4 The newest version of this document is available at
5 http://cvs.gnome.org/lxr/source/mc/FAQ?raw=1
8 + 1.1 What is Midnight Commander?
9 + 1.2 Does it run on my machine?
10 + 1.3 Does it work with my terminal?
11 + 1.4 What else do I need to run MC?
12 + 1.5 Is Midnight Commander PD? Copyrighted?
13 + 1.6 Where can I get Midnight Commander?
14 + 1.7 I don't have FTP access. Where can I get MC?
16 + 2.1 What does documentation mean with the C-?, M-? and F?
18 + 2.2 Why don't function keys (or some other key) work?
19 + 2.3 How do I use function keys F11 to F20?
20 + 2.4 Why does the ESC key behave funny?
21 + 2.5 How can I add the plus sign (+) on the command line?
22 + 2.6 C-o doesn't work!
23 + 2.7 What 'keys' are the "a1" and "c1" keys mentioned in the
26 + 3.1 How do I enable mouse support?
27 + 3.2 How do I cut and paste text with mouse?
28 + 3.3 How do I get the extension dependant pop-up menu to
31 + 4.1 Why do I keep getting "Terminal not powerful enough for
32 SLang" or "Terminal not powerful enough for SLsmg"?
33 + 4.2 Why don't line drawing characters work?
34 + 4.3 Can one use latin-1 characters without losing the lines?
35 + 4.4 I have problems with entering/viewing national
37 + 4.5 How can I get colors?
38 + 4.6 My color_xterm goes completely (or partially) black!
39 + 4.7 Where can I get xterm or rxvt?
40 + 4.8 I got colors working with MC but the other programs don't
42 + 4.9 Why are there both terminfo and termcap? Wouldn't one
44 * 5 Graphical user interface
45 + 5.1 Xview, Tk and Gnome editions?
46 * 6 Command line problems
47 + 6.1 How do I stay in the last directory when I exit Midnight
49 + 6.2 How can I access command line history?
50 + 6.3 How can I complete commands, file names, variable names
52 + 6.4 I am using ksh. Can I use functions defined in the .kshrc
54 + 6.5 Is there any way to include additional options or hot
56 * 7 Virtual file systems
57 + 7.1 How can I see the contents of a tar archive?
58 + 7.2 How do I get out of a tar archive?
59 + 7.3 How do I do anonymous ftp with MC?
60 + 7.4 How do I do non-anonymous ftp with MC?
61 + 7.5 How do I close an ftp connection?
62 + 7.6 Why aren't the contents of ftp panel updated?
63 + 7.7 What kind of proxy server works with Midnight Commander?
64 * 8 Other common problems
65 + 8.1 How do I get the internal editor to work?
66 + 8.2 Why doesn't "mcedit newfile" work?
67 + 8.3 Is there any way to 'bookmark' favourite ftp-fs links?
68 + 8.4 When copying the directories lose their original date,
70 + 8.5 Why I keep getting: "There is no disk in the drive.
71 Please insert a disk into drive D:"?
72 + 8.6 When I start Midnight Commander, nothing happens!
74 + 9.1 Who has written Midnight Commander?
75 + 9.2 Do I dare to use a development version?
76 + 9.3 How can I report a bug/request for a feature?
77 + 9.4 How can I join the development?
79 + 10.1 This document didn't answer my question. Where else can
81 + 10.2 What mailing lists are there for Midnight Commander?
82 + 10.3 Where should I look on the World Wide Web for MC stuff?
83 + 10.4 Are the mailing lists archived anywhere?
86 + 11.2 Feedback is invited
87 + 11.3 Disclaimer and copyright
91 1.1 What is Midnight Commander?
93 The Midnight Commander is a user-friendly yet powerful file manager
94 and visual shell, useful to novice and guru alike. It provides a
95 clear, user-friendly, and somewhat protected interface to a Unix
96 system while making many frequent file operations more efficient and
97 preserving the full power of the command prompt. You will wonder how
98 you could ever live without it.
100 For more thorough description take a look at the announcement of
101 Midnight Commander 4.0.
103 1.2 Does it run on my machine?
105 Yes, Midnight Commander can run on almost any machine, including Unix
106 clones, Windows 95/NT and OS/2. Midnight Commander does not run on
109 Midnight Commander uses GNU Autoconf which can automatically
110 configure Midnight Commander for use on almost any (if not every)
111 Unix clone. Following configurations have been tested:
112 * i386-*-linux1.x, 2.x
114 * sparc-linux-linux2.x
115 * sparc64-linux-linux2.1
116 * mips-sgi-irix5.x, 6.x
118 * rs6000-ibm-aix3.2.5
120 * sparc-sun-solaris2.3, 2.4, 2.5
121 * sparc-sun-netbsd1.0
126 * mc88110-aviion-dgux5.4R2.01
129 * i386-*-windows-nt-3.51, 4.0
133 Windows 95/NT port can be compiled with Microsoft Visual C++, Borland
134 C++, Cygwin32 and Mingw32.
136 1.3 Does it work with my terminal?
140 Because Midnight Commander is a full screen program it doesn't run on
141 dummy terminals but anything more advanced will do (like vt100). If
142 your terminal works with vi, emacs, elm or pine it will work with
145 The GNOME edition requires an X terminal.
147 1.4 What else do I need to run MC?
149 You need an Unix compatible operating system. Support for Windows 95/NT
150 and OS/2 is incomplete - you should be prepared to fix things.
152 To compile any edition you need to have GLib installed. It's available
153 at ftp://ftp.gtk.org/pub/gtk/.
155 If you want to use mouse on the Linux console you need the gpm daemon
156 from ftp://ftp.systemy.it/pub/develop/. You need nothing extra to use
159 To compile the GNOME edition you need GNOME libraries as well as the
160 libraries they depend on. See http://www.gnome.org/ for details.
162 If you do not want to use the S-Lang library you could try using
163 ncurses (we recommend only version 4.1 and above).
165 You can get it along with other curses libraries, too, but results may
166 not be pretty or even usable.
168 1.5 Is Midnight Commander PD? Copyrighted?
170 Midnight Commander is under GNU Public License which basically means
171 that you may freely copy, change and distribute it, but that you may
172 not impose any restrictions on further distribution, and that you must
173 make the source code available. This is not the same as Public Domain.
174 For details, the GNU license is included in the Midnight Commander
175 source distribution (the COPYING file).
177 Midnight Commander is nowadays officially a part of GNU project. All
178 the authors of the Midnight Commander have given all their rights on
179 the program to the Free Software Foundation.
181 1.6 Where can I get Midnight Commander?
183 The main site is ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/stable/sources/mc/
185 1.7 I don't have FTP access. Where can I get MC?
187 Most Linux CD-ROMs include Midnight Commander. For example,
188 Debian, Mandrake, Red Hat, Slackware and SuSE.
192 2.1 What does documentation mean with the C-?, M-? and F? keys?
194 Midnight Commander documentation uses emacs style names for keyboard
197 C stands for the Ctrl key. For example, C-f means that you should hold
198 down the Ctrl key and press the f key.
200 M stands for the Meta key. Your terminal might call it Alt or Compose
201 instead of Meta. For example, M-f means that you should hold down the
202 Meta/Alt/Compose key and press the f key. If your terminal doesn't
203 have Meta, Alt or Compose or they don't work you can use Esc. For M-f
204 press the Esc key and then press the f key.
206 F? stands for a function key. If your terminal doesn't have function
207 keys or they don't work you can use Esc. For example, for F3 press the
208 Esc key and then press the 3 key.
210 2.2 Why don't function keys (or some other key) work?
212 Your terminfo or termcap database has missing or incorrect definations
213 for function keys. Type "mc -V" to see what terminal database is being
214 used. If the result is "using the S-Lang library with terminfo
215 database" you should install one of the enhanced terminfo databases
216 included in the Midnight Commander source distribution. For example,
217 if you are using xterm type "tic xterm.ti".
219 If the result is "using the S-Lang library with termcap database" you
220 should fix your /etc/termcap database.
222 Better termcap and terminfo databases are available here:
224 http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/terminfo/
225 ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses/
227 You can select whether Midnight Commander will use terminfo or termcap
228 database by giving --with-terminfo or --with-termcap option to the
229 configure. Default is terminfo if found, otherwise termcap.
231 If you don't have permissions to edit terminal databases you can use
232 Learn keys feature of Midnight Commander instead. Press Esc 9 o k and
235 If all else fails you can emulate function keys by first pressing the
236 ESC key and then one of the number keys. For example, if you want to
237 produce F9, press ESC, then 9. If you don't have a ESC key on your
238 keyboard you can try alt-9 or meta-9.
240 2.3 How do I use function keys F11 to F20?
242 These can mapped to function keys F1 to F10 with Shift held. eg.
243 function key F13 can be activated by pressing Shift-F3. You can define
244 the keys this way in the Options menu. The convention for PC keyboards
245 is that F11-20 always means Shift with F1-10
247 Note! Windows 95/NT and OS/2 ports use F11 and F12 keys to change the
248 current disk drive. In this case F11 and F12 mean the real F11 and F12
249 keys, not shift-F1 and shift-F2.
251 2.4 Why does the ESC key behave funny?
253 Midnight Commander uses the ESC key as a prefix for simulating the
254 Meta and Alt keys (for terminals which don't have Meta or Alt, see the
255 three previous questions). For example, pressing ESC-a is the same as
256 pressing Meta-a. In addition most terminals use ESC for internal
257 representation of arrow keys, function keys and other enhanced keys.
258 If you want to use ESC to cancel things you have to press it twice i.
259 e. ESC-ESC. If you find this cumbersome you can generally use F10 to
260 cancel. Alternatively turn on the old_esc_mode setting in the
261 ~/.mc.ini file. The old_esc_mode setting makes ESC work as a prefix
262 only if another key is pressed within 0.5 seconds. After 0.5 seconds
263 the ESC key cancels. There is no way to make ESC cancel immediately
264 (if we want to be able to use arrows keys and function keys).
266 X terminals allow more control over keyboard, so these ESC limitations
267 does not concern the GNOME edition of the Midnight Commander.
269 2.5 How can I add the plus sign (+) on the command line?
271 Press C-q first, then press the + sign.
273 The plus key is the hotkey for the select files command. If you want
274 to add a literal plus on to the command line you must quote it by
277 Another common key which needs the C-q prefix is backslash "\".
279 2.6 C-o doesn't work!
281 Maybe C-o is a stty control character on your terminal. See man stty
282 for details on how to list and change stty control characters.
284 2.7 What 'keys' are the "a1" and "c1" keys mentioned in the manual?
286 The "a1" key is the key which has the "a1" caption on it.
288 The "c1" key is the key which has the "c1" caption on it.
290 If you have to ask what these two keys are your keyboard hasn't
291 probably got them. Actually, I have never seen a keyboard which has
296 3.1 How do I enable mouse support?
298 Invoke mc like this (without quotes): "mc -x". If this doesn't work
299 upgrade to a terminal which compatible with the Xterm mouse sequences.
301 Alternatively, on Linux console you can use gpm.
303 3.2 How do I cut and paste text with mouse?
305 Hold down shift key while using mouse to cut'n'paste.
307 3.3 How do I get the extension dependant pop-up menu to pop up?
309 You need a GNOME edition. Normal MC (text-mode edition) doesn't
310 support this feature yet.
312 In the GNOME edition you can access the extension dependent
313 pop-up menu by pressing the right mouse button.
317 4.1 Why do I keep getting "Terminal not powerful enough for SLang" or
318 "Terminal not powerful enough for SLsmg"?
320 This means that your terminfo databases do not contain the correct
321 definitions for your terminal.
323 You could try using a different terminal setting. If you use csh or
328 or if you use sh, bash, ksh or zsh:
332 If this doesn't help you can recompile MC to use termcap instead of
335 ./configure --with-termcap
338 4.2 Why don't line drawing characters work?
340 Since version 4.0.13 there's the commandline option -a to force use of
341 +, |, - for line drawing (only available when compiled with S-Lang).
342 Use this -a option if any of the suggestions below doesn't help.
344 In general, there are three subcases:
345 * Lines are shown as ASCII characters like this
351 This also happens when you use the -a option. Other than that
352 possible reason is 1, 2 or 3 (see below).
353 * Lines are shown as lower case characters like this
359 Possible reason is 2 or 3 (see below).
360 * Lines are shown as blanks or missing characters. Possible reason
361 is 3 or 4 (see below).
363 The reason for the problem is one of following:
365 1. Your curses library might not support line drawing characters.
366 S-Lang, ncurses and SystemV curses do support them, BSD curses
367 doesn't. MC uses S-Lang by default so this is not usually a
369 2. Your terminal might not support line drawing characters. Vt100
370 compatible terminals, rxvt, xterm and color_xterm do support them.
371 3. Your terminfo or termcap database might have missing or incorrect
372 definations for line drawing characters. Set the acsc variable in
373 the terminfo database like this:
374 acsc=a\376k\277l\332m\300j\331n\305w\302v\301u\264t\303q\304x\263h
376 Don't forget issue 'tic' command. This supposes you are using pc
377 character set. The octal values might be different for other
378 character sets. If you are using termcap instead of terminfo, you
379 should modify above solution appropriately.
380 4. Your terminal font might not support line drawing characters. Try
383 Here is Miguel's answer to Torben on this subject.
387 When I load consolefonts/iso01.f16, I get perfectly right national
388 characters, but the line drawing characters in mc get wrong. Is it
389 a mc problem, or is it a problem with the font? (I guess it is).
395 First of all, we should determine whether the font has line drawing
398 If it has line drawing characters, then a new terminfo entry should
399 be written for this specific case. Let's call this linux-iso01. The
400 acsc variable should be modified to reflect which characters are
401 used to do the line drawing.
403 If it does not have line drawing characters, then we should get rid
404 of the switch to acsc sequences and make the acsc sequence be just
405 a mapping to the ugly +, -, |, - characters.
407 You can get your terminfo definition by running the infocmp
408 program, making the proper changes and running the tic program to
409 compile your new terminfo database.
411 4.3 Can one use latin-1 characters without losing the lines?
413 Yes, you need a correct font and a correct termcap/terminfo database.
415 For font, if you use xterm try "xterm -fn fixed".
417 For termcap/terminfo database, change the acsc capability in the
420 4.4 I have problems with entering/viewing national characters!
422 Upgrade to version 4.0.12 or newer.
424 From the Options - Display Bits dialog select Full 8 bits or ISO
425 8859-1. In addition, select 8 bit input from the same dialog.
427 4.5 How can I get colors?
429 Invoke mc like this (without quotes): "mc -c".
431 If you get colors, be happy.
433 If your terminal stays black and white, your terminal doesn't support
434 color. You might want to upgrade to a terminal which compatible with
435 the ANSI color sequences.
437 If your terminal goes compelety black, see the next question.
439 More detailed answer:
441 First, check that your terminal supports color. color_xterm, rxvt and
442 Linux console do support, most other terminals don't. You can test
443 color support with following simple C program:
448 printf ("\033[32m Hello world! \033[m\n");
452 Compile and run it. If you see "Hello world!" text in green your
453 terminal supports color, otherwise not (however, for color_xterm see
454 also the next question).
456 Second, check that you are using Ncurses or the S-Lang library (type
457 "mc -V" to find out), in addition some SystemV curses implementations
458 do support color, most don't.
460 With S-Lang library you can force color support by setting the
461 environment variable COLORTERM to any value.
463 Third, if you use ncurses library, check that your terminfo database
464 supports color. If not you should install one of the enhanced terminfo
465 databases included in the Midnight Commander source distribution.
467 Fourth, you might want to set the TERM environment variable so that
468 you use the correct terminfo database or termcap entry.
470 If you use color_xterm (or rxvt) the correct value might be
471 xterm-color, xtermc or simply xterm.
473 If you use Linux console the correct value for TERM is linux or
476 4.6 My color_xterm goes completely (or partially) black!
478 Some color_xterm terminals define all colors as black instead of the
479 standard ANSI colors. This makes them go completely black when you try
480 to use Midnight Commander with colors.
482 You will have to override the defaults. Create a file "color.defaults"
483 which has the following contents:
485 color_xterm*color0: Black
486 color_xterm*color1: Red
487 color_xterm*color2: Green
488 color_xterm*color3: Yellow
489 color_xterm*color4: Blue
490 color_xterm*color5: Magenta
491 color_xterm*color6: Cyan
492 color_xterm*color7: White
493 color_xterm*background: White
494 color_xterm*foreground: Black
496 (replace color_xterm with the name of your color_xterm, color_xterm
497 mentions its name in its title bar)
501 xrdb -merge color.defaults
503 Alternatively you can add the suggested contents of the color.defaults
504 file to your .Xdefaults or .Xresources file (or what ever the name of
505 your X configuration file is). Or you can replace your non-ANSI
506 color_xterm with an ANSI color_xterm.
508 4.7 Where can I get xterm or rxvt?
510 xterm is included with the X Window System, so you probably already
511 have it if you have X. This version is not actively maintained, but
512 Thomas Dickey maintains his more advanced version of xterm at
513 ftp://dickey.his.com/xterm/
515 rxvt has its own site http://www.rxvt.org/ - get the latest version
518 4.8 I got colors working with MC but the other programs don't work at all
521 Midnight Commander uses terminfo database (if available) but many
522 other programs use termcap database. If you set the TERM environment
523 variable to a value which has no corresponding entry in termcap
524 database those programs stop working. You should add the new value of
525 TERM to the termcap database.
527 Example: If you have set TERM to xterm-color locate from /etc/termcap
528 the line which starts:
530 xterm|vs100|xterm terminal emulator
534 xterm|xterm-color|vs100|xterm terminal emulator
536 4.9 Why are there both terminfo and termcap? Wouldn't one database be
539 You might want to read the Unix-Haters Handbook at
540 http://catalog.com/hopkins/unix-haters/handbook.html. It lists many
541 more reasons why Unix sucks.
543 You can configure which terminal database you want to use with the
544 "--with-termcap" and "--with-terminfo" flags of configure. If you
545 don't specify them, the configure script will try to use terminfo if
546 available otherwise it will use termcap.
548 5 Graphical user interface
550 5.1 Xview, Tk and Gnome editions?
552 Xview and Tk editions have been removed from the sources.
554 GNOME edition will compile by default if the necessary libraries are
555 present on the system. If it's not desired, give the "--without-gnome"
556 option to the configure script and otherwise compile as usual.
558 The GNOME edition is work in progress. It may lack some functionality
561 6 Command line problems
563 6.1 How do I stay in the last directory when I exit Midnight Commander?
565 See the description of the -P option in the Options section of the
568 6.2 How can I access command line history?
570 You can browse previous commands with M-p and M-n. Alternatively, you
571 can summon the command history listbox by pressing F9 c h.
573 Since version 4.1.15 all the input widgets have permanent history. You
574 can summon the history listbox by pressing M-h.
576 6.3 How can I complete commands, file names, variable names and so on?
578 Just press M-Tab. Press M-Tab again to get a listbox if there are
579 multiple possible completions.
581 6.4 I am using ksh. Can I use functions defined in the .kshrc within MC?
583 Sorry, MC only supports bash, tcsh and zsh functions. Ksh functions
584 are not supported because ksh lacks the necessary hooks needed for
585 subshell integration.
587 Switch to bash or zsh. They are both quite compatible with ksh. Your
588 ksh functions should work as such or after minimal changes.
590 6.5 Is there any way to include additional options or hot keys to MC?
592 Yes, F2 invokes an user menu which fully configurable. You can add
593 any shell commands to the user menu. See the mc(1) man page for more
596 Another way to add functionality is the external panelize feature.
597 See the mc(1) man page for more info.
599 And finally, you can code any feature you want yourself. MC source
600 code is free which means you can change it anyway you want. There are
601 some limitations to make sure MC stays free. See GNU General Public
604 7 Virtual file systems
606 Note! Virtual file systems are supported by Unix ports only. The
607 Windows 95/NT and OS/2 ports do NOT support virtual file systems. This
608 means you haven't got ftp, zip or tar support on Windows 95/NT and
611 This chapter describes the behaviour of the 4.1.x versions of the
612 Midnight Commander. The behaviour of the 4.5.x versions is somewhat
613 different. More on that when the 4.5.x versions get more stable.
615 7.1 How can I see the contents of a tar archive?
617 If you use keyboard just move the selection bar on the tar file and
620 If you use mouse just doubleclick on the tar file.
622 If these procedures don't work, your .mc.ext file is faulty. Replace
623 it with one from the MC source distribution.
625 You can also enter a tar archive by typing "cd tar:filename.tar.gz"
626 where filename.tar.gz is the name of the archive.
628 The recognized suffixes for tar archives are .tar, .tar.gz and .tgz.
629 If your tar archive uses different suffix you have to rename it.
631 7.2 How do I get out of a tar archive?
633 Just press enter on the toplevel ".." file or chdir to a non-tar
634 directory. Just typing "cd" with no parameters is enough (it will take
635 you to your home directory).
637 7.3 How do I do anonymous ftp with MC?
639 Just type "cd ftp://hostname" where hostname is the name of the host
640 you want to connect. Alternatively, select FTP link from the Left or
641 Right menu and type the name of the host you want to connect.
643 7.4 How do I do non-anonymous ftp with MC?
645 Non-anonymous ftp works just like the anonymous ftp but you give the
646 login name with the host name. For example, type "cd
647 ftp://username@hostname".
649 7.5 How do I close an ftp connection?
651 Just chdir to a non-ftp directory. Just typing "cd" with no parameters
652 is enough (it will take you to your home directory).
654 Internally Midnight Commander closes ftp connection only after a
655 timeout. This isn't visible to the end user.
657 7.6 Why aren't the contents of ftp panel updated?
659 Update is skipped because there would be a serious performance
660 penalty. Constantly updating directory panels through a ftp connection
661 would take too much time.
663 You can use C-r to force an update.
665 7.7 What kind of proxy server works with Midnight Commander?
667 There are two kinds of ftp proxies: proxies for ftp clients and
668 proxies for web browsers.
670 Midnight Commander only supports ftp proxies which are meant for ftp
671 clients. Common WWW proxies (like Squid) are not supported. A rule of
672 thumb is that if a ftp proxy works with a web browser, it won't work
673 with Midnight Commander.
675 8 Other common problems
677 8.1 How do I get the internal editor to work?
679 The F4 key used to default to an external editor because that was what
680 most people were used to. The newer versions use internal editor by
683 To use the internal editor with an old version, select Configuration
684 from the Options menu and check the 'use internal edit' option.
686 Alternatively add the line
689 under the [Midnight-Commander] section in your .mc.ini file (which is
690 in your home directory).
692 To make the editor work all the time, go to the default/* section in
693 the file lib/mc/mc.ext file and remove the line
695 Edit=%var{EDITOR:vi} %f
697 The internal editor will now be invoked for anything not specified
698 elsewhere in the mc.ext file.
700 Make sure that you edit the correct mc.ext file. The Midnight
701 Commander first checks the existance of $HOME/.mc.ext. If this file is
702 missing MC will use $prefix/lib/mc/mc.ext instead ($prefix can be
703 changed with configure before compilation and it defaults to
706 When you run `F9/Command/Extension file edit' for the very first time
707 Midnight Commander copies the system-wide mc.ext from $prefix/lib/mc
708 into your home directory because you need write access in order to
711 And please don't forget that "make install" overwrites
712 $prefix/lib/mc/mc.ext.
714 8.2 Why doesn't "mcedit newfile" work?
718 If the newfile doesn't exist, mcedit fails.
720 Start mcedit with no parameters, this will create a blank file. Then
721 save the file with whatever name you like.
723 This bug has been fixed since 4.1.17.
725 8.3 Is there any way to 'bookmark' favourite ftp-fs links?
727 Use the directory hotlist. Just press control-backslash. If your
728 national keyboard layout doesn't have backslash key, just press the
729 control key with the key which is the backslash key in the English
732 8.4 When copying the directories lose their original date, uid and gid!
734 This is a known bug. At moment only files preserve their original
735 settings when copying, not directories.
737 Uid and gid is fixed since 4.0.1. "Preserve UIDs/GIDs" in the copy
738 dialog needs to be checked and you must be root.
740 Date problem is fixed since 4.0.13.
742 8.5 Why I keep getting: "There is no disk in the drive. Please insert a disk
745 This is a known bug of the Windows 95/NT and OS/2 ports. MC looks its
746 configuration files from the D:\MC directory and if the D: drive is a
747 removable drive (like a CD ROM drive) and there is no disk in drive
748 you get this message everytime you try to do anything.
750 Since version 4.0.6 you can specify the actual location of the
751 Midnight Commander configuration files with the MCHOME environment
754 8.6 When I start Midnight Commander, nothing happens!
756 First, invoke MC without subshell support: "mc -u". If this helps
757 check the shell you are using. Subshell support works best with bash
758 although tcsh and zsh are also supported. You might want to upgrade
759 your shell to a newer version. If you use something else than bash,
760 tcsh or zsh, subshell support is disabled automatically.
762 If disabling subshell doesn't help, try to reconfigure MC with
763 "--with-included-slang" and "--with-termcap" options and recompile.
764 If this helps, there is something wrong with your terminfo database
765 or shared S-Lang library. For better terminfo databases see chapter
766 4. For a better S-Lang library, upgrade to a newer version or keep
767 using the "--with-included-slang" option.
769 This problem can also be caused by gpm as noted by Luis Espinoza:
771 In regards to why midnight commander does nothing when invoked. I
772 recently had the same problem. At the same time gpm was not loading
773 properly with my patched kernel (now 2.0.33 from 2.0.30).
774 Downloading version 1.13 of gpm, and got it working :-) MC still
775 appeared locked.... However moving the mouse, brought MC to life.
776 The mouse I am using is a Kensington Expert Mouse (Trackball).
780 9.1 Who has written Midnight Commander?
782 Midnight Commander was started by Miguel de Icaza and he is the
783 maintainer of the package. Other authors have joined the project
785 * Mauricio Plaza (early releases)
786 * Janne Kukonlehto (joined Sep 27 1994)
787 * Radek Doulik (joined Oct 30 1994)
788 * Fred Leeflang (joined Nov 2 1994)
789 * Dugan Porter (joined Dec 1 1994)
790 * Jakub Jelinek (joined Feb 8 1995)
791 * Ching Hui (joined Jun 27 1995)
792 * Andrej Borsenkow (joined Jul 1996)
793 * Paul Sheer (joined Nov 1 1996)
797 Alessandro Rubini has been specially helpful with debugging and
798 enhancing of the mouse support. John E. Davis has made his S-Lang
799 library available to us and answered many questions about it.
801 Many people have contributed bug reports, feature suggestions and
802 small code bits (alphabetical order):
804 * Juan Jose Ciarlante
805 * Alexander Dong (OS/2 port, NT port updates)
807 * Torben Fjerdingstad
809 * Juan Grigera (NT port)
811 * Sergey Ya. Korshunoff
814 * Antonio Palama (old DOS port)
822 9.2 Do I dare to use a development version?
824 I am afraid you have to answer to this question yourself. Development
825 versions seldom cause data loss but they have usually got many bugs.
826 It's up to you to judge whether new features outweight the bugs.
828 9.3 How can I report a bug/request for a feature?
830 You might first want to get the newest development version to see if
831 the bug is fixed or the feature is added already.
833 Send your report/request to mc-devel@gnome.org or
834 mc@gnome.org. These mailing lists are the most certain
835 way to contact the developers. Remember to mention if you are not on
836 the mailing list to make sure that you will receive a copy of replies.
838 Give as much details as possible. A too long message is a lot better
839 than a too short message.
841 For segmentation faults a stack backtrace is appreciated. You can
842 produce stack backtrace as follows:
843 * If segmentation fault produced a core file:
844 1. Load the core file by typing "gdb mc core" or "dbx mc core".
846 3. Cut and paste the results to your message.
847 * If segmentation fault didn't produce a core file:
848 1. Load mc by typing "gdb mc" or "dbx mc".
849 2. Start mc by typing "run".
850 3. Try to reproduce the segmentation fault by doing whatever you
851 did last time when the segmentation fault occurred.
853 5. Cut and paste the results to your message.
854 6. For the future you might want to check out what is the
855 command in your shell to allow producing of the core files.
856 Usually it is "limit coredumpsize unlimited" or "ulimit
857 coredumpsize" or "ulimit -c unlimited".
859 9.4 How can I join the development?
861 To join the development just code the feature you want to add and send
862 your patch for inclusion. Email address is mc-devel@gnome.org.
863 Before you start coding check the latest development version. It might
864 be that your feature has already been implemented.
866 Note that the authors of the Midnight Commander have given all their
867 rights on the program to the Free Software Foundation. You will have
868 to do the same if you contribute non-trivial patches. Otherwise we
869 have to reject your patches in order to avoid copyright problems.
873 10.1 This document didn't answer my question. Where else can I look for an
876 Read messages from the Discussion (mailing list archive) or read the
879 Upgrade to a newer version of Midnight Commander. Many problems are
880 fixed in the new versions.
882 If you still can't find an answer, post your question to the Midnight
883 Commander mailing list. Its address is mc@gnome.org.
885 10.2 What mailing lists are there for Midnight Commander?
887 Following mailing lists discuss about Midnight Commander:
890 General discussion of the Midnight Commander
892 http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/mc/
895 Technical development discussion
897 http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/mc-devel/
899 10.3 Where should I look on the World Wide Web for MC stuff?
901 There is a WWW page for Midnight Commander. The URL is:
903 http://www.gnome.org/mc/
905 10.4 Are the mailing lists archived anywhere?
907 The mc and mc-devel lists are archived on the World Wide Web. There are
908 links to the archives on the mailing list pages (see 10.2).
914 Questions and Answers was written by Janne Kukonlehto. Parts of it
915 originate from Ian Jackson, Miguel de Icaza, Dugan Porter, Norbert
916 Warmuth and Paul Sheer.
918 11.2 Feedback is invited
920 Send your comments about this document and the Midnight Commander to
923 11.3 Disclaimer and copyright
925 Note that this document is provided as is. The information in it is
926 not warranted to be correct; you use it at your own risk.
928 You can use Questions and Answers according to GNU Public License (see
929 the COPYING file in the Midnight Commander source distribution).
930 Questions and Answers is not public domain.