6 GNOME edition requirements
8 Midnight Commander editions
9 Where to get more information
10 The Midnight Commander
12 Obtaining the Midnight Commander
15 This version of the Midnight Commander comes with two interfaces: a
16 graphical one for the GNOME desktop (http://www.gnome.org) and a text
17 mode interface (the same old user interface we have had for a long
20 Most of the engine is shared between both versions, but they come with
21 radically different interfaces: the GNOME version is aimed to be a
22 simple to use tool for novice users.
27 To compile the GNU Midnight Commander you need at least to have a copy
28 of the glib library, this library is available in ftp://ftp.gtk.org/pub/gtk.
30 GNOME edition requirements
31 --------------------------
33 Optionally, if you want to compile the GNOME edition, you need to
34 install the GNOME libraries and its dependencies.
36 The GNOME libraries are available in:
38 ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/gnome-libs
44 This is version 4 of the Midnight Commander, a free Norton Commander
45 Clone with many useful features. The Midnight Commander comes with
46 mouse support on xterms and optionally on the Linux console.
48 The Midnight Commander is a directory browsing tool which bears a
49 certain remote resemblance to John Socha's Norton Commander for DOS.
52 o Built in Virtual File System: manipulate remote files
53 systems through the FTP protocol or Midnight Commander's own
54 mcfs protocol. Browse tar, compressed tar files, RPM, zip,
55 cpio, lha and rar files with a single click.
57 o All of the Midnight Commander operations work with the
58 virtual file system, enabling you to do complex tasks.
60 o Mouse support on the Linux console and under X11's xterms.
62 o Learn Keys: The Midnight Commander may be configured at run
63 time to support any kind of input keys for a given terminal,
64 making its operation even on the most weird terminals a
67 o Text and hex editors are available for you to use.
69 o Hotlist allows you to keep a list of common visited
70 locations (including FTP sites).
72 o Command completion: By pressing Alt-Tab in any place where a
73 filename or an executable are expected, the Midnight
74 Commander will complete for you the name. If you quickly
75 press Alt-Tab twice you can get a list box with the possible
76 completions available.
78 o Subshell support: Run your commands by a real shell
79 interpreter. The Midnight Commander interacts with bash,
80 tcsh and zsh to provide you with all of the facilities
81 available in your shell.
83 o Find file command can now search inside the contents of
86 o Background operations allows you to copy or move files from
87 any virtual file system while you do other tasks (i.e., you
88 can do background FTP copies).
90 o Proxy support with our ftpfs.
92 o Linux file recovery: If you are using Linux system, you can
93 recover deleted files from an ext2fs partition with the
94 undelete file system. This is a low level file recovery
95 function that will recover files deleted by any program in
98 Please note that the undelete file system can only recover
99 12 file system blocks if the file was deleted with a kernel
100 in the 2.0.x series. The 2.1.x series have fixed this and
101 you can recover all of the file contents there.
103 o External panelization: You can run any arbitrary external
104 command and the Midnight Commander will display the output
105 generated as a file listing that can be manipulated as a
108 o Emacs like key bindings in all of our widgets.
110 o Powerful context dependent actions are available.
112 o Powerful built-in file viewer: The file viewer, together
113 with the context dependent actions is used to format man
114 pages on the fly, coloring mail messages and more.
116 This list of features pertains to the terminal edition of the Midnight
117 Commander. The GNOME edition's feature set is slightly different, for
118 example, it does not include subshell support.
121 Where to get more information:
122 ------------------------------
124 There is a mailing list for discussion on enhancing the program, future
125 directions and announcements; if you want to subscribe, visit
127 http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/mc/
129 There is a WWW page for the Midnight Commander at
131 http://www.gnome.org/mc/
134 The Midnight Commander:
135 -----------------------
137 The Midnight Commander is released under the GNU General Public
138 License version 2.0 or any later version. A copy of the file is
139 included with this distribution package.
141 If you have comments, you can send them to the mailing list:
145 If you have made a patch send it to the developers' mailing list:
149 Help develop and enhance free software.
155 These are hints for the text mode edition:
157 o Use the F-Keys for invoking the commands in the function key bar.
158 If your terminal doesn't support F-keys, you can use the <ESC digit>
159 sequence to invoke the corresponding F-digit key.
161 o Tab changes the current panel.
163 o All input lines have emacs-like key-bindings (command history is
164 accessed through the M-p and M-n keys).
166 o The panels accept C-n, C-p for browsing the panel (like in emacs).
168 o M-Enter copies the currently selected file name to the input line.
170 o M-Tab completes the current word (or tries to).
172 o The Virtual File System is a cute addition to the project, you may
173 browse in tar and compressed tar files as well as browsing remote
174 machines with the mcfs file system.
176 o Please read the manual page.
178 o Read the file src/TODO for the current projects.
180 You can access the whole documentation online with the F1 key,
181 although it's not as nice as the groff printed manual page :-)
184 Where you may obtain the Midnight Commander
185 -------------------------------------------
187 You can download the latest version of the Midnight Commander by
188 anonymous FTP at ftp.gnome.org in the directory /pub/GNOME/sources/mc.
189 Please note that this is a very busy site; use a mirror if possible.
191 European mirrors of both version 3.1 and alpha versions are available
192 at sunsite.mff.cuni.cz in the directory /GNU/mc and at ftp.teuto.de in
193 the directory /lmb/mc.
199 Please, send a detailed description of your problem to the
200 mc-devel@gnome.org address.
202 Include the version of the program, the operating system that you are
203 using, the compiler and compiler flags used to compile the program (if
204 you know them), what kind of distribution you are using (if a
207 If the program crashed and produces a core dump, please provide a
208 stack trace of the program.
210 You can do this by running dbx or gdb like this:
219 No new features are being added to the GNOME edition of the Midnight
220 Commander anymore. It is just in maintenance and bug fixing stage.
221 The reason for this is that the current design of the Midnight
222 Commander is not suited well at all for a graphical version with
223 multiple windows and asynchronous file operations. A new file manager
224 is being written for the GNOME project.