3 - Build requirements for GNU Midnight Commander
4 - Installation instructions for GNU Midnight Commander
5 - Where to get more information on GNU Midnight Commander
6 - Notes about GNU Midnight Commander installation
7 - Obtaining related software
9 Build requirements for GNU Midnight Commander
10 ----------------------------------------------------
21 - libssh2 >= 1.2.8 is required only for sftp vfs
22 - libaspell to support spell checking in the internal editor
23 - ext2fs >= 1.42.4 to support ext{2,3,4}fs extended attributes
26 Installation instructions for GNU Midnight Commander
27 ----------------------------------------------------
29 The `configure' shell script attempts to guess correct values for
30 various system-dependent variables used during compilation, and creates
31 the makefiles. It also creates a file `config.status' that you can run
32 in the future to recreate the current configuration.
34 To compile this package:
36 1. Configure the package for your system.
38 Normally, you just `cd' to the directory containing the package's source
39 code and type `./configure'. If you're using `csh' on an old version of
40 SystemV, you might need to type `sh configure' instead to prevent `csh'
41 from trying to execute `configure' itself. Under AIX, you may need to
42 use ksh instead of sh.
44 Running `configure' takes a while. While it is running, it prints some
45 messages that tell what it is doing. If you don't want to see any
46 messages, run `configure' with the `--quiet' option.
48 To compile the package in a different directory than the one containing
49 the source code, you must use a version of `make' supporting the `VPATH'
50 variable, such as GNU `make'. Change to the directory where you want
51 the object files and executables to go and run the `configure' script
52 with the full path. If for some reason `configure' cannot find the
53 source code directory, run `configure' with the option `--srcdir=DIR',
54 where DIR is the directory that contains the source code.
56 By default, `make install' will install the package's files in
57 `/usr/local/bin', `/usr/local/man', etc. You can specify an
58 installation prefix other than `/usr/local' by giving `configure' the
59 option `--prefix=PATH'.
61 You can specify separate installation prefixes for architecture specific
62 files and architecture-independent files. If you give `configure' the
63 option `--exec-prefix=PATH', the package will use PATH as the prefix for
64 installing binary programs and libraries. Data files and documentation
65 will still use the regular prefix. Normally, all files are installed
66 using the same prefix.
68 If compiled on GNU/Linux, Midnight Commander detects if you have the gpm
69 library installed. If you installed the gpm mouse library in a
70 non-standard place, you will need to use the --with-gpm-mouse flag with
71 the directory base where you installed the gpm package.
73 `configure' recognizes the following options (the list may be
74 incomplete, use `configure --help' to get the full list):
77 Print a summary of the options to `configure' and exit.
81 Do not print messages saying which checks are being made.
84 Print the version of Autoconf used to generate the `configure'
88 Configure GNU Midnight Commander to be compiled without the
89 built-in file editor. The built-in editor is compiled in by
93 This option adds spell check support in the internal editor using
94 libaspell. Disabled by default.
97 Use this flag to disable gpm mouse support (e.g. if you want to
98 use mouse only on X terminals).
101 Force linking against glib statically. This option is intended for
102 building binaries for distribution purposes and may not work on
103 some operating systems.
105 `--with-mmap', `--without-mmap'
106 Force using or not using the mmap function. It is currently used
107 in the internal viewer. `--with-mmap' may be useful on some
108 versions of AIX where the `configure' script decides that mmap is
109 broken, but it's actually suitable for the internal viewer.
111 `--with-subshell[=optional]', `--without-subshell'
112 The subshell support is by default turned on, you can disable
113 this by using the --without-subshell option. If you pass the
114 =optional parameter, then the subshell support is turned off by
115 default. To turn it on, specify the `-U' option to the program.
118 By default, the Midnight Commander tries to connect to the X Window
119 System events to query the status of the keyboard modifiers, such
120 as Control, Shift and Alt, when invoked in a terminal emulator
121 under X11. This is necessary (but not always sufficient) to
122 recognize some optional but handy key combinations like Ctrl-Home
123 and Shift-Cursor keys. Use `--without-x' if the dependency on
124 X11 libraries is not desired.
126 `--disable-largefile'
127 This option disables support for large files (2 gigabytes and more)
128 on the systems where file operations use 32-bit offsets by default,
129 but support for 64-bit offsets is available. May be useful for
130 slow processors and embedded systems.
133 This option adds support for selecting character set of the text in
134 the internal viewer and editor and converting it on the fly. The
135 implementation of this option is currently incomplete.
137 `--disable-background'
138 This option disables support for background operations. Background
139 operations allow to perform some tasks such as copying files in a
140 separate background process. Any messages from the background
141 process are forwarded to the foreground process. More advanced
142 dialogs cannot be forwarded yet, so the background process uses the
143 default. Background code is known to be less stable than the rest
144 of the code, so you may want to disable it at the compile time.
147 This option allow users to place user config directories in any
148 place. By default value is 'XDG', this mean, mc will respect XDG
149 standards. If other value is specified, this will used as directory
150 name (relative to $HOME if path is relative, or as is if path is
157 This option disables the Virtual File System switch code in the
158 Midnight Commander and uses the standard file system calls for
159 file access. If you specify this option, you won't get the
160 transparent access to archives and remote directories.
164 Support for cpio filesystem
168 Support for tar filesystem
190 `--enable-vfs-undelfs'
192 Support for ext2 undelete filesystem.
193 On systems that use the ext2 or ext3 file system and have the
194 libext2fs library available, this option adds support for
195 recovering deleted files (the undel virtual file system).
200 You may also tell configure which screen library you want to use with
201 the Midnight Commander. The configure script will use S-Lang as
202 default, and prefers an already installed S-Lang library over the
203 included one, but you can override this by using the following flag
204 (please note that since S-Lang is default, it is tested better than
207 `--with-screen={slang|ncurses}'
208 Choose the library used to manage interaction with the terminal.
209 `slang' means S-Lang library already installed on the system,
210 `ncurses' means ncurses library already installed on the system.
211 The S-Lang library is used by default if found.
213 `--with-ncurses-includes=[DIR]'
214 Set path to ncurses includes [default=/usr/include]; make
215 sense only if --with-screen=ncurses is used;
216 for /usr/local/include/ncurses specify /usr/local/include.
218 `--with-ncurses-libs=[DIR]'
219 Set path to ncurses library [default=/usr/lib]; make sense
220 only if --with-screen=ncurses is used.
225 On systems that require unusual options for compilation or linking that
226 the package's `configure' script does not know about, you can give
227 `configure' initial values for variables by placing them in the command
230 ./configure CC='gcc -traditional' LIBS=-lposix
232 Here are the variables that you might want to override when running
236 C compiler program. The default is `gcc' if found, otherwise `cc'.
239 The default flags used to build the program.
242 Program to use to install files. The default is `install' if you
243 have it, `cp' otherwise.
245 For these variables, any value given in the command line is added to the
246 value that `configure' decides to use:
249 Libraries to link with, in the form `-lfoo -lbar...'.
252 Linker flags, e.g. -L<lib dir> if you have libraries in a
253 nonstandard directory <lib dir>
256 C/C++ preprocessor flags, e.g. -I<include dir> if you have
257 headers in a nonstandard directory <include dir>
259 If you need to do unusual things to compile the package, we encourage
260 you to figure out how `configure' could check whether to do them, and
261 mail diffs or instructions to the address given in the README so we can
262 include them in the next release.
264 2. Type `make' to compile the package.
266 3. Type `make install' to install programs, data files, and the
267 documentation. On GNU/Linux the console screen saver is installed as
270 4. You can remove the program binaries and object files from the source
271 directory by typing `make clean'. If you want to clean the source tree
272 completely, so that it contains only those files that should be packaged
273 in the archive, issue `make distclean'. If you've run configure in a
274 different directory than the source tree, distclean won't remove your
275 *.o and linked programs in that directory.
277 5. GNU Midnight Commander allows you to stay in the last current
278 directory after exiting MC. This is done with a shell function, the man
279 page has more information about this.
281 The file `configure.in' is used to create `configure' by a program
282 called `autoconf'. You only need it if you want to regenerate
283 `configure' using a newer version of `autoconf'.
286 Where to get more information on GNU Midnight Commander
287 -------------------------------------------------------
289 There are two mailing lists for the program:
291 mc@lists.midnight-commander.org: Discussion on GNU Midnight Commander file manager.
292 mc-devel@lists.midnight-commander.org: Discussion between the developers of the program.
294 To subscribe to the mailing lists, visit their respective pages:
296 https://lists.midnight-commander.org/mailman/listinfo/mc/
297 https://lists.midnight-commander.org/mailman/listinfo/mc-devel/
300 Notes about GNU Midnight Commander installation
301 -----------------------------------------------
303 GNU Midnight Commander has been run in the following configurations:
309 mips-dec-{open,net}bsd1.0
312 powerpc-ibm-aix5.3.0.0 (IBM XL C, IBM XL C/C++)
319 mc88110-aviion-dgux5.4
324 Midnight Commander is written in a portable manner and uses GNU Autoconf
325 for configuration, so it is expected to compile without changes on many
326 other operating systems.
328 You will need an ANSI C Compiler (such as GCC) and glib library to
329 compile the source. GNU Midnight Commander now comes with the S-Lang
330 screen manager, a fast screen manager, but you may want to use the
331 already installed S-Lang or ncurses library.
333 If you insist on using ncurses, it's recommended to use ncurses 4.1 and
334 above, since the older versions don't support resizing in the xterm
337 GNU Midnight Commander comes with the mouse support on xterms and in the
338 Linux console. In order to take advantage of the mouse support on the
339 Linux console you will need the gpm mouse server (see the section
340 "Obtaining related software" in this file).
342 Once you get gpm, compile it and install it, then you will have to
343 specify the `--with-gpm-mouse' flag to the configure program if you
344 installed it in a non-standard directory. If you installed the gpm
345 package under /usr or /usr/local, you don't need to specify this flag;
346 configure will find gpm for you. The support for mice on xterms is
349 We are working on further enhancements to the program, but we're not
350 sure which ones must go first. If you would like to point us in the
351 Right Direction we will be glad to hear from you.
353 If you happen to find a feature that doesn't do what you expect, please
354 write to mc@lists.midnight-commander.org telling as much as you can
355 about the problem you're experiencing. Please don't send personal
356 messages to the maintainers.
359 Obtaining related software
360 --------------------------
365 The only "hard" dependency of GNU Midnight Commander is glib. You can
368 ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/sources/glib/
370 Minimal version of glib: 2.30.0
371 Recommended version: 2.30.x and higher.
373 Newer versions may work, but haven't been tested.
378 If the version of glib you have installed is older than 2.14.x, then you
379 also need to install PCRE library.
381 You can get PCRE from
388 There are many incomplete terminal databases out there, however, a
389 complete terminfo is bundled with ncurses. (It is simple to generate
390 the termcap database using the infocmp utility in ncurses).
392 Some terminfo data are included with the mc distribution (lib/*.ti).
393 Particularly linux, xterm and vt100. Use e.g. ''tic linux.ti'' to use
396 If you want to run mc on xterm/color_xterm/ansi_xterm (not rxvt), then
397 you might read lib/README.xterm for further information.
402 GNU Midnight Commander can use the included version of S-Lang, but you
403 can get the latest version here:
405 http://www.s-lang.org/
407 Alternatively, you can use ncurses:
409 http://www.gnu.org/software/ncurses/ncurses.html
414 The general purpose mouse (gpm) daemon is available from
416 http://unix.schottelius.org/gpm/
421 If your C compiler is not powerful enough to compile GNU Midnight
422 Commander, you should report is as a bug to the GNU Midnight Commander
423 team. Sometimes there is no solution than upgrading to a modern and
424 free compiler - GCC (Compiler Collection):
430 Currently you can not use gcc 4.2.4 (and probably other versions) on
431 AIX to compile the S-Lang version. Please use IBM XL C or IBM XL C/C++
434 If you compile a ncurses version you need to set TERM=dtterm to get
435 working color support. Furthermore it is important to specify the
436 --with-ncurses-includes/--with-ncurses-lib parameters because otherwise
437 mc will pick up term.h from AIX which does not work with the ncurses
440 The AIX S-Lang build was tested with S-Lang 2.0.7. Later versions may
441 also work but are not tested yet.
443 Here is an example for S-Lang, it is assumed that the S-Lang library
444 is installed under /user/local and that you also want want to install
449 export CONFIG_SHELL=/usr/bin/bash (if installed)
450 export SHELL=/usr/bin/bash (if installed)
453 --prefix=/usr/local \