
792 8.7 When I try to view a file MC hangs!
794 This is known bug. A quick fix is "chmod 666 /dev/tty". For a more
795 complete fix, see http://www.gnome.org/mc/maillist/97-10/98.html.
797 This bug is fixed since 4.1.6.
801 9.1 Who has written Midnight Commander?
803 Midnight Commander was started by Miguel de Icaza and he is the
804 maintainer of the package. Other authors have joined the project
806 * Mauricio Plaza (early releases)
807 * Janne Kukonlehto (joined Sep 27 1994)
808 * Radek Doulik (joined Oct 30 1994)
809 * Fred Leeflang (joined Nov 2 1994)
810 * Dugan Porter (joined Dec 1 1994)
811 * Jakub Jelinek (joined Feb 8 1995)
812 * Ching Hui (joined Jun 27 1995)
813 * Andrej Borsenkow (joined Jul 1996)
814 * Paul Sheer (joined Nov 1 1996)
818 Alessandro Rubini has been specially helpful with debugging and
819 enhancing of the mouse support. John Davis has made his S-Lang library
820 available to us and answered many questions about it.
822 The photographs of the authors are available as:
824 http://www.gnome.org/mc/authstat.html
826 Many people have contributed bug reports, feature suggestions and
827 small code bits (alphabetical order):
829 * Juan Jose Ciarlante
830 * Alexander Dong (OS/2 port, NT port updates)
832 * Torben Fjerdingstad
834 * Juan Grigera (NT port)
836 * Sergey Ya. Korshunoff
839 * Antonio Palama (old DOS port)
847 9.2 Do I dare to use a development version?
849 I am afraid you have to answer to this question yourself. Development
850 versions seldom cause data loss but they have usually got many bugs.
851 It's up to you to judge whether new features outweight the bugs.
853 9.3 How can I report a bug/request for a feature?
855 You might first want to get the newest development version to see if
856 the bug is fixed or the feature is added already.
858 Send your report/request to mc-devel@gnome.org or
859 mc@gnome.org. These mailing lists are the most certain
860 way to contact the developers. Remember to mention if you are not on
861 the mailing list to make sure that you will receive a copy of replies.
863 Give as much details as possible. A too long message is a lot better
864 than a too short message.
866 For segmentation faults a stack backtrace is appreciated. You can
867 produce stack backtrace as follows:
868 * If segmentation fault produced a core file:
869 1. Load the core file by typing "gdb mc core" or "dbx mc core".
871 3. Cut and paste the results to your message.
872 * If segmentation fault didn't produce a core file:
873 1. Load mc by typing "gdb mc" or "dbx mc".
874 2. Start mc by typing "run".
875 3. Try to reproduce the segmentation fault by doing whatever you
876 did last time when the segmentation fault occurred.
878 5. Cut and paste the results to your message.
879 6. For the future you might want to check out what is the
880 command in your shell to allow producing of the core files.
881 Usually it is "limit coredumpsize unlimited" or "ulimit
882 coredumpsize" or "ulimit -c unlimited".
884 9.4 How can I join the development?
886 To join the development just code the feature you want to add and send
887 your patch for inclusion. Email address is mc-devel@gnome.org.
888 Before you start coding check the latest development version. It might
889 be that your feature has already been implemented.
891 Note that the authors of the Midnight Commander have given all their
892 rights on the program to the Free Software Foundation. You will have
893 to do the same if you contribute non-trivial patches. Otherwise we
894 have to reject your patches in order to avoid copyright problems.
898 10.1 This document didn't answer my question. Where else can I look for an
901 Read messages from the Discussion (mailing list archive) or read the
904 Upgrade to a newer version of Midnight Commander. Many problems are
905 fixed in the new versions.
907 If you still can't find an answer, post your question to the Midnight
908 Commander mailing list. Its address is mc@gnome.org.
910 10.2 What mailing lists are there for Midnight Commander?
912 Following mailing lists discuss about Midnight Commander:
915 General discussion of the Midnight Commander
917 http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/mc/
920 Technical development discussion
922 http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/mc-devel/
924 10.3 Where should I look on the World Wide Web for MC stuff?
926 There is a WWW page for Midnight Commander. The URL is:
928 http://www.gnome.org/mc/
930 10.4 Are the mailing lists archived anywhere?
932 The mc and mc-devel lists are archived on the World Wide Web. There are
933 links to the archives on the mailing list pages (see 10.2).
939 Questions and Answers is written by Janne Kukonlehto. Parts of it
940 originate from Ian Jackson, Miguel de Icaza, Dugan Porter, Norbert
941 Warmuth and Paul Sheer.
943 11.2 [UPDATED] File formats
945 This document is available in HTML, postscript and PDF formats at
946 http://www.gnome.org/mc/answers.html.
948 This document is available in ASCII format in the Midnight Commander
951 11.3 Feedback is invited
953 Send your comments about this document to janne@gnome.org
955 Send your comments about the Midnight Commander to mc@gnome.org
957 11.4 Disclaimer and copyright
959 Note that this document is provided as is. The information in it is
960 not warranted to be correct; you use it at your own risk.
962 You can use Questions and Answers according to GNU Public License (see
963 the COPYING file in the Midnight Commander source distribution).
964 Questions and Answers is not public domain.
965 __________________________________________________________________
967 This document is maintained by Janne Kukonlehto <janne@gnome.org>.