5 - Installation instructions and notes for the Midnight Commander
6 - Where to get more information on the Midnight Commander
8 - Information on porting the program
9 - Obtaining the missing pieces of the Midnight Commander
12 Installation instructions for the Midnight Commander
13 ----------------------------------------------------
15 The `configure' shell script attempts to guess correct values for
16 various system-dependent variables used during compilation, and creates
17 the Makefile. It also creates a file `config.status' that you can run
18 in the future to recreate the current configuration.
20 (Nextstep users, make sure you read the "Compiling under Nextstep"
23 To compile this package:
25 1. Configure the package for your system.
27 Normally, you just `cd' to the directory containing the package's
28 source code and type `./configure'. If you're using `csh' on an old
29 version of System V, you might need to type `sh configure' instead to
30 prevent `csh' from trying to execute `configure' itself (under AIX,
31 you may need to use ksh instead of sh).
33 Running `configure' takes a while. While it is running, it
34 prints some messages that tell what it is doing. If you don't want to
35 see any messages, run `configure' with its standard output redirected
36 to `/dev/null'; for example, `./configure >/dev/null'.
38 To compile the package in a different directory from the one
39 containing the source code, you must use a version of `make' that
40 supports the `VPATH' variable, such as GNU `make'. `cd' to the
41 directory where you want the object files and executables to go and run
42 the `configure' script. `configure' automatically checks for the
43 source code in the directory that `configure' is in and in `..'. If
44 for some reason `configure' is not in the source code directory that
45 you are configuring, then it will report that it can't find the source
46 code. In that case, run `configure' with the option `--srcdir=DIR',
47 where DIR is the directory that contains the source code.
49 By default, `make install' will install the package's files in
50 `/usr/local/bin', `/usr/local/man', etc. You can specify an
51 installation prefix other than `/usr/local' by giving `configure' the
52 option `--prefix=PATH'. Alternately, you can do so by consistently
53 giving a value for the `prefix' variable when you run `make', e.g.,
55 make prefix=/usr/gnu install
57 You can specify separate installation prefixes for
58 architecture-specific files and architecture-independent files. If
59 you give `configure' the option `--exec-prefix=PATH' or set the `make'
60 variable `exec_prefix' to PATH, the package will use PATH as the
61 prefix for installing programs and libraries. Data files and
62 documentation will still use the regular prefix. Normally, all files
63 are installed using the same prefix.
65 The program detects if you have the gpm library installed. If you
66 installed the gpm mouse library in a non-standard place, you will need
67 to use the --with-gpm-mouse flag with the directory base where you
68 installed the gpm package.
70 `configure' also recognizes the following options:
73 Print a summary of the options to `configure', and exit.
77 Do not print messages saying which checks are being made.
80 Print the results of the checks.
83 Print the version of Autoconf used to generate the `configure'
87 Enables the built-in memory allocation debugger and forces
88 compilation with -Wall. This is an option intended to be used by
89 the program developers.
92 Configures the program to be compiled without the built-in file
93 editor. The built-in editor is compiled in by default.
95 `--with-ext2undel[=PATH]'
96 On systems that use the Extended 2 file system and have the
97 libext2fs.a library available, this compiles into the Midnight
98 Commander the support code for recovering deleted files (the
99 undel virtual file system).
100 Use =PATH if libext2fs.a is installed in a non-standard place.
101 The configure will append `lib' and `include' to find the ext2fs
102 libraries and include files respectively.
104 `--with-gpm-mouse[=PATH]'
105 Use this flag if your GPM mouse package cannot be detected by the
106 configure. Use =PATH if it is installed in a non-standard place.
107 The configure will append `lib' and `include' to find the libgpm.a
108 and gpm.h files respectively.
110 `--without-gpm-mouse'
111 Use this flag to disable GPM mouse support (e.g. if you want to
112 use mouse only on X terminals).
115 Compiles support into the ftp virtual file system to support the
119 Needed when compiling under AIX if you want the fast viewer.
122 This option is used to compile on SCO: it turns on SCO-specific
123 code, i.e. disables the terminal resizing mechanism, uses the
124 BSD-like pseudoterminal handling, adds screen-saving capabilities
127 `--with-subshell[=optional]', `--without-subshell'
128 The subshell support is by default turned on, you can disable
129 this by using the --without-subshell option. If you pass the
130 =optional parameter, then the subshell support is turned off by
131 default, to turn it on, you have to specify the `-U' flag when
135 Enables the network support with the Term package.
137 `--with-tk' [WARNING: X code is not released]
138 This option enables including the Tcl/Tk version.
140 `--with-tk-includes=DIR' [WARNING: X code is not released]
141 Lets you specify the place where you have your Tcl/Tk headers installed.
142 It should be a directory containing tcl.h and tk.h.
144 `--with-tk-libraries=DIR' [WARNING: X code is not released]
145 Lets you specify the place where you have your Tcl/Tk libraries -
148 `--with-xview' [WARNING: X code is not released]
149 This option enables including the XView version.
151 `--with-xview-includes=DIR' [WARNING: X code is not released]
152 Lets you specify the place where you have your xview headers installed.
153 It should be the directory, which has subdirectories xview and
154 hopefuly xview_private.
156 `--with-xview-libraries=DIR' [WARNING: X code is not released]
157 Lets you specify the place where you have your xview libraries -
158 libolgx and libxview.
160 `--with-xv-bindir=DIR' [WARNING: X code is not released]
161 Lets you specify the place where program mxc will be installed.
162 Default is somewhere in your XView binaries directory,
165 `--with-tm-x-support'
166 This option enables minimal X Window support in the text edition. It
167 enables MC to query the status of the modifiers CONTROL and SHIFT
168 when invoked in a terminal emulation under X11. That's necessary
169 to recognice key combinations like C-HOME or S-Cursor key.
172 This option disables the Virtual File System switch code in the
173 Midnight Commander and uses the standard file system calls for
174 file access. If you specify this option you will not get the
175 transparent tar File system manipulation as well nor the
176 networked Midnight Commander file system.
178 You may also tell configure which display manager you want to use with
179 the Midnight Commander. The configure script will use SLang as default,
180 but you can override this by using any of the following flags (please
181 note that slang is included as part of the distribution),
183 `--with-slang' (default)
184 This is used to configure the program to use the SLang screen
185 manager. This is included as part of the Midnight Commander,
186 you don't need it installed on your system. If SLang is installed
187 on your system it will be used if possible. You can force usage of
188 the included SLang with the `--with-included-slang' option.
189 Slang is the only library that will let you resize the Midnight
190 Commander window on an xterm.
192 This option will usually try to use the terminfo database if it
193 is available, otherwise it will use the termcap database. At
194 compile time, you may force the use the terminal database with
195 the `--with-termcap' and `--with-terminfo' options (both options
196 automaticly turn `--with-included-slang' on).
198 `--with-ncurses[=directory]'
199 Use this flag (either with or without the =directory part), if
200 you want to compile with ncurses instead of the default SLang.
202 Use the =directory part if your ncurses is not installed in any of the
203 places configure will check (/usr/include, /usr/include/ncurses,
204 /usr/local/include and /usr/local/include/ncurses).
205 The argument to this flag is the base directory where the ncurses
206 files are located. The configure will append lib and include to
207 find the libncurses.a and ncurses.h file respectively. For
208 example, if you have installed ncurses under /gnu/lib and
209 /gnu/include, you specify: --with-ncurses=/gnu
211 You will need the ncurses package only if your system does not
212 provide a compatible curses. If after compiling, the program
213 says that it can't resolve the has_colors function, then you need
214 the ncurses package or you may always go back to the included SLang
217 `--with-vcurses[=directory]'
218 Use this flag to force the Midnight Commander to use a SystemV
219 type ncurses, the optional directory specifies where should
220 the C compiler find the include files.
222 `--with-sunos-curses'
223 You use this flag on SunOS machines if you want to use SunOS 4.x
224 curses instead of ncurses. You don't need this flag if you don't
225 have ncurses installed: it's only needed to force the usage of
226 SunOS curses over ncurses.
228 `configure' also accepts and ignores some other options.
230 On systems that require unusual options for compilation or linking
231 that the package's `configure' script does not know about, you can give
232 `configure' initial values for variables by setting them in the
233 environment. In Bourne-compatible shells, you can do that on the
234 command line like this:
236 CC='gcc -traditional' LIBS=-lposix ./configure
238 On systems that have the `env' program, you can do it like this:
240 env CC='gcc -traditional' LIBS=-lposix ./configure
242 Here are the `make' variables that you might want to override with
243 environment variables when running `configure'.
245 For these variables, any value given in the environment overrides the
246 value that `configure' would choose:
249 C compiler program. The default is `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 environment is added to
259 the value that `configure' chooses:
262 Libraries to link with, in the form `-lfoo -lbar...'.
264 If you need to do unusual things to compile the package, we encourage
265 you to figure out how `configure' could check whether to do them, and
266 mail diffs or instructions to the address given in the README so we
267 can include them in the next release.
269 2. Type `make' to compile the package.
271 3. If the package comes with self-tests and you want to run them,
272 type `make check'. If you're not sure whether there are any, try it;
273 if `make' responds with something like
274 make: *** No way to make target `check'. Stop.
275 then the package does not come with self-tests.
277 4. Type `make install' to install programs, data files, and
279 If your system is Linux, then install installs the Linux console screen
282 5. You can remove the program binaries and object files from the
283 source directory by typing `make clean'. To also remove the
284 Makefile(s), the header file containing system-dependent definitions
285 (if the package uses one), and `config.status' (all the files that
286 `configure' created), type `make realclean'. If you want to clean the source
287 tree completely, so that it contains only those files that should be
288 packaged in the archive, issue `make distclean'. If you've run configure in
289 a different directory than the source tree, distclean won't remove your *.o
290 and linked programs in that directory.
292 6. The Midnight Commander allows you to be kept on the directory you
293 were when you quit the program, this is done with a shell function,
294 the man page has more information about this. If you want to let the
295 install program make the change to your /etc/profile or your
296 ~/.profile or ~/.bashrc, then type: `make mcfninstall'.
298 The file `configure.in' is used to create `configure' by a program
299 called `autoconf'. You only need it if you want to regenerate
300 `configure' using a newer version of `autoconf'.
302 Compiling under NeXTStep
303 ------------------------
305 These instructions were provided by Gregor Hoffleit
306 <flight@mathi.uni-heidelberg.DE>, he recommends configuring the
310 export CC="cc -posix"
311 configure --without-subshell --with-termcap
312 Edie config.h and make sure you have #undef HAVE_GETWD
317 - Where to get more information on the Midnight Commander
318 ---------------------------------------------------------
320 Janne Kukonlehto set up a WWW page, here is the URL:
321 http://mc.blackdown.org/mc/
323 We also a set of mailing lists for the program:
325 mc-announce: Announcements of new version of the Midnight Commander.
326 mc-digest: Digest version of the mc list.
327 mc-patches: Patches by mail (also on the ftp site).
328 mc: Discussion on the Midnight Commander file manager.
329 mc-devel: For discussion between the developers of the program.
331 to subscribe to the mailing lists, send a message to:
333 majordomo@roxanne.nuclecu.unam.mx
335 with the following text in the body of the message:
337 subscribe <list-name> [address]
339 The address is optional and list-name is one of the above list names
340 (mc, mc-announce, mc-patches or mc-digest).
343 Notes about the Midnight Commander installation
344 ------------------------------------------------
346 The Midnight Commander has been run in the following configurations:
352 mips-dec-{open,net}bsd1.0
362 mc88110-aviion-dgux5.4
363 i386-*-{bsdi2,freebsd}
365 Since the Midnight Commander is configured via the GNU autoconf
366 program, it's not difficult to run it in other operating systems.
368 If you're using AIX, with the cc6000 compiler, you have to specify the
369 `--with-mmap' command line option.
371 You will need GNU C (or an ANSI C Compiler) and optionally a color
372 curses library (ncurses is a good choice). The Midnight Commander now
373 comes with the Slang screen manager, a fast screen manager, so ncurses
374 is not required anymore unless you want to use it.
376 Many Linux systems ship with ncurses version 1.9.9e, however, we recommend
377 ncurses 4.1 or above, since the former version does not support resizing
380 Since version 0.9 the Midnight Commander comes with mouse support on
381 xterms and in the Linux console. In order to take advantage of the
382 mouse support on the Linux console you will need the gpm mouse server
383 (see the section "Obtaining the Missing Pieces" in this file).
385 Once you get the Mouse Server, compile it and install it, then you
386 will have to specify the `--with-gpm-mouse' flag to the configure
387 program if you installed it in a non-standard directory. If you
388 installed the gpm package under /usr or /usr/local, you don't need to
389 specify this flag; configure will find gpm for you. The support for
390 mice on xterms is always compiled in.
392 We are working on further enhancements to the program, but we're not
393 sure which ones must go first. If you would like to point us in the
394 Right Direction we will be glad to hear from you (you could check the
395 file TODO included with this distribution for the current projects).
397 If you happen to find an undocumented feature that doesn't do what you
398 expected, please drop us a note telling us as much as you can about
399 the problem you're experiencing (to miguel@roxanne.nuclecu.unam.mx).
405 Random notes on porting to other architectures.
407 The Midnight Commander uses now by default the Slang library for
408 handling the display. If you can't port Slang (which should be a
409 pretty trivial job), you may want to attempt using ncurses (the
410 Midnight Commander can use ncurses as well as the display engine).
412 If you don't want to install ncurses and your OS is a SystemV Release
413 4 variant, maybe the curses supplied with your system will do the
414 work. If you experience display problems, then it means that we are
415 dealing with a buggy implementation of curses. You have two options:
416 one, download ncurses and recompile with ncurses or recompile all your
417 source code with the symbol BUGGY_CURSES defined. But you can always
418 switch to the default SLang screen manager.
420 The fast way to do this is to:
422 make clean; make XINC=-DBUGGY_CURSES
425 Obtaining the missing pieces of the Midnight Commander
426 ------------------------------------------------------
428 The Midnight Commander will build without requiring you to get any
429 other software packages, however, you may be interested in enhancing
430 the Midnight Commander environment with some of these:
434 There are many incomplete terminal databases out there, however, a
435 complete terminfo is bundled with ncurses. (It is simple to generate
436 the termcap database using the infocmp utility in ncurses).
438 Some terminfo data are included with the mc distribution (lib/*.ti).
439 Particularly linux, xterm and vt100. Use e.g. ''tic linux.ti'' to
442 If you want to run mc on xterm/color_xterm/ansi_xterm (not rxvt), then
443 you might read lib/README.xterm for further information.
445 o In the past the Midnight Commander required the NCurses library to
446 build, now it's optional. You can get Ncurses from
449 ftp.clark.net:/pub/dickey/ncurses
451 o The GPM Mouse Server is available at:
453 iride.unipv.it:/pub/gpm
455 o The X Windows System libraries are only used if you are going to
456 build the X11 versions of the program. Please note that this code
457 is not finished, so it's only useful if you want to look at what we
458 are doing or want to help in one of the two X11 versions.
460 o The XView library can be obtained from (currently the newest is
461 XView3.2p1-X11R6.tar.gz):
463 ftp.nuclecu.unam.mx:/Midnight/devel/XView.libs
464 ftp.x.org:/contrib/libraries
465 ftp.cvut.cz:/pub/x11/contrib/libraries
467 - Linux/ELF shared binaries:
469 sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/libs/X/xview
470 ftp.cvut.cz:/pub/linux/sunsite/libs/X/xview
472 o The Tcl/Tk libraries can be obtained from:
474 ftp.smli.com:/pub/tcl
475 ftp.aud.alcatel.com:/tcl/ftp.smli.com
476 ftp.cvut.cz:/pub/tcl/ftp.smli.com
478 - Linux/ELF shared binaries:
480 ftp.ods.com:/pub/linux
481 ftp.cvut.cz:/pub/linux/ods
483 o The Xpm library (used by the XView version) can be obtained from
484 (currently xpm-3.4f.tar.gz):
486 koala.inria.fr:/pub/xpm
487 ftp.x.org:/contrib/libraries
488 ftp.cvut.cz:/pub/x11/contrib/libraries
490 - Linux/ELF shared binaries:
492 ftp.ctd.comsat.com:/pub/linux/ELF
493 ftp.cvut.cz:/pub/linux/comsat
495 To get the mouse support working on the Linux console:
497 If you're using Linux version >= 1.1.34, then you will have to choose yes
498 to selection when you compile your kernel. If your Linux version is
499 older than this one, you may try to apply one of the patches included in
502 And the GNU C Compiler may be obtained from the following sites:
504 ASIA: ftp.cs.titech.ac.jp, utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp:/ftpsync/prep,
505 cair.kaist.ac.kr:/pub/gnu
506 AUSTRALIA: archie.au:/gnu (archie.oz or archie.oz.au for ACSnet)
507 AFRICA: ftp.sun.ac.za:/pub/gnu
508 MIDDLE-EAST: ftp.technion.ac.il:/pub/unsupported/gnu
509 EUROPE: ftp.cvut.cz:/pub/gnu, irisa.irisa.fr:/pub/gnu,
510 ftp.univ-lyon1.fr:pub/gnu, ftp.mcc.ac.uk,
511 unix.hensa.ac.uk:/pub/uunet/systems/gnu,
512 src.doc.ic.ac.uk:/gnu, ftp.win.tue.nl, ugle.unit.no,
513 ftp.denet.dk, ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de:/pub/gnu,
514 ftp.informatik.tu-muenchen.de, ftp.eunet.ch,
515 nic.switch.ch:/mirror/gnu, nic.funet.fi:/pub/gnu, isy.liu.se,
516 ftp.stacken.kth.se, ftp.luth.se:/pub/unix/gnu, archive.eu.net
517 CANADA: ftp.cs.ubc.ca:/mirror2/gnu
518 USA: wuarchive.wustl.edu:/mirrors/gnu, labrea.stanford.edu,
519 ftp.kpc.com:/pub/mirror/gnu, ftp.cs.widener.edu, uxc.cso.uiuc.edu,
520 col.hp.com:/mirrors/gnu, ftp.cs.columbia.edu:/archives/gnu/prep,
521 gatekeeper.dec.com:/pub/GNU, ftp.uu.net:/systems/gnu
524 Unsupported options to configure:
525 ---------------------------------
527 If you don't want to use ncurses and are using an Ultrix box, you
528 can use this switch. Be aware that ncurses is a better option
529 than the curses included in Ultrix.