2 Frequently Asked Questions
4 The newest version of this document is available at
5 http://www.midnight-commander.org/browser/FAQ
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 GNU Midnight Commander Public Domain? Copyrighted?
13 + 1.6 Where can I get GNU Midnight Commander?
14 + 1.7 I cannot compile MC. What should I do?
17 + 2.1 What does documentation mean with the C-?, M-? and F?
19 + 2.2 Why don't function keys (or some other key) work?
20 + 2.3 How do I use function keys F11 to F20?
21 + 2.4 Why does the ESC key behave funny?
22 + 2.5 How can I add the plus sign (+) on the command line?
23 + 2.6 C-o doesn't work!
24 + 2.7 What 'keys' are the "a1" and "c1" keys mentioned in the
26 + 2.8 How do I change the key bindings?
29 + 3.1 How do I enable mouse support?
30 + 3.2 How do I cut and paste text with mouse?
31 + 3.3 How do I get the extension dependent pop-up menu to
35 + 4.1 Why do I keep getting "Terminal not powerful enough for
36 SLang" or "Terminal not powerful enough for SLsmg"?
37 + 4.2 Why don't line drawing characters work?
38 + 4.3 Can one use latin-1 characters without losing the lines?
39 + 4.4 I have problems with entering/viewing national
41 + 4.5 How can I get colors?
42 + 4.6 My color_xterm goes completely (or partially) black!
43 + 4.7 Where can I get xterm or rxvt?
44 + 4.8 I got colors working with MC but the other programs
45 don't work at all anymore!
46 + 4.9 Why are there both terminfo and termcap? Wouldn't one
49 * 5 Graphical user interface
50 + 5.1 Xview, Tk and Gnome editions?
51 + 5.2 Why is MC linked with X libraries?
53 * 6 Command line problems
54 + 6.1 How do I stay in the last directory when I exit Midnight
56 + 6.2 How can I access command line history?
57 + 6.3 How can I complete commands, file names, variable names
59 + 6.4 I am using ksh. Can I use functions defined in the
61 + 6.5 Is there any way to include additional options or hot
63 + 6.6 When I use Ctrl-O I don't get a subshell. How do I fix
65 + 6.7 Ctrl-O doesn't work at all. What happens?
67 * 7 Virtual file systems
68 + 7.1 How can I see the contents of a tar archive?
69 + 7.2 How do I get out of a tar archive?
70 + 7.3 How do I do anonymous ftp with MC?
71 + 7.4 How do I do non-anonymous ftp with MC?
72 + 7.5 How do I close an ftp connection?
73 + 7.6 Why aren't the contents of ftp panel updated?
74 + 7.7 What kind of proxy server works with Midnight Commander?
77 + 8.1 When I try pasting to the internal editor, it indents
78 the amount of indenting increases with each line!
79 + 8.2 Is it possible to use Colorer for syntax highlighting?
81 * 9 Other common problems
82 + 9.1 Is there any way to 'bookmark' favorite ftp-fs links?
83 + 9.2 When I start Midnight Commander, nothing happens!
86 + 10.1 Who has written Midnight Commander?
87 + 10.2 Do I dare to use a development version?
88 + 10.3 How can I report a bug/request for a feature?
89 + 10.4 How can I join the development?
92 + 11.1 This document didn't answer my question. Where else
93 can I look for an answer?
94 + 11.2 What mailing lists are there for Midnight Commander?
95 + 11.3 Where should I look on the World Wide Web for MC stuff?
96 + 11.4 Are the mailing lists archived anywhere?
100 + 12.2 Feedback is invited
101 + 12.3 Disclaimer and copyright
106 1.1 What is Midnight Commander?
108 GNU Midnight Commander is a user-friendly yet powerful file manager
109 and visual shell, useful to novice and guru alike. It provides a
110 clear, user-friendly, and somewhat protected interface to a Unix
111 system while making many frequent file operations more efficient and
112 preserving the full power of the command prompt. After some
113 practice, you will wonder how you could ever live without it.
115 1.2 Does it run on my machine?
117 GNU Midnight Commander runs on POSIX (Unix-like) operating systems,
118 such as GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, Solaris, HP-UX and others. It
119 can also be compiled under Cygwin on Windows.
121 GNU Midnight Commander uses GNU Autoconf which should automatically
122 configure it for every Unix clone. Following configurations have
123 been tested in the past (this list is very old):
125 * i386-*-linux1.x, 2.x
127 * sparc-linux-linux2.x
128 * sparc64-linux-linux2.1
129 * mips-sgi-irix5.x, 6.x
131 * rs6000-ibm-aix3.2.5
133 * sparc-sun-solaris2.3, 2.4, 2.5
134 * sparc-sun-netbsd1.0
139 * mc88110-aviion-dgux5.4R2.01
143 1.3 Does it work with my terminal?
147 Because GNU Midnight Commander is a full screen program it doesn't
148 run on dummy terminals but anything more advanced will do (like
149 vt100). If your terminal works with vi, emacs, elm or pine it will
150 work with GNU Midnight Commander.
152 1.4 What else do I need to run MC?
154 You need a POSIX (Unix compatible) operating system. If you are
155 running Windows, use Cygwin.
157 To compile any edition you need to have glib 2.x installed.
158 It's available at ftp://ftp.gtk.org/pub/gtk/.
160 If you want to use mouse on the Linux console you need the gpm daemon
161 from ftp://ftp.systemy.it/pub/develop/. You need nothing extra to
164 If you do not want to use the S-Lang library you could try using
165 ncurses version 4.1 and above.
167 1.5 Is GNU Midnight Commander Public Domain? Copyrighted?
169 Midnight Commander is under GNU Public License which basically means
170 that you may freely copy, change and distribute it, but that you may
171 not impose any restrictions on further distribution, and that you
172 must make the source code available. This is not the same as Public
173 Domain. For details, the GNU license is included in GNU Midnight
174 Commander source distribution (the COPYING file).
176 Midnight Commander is now officially a part of the GNU project.
177 All the authors of GNU Midnight Commander have given all their rights
178 on the program to the Free Software Foundation.
180 1.6 Where can I get GNU Midnight Commander?
182 The main site is http://www.midnight-commander.org
184 1.7 I cannot compile MC. What should I do?
186 Make sure you have read the INSTALL file in the sources. Report the
187 error messages exactly as they appear, mention the versions of your
188 OS, your compiler and whatever else software you think is relevant.
189 If you have compile problems in the VFS code, try disabling it by
190 using "--disable-vfs" option.
195 2.1 What does documentation mean with the C-?, M-? and F? keys?
197 GNU Midnight Commander documentation uses emacs style names for
200 C stands for the Ctrl key. For example, C-f means that you should
201 hold down the Ctrl key and press the f key.
203 M stands for the Meta key. Your terminal might call it Alt or
204 Compose instead of Meta. For example, M-f means that you should hold
205 down the Meta/Alt/Compose key and press the f key. If your terminal
206 doesn't have Meta, Alt or Compose or they don't work you can use Esc.
207 For M-f press the Esc key and then press the f key.
209 Sometimes Ctrl and Alt are used instead of C and M for simplicity.
210 Keep in mind that Alt can actually be Meta on some keyboards.
212 F? stands for a function key. If your terminal doesn't have function
213 keys or they don't work you can use Esc. For example, for F3 press
214 the Esc key and then press the 3 key.
216 2.2 Why don't function keys (or some other key) work?
218 Your terminfo or termcap database has missing or incorrect
219 definitions for function keys. Type "mc -V" to see what terminal
220 database is being used. If the result is "using the S-Lang library
221 with terminfo database" and you are using a very old terminfo
222 database, consider installing one of the enhanced terminfo files
223 included in GNU Midnight Commander source distribution. For example,
224 if you are using xterm type "tic xterm.ti".
226 If the result is "using the S-Lang library with termcap database" you
227 should fix your /etc/termcap database.
229 Up-to-date termcap and terminfo databases are available here:
231 http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/terminfo/
232 ftp://dickey.his.com/ncurses/
234 If you don't have permissions to edit terminal databases you can use
235 Learn keys feature of Midnight Commander instead. Press Esc 9 o k
236 and follow instructions.
238 If all else fails you can emulate function keys by first pressing the
239 ESC key and then one of the number keys. For example, if you want to
240 produce F9, press ESC, then 9. If you don't have a ESC key on your
241 keyboard you can try alt-9 or meta-9.
243 2.3 How do I use function keys F11 to F20?
245 These are normally mapped to function keys F1 to F10 with Shift held,
246 e.g. function key F13 can be activated by pressing Shift-F3. You can
247 define the keys this way in the Options->Learn Keys dialog. The
248 convention for PC keyboards is that F11-20 always means Shift with
251 You may find that on the Linux console with some keyboard layouts
252 Shift-Fn is interpreted as F(n+12), not as F(n+10). This is a result
253 of non-uniformity of keyboard layouts. This is not an intended
254 behavior and it may be fixed some day. In the meantime, use "Learn
255 Keys" to remedy this inconvenience.
257 2.4 Why does the ESC key behave funny?
259 Midnight Commander uses the ESC key as a prefix for simulating the
260 Meta and Alt keys (for terminals which don't have Meta or Alt, see
261 the three previous questions). For example, pressing ESC-a is the
262 same as pressing Meta-a. In addition most terminals use ESC for
263 internal representation of arrow keys, function keys and other
264 enhanced keys. If you want to use ESC to cancel things you have to
265 press it twice i.e. ESC-ESC. If you find this cumbersome you can
266 generally use F10 to cancel. Alternatively turn on the old_esc_mode
267 setting in the ~/.mc/ini file. The old_esc_mode setting makes ESC
268 work as a prefix only if another key is pressed within 0.5 seconds.
269 After 0.5 seconds the ESC key cancels. There is no way to make ESC
270 cancel immediately (if we want to be able to use arrows keys and
273 2.5 How can I add the plus sign (+) on the command line?
275 Press C-q first, then press the + sign.
277 The plus key is the hotkey for the select files command. If you want
278 to add a literal plus on to the command line you must quote it by
281 Another common key which needs the C-q prefix is backslash "\".
283 2.6 C-o doesn't work!
285 Maybe C-o is a stty control character on your terminal. See man stty
286 for details on how to list and change stty control characters.
288 2.7 What 'keys' are the "a1" and "c1" keys mentioned in the manual?
290 The "a1" key is the key which has the "a1" caption on it.
292 The "c1" key is the key which has the "c1" caption on it.
294 If you have to ask what these two keys are your keyboard hasn't
295 probably got them. Actually, I have never seen a keyboard which has
298 2.8 How do I change the key bindings?
300 There is no generic way to reconfigure the key bindings. You can use
301 the "Learn Keys" dialog to assign keys to some actions listed in that
302 dialog. However, most actions cannot be redefined to use different
308 3.1 How do I enable mouse support?
310 Invoke mc like this (without quotes): "mc -x". If this doesn't work
311 upgrade to a terminal which compatible with the Xterm mouse
314 Alternatively, on Linux console you can use gpm.
316 3.2 How do I cut and paste text with mouse?
318 Hold down shift key while using mouse to cut and paste.
320 3.3 How do I get the extension dependent pop-up menu to pop up?
322 It was developed for the GNOME edition. The text-mode edition
323 doesn't support this feature yet.
328 4.1 Why do I keep getting "Terminal not powerful enough for SLang" or
329 "Terminal not powerful enough for SLsmg"?
331 This means that your terminfo databases do not contain the correct
332 definitions for your terminal.
334 You could try using a different terminal setting. If you use csh or
339 or if you use sh, bash, ksh or zsh:
343 4.2 Why don't line drawing characters work?
345 Since version 4.0.13 there's the command line option -a to force use
346 of charaters +, |, - for line drawing (only available when compiled
347 with S-Lang). Use the -a option if any of the suggestions below
350 In general, there are three cases:
351 * Lines are shown as ASCII characters like this
357 This also happens when you use the -a option. Other than that
358 possible reason is 1 or 2 (see below).
360 * Lines are shown as lower case characters like this
366 Possible reason is 1 or 2 (see below).
368 * Lines are shown as blanks or missing characters. Possible reason
369 is 2 or 3 (see below).
371 The reason for the problem is one of following:
373 1. Your terminal might not support line drawing characters. VT100
374 compatible terminals, rxvt and xterm and color_xterm do support
376 2. Your terminfo or termcap database might have missing or incorrect
377 definitions for line drawing characters. Set the acsc variable
378 in the terminfo database like this:
379 acsc=a\376k\277l\332m\300j\331n\305w\302v\301u\264t\303q\304x
381 Don't forget issue 'tic' command. This supposes you are using PC
382 character set. The octal values might be different for other
383 character sets. If you are using termcap instead of terminfo,
384 you should modify above solution appropriately.
385 3. Your terminal font might not support line drawing characters.
386 Try changing the font.
388 Here is Miguel's answer to Torben on this subject.
392 When I load consolefonts/iso01.f16, I get perfectly right national
393 characters, but the line drawing characters in mc get wrong. Is it
394 a mc problem, or is it a problem with the font? (I guess it is).
400 First of all, we should determine whether the font has line drawing
403 If it has line drawing characters, then a new terminfo entry should
404 be written for this specific case. Let's call this linux-iso01.
405 The acsc variable should be modified to reflect which characters
406 are used to do the line drawing.
408 If it does not have line drawing characters, then we should get rid
409 of the switch to acsc sequences and make the acsc sequence be just
410 a mapping to the ugly +, -, |, - characters.
412 You can get your terminfo definition by running the infocmp
413 program, making the proper changes and running the tic program to
414 compile your new terminfo database.
416 4.3 Can one use latin-1 characters without losing the lines?
418 Yes, you need a correct font and a correct termcap/terminfo database.
420 For font, if you use xterm try "xterm -fn fixed".
422 For termcap/terminfo database, change the acsc capability in the
425 4.4 I have problems with entering/viewing national characters!
427 Upgrade to version 4.0.12 or newer.
429 From the Options - Display Bits dialog select Full 8 bits or ISO
430 8859-1. In addition, select 8 bit input from the same dialog.
432 4.5 How can I get colors?
434 Invoke mc like this (without quotes): "mc -c".
436 If you get colors, be happy.
438 If your terminal stays black and white, your terminal doesn't support
439 color. You might want to upgrade to a terminal which compatible with
440 the ANSI color sequences.
442 If your terminal goes completely black, see the next question.
444 More detailed answer:
446 Check that your terminal supports color. color_xterm, rxvt and Linux
447 console do support, most other terminals don't. You can test color
448 support with following simple C program:
453 printf ("\033[32m Hello world! \033[m\n");
457 Compile and run it. If you see "Hello world!" text in green your
458 terminal supports color, otherwise not (however, for color_xterm see
459 also the next question).
461 Check whether you are using Ncurses or the S-Lang library (type
462 "mc -V" to find out).
464 With S-Lang library you can force color support by setting the
465 environment variable COLORTERM to any value.
467 If you use ncurses library, check that your terminfo database
468 supports color. If not, you should install one of the enhanced
469 terminfo databases included in GNU Midnight Commander source
472 You might want to set the TERM environment variable so that you are
473 using the correct terminfo database or termcap entry.
475 If you use color_xterm (or rxvt) the correct value might be
476 xterm-color, xtermc or simply xterm.
478 If you use Linux console the correct value for TERM is linux or
481 4.6 My color_xterm goes completely (or partially) black!
483 Some color_xterm terminals define all colors as black instead of the
484 standard ANSI colors. This makes them go completely black when you
485 try to use Midnight Commander with colors.
487 You will have to override the defaults. Create a file
488 "color.defaults" which has the following contents:
490 color_xterm*color0: Black
491 color_xterm*color1: Red
492 color_xterm*color2: Green
493 color_xterm*color3: Yellow
494 color_xterm*color4: Blue
495 color_xterm*color5: Magenta
496 color_xterm*color6: Cyan
497 color_xterm*color7: White
498 color_xterm*background: White
499 color_xterm*foreground: Black
501 (replace color_xterm with the name of your color_xterm, color_xterm
502 mentions its name in its title bar)
506 xrdb -merge color.defaults
508 Alternatively you can add the suggested contents of the
509 color.defaults file to your .Xdefaults or .Xresources file (or what
510 ever the name of your X configuration file is). Or you can replace
511 your non-ANSI color_xterm with an ANSI color_xterm.
513 4.7 Where can I get xterm or rxvt?
515 xterm is included with the X Window System, so you probably already
516 have it if you have X. This version is not actively maintained, but
517 Thomas Dickey maintains his more advanced version of xterm at
518 ftp://dickey.his.com/xterm/
520 rxvt has its own site http://www.rxvt.org/ - get the latest version
523 4.8 I got colors working with MC but the other programs don't work at
526 Midnight Commander uses terminfo database (if available) but many
527 other programs use termcap database. If you set the TERM environment
528 variable to a value which has no corresponding entry in termcap
529 database those programs stop working. You should add the new value
530 of TERM to the termcap database.
532 Example: If you have set TERM to xterm-color locate from /etc/termcap
533 the line which starts:
535 xterm|vs100|xterm terminal emulator
539 xterm|xterm-color|vs100|xterm terminal emulator
541 5 Graphical user interface
543 5.1 Xview, Tk and Gnome editions?
545 Xview and Tk and GNOME editions have been removed from the sources.
547 5.2 Why is MC linked with X libraries?
549 GNU Midnight Commander is linked with X libraries to read key
550 modifiers from the X Server. It may be helpful to distinguish
551 between keys that the terminal emulator reports in the same way, e.g.
552 PgUp and Ctrl-PgUp. Versions of GNU Midnight Commander after 4.6.0
553 will load X libraries dynamically on the systems that support it.
556 6 Command line problems
558 6.1 How do I stay in the last directory when I exit Midnight Commander?
560 See the description of the -P option in the Options section of the
563 6.2 How can I access command line history?
565 Alt-h shows the last commands you executed from the command line.
566 Duplicates are suppressed from the history. Commands executed from
567 the subshell prompt are not shown.
569 You can put previous commands to the command line with Alt-p. Alt-n
570 moves you forward in history.
572 Since version 4.1.15 all the input widgets have permanent history.
573 You can summon the history listbox by pressing M-h.
575 6.3 How can I complete commands, file names, variable names and so on?
577 Just press M-Tab. Press M-Tab again to get a listbox if there are
578 multiple possible completions.
580 6.4 I am using ksh. Can I use functions defined in the .kshrc within
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.
588 Your 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 is fully configurable. You can
593 add any shell commands to the user menu. See the mc(1) man page for
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
601 are some limitations to make sure MC stays free. See GNU General
602 Public License for details.
604 6.6 When I use Ctrl-O I don't get a subshell. How do I fix this?
606 Only bash, tcsh and zsh can be used as subshell. Use one of those
607 shells as your default shell, and it will be used as subshell in GNU
610 6.7 Ctrl-O doesn't work at all. What happens?
612 Ctrl-O works if either the subshell is used or the terminal can save
613 the output of the commands so it can be restored. If neither is
614 true, there is absolutely nothing interesting behind the panels!
616 Only few terminals support screen saving. It's xterm, rxvt and other
617 xterm-like terminals and virtual terminals on Linux and FreeBSD.
620 7 Virtual file systems
622 7.1 How can I see the contents of a tar archive?
624 If you use keyboard just move the selection bar on the tar file and
625 press enter. If you use mouse just double-click on the tar file.
627 The recognized suffixes for tar archives are .tar, .tar.gz and .tgz.
628 You can also enter a tar archive by typing "cd filename#utar" where
629 filename is the name of the archive. In this case, the suffix is not
632 7.2 How do I get out of a tar archive?
634 Just press enter on the toplevel ".." file or change to a non-tar
635 directory. Just typing "cd" with no parameters is enough (it will
636 take you to your home directory).
638 7.3 How do I do anonymous ftp with MC?
640 Just type "cd ftp://hostname" where hostname is the name of the host
641 you want to connect. Alternatively, select FTP link from the Left or
642 Right menu and type the name of the host you want to connect.
644 7.4 How do I do non-anonymous ftp with MC?
646 Non-anonymous ftp works just like the anonymous ftp but you give the
647 login name with the host name. For example, type "cd
648 ftp://username@hostname".
650 7.5 How do I close an ftp connection?
652 Just change to a non-ftp directory. Simply typing "cd" with no
653 parameters is enough (it will take you to your home directory).
655 GNU Midnight Commander closes ftp connection automatically after a
656 timeout or on exit. It's possible to force disconnect by selecting
657 "Command" -> "Active VFS List" in the menu and using the "Free VFSs
660 7.6 Why aren't the contents of ftp panel updated?
662 Update is skipped because there would be a serious performance
663 penalty. Constantly updating directory panels through a ftp
664 connection would take too much time.
666 You can use C-r to force an update.
668 7.7 What kind of proxy server works with Midnight Commander?
670 There are two kinds of ftp proxies: proxies for ftp clients and
671 proxies for web browsers.
673 Midnight Commander only supports ftp proxies which are meant for ftp
674 clients. Common WWW proxies (like Squid) are not supported. A rule
675 of thumb is that if a ftp proxy requires a web browser, it won't work
676 with Midnight Commander.
679 8 Other common problems
681 8.1 When I try pasting to the internal editor, it indents the amount of
682 indenting increases with each line!
684 Either turn off 'Return does autoindent' in the editor options or
685 update GNU Midnight Commander to version 4.6.0 or above - it doesn't
686 autoindent when you are holding Shift.
688 8.2 Is it possible to use Colorer for syntax highlighting?
690 Yes if you submit the patch. There are no legal problems with it
691 because it's licensed under GPL now. The homepage of Colorer is
692 http://colorer.sourceforge.net/
695 9 Other common problems
697 9.1 Is there any way to 'bookmark' favorite ftp-fs links?
699 Use the directory hotlist. Just press control-backslash. If your
700 national keyboard layout doesn't have backslash key, just press the
701 control key with the key which is the backslash key in the English
704 9.2 When I start Midnight Commander, nothing happens!
706 When MC is compiled with Samba support, have a look at the
707 "interfaces = ..." line in your smb.conf file. MC uses pretty old
708 Samba code that only expects IP addresses and host names there,
709 but not network interface names (like eth0). MC interprets these
710 names as host names and tries to resolve them using a DNS server.
711 To fix this, ask your system administrator to change the interface
712 names to their assigned IP addresses, or (untried) add the interface
713 names and their IP addresses to the /etc/hosts file.
715 First, invoke MC without subshell support: "mc -u". If this helps
716 check the shell you are using. Subshell support works best with
717 bash, although tcsh and zsh are also supported. You might want to
718 upgrade your shell to a newer version. If you use something else
719 than bash, tcsh or zsh, subshell support is disabled automatically.
721 Another reason is problems with gpm. Try using "--nomouse" option to
722 see if it makes any difference. Restarting gpm can help. Sometimes
723 it's enough to move the mouse.
725 Also, if you have the DISPLAY environment variable set, but the X
726 server is unreachable (e.g. it's firewalled), this can also cause a
727 delay at startup. Unset DISPLAY to see if that's the case.
732 10.1 Who has written Midnight Commander?
734 Midnight Commander was started by Miguel de Icaza and he is the
735 maintainer of the package. Other authors have joined the project
737 * Mauricio Plaza (early releases)
738 * Janne Kukonlehto (joined Sep 27 1994)
739 * Radek Doulik (joined Oct 30 1994)
740 * Fred Leeflang (joined Nov 2 1994)
741 * Dugan Porter (joined Dec 1 1994)
742 * Jakub Jelinek (joined Feb 8 1995)
743 * Ching Hui (joined Jun 27 1995)
744 * Andrej Borsenkow (joined Jul 1996)
745 * Paul Sheer (joined Nov 1 1996)
750 Alessandro Rubini has been specially helpful with debugging and
751 enhancing of the mouse support. John E. Davis has made his S-Lang
752 library available to us and answered many questions about it.
754 Many people have contributed bug reports, feature suggestions and
755 small code bits (alphabetical order):
757 * Juan Jose Ciarlante
758 * Alexander Dong (OS/2 port, NT port updates)
760 * Torben Fjerdingstad
762 * Juan Grigera (NT port)
764 * Sergey Ya. Korshunoff
767 * Antonio Palama (old DOS port)
775 Current list of active developers can be found here:
776 http://www.midnight-commander.org/wiki/McDevelopers
778 This page lists everbody who has provided a patch or
779 has written code for the midnight-commander in the past:
780 http://www.midnight-commander.org/wiki/McContributors
782 10.2 Do I dare to use a development version?
784 Yes, of course. Feel free to test:
785 http://www.midnight-commander.org/wiki#Downloading
786 As we do our development in git, please do a git checkout
787 of the master branch and build it
789 But always remember: development versions may have nasty bugs
790 at some points of time. It's up to you to judge whether the new
791 features and fixes for the bugs you know outweigh the risk of unknown
794 10.3 How can I report a bug/request for a feature?
796 You might first want to get the newest development version to see if
797 the bug is fixed or the feature is added already.
799 If this is not the case, feel free to add a ticket in our ticket-system,
800 which is located here: http://www.midnight-commander.org/newticket
802 If you want to send an email instead write your report to mc-devel@gnome.org
805 These mailing lists are the most certain way to contact the
806 developers. Remember to mention if you are not on the mailing list
807 to make sure that you will receive a copy of replies.
809 Give as much details as possible. A too long message is a lot better
810 than a too short message.
812 For segmentation faults a stack backtrace is appreciated. You can
813 produce stack backtrace as follows:
814 * If segmentation fault produced a core file:
815 1. Load the core file by typing "gdb mc core" or "dbx mc core".
817 3. Cut and paste the results to your message.
818 * If segmentation fault didn't produce a core file:
819 1. Load mc by typing "gdb mc" or "dbx mc".
820 2. Start mc by typing "run".
821 3. Try to reproduce the segmentation fault by doing whatever
822 you did last time when the segmentation fault occurred.
824 5. Cut and paste the results to your message.
825 6. For the future you might want to check out what is the
826 command in your shell to allow producing of the core files.
827 Usually it is "limit coredumpsize unlimited" or "ulimit
828 coredumpsize" or "ulimit -c unlimited".
830 10.4 How can I join the development?
832 To join the development just code the feature you want to add and
833 send your patch for inclusion. Email address is mc-devel@gnome.org.
834 Before you start coding check the latest development version. It
835 might be that your feature has already been implemented.
837 Note that the authors of GNU Midnight Commander have given all their
838 rights on the program to the Free Software Foundation. You will have
839 to do the same if you contribute non-trivial patches. Otherwise we
840 have to reject your patches in order to avoid copyright problems.
845 11.1 This document didn't answer my question. Where else can I look for
848 Read messages from the Discussion (mailing list archive) or read the
851 Upgrade to a newer version of Midnight Commander. Many problems are
852 fixed in the new versions.
854 If you still can't find an answer, post your question to the Midnight
855 Commander mailing list. Its address is mc@gnome.org.
857 11.2 What mailing lists are there for Midnight Commander?
859 Following mailing lists discuss about Midnight Commander:
862 General discussion of GNU Midnight Commander
864 http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/mc/
867 Technical development discussion
869 http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/mc-devel/
871 mc-commits@googlegroups.com
872 mailing list only for applyed commits into master/stable branches
874 http://groups.google.com/group/mc-commits/subscribe
876 mc-bugs@googlegroups.com
877 Mailing list only for tickets and comments (use it as RSS :) )
879 http://groups.google.com/group/mc-bugs/subscribe
881 11.3 Where should I look on the World Wide Web for MC stuff?
883 There is a WWW page for Midnight Commander. The URL is:
885 http://www.midnight-commander.org/
887 11.4 Are the mailing lists archived anywhere?
889 The mc and mc-devel lists are archived on the World Wide Web. There
890 are links to the archives on the mailing list pages (see 10.2).
897 Questions and Answers was written by Janne Kukonlehto. Parts of it
898 originate from Ian Jackson, Miguel de Icaza, Dugan Porter, Norbert
899 Warmuth and Paul Sheer.
901 12.2 Feedback is invited
903 Send your comments about this document and GNU Midnight Commander to
906 12.3 Disclaimer and copyright
908 Note that this document is provided as is. The information in it is
909 not warranted to be correct; you use it at your own risk.
911 You can use Questions and Answers according to GNU General Public
912 License (see the COPYING file in GNU Midnight Commander source
913 distribution). Questions and Answers is not public domain.