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1 Contents
2 --------
4 Introduction
5 Dependencies
6 Features
7 Mini-documentation
8 Where to get more information
9 Reporting problems
12 Introduction
13 ------------
15 GNU Midnight Commander (also referred to as MC) is a user shell with
16 text-mode full-screen interface. It can be run on the OS console,
17 in xterm and other terminal emulators.
19 GNU Midnight Commander allows you to manage files while making most of
20 you screen and giving you a clear representation of the filesystem, yet
21 it's simple enough to be run over a telnet or ssh session.
23 GNU Midnight Commander is released under the GNU General Public
24 License version 3 or any later version. A copy of the file is
25 included with this distribution package.
28 Dependencies
29 ------------
31 Please read the file INSTALL for installation instructions
32 and full list of dependencies.
35 Features
36 --------
38 GNU Midnight Commander was conceived as a free clone of John Socha's
39 Norton Commander (TM). It also takes the best from more recent software
40 with similar interfaces. GNU Midnight Commander comes with mouse support
41 on xterm and optionally on the Linux console.
43 Some features are specific to the POSIX environment MC runs on, some are
44 familiar to the users of similar software for other operating systems.
45 The features include:
47 * Built in Virtual File System: manipulate remote file systems
48 through the FTP and SMB protocols or over secure shell, browse
49 contents of tar, ar, rpm, zip, cpio, lha and rar archives just
50 like local files.
52 * Almost all operations work with the virtual file system,
53 enabling you to do complex tasks, like viewing files in
54 archives on an FTP server.
56 * Mouse support on most terminal emulators for X Window System
57 as well as on the Linux console.
59 * Learn Keys: GNU Midnight Commander may be configured at run
60 time to support any kind of input keys for a given terminal,
61 making its operation possible even on most weird terminals.
63 * Text and hex editors are available for you to use (hex editor
64 is a part of the viewer).
66 * Hotlist allows you to keep a list of common visited locations,
67 including remote sites and directories inside archives.
69 * Command completion: By pressing Alt-Tab in any place where a
70 filename or an executable are expected, GNU Midnight Commander
71 will complete the name for you. If you press Alt-Tab for the
72 second time, you get a list box with all possible completions.
74 * Subshell support: Run your commands by a real shell
75 interpreter. GNU Midnight Commander interacts with bash,
76 tcsh and zsh to provide you with all of the facilities
77 available in your preferred shell.
79 * Find file command can search for the file contents.
81 * Background operations allow you to copy or move files from
82 any virtual file system while you do other tasks (i.e., you
83 can do background FTP copies).
85 * FTP proxy is supported.
87 * Linux file recovery: If you are using Linux, you can recover
88 deleted files from an ext2 or ext3 partition with the undelete
89 file system. This is a low level file recovery function that
90 can recover files deleted by any program on Linux.
92 * External panelization: You can run any arbitrary external
93 command and GNU Midnight Commander will display the output
94 generated as a file listing that can be manipulated as a
95 regular directory.
97 * Emacs-like key bindings are used in all widgets.
99 * Context dependent actions (open, view, edit) are available.
101 * The built-in file viewer, together with the context dependent
102 actions is used to format man pages on the fly, coloring mail
103 messages and more.
105 * The built-in editor supports syntax highlighting and external
106 actions, such as spell checking and formatting.
109 Mini-documentation
110 ------------------
112 These are hints for the text mode edition:
114 * Use the F-Keys for invoking the commands in the function key bar.
115 If your terminal doesn't support F-keys, you can use the <ESC digit>
116 sequence to invoke the corresponding F-digit key.
118 * Tab changes the current panel.
120 * All input lines have emacs-like key-bindings (command history is
121 accessed through the M-p and M-n keys).
123 * The panels accept C-n, C-p for browsing the panel (like in Emacs).
125 * M-Enter copies the currently selected file name to the input line.
127 * M-Tab completes the current word (or tries to).
129 * The Virtual File System is a cute addition to the project, you may
130 browse in tar and compressed tar files as well as browsing remote
131 machines with the fish file system.
133 * Please read the manual page.
135 You can access the whole documentation online with the F1 key,
136 although it's not as nice as the groff printed manual page :-)
139 Where to get more information
140 -----------------------------
142 There is a webpage for GNU Midnight Commander at
144 http://www.midnight-commander.org/
146 This page also has current information about mailing lists and some
147 useful advices how to report bugs.
149 You can download the latest version of GNU Midnight Commander from
151 http://www.midnight-commander.org/downloads/
154 Reporting problems
155 ------------------
157 You can report bug on our site, please read
159 http://midnight-commander.org/wiki/defectReports
161 Also you can use mc mailing lists to discuss problems.
163 There are two mailing lists, mc@gnome.org and mc-devel@gnome.org. Use
164 mc-devel@gnome.org if you are prepared for a more technical discussion
165 with the developers of the package, otherwise use mc@gnome.org.
167 Please don't sent HTML e-mail to either of those mailing lists.
169 Include the output of "mc --version", the operating system and the
170 distribution (if applicable) you are using, the compiler and the
171 configure flags used to compile the program (if you know them).
173 If the program crashed and produced a core dump, please provide a
174 stack trace of the program.
176 You can do this by running gdb like this:
178 gdb mc core
179 (gdb) where