mc(1)
mc(1)



NNAAMMEE
       mc - Visual shell for Unix-like systems.

UUSSAAGGEE
       mmcc [-abcCdfhPstuUVx?] [-l log] [dir1 [dir2]]
       [-v file]

DDEESSCCRRIIPPTTIIOONN
       The  Midnight  Commander  is a directory browser/file
       manager for Unix- like operating systems.

OOPPTTIIOONNSS
       _-_a     Disables the usage of graphic characters
       for line drawing.

       _-_b     Forces black and white display.

       _-_c     Force color mode, please  check  the  section
       Colors  for  more
              information.

       _-_C _a_r_g Used  to specify a different color
       set in the command line.  The
              format of arg is documented in the Colors
              section.

       _-_d     Disables mouse support.

       _-_f     Displays the compiled-in search  paths  for
       Midnight  Commander
              files.

       _-_k     Reset  softkeys to their default from the
       termcap/terminfo data‐
              base. Only useful on HP terminals when the
              function  keys  don't work.

       _-_l _f_i_l_e
              Save the ftpfs dialog with the server in file.

       _-_P     At program end, the Midnight Commander will
       print the last work‐
              ing directory; this, along with the shell
              function  below,  will allow  you  to browse
              through your directories and automatically
              move to the last directory you were in (thanks
              to Torben  Fjerd‐ ingstad  and  Sergey for
              contributing this function and the code which
              implements this option).

              bash and zsh users:

              mc () {
                      MC=/tmp/mc$$-"$RANDOM"
                      /nonexistent/bin/mc -P "$@" > "$MC" cd
                      "`cat $MC`" rm "$MC" unset MC;
              }

              tcsh users: alias mc 'setenv MC
              `/nonexistent/bin/mc -P *`; cd $MC; unsetenv MC'

       I know the bash function could be shorter for zsh and
       bash but the
              backquotes on bash won't accept your suspension
              the program with C-z.

       _-_s     Turns  on  the slow terminal mode, in this
       mode the program will
              not draw expensive line drawing characters and
              will toggle  ver‐ bose mode off.

       _-_t     Used  only  if the code was compiled with
       Slang and terminfo: it
              makes the Midnight Commander use the value of
              the TTEERRMMCCAAPP  vari‐ able  for the
              terminal information instead of the information
              on the system wide terminal database

       _-_u     Disables the use of a concurrent shell
       (only makes sense if  the
              Midnight  Commander  has  been  built with
              concurrent shell sup‐ port).

       _-_U     Enables the use of the  concurrent  shell
       support  (only  makes
              sense if the Midnight Commander was built with
              the subshell sup‐ port set as an optional
              feature).

       _-_v _f_i_l_e
              Enters the internal viewer to view the file
              specified.

       _-_V     Displays the version of the program.

       _-_x     Forces xterm mode.  Used when running on
       xterm-capable terminals
              (two screen modes, and able to send mouse
              escape sequences).

       If  specified,  the  first  path  name  is the directory
       to show in the selected panel; the second path name
       is the directory to  be  shown  in the other panel.

OOvveerrvviieeww
       The screen of the Midnight Commander is divided into
       four parts. Almost all of the screen space is  taken  up
       by  two  directory  panels.   By default,  the second
       bottommost line of the screen is the shell command line,
       and the bottom line shows the function key  labels.
       The  topmost line  is  the menu bar line.  The menu
       bar line may not be visible, but appears if you click
       the topmost line with the mouse or  press  the  F9 key.

       The  Midnight  Commander provides a view of two
       directories at the same time. One of the panels is
       the current panel (a selection bar is in the current
       panel). Almost all operations take place on the
       current panel.  Some file operations like Rename and
       Copy by default use the  directory of  the unselected
       panel as a destination (don't worry, they always ask
       you for confirmation first). For more information,
       see the sections  on the Directory Panels, the Left
       and Right Menus and the File Menu.

       You  can  execute system commands from the Midnight
       Commander by simply typing them. Everything you type
       will appear on the shell command line, and  when  you
       press Enter the Midnight Commander will execute the
       com‐ mand line you typed; read the Shell Command
       Line and  Input  Line  Keys sections to learn more
       about the command line.

MMoouussee SSuuppppoorrtt
       The Midnight Commander comes with mouse support.
       It is activated when‐ ever you are running on an
       xxtteerrmm((11)) terminal (it even works if you
       take a  telnet or rlogin connection to another machine
       from the xterm) or if you are running on a Linux console
       and have the ggppmm mouse  server  run‐ ning.

       When  you  left  click  on a file in the directory
       panels, that file is selected; if you click with the
       right button, the file  is  marked  (or unmarked,
       depending on the previous state).

       Double-clicking  on  a file will try to execute the
       command if it is an executable program; and if the
       extension file has a  program  specified for the file's
       extension, the specified program is executed.

       Also,  it  is possible to execute the commands assigned
       to the function key labels by clicking on them.

       If a mouse button is clicked on the top frame  line
       of  the  directory panel, it is scrolled one pageful
       backward. Correspondingly, a click on the bottom
       frame line will cause a scroll of one pageful forward.
       This frame line method works also in the Help Viewer
       and the Directory Tree.

       The default auto repeat rate for the mouse buttons
       is 400 milliseconds.  This may be changed to other
       values by editing the ~/.mc/ini  file  and changing
       the _m_o_u_s_e___r_e_p_e_a_t___r_a_t_e
       parameter.

       If you are running the Commander with the mouse support,
       you can bypass the Commander and get the default mouse
       behavior (cutting  and  pasting text) by holding down
       the Shift key.


KKeeyyss
       Some  commands in the Midnight Commander involve the
       use of the _C_o_n_t_r_o_l (sometimes labeled
       CTRL or CTL) and the _M_e_t_a (sometimes labeled
       ALT  or even  Compose) keys. In this manual we will
       use the following abbrevia‐ tions:

       C-<chr> means hold the Control key while typing  the
       character  <chr>.  Thus C-f would be: hold the Control
       key and type f.

       M-<chr>  means  hold  the  Meta  or Alt key down while
       typing <chr>. If there is no Meta or Alt key, type ESC,
       release it, then type the  char‐ acter <chr>.

       All  input  lines in the Midnight Commander use an
       approximation to the GNU Emacs editor's key bindings.

       There are many sections which tell about the keys.
       The  following  are the most important.

       The File Menu section documents the keyboard shortcuts
       for the commands appearing in the File menu. This
       section includes  the  function  keys.  Most  of  these
       commands  perform some action, usually on the selected
       file or the tagged files.

       The Directory Panels section documents the keys which
       select a file  or tag  files  as  a  target for a later
       action (the action is usually one from the file menu).

       The Shell Command Line section list the keys which are
       used for  enter‐ ing  and  editing command lines. Most
       of these copy file names and such from the directory
       panels to the command line (to avoid excessive  typ‐
       ing) or access the command line history.

       Input  Line  Keys are used for editing input lines. This
       means both the command line and the input lines in
       the query dialogs.

  MMiisscceellllaanneeoouuss KKeeyyss
       Here are some keys which don't fall into any of the
       other categories:

       EEnntteerr..  If there is some text in the
       command line (the one at the  bot‐ tom  of the
       panels), then that command is executed. If there is
       no text in the command line then if the selection
       bar is over a  directory  the Midnight  Commander
       does  a  cchhddiirr((22))  to  the  selected
       directory and reloads the information on the panel;
       if the selection is an executable file  then  it  is
       executed. Finally, if the extension of the selected file
       name matches one of the extensions in the extensions
       file then the corresponding command is executed.

       CC--ll..  Repaint all the information in the
       Midnight Commander.

       CC--xx cc..  Run the Chmod command on a file or
       on the tagged files.

       CC--xx  oo..   Run  the  Chown  command on the
       current file or on the tagged files.

       CC--xx ll..  Run the link command.

       CC--xx ss..  Run the symbolic link command.

       CC--xx ii..  Set the other panel display mode
       to information.

       CC--xx qq..  Set the other panel display mode to
       quick view.

       CC--xx !!..  Execute the External panelize command.

       CC--xx hh Run the add directory to hotlist command.

       MM--!!,, Executes the Filtered view command,
       described in the view command.

       MM--??,, Executes the Find file command.

       MM--cc,, Pops up the quick cd dialog.

       CC--oo,, When the program is being run in the
       Linux or SCO console or under an  xterm,  it  will
       show you the output of the previous command.  When ran
       on the Linux console, the Midnight Commander uses an
       external  pro‐ gram  (cons.saver) to handle saving
       and restoring of information on the screen.

       When the subshell support is compiled in, you can
       type C-o at any  time and  you  will  be taken back to
       the Midnight Commander main screen, to return to your
       application just type C-o.  If you have  an  application
       suspended  by using this trick, you won't be able to
       execute other pro‐ grams from the Midnight Commander
       until  you  terminate  the  suspended application.

  DDiirreeccttoorryy PPaanneellss
       This  section  lists the keys which operate on the
       directory panels. If you want to know how to change
       the appearance of the panels take a look at the section
       on Left and Right Menus.

       TTaabb,,  CC--ii..   Change  the current
       panel. The old other panel becomes the new current
       panel and the old  current  panel  becomes  the  new
       other panel.  The  selection  bar moves from the old
       current panel to the new current panel.

       IInnsseerrtt,, CC--tt..  To tag files
       you may use the Insert key (the  kich1  ter‐ minfo
       sequence)  or the C-t (Control-t) sequence. To untag
       files, just retag a tagged file.

       MM--gg,, MM--hh ((oorr MM--rr)),,
       MM--jj..  Used to select the top file in  a  panel,
       the middle file and the bottom one, respectively.

       CC--ss,,  MM--ss..   Start a filename search in
       the directory listing. When the search is active the
       keypresses will be  added  to  the  search  string
       instead  of the command line. If the _S_h_o_w
       _m_i_n_i_-_s_t_a_t_u_s option is enabled
       the search string is shown on the mini-status line.
       When  typing,  the selection  bar  will move to the
       next file starting with the typed let‐ ters. The
       _b_a_c_k_s_p_a_c_e _o_r _D_E_L keys can
       be used to correct typing mistakes.  If C-s is pressed
       again, the next match is searched for.

       MM--tt Toggle the current display listing to show
       the next display listing mode.  With this it is possible
       to quickly switch from long listing  to regular listing
       and the user defined listing mode.

       CC--\\
       ((ccoonnttrrooll--bbaacckkssllaasshh))..
       Show the directory hotlist and change to the selected
       directory.

       ++  ((pplluuss))..  This is used to select
       (tag) a group of files. The Midnight Commander  will
       prompt  for a regular expression describing the group.
       When _S_h_e_l_l _P_a_t_t_e_r_n_s are
       enabled, the regular expression  is  much  like the
       regular expressions in the shell (* standing for
       zero or more char‐ acters and ?  standing for one
       character). If _S_h_e_l_l  _P_a_t_t_e_r_n_s
       is  off, then  the tagging of files is done with normal
       regular expressions (see ed (1)).

       If the expression starts or ends with a slash (/),
       then it will  select directories instead of files.

       \\  ((bbaacckkssllaasshh))..   Use the
       "\" key to unselect a group of files. This is the
       opposite of the Plus key.

       uupp--kkeeyy,, CC--pp..  Move the selection
       bar  to  the  previous  entry  in  the panel.

       ddoowwnn--kkeeyy,, CC--nn..  Move the
       selection bar to the next entry in the panel.

       hhoommee,, aa11,, MM--<<..  Move the
       selection bar to the first entry in the panel.

       eenndd,, cc11,, MM-->>..  Move the selection
       bar to the last entry in the panel.

       nneexxtt--ppaaggee,, CC--vv..  Move the
       selection bar one page down.

       pprreevv--ppaaggee,, MM--vv..  Move the
       selection bar one page up.

       MM--oo,,  If  the  other panel is a listing panel
       and you are standing on a directory in the current
       panel, then the other panel contents  are  set to
       the contents of the currently selected directory
       (like Emacs' dired C-o key) otherwise the other panel
       contents are set to the  parent  dir of the current dir.

       CC--PPaaggeeUUpp,,
       CC--PPaaggeeDDoowwnn  Only when ran on
       the Linux console: does a chdir to ".." and to the
       currently selected directory respectively.

  SShheellll CCoommmmaanndd LLiinnee
       This section lists keys which are useful to avoid
       excessive typing when entering shell commands.

       MM--EEnntteerr..  Copy the currently selected
       file name to the command line.

       CC--EEnntteerr..  Same a M-Enter, this one
       only works on the Linux console.

       MM--TTaabb..   Does  the  filename,  command,
       variable, username and hostname completion for you.

       CC--xx tt,, CC--xx CC--tt..  Copy the
       tagged files  (or  if  there  are  no  tagged files,
       the selected file) of the current panel (C-x t) or of
       the other panel (C-x C-t) to the command line.

       CC--xx pp,, CC--xx CC--pp..  The first key
       sequence copies the current path name to the command
       line, and the second one copies the unselected panel's
       path name to the command line.

       CC--qq..  The quote command can be used to insert
       characters that are  oth‐ erwise interpreted by the
       Midnight Commander (like the '+' symbol)

       MM--pp,,  MM--nn..   Use  these keys to browse
       through the command history. M-p takes you to the last
       entry, M-n takes you to the next one.

       MM--hh..  Displays the history for the current
       input line.

  GGeenneerraall MMoovveemmeenntt KKeeyyss
       The help viewer, the file viewer and the directory
       tree use common code to  handle moving. Therefore
       they accept exactly the same keys. Each of them also
       accepts some keys of its own.

       Other parts of the Midnight Commander use some  of
       the  same  movement keys, so this section may be of
       use for those parts too.

       UUpp,, CC--pp..  Moves one line backward.

       DDoowwnn,, CC--nn..  Moves one line forward.

       PPrreevv PPaaggee,, PPaaggee UUpp,,
       MM--vv..  Moves one pageful backward.

       NNeexxtt PPaaggee,, PPaaggee
       DDoowwnn,, CC--vv..  Moves one pageful forward.

       HHoommee,, AA11..  Moves to the beginning.

       EEnndd,, CC11..  Move to the end.

       The  help viewer and the file viewer accept the
       following keys in addi‐ tion the to ones mentioned
       above:

       bb,, CC--bb,, CC--hh,,
       BBaacckkssppaaccee,, DDeelleettee..
       Moves one pageful backward.

       SSppaaccee bbaarr..  Moves one pageful forward.

       uu,, dd..  Moves one half of a page backward
       or forward.

       gg,, GG..  Moves to the beginning or to the end.

  IInnppuutt LLiinnee KKeeyyss
       The input lines (they are used for the command line
       and for  the  query dialogs in the program) accept
       these keys:

       CC--aa puts the cursor at the beginning of line.

       CC--ee puts the cursor at the end of the line.

       CC--bb,, mmoovvee--lleefftt move the
       cursor one position left.

       CC--ff,, mmoovvee--rriigghhtt move the
       cursor one position right.

       MM--ff moves one word forward.

       MM--bb moves one word backward.

       CC--hh,, bbaacckkssppaaccee delete the
       previous character.

       CC--dd,, DDeelleettee delete the character
       in the point (over the cursor).

       CC--@@ sets the mark for cutting.

       CC--ww  copies  the  text between the cursor and
       the mark to a kill buffer and removes the text from
       the input line.

       MM--ww copies the text between the cursor and the
       mark to a kill buffer.

       CC--yy yanks back the contents of the kill buffer.

       CC--kk kills the text from the cursor to the end
       of the line.

       MM--pp,, MM--nn Use these keys to browse  through
       the  command  history.  M-p takes you to the last entry,
       M-n takes you to the next one.

       MM--CC--hh,, MM--BBaacckkssppaaccee
       delete one word backward.

       MM--TTaabb  does the filename, command, variable,
       username and hostname com‐ pletion for you.


MMeennuu BBaarr
       The menu bar pops up when you press F9 or click the
       mouse  on  the  top row  of  the screen. The menu
       bar has five menus: "Left", "File", "Com‐ mand",
       "Options" and "Right".

       The Left and Right Menus allow you to modify the
       appearance of the left and right directory panels.

       The  File  Menu  lists  the  actions  you  can perform
       on the currently selected file or the tagged files.

       The Command Menu lists the actions which are more
       general and  bear  no relation to the currently selected
       file or the tagged files.

  LLeefftt aanndd RRiigghhtt MMeennuuss
       The  outlook  of  the directory panels can be changed
       from the LLeefftt and RRiigghhtt menus.

    LLiissttiinngg MMooddee......
       The listing mode view is used to display a listing
       of files, there  are four  different  listing
       modes available: FFuullll,, BBrriieeff,,
       LLoonngg,, and UUsseerr..  The full directory
       view shows the file name, the size of the  file  and
       the modification time.

       The  brief view shows only the file name and it has
       two columns (there‐ fore showing twice as many files
       as other views). The long view is sim‐ ilar  to  the
       output  of  llss --ll command. The long view takes
       the whole screen width.

       If you choose the "User" display format, then you have
       to  specify  the display format.

       The  user  display format must start with a panel
       size specifier.  This may be "half" or "full", and
       they specify a half  screen  panel  and  a full screen
       panel respectively.

       After  the  panel  size,  you  may  specify the two
       columns mode on the panel, this is done by adding the
       number "2" to the user format string.

       After this you add the name of the fields with an
       optional size  speci‐ fier.  This are the available
       fields you may display:

       nnaammee,, displays the file name.

       ssiizzee,, displays the file size.

       bbssiizzee,,  is an alternative form of the
       <bf/size/ format. It displays the size of the files
       and for directories it just shows SUB-DIR or UP--DIR.

       ttyyppee,, displays a one character field type.
       This character is a  super‐ set  of what is displayed
       by ls with the -F flag.  An asterisk for exe‐ cutable
       files, a slash for directories, an at-sign for links,
       an  equal sign for sockets, a hyphen for character
       devices, a plus sign for block devices, a pipe for
       fifos, a tilde for symbolic  links  to  directories
       and  an  exclamation  mark  for  stalled  symlinks
       (links  that  point nowhere).

       mmttiimmee,, file's last modification time.

       aattiimmee,, file's last access time.

       ccttiimmee,, file's creation time.

       ppeerrmm,, a string representing the current
       permission bits of the file.

       mmooddee,, an octal value with the current
       permission bits of the file.

       nnlliinnkk,, the number of links to the file.
       nnggiidd,, the GID (numeric).

       nnuuiidd,, the UID (numeric).

       oowwnneerr,, the owner of the file.

       ggrroouupp,, the group of the file.

       iinnooddee,, the inode of the file.

       Also you may use these field names for arranging
       the display:

       ssppaaccee,, a space in the display format.

       mmaarrkk,, An asterisk if the file is tagged,
       a space if it's not.

       ||,, This character is used to add a vertical line
       to the display format.

       To force one field to a fixed size (a size specifier),
       you just  add  a ':'  and  then  the number of
       characters you want the field to have, if the number is
       followed by the symbol '+', then the size  specifies
       the minimum  field  size, if the program finds out
       that there is more space on the screen, it will then
       expand this field.

       For example, the FFuullll display corresponds to
       this format:

       half type,name,|,size,|,mtime

       And the LLoonngg display corresponds to this format:

       full
       perm,space,nlink,space,owner,space,group,space,size,space,
       mtime,space,name

       This is a nice user display format:

       half name,|,size:7,|,type,mode:3

       Panels may also be set to the following modes:

       IInnffoo   The  info  view  display  information
       related  to the currently
              selected file and if possible information about
              the current file system.

       TTrreeee   The  tree  view  is quite similar to
       the directory tree feature.
              See the section about it for more information.

       QQuuiicckk VViieeww
              In this mode, the panel will switch to  a
              reduced  viewer  that displays  the  contents
              of  the currently selected file, if you select
              the panel (with the tab key or the mouse), you
              will  have access to the usual viewer commands.

    SSoorrtt OOrrddeerr......
       The  eight sort orders are by name, by extension,
       by modification time, by access time, and by inode
       information modification time, by size, by inode  and
       unsorted.   In the Sort order dialog box you can choose
       the sort order and you may also specify if you  want
       to  sort  in  reverse order by checking the reverse box.

       By  default directories are sorted before files but
       this can be changed from the Options menu (option
       MMiixx aallll ffiilleess ).

    FFiilltteerr......
       The filter command allows you to specify a shell
       pattern  (for  example **..ttaarr..ggzz  )
       which  the files must match to be shown. Regardless
       of the filter pattern, the directories and the links
       to directories are always shown in the directory panel.

    RReerreeaadd
       The  reread  command  reload  the list of files in
       the directory. It is useful if other processes have
       created or removed files.  If  you  have panelized
       file names in a panel this will reload the directory
       contents and remove the panelized information (See
       the section External panelize for more information).

  FFiillee MMeennuu
       The Midnight Commander uses the F1 - F10 keys as
       keyboard shortcuts for commands appearing in the file
       menu. The escape sequences for the Fkeys are  terminfo
       capabilities kf1 trough kf10.  On terminals without
       func‐ tion key support, you can achieve the same
       functionality  by  pressing the  ESC  key  and then
       a number in the range 1 through 9 and 0 (corre‐
       sponding to F1 to F9 and F10 respectively).

       The File menu has the following commands (keyboard
       shortcuts in  paren‐ theses):

       HHeellpp ((FF11))

       Invokes the built-in hypertext help viewer. Inside
       the help viewer, you can use the Tab key to select
       the next link and the Enter key to follow that  link.
       The  keys Space and Backspace are used to move forward
       and backward in a help page. Press  F1  again  to  get
       the  full  list  of accepted keys.

       MMeennuu ((FF22))

       Invoke  the  user  menu.  The user menu provides an
       easy way to provide users with a menu and add extra
       features to the Midnight Commander.

       VViieeww ((FF33,, SShhiifftt--FF33))

       View the currently selected file. By default this
       invokes the  Internal File Viewer but if the option
       "Use internal view" is off, it invokes an external file
       viewer specified by the PPAAGGEERR  environment
       variable.  If PPAAGGEERR is undefined, the "view"
       command is invoked.  If you use Shift-F3 instead, the
       viewer will be invoked without doing any formatting
       or pre processing to the file.

       FFiilltteerreedd VViieeww ((MM--!!))

       this  command  prompts  for  a command and it's
       arguments (the argument defaults to the currently
       selected file name),  the  output  from  such command
       is shown in the internal file viewer.

       EEddiitt ((FF44))

       Currently it invokes the vvii editor, or the
       editor specified in the EEDDII‐‐ TTOORR
       environment variable, or the Internal File Editor if
       the use_inter‐ nal_edit option is on.

       CCooppyy ((FF55))

       Pop  up an input dialog with destination that defaults
       to the directory in the non-selected panel and copies
       the currently  selected  file  (or the  tagged  files,
       if there is at least one file tagged) to the direc‐
       tory specified by the user in the input dialog.
       During  this  process, you  can  press  C-c  or  ESC
       to abort the operation. For details about source mask
       (which will be usually either * or  ^\(.*\)$  depending
       on setting  of  Use shell patterns) and possible
       wildcards in the destina‐ tion see Mask copy/rename.

       On some systems, it is possible to do the copy  in
       the  background  by clicking  on the background button
       (or pressing M-b in the dialog box).  The Background
       Jobs is used to control the background process.

       LLiinnkk ((CC--xx ll))

       Create a hard link to the current file.

       SSyymmLLiinnkk ((CC--xx ss))

       Create a symbolic link to the current file. To those
       of you  who  don't know  what  links  are: creating a
       link to a file is a bit like copying the file, but both
       the source filename  and  the  destination  filename
       represent  the  same  file image. For example, if you
       edit one of these files, all changes you make will
       appear in both files. Some people call links aliases
       or shortcuts.

       A hard link appears as a real file. After making it,
       there is no way of telling which one is the original
       and which is the link. If you  delete either  one
       of them the other one is still intact. It is very
       difficult to notice that the files represent the same
       image. Use hard links  when you don't even want to know.

       A symbolic link is a reference to the name of the
       original file. If the original file is deleted
       the symbolic link is useless. It is quite easy to
       notice that the files represent the same image. The
       Midnight Comman‐ der shows an "@"-sign in front
       of the file name if  it  is  a  symbolic link  to
       somewhere  (except to directory, where it shows a
       tilde (~)).  The original file which the link points
       to is shown on mini-status line if  the _S_h_o_w
       _m_i_n_i_-_s_t_a_t_u_s option is enabled. Use
       symbolic links when you want to avoid the confusion
       that can be caused by hard links.

       RReennaammee//MMoovvee ((FF66))

       Pop up an input dialog that defaults  to  the  directory
       in  the  non- selected  panel  and  moves  the currently
       selected file (or the tagged files if there is at
       least one tagged file) to the directory  specified
       by  the user in the input dialog. During the process,
       you can press C-c or ESC to abort the operation. For
       more details look at Copy  operation above, most of
       the things are quite similar.

       On  some  systems,  it  is possible to do the copy in
       the background by clicking on the background button
       (or pressing M-b in the dialog  box).  The Background
       Jobs is used to control the background process.

       MMkkddiirr ((FF77))

       Pop up an input dialog and creates the directory
       specified.

       DDeelleettee ((FF88))

       Delete the currently selected file or the tagged files
       in the currently selected panel. During the process,
       you can press C-c or ESC  to  abort the operation.

       QQuuiicckk  ccdd  ((MM--cc)) Use the quick
       cd command if you have full command line and want to
       cd somewhere.

       SSeelleecctt ggrroouupp ((++))

       This is used to select (tag) a group of files. The
       Midnight  Commander will  prompt  for a regular
       expression describing the group. When _S_h_e_l_l
       _P_a_t_t_e_r_n_s are enabled, the regular
       expression is much like the  filename globbing  in
       the  shell  (* standing for zero or more characters
       and ?  standing for one character). If _S_h_e_l_l
       _P_a_t_t_e_r_n_s is off, then the tagging of
       files is done with normal regular expressions (see ed
       (1)).

       To  mark directories instead of files, the expression
       must start or end with a '/'.

       UUnnsseelleecctt ggrroouupp ((\\))

       Used for unselecting a group of files. This  is  the
       opposite  of  the _S_e_l_e_c_t _g_r_o_u_p
       command.

       QQuuiitt ((FF1100,,
       SShhiifftt--FF1100))

       Terminate  the  Midnight Commander.  Shift-F10 is
       used when you want to quit and you are using the
       shell wrapper.  Shift-F10 will not take  you to  the
       last directory you visited with the Midnight Commander,
       instead it will stay at the directory where you started
       the Midnight Commander.

    QQuuiicckk ccdd
       This command is useful if you have a full command line
       and want  to  cd somewhere  without having to yank
       and paste the command line. This com‐ mand pops up
       a small dialog, where you enter everything you would
       enter after  ccdd  on  the command line and then
       you press enter. This features all the things that
       are already in the internal cd command.

  CCoommmmaanndd MMeennuu
       The Directory tree command shows a tree figure of
       the directories.

       The Find file command allows you to search for  a
       specific  file.  The "Swap panels" command swaps the
       contents of the two directory panels.

       The "Panels on/off" command shows the output of the
       last shell command.  This works only on xterm and on
       Linux and SCO console.

       The Compare directories (C-x d) command compares
       the  directory  panels with  each  other.  You  can
       then use the Copy (F5) command to make the panels
       identical. There are three compare  methods.
       The  quick  method compares only file size and file
       date. The thorough method makes a full byte-by-byte
       compare. The thorough  method  is  not  available  if
       the machine  does  not support the mmap(2) system call.
       The size-only com‐ pare method just compares the
       file sizes and does not  check  the  con‐ tents or
       the date times, it just checks the file size.

       The  Command  history  command  shows  a  list  of
       typed commands. The selected command is copied to the
       command line. The command history can also be accessed
       by typing M-p or M-n.

       The  Directory  hotlist  (C-\)  command  makes
       changing of the current directory to often used
       directories faster.

       The External panelize allows you to execute an  external
       program,  and make the output of that program the
       contents of the current panel.

       Extension  file edit command allows you to specify
       programs to executed when you try to execute, view,
       edit and do a bunch of  other  thing  on files  with
       certain  extensions (filename endings). The Menu file
       edit command may be used for editing the user menu
       (which appears by  press‐ ing F2).

    DDiirreeccttoorryy TTrreeee
       The  Directory Tree command shows a tree figure of
       the directories. You can select a directory from the
       figure and the Midnight Commander  will change to
       that directory.

       There  are two ways to invoke the tree. The real
       directory tree command is available from Commands
       menu. The other way is to select  tree  view from the
       Left or Right menu.

       To  get rid of long delays the Midnight Commander
       creates the tree fig‐ ure by scanning only a small
       subset of  all  the  directories.  If  the directory
       which  you want to see is missing, move to its parent
       direc‐ tory and press C-r (or F2).

       You can use the following keys:

       General movement keys are accepted.

       EEnntteerr..  In the directory tree, exits the
       directory tree and changes  to this  directory in
       the current panel. In the tree view, changes to this
       directory in the other panel and stays in tree view
       mode in the current panel.

       CC--rr,, FF22 ((RReessccaann))..
       Rescan this directory. Use this when the tree figure
       is out of date: it is missing subdirectories or shows
       some  subdirecto‐ ries which don't exist any more.

       FF33  ((FFoorrggeett))..   Delete this
       directory from the tree figure. Use this to remove
       clutter from the figure. If you want the directory back
       to  the tree figure press F2 in its parent directory.

       FF44
       ((SSttaattiicc//DDyynnaammiicc))..
       Toggle  between  the  dynamic  navigation  mode
       (default) and the static navigation mode.

       In the static navigation mode you can use  the  Up
       and  Down  keys  to select a directory. All known
       directories are shown.

       In  the  dynamic  navigation  mode  you can use the
       Up and Down keys to select a sibling directory, the
       Left key to move to the  parent  direc‐ tory,  and
       the Right key to move to a child directory. Only the
       parent, sibling and children directories are shown,
       others are  left  out.  The tree figure changes
       dynamically as you traverse.

       FF55 ((CCooppyy))..  Copy the directory.

       FF66 ((RReennMMoovv))..  Move the directory.

       FF77 ((MMkkddiirr))..  Make a new directory
       below this directory.

       FF88 ((DDeelleettee))..  Delete this
       directory from the file system.

       CC--ss,,  MM--ss..   Search  the  next
       directory matching the search string. If there is no
       such directory these keys will move one line down.

       CC--hh,, BBaacckkssppaaccee..  Delete the
       last character of the search string.

       AAnnyy ootthheerr cchhaarraacctteerr..
       Add the character to the search string  and  move
       to  the  next directory which starts with these
       characters. In the tree view you must first activate
       the  search  mode  by  pressing  C-s.  The search
       string is shown in the mini status line.

       The  following  actions  are available only in the
       directory tree. They aren't supported in the tree view.

       FF11 ((HHeellpp))..  Invoke the help viewer
       and show this section.

       EEsscc,, FF1100..  Exit the directory tree. Do
       not change the directory.

       The mouse is supported. A double-click behaves like
       Enter. See also the section on mouse support.

    FFiinndd FFiillee
       The Find File feature first asks for the start directory
       for the search and the filename to be searched for. By
       pressing the  Tree  button  you can select the start
       directory from the directory tree figure.

       The  contents  field  accepts  regular expressions
       similar to egrep(1).  That means you have to escape
       characters  with  a  special  meaning  to egrep  with
       "\",  e.g.  if  you search for "strcmp (" you will
       have to input "strcmp \(" (without the double quotes).

       You can start the search by pressing the Ok button.
       During the  search you can stop from the Stop button
       and continue from the Start button.

       You  can browse the filelist with the up and down arrow
       keys. The Chdir button will change to the directory
       of the currently selected file. The Again  button
       will  ask  for the parameters for a new search. The
       Quit button quits the search operation. The Panelize
       button will  place  the found  files  to  the  current
       directory panel so that you can do addi‐ tional
       operations on them (view, copy, move, delete and
       so  on).  After panelizing you can press C-r to return
       to the normal file listing.

       It is possible to have a list of directories that
       the Find File command should skip during the search
       (for  example,  you  may  want  to  avoid searches on
       a CDROM or on a NFS directory that is mounted across
       a slow link).

       Directories  to  be   skipped
       should   be   set   on   the   variable
       ffiinndd__iiggnnoorree__ddiirrss in
       the MMiisscc section of your ~/.mc/ini file.

       Directory components should be separated with a colon,
       here is an exam‐ ple:

       [Misc] find_ignore_dirs=/cdrom:/nfs/wuarchive:/afs

       You may consider using the External panelize command
       for  some  opera‐ tions. Find file command is for
       simple queries only, while using Exter‐ nal panelize
       you can do as mysterious searches as you would like.

    EExxtteerrnnaall ppaanneelliizzee
       The External panelize allows you to execute an  external
       program,  and make the output of that program the
       contents of the current panel.

       For  example,  if  you  want to manipulate in one
       of the panels all the symbolic links in the current
       directory, you can use external paneliza‐ tion to
       run the following command:

       find . -type l -print Upon  command  completion,
       the directory contents of the panel will no longer
       be the directory listing of the current directory,
       but  all  the files that are symbolic links.

       If you want to panelize all of the files that have been
       downloaded from your ftp server, you can use this awk
       command to extract the file  name from the transfer
       log files:

       awk '$9 ~! /incoming/ { print $9 }' < /usr/adm/xferlog

       You  may  want to save often used panelize commands
       under a descriptive name, so that you can recall
       them quickly. You do this  by  typing  the command on
       the input line and pressing Add new button. Then you
       enter a name under which you want the command to be
       saved. Next time, you  just choose that command from
       the list and do not have to type it again.

    HHoottlliisstt
       The  Directory  hotlist  command shows the labels
       of the directories in the directory hotlist. The
       Midnight Commander will change to the direc‐ tory
       corresponding to the selected label. From the hotlist
       dialog, you can remove already created label/directory
       pairs and add new  one.  For adding you may want
       to use a standalone Add to hotlist command (C-x h),
       which adds the current directory into the directory
       hotlist,  as  well.  The user is prompted for a label
       for the directory.

       This  makes cd to often used directories faster. You
       may consider using the CDPATH variable as described
       in internal cd command description.

    EExxtteennssiioonn FFiillee EEddiitt
       This will invoke your editor on the file ~/.mc/ext. The
       format of  this file is as follows (the format has
       changed with version 3.0):

       All lines starting with # or empty lines are thrown
       away.

       Lines starting in the first column should have
       following format:

       _k_e_y_w_o_r_d_/_d_e_s_c_N_L_,
       i.e. everything after _k_e_y_w_o_r_d_/ until
       new line is _d_e_s_c

       keyword can be:

       _s_h_e_l_l

              (desc is then any extension (no wildcards),
              i.e. matches all the files *desc . Example:
              .tar matches *.tar)

       _r_e_g_e_x

              (desc is a regular expression)

       _t_y_p_e

              (file matches this if `file %f` matches regular
              expression  desc (the filename: part from
              `file %f` is removed))

       _d_e_f_a_u_l_t

              (matches any file no matter what desc is)

       Other  lines should start with a space or tab and
       should be of the for‐ mat:

       _k_e_y_w_o_r_d_=_c_o_m_m_a_n_d_N_L
       (with no spaces around =), where _k_e_y_w_o_r_d
       should be:

       _O_p_e_n (if the user presses Enter or doubleclicks
       it),  _V_i_e_w  (F3),  _E_d_i_t (F4),
       _D_r_o_p (user drops some files on it) or any
       other user defined name (those will be listed in the
       extension dependent  pop-up  menu).   _I_c_o_n name
       is reserved for future use by mc.

       _c_o_m_m_a_n_d  is any one-line shell command,
       with the simple macro substitu‐ tion.

       Target are evaluated from top to bottom (order is thus
       important).   If some  actions  are  missing,  search
       continues as if this target didn't match (i.e. if a
       file matches the  first  and  second  entry  and  View
       action is missing in the first one, then on pressing F3
       the View action from the second entry will  be  used.
       default  should  catch  all  the actions.

    BBaacckkggrroouunndd jjoobbss
       This  lets  you  control the state of any background
       Midnight Commander process (only copy and move files
       operations can be done in  the  back‐ ground).
       You can stop, restart and kill a background job
       from here.

    MMeennuu FFiillee EEddiitt
       The user menu is a menu of useful actions that can
       be customized by the user. When you access the user
       menu, the file .mc.menu from the current directory
       is used if it exists, but only if it is owned by
       user or root and is not world-writable.  If no such
       file found, ~/.mc/menu is  tried in  the  same  way,
       and otherwise mc uses the default system-wide menu
       /nonexistent/lib/mc/mc.menu.

       The format of the menu file is very simple. Lines
       that start with  any‐ thing but space or tab are
       considered entries for the menu (in order to be able
       to use it like a hot key, the first character should
       be a  let‐ ter).  All  the lines that start with a
       space or a tab are the commands that will be executed
       when the entry is selected.

       When an option is selected all the command  lines  of
       the  option  are copied  to  a  temporary  file  in
       the  temporary  directory  (usually /usr/tmp) and then
       that file is executed. This allows the user  to  put
       normal  shell  constructs  in the menus. Also simple
       macro substitution takes place before executing the menu
       code. For more  information,  see macro substitution.

       Here is a sample mc.menu file:

       A    Dump the currently selected file
            od -c %f

       B    Edit a bug report and send it to root
            vi /tmp/mail.$$ mail -s "Midnight Commander bug"
            root < /tmp/mail.$$

       M    Read mail
            emacs -f rmail

       N    Read Usenet news
            emacs -f gnus

       H    Call the info hypertext browser
            info

       J    Copy current directory to other panel recursively
            tar cf - . | (cd %D && tar xvpf -)

       K    Make a release of the current subdirectory
            echo -n "Name of distribution file: " read
            tar ln -s %d `dirname %d`/$tar cd ..  tar cvhf
            ${tar}.tar $tar

       = f *.tar.gz | f *.tgz & t n X       Extract the
       contents of a compressed tar file
            tar xzvf %f

       DDeeffaauulltt CCoonnddiittiioonnss

       Each  menu  entry  may  be  preceded by a condition. The
       condition must start from the first column with a '='
       character. If the  condition  is true, the menu entry
       will be the default entry.

       Condition syntax:   = <sub-cond>
         or:               = <sub-cond> | <sub-cond> ...
         or:               = <sub-cond> & <sub-cond> ...

       Sub-condition is one of following:

         f <pattern>       current file matching pattern?
         F <pattern>       other file matching pattern?
         d <pattern>       current directory matching pattern?
         D <pattern>       other directory matching pattern?
         t <type>          current file of type?  T <type>
         other file of type?  ! <sub-cond>      negate the
         result of sub-condition

       Pattern is a normal shell pattern or a regular
       expression, according to the shell patterns option. You
       can override the  global  value  of  the shell  patterns
       option by writing "shell_patterns=x" on the first line
       of the menu file (where "x" is either 0 or 1).

       Type is one or more of the following characters:

         n  not directory r  regular file d  directory l  link
         c  char special b  block special f  fifo s  socket
         x  executable t  tagged

       For example 'rlf' means either regular file, link or
       fifo. The 't' type is  a  little special because it
       acts on the panel instead of the file.  The condition
       '=t t' is true if there are tagged files in  the
       current panel and false if not.

       If  the condition starts with '=?' instead of '='
       a debug trace will be shown whenever the value of the
       condition is calculated.

       The conditions are calculated from left to right. This
       means
            = f *.tar.gz | f *.tgz & t n
       is calculated as
            ( (f *.tar.gz) | (f *.tgz) ) & (t n)

       Here is a sample of the use of conditions:

       = f *.tar.gz | f *.tgz & t n L    List the contents
       of a compressed tar-archive
            gzip -cd %f | tar xvf -

       AAddddiittiioonn CCoonnddiittiioonnss

       If the condition begins with '+' (or '+?') instead of
       '=' (or '=?')  it is  an addition condition. If the
       condition is true the menu entry will be included in
       the menu. If the condition is false the menu entry
       will not be included in the menu.

       You  can  combine default and addition conditions
       by starting condition with '+=' or '=+' (or '+=?' or
       '=+?' if you want debug trace).  If  you want  to  use
       two different conditions, one for adding and another
       for defaulting, you can precede a menu entry with two
       condition lines,  one starting with '+' and another
       starting with '='.

       Comments  are started with '#'. The additional comment
       lines must start with '#', space or tab.

  OOppttiioonnss MMeennuu
       The Configuration command pops up a dialog from which
       you  can  change most of settings of the Midnight
       Commander.

       The  Display  bits  command  pops up a dialog from
       which you may select which characters is your terminal
       able to display.

       The Confirmation command pops up a dialog from which
       you specify  which actions you want to confirm.

       The  Learn  keys command pops up a dialog from which you
       test some keys which are not working on some terminals
       and you may fix them.

       The Virtual FS command pops up a dialog from which
       you specify some VFS related options.

       The  Layout  command pops up a dialog from which
       you specify a bunch of options how mc looks like on
       the screen.

       The Save setup command saves the current settings of
       the  Left,  Right and Options menus. A small number
       of other settings is saved, too.

    CCoonnffiigguurraattiioonn
       The  program  has  some options that may be toggled
       on and off from the Configuration dialog. Options are
       enabled if they have an  asterisk  or "x"  in  front
       of  them.  These options are divided into three groups:
       Screen Colors, Panel Options and Other Options.

       SSccrreeeenn CCoolloorrss

       You can select whether your display supports  color
       or  not.  Normally this  information  is in the terminfo
       database. If you want to know how to change individual
       colors see the section on Colors.

       PPaanneell OOppttiioonnss

       _S_h_o_w _B_a_c_k_u_p _F_i_l_e_s_.
       By default  the  Midnight  Commander  doesn't  show
       files ending in '~' (like GNU's ls option -B).

       _S_h_o_w  _H_i_d_d_e_n  _F_i_l_e_s_.
       By  default the Midnight Commander will show all files
       that start with a dot (like ls -a).

       _M_a_r_k _m_o_v_e_s _d_o_w_n_.  By default
       when you mark a file (with either  C-t  or the Insert
       key) the selection bar will move down.

       _S_h_o_w  _M_i_n_i_-_S_t_a_t_u_s_.
       If enabled, show one line of status information at the
       bottom of the panels about the currently selected item.

       _M_i_x _a_l_l _f_i_l_e_s_.  When this
       option is enabled, all files and  directories are
       shown mixed together. If the option is off, directories
       (and links to directories) are shown at the beginning
       of the  listing,  and  other files afterwards.

       _F_a_s_t  _d_i_r_e_c_t_o_r_y
       _r_e_l_o_a_d_.  This option is off by default. If
       you activate the fast reload, the Midnight Commander
       will use a trick  to  determine if  the  directory
       contents  have  changed. The trick is to reload the
       directory only if the i-node of the directory has
       changed;  this  means that  reloads  only  happen
       when files are created or deleted. If what changes is
       the i-node for a file in the directory (file  size
       changes, mode or owner changes, etc) the display is
       not updated. In these cases, if you have the option on,
       you have to rescan  the  directory  manually (with C-r).

       OOtthheerr OOppttiioonnss

       _V_e_r_b_o_s_e  _o_p_e_r_a_t_i_o_n_.
       This  toggles  whether  the file Copy, Rename and Delete
       operations are verbose (i.e., display  a  dialog  box
       for  each operation).  If  you  have a slow terminal,
       you may wish to disable the verbose operation. It is
       automatically turned off if the speed of  your terminal
       is less than 9600 bps.

       _P_a_u_s_e _a_f_t_e_r _r_u_n_.  After
       executing your commands, the Midnight Commander can
       pause, so that you can examine the output of  the
       command.   There are three possible settings for
       this variable:

              _N_e_v_e_r  Means that you do not want to
              see the output of your com‐ mand.  If you
              are using the Linux or SCO console  or  an
              xterm, you will be able to see the output of
              the command by typing C-o.

              _O_n  _d_u_m_b  _t_e_r_m_i_n_a_l_s
              You will get the pause message on terminals
              that are not capable of showing the output of
              the  last  command executed  (any  terminal
              that is not an xterm or the Linux con‐ sole).

              _A_l_w_a_y_s The program will pause after
              executing all of  your  com‐ mands.

       _S_h_e_l_l  _P_a_t_t_e_r_n_s_.
       By  default the Select, Unselect and Filter commands
       will use shell-like regular expressions. The following
       conversions  are performed  to  achieve  this: the '*'
       is replaced by '.*' (zero or more characters); the '?'
       is replaced by '.' (exactly  one  character)  and '.'
       by  the  literal  dot. If the option is disabled, then
       the regular expressions are the ones described in ed(1).

       _A_u_t_o _S_a_v_e _S_e_t_u_p_.  If this
       option is enabled, when you exit the Midnight Commander
       the configurable options of the Midnight Commander
       are saved in the ~/.mc/ini file.

       _A_u_t_o _m_e_n_u_s_.  If this option is
       enabled, the user menu will  be  invoked at startup.
       Useful for building menus for non-unixers.

       _U_s_e _i_n_t_e_r_n_a_l _e_d_i_t_o_r_.
       If this option is enabled, the built-in file edi‐
       tor is used to edit files. If the option is disabled,
       the editor speci‐ fied in the EEDDIITTOORR
       environment variable is used.  If no editor is spec‐
       ified, vvii is used.  See the section on the internal
       file editor.

       _U_s_e _i_n_t_e_r_n_a_l _v_i_e_w_e_r_.
       If this option  is  enabled,  the  built-in  file viewer
       is  used  to  view  files. If the option is disabled,
       the pager specified in the PPAAGGEERR environment
       variable is used.  If  no  pager  is specified,  the
       vviieeww command is used.  See the section on the
       internal file viewer.

       _C_o_n_f_i_r_m _D_e_l_e_t_e_.  This option
       is toggled on by default, and  will  cause the  Midnight
       Commander to ask for confirmation when deleting a
       single file.

       _C_d _f_o_l_l_o_w_s _l_i_n_k_s_.
       This option, if set, causes the  Midnight  Commander
       to follow the logical chain of directories when
       changing current direc‐ tory either in the panels,
       or using the cd command. This is the default behavior
       of  bash. When unset, the Midnight Commander follows
       the real directory structure, so cd .. if you've
       entered that directory  through a  link will move you
       to the current directory's real parent and not to the
       directory where the link was present.

    DDiissppllaayy bbiittss
       This is used to configure  the  range  of  visible
       characters  on  the screen.   This  setting  may be
       7-bits if your terminal/curses supports only seven
       output bits, ISO-8859-1 displays all the characters
       in  the ISO-8859-1  map and full 8 bits is for those
       terminals that can display full 8 bit characters.

    CCoonnffiirrmmaattiioonn
       In this menu you configure the confirmation options
       for file  deletion, overwriting, execution by pressing
       enter and quitting the program.

    LLeeaarrnn kkeeyyss
       This  dialog  lets  you  test if your keys F1-F20, Home,
       End, etc. work properly on your terminal. They often
       don't, since many terminal  data‐ bases are broken.

       You  can  move  around  with  the Tab key, with the
       vi moving keys ('h' left, 'j' down, 'k' up and 'l'
       right) and after you press any arrow key once (this
       will mark it OK), then you can use that key as well.

       You test them just by pressing each of them. As soon as
       you press a key and the key works properly, OK should
       appear next to the name  of  that key.  Once a key is
       marked OK it starts to work as usually, e.g. F1 for the
       first time will just check that F1 works OK, but from
       that time  on it  will show help.  The same applies
       to the arrow keys. Tab key should be working always.

       If some keys do not work properly, then you won't see
       OK after the  key name  after you have pressed that
       key. You may then want to fix it. You do it by pressing
       the button of that key (either by mouse or using  Tab
       and  Enter).   Then  a red message will appear and
       you will be asked to type that key.  If you want to
       abort this,  press  just  Esc  and  wait until  the
       message  disappears. Otherwise type the key you're
       asked to type and also wait until the dialog disappears.

       When you finish with all the keys, you may want either
       to Save your key fixes  into your ~/.mc/ini file into
       the [terminal:TERM] section (where TERM is the name
       of your current terminal) or to discard them.  If  all
       your  keys  were  working properly and you had not to
       fix any key, then (of course) no saving will occur.

    VViirrttuuaall FFSS
       This option gives you control over the settings  of
       the  Virtual  File System information cache.

       The  Midnight Commander keeps in memory the information
       related to some of the virtual file systems to speed
       up the access to the files in  the file system.
       Since the information that must be kept may be large
       (for example, compressed tar files may be kept in RAM
       for  faster  access), you  may  want  to  tune  the
       parameters  of the cached information to decrease your
       memory usage or to maximize the speed of access  to
       fre‐ quently used file systems.

       The  Tar file system is quite clever about how it
       handles tar files: it just loads the directory entries
       and when it needs to use the  informa‐ tion contained
       in the tar file, it goes and grab it.

       In the wild, tar files are usually kept compressed
       (plain tar files are species in extinction), and because
       of the nature of those  files  (the directory  entries
       for the tar files is not there waiting for us to be
       loaded), the tar file system has two choices: load the
       complete, uncom‐ pressed  tar  file  into memory or
       uncompress the file in the disk in a temporary location
       and then access the uncompressed file as  a  regular
       tar file.

       In this dialog box you tell the Midnight Commander which
       sizes for com‐ pressed tar files you will tolerate to
       load into your precious  memory.  The  default setting
       is set to one megabyte, this means that compressed tar
       files whose size is at most one megabyte will be loaded
       into  core, otherwise  a  temporary uncompressed tar
       file will be created to access the contents (all of
       this is transparent to the user).

       The program will let you add a suffix to specify the
       units of the  num‐ ber  you typed in, use 'k' for
       kilobyte and 'm' for megabyte.  Our rou‐ tine does
       not accept floating point numbers, so you can't use
       ".5 m" to specify 512 kilobytes, you will have to use
       "512 k" instead.

       Now, since we all love to browse files and tar files
       all over the disk, it's common that you will leave a tar
       file and the re-enter  it  later.  Since  uncompression
       is  slow,  the  Midnight Commander will cache the
       information in memory for a limited amount of time,
       after you  hit  the timeout,  all  of  the memory
       resources associated with the file system will be freed.
       The default timeout is set to one minute.

    LLaayyoouutt
       The layout dialog gives you a possibility to change
       the general  layout of screen. You can specify whether
       the menubar, the command prompt, the hintbar and the
       function keybar are visible. On the Linux or  SCO
       con‐ sole you can specify how many lines are shown
       in the output window.

       The  rest  of the screen area is used for the two
       directory panels. You can specify whether the area
       is split to the panels in vertical or hor‐ izontal
       direction. The split can be equal or you can specify
       an unequal split.

    SSaavvee SSeettuupp
       At startup the Midnight  Commander  will  try  to
       load  initialization information  from  the  ~/.mc/ini
       file. If this file doesn't exist, it will load the
       information  from  the  system-wide  configuration
       file, located in /nonexistent/lib/mc/mc.ini. If the
       system-wide configuration file doesn't exist, MC uses
       the default settings.

       The _S_a_v_e _S_e_t_u_p command creates the
       ~/.mc/ini file by saving the current settings of the
       Left, Right and Options menus.

       If  you  activate  the  _a_u_t_o _s_a_v_e
       _s_e_t_u_p option, MC will always save the current
       settings when exiting.

       There also exist settings which can't be changed  from
       the  menus.  To change  these  settings  you  have  to
       edit  the  setup file with your favorite editor. See the
       section on Special Settings for more  informa‐ tion.


EExxeeccuuttiinngg ooppeerraattiinngg
ssyysstteemm ccoommmmaannddss
       You  may  execute commands by typing them directly
       in the Midnight Com‐ mander's input line, or by
       selecting the program you  want  to  execute with the
       selection bar in one of the panels and hitting Enter.

       If  you  press  Enter  over a file that is not
       executable, the Midnight Commander checks the extension
       of the selected file against the  exten‐ sions  in
       the Extensions File.  If a match is found then the code
       asso‐ ciated with that extension is executed. A very
       simple  macro  expansion takes place before executing
       the command.

  TThhee ccdd iinntteerrnnaall
  ccoommmmaanndd
       The  _c_d  command  is  interpreted  by the Midnight
       Commander, it is not passed to the command shell for
       execution.  Thus it may not handle  all of  the  nice
       macro  expansion  and substitution that your shell does,
       although it does some of them:

       _T_i_l_d_e _s_u_b_s_t_i_t_u_t_i_o_n
       The (~) will be substituted with  your  home  direc‐
       tory, if you append a username after the tilde, then
       it will be substi‐ tuted with the login directory
       of the the specified user.

       For example, ~guest is the home directory for  the
       user  guest,  while ~/guest is the directory guest in
       your home directory.

       _P_r_e_v_i_o_u_s _d_i_r_e_c_t_o_r_y You
       can jump to the directory you were previously by using
       the special directory name '-' like this: ccdd --

       _C_D_P_A_T_H _d_i_r_e_c_t_o_r_i_e_s
       If the directory specified to the ccdd command
       is  not in the current directory, then The Midnight
       Commander uses the value in the environment variable
       CCDDPPAATTHH to search for the directory in  any
       of the named directories.

       For  example  you  could  set  your  CCDDPPAATTHH
       variable to ~/src:/usr/src, allowing you to change
       your directory to any of the directories  inside the
       ~/src  and /usr/src directories, from any place in the
       file system by using it's relative name (for example
       cd linux  could  take  you  to /usr/src/linux).

  MMaaccrroo SSuubbssttiittuuttiioonn
       When  accessing  a  user menu, or executing an extension
       dependent com‐ mand, or running a command from
       the command line input, a simple  macro substitution
       takes place.

       The macros are:

       _%_f

              The current file name.

       _%_d

              The current directory name.

       _%_F

              The current file in the unselected panel.

       _%_D

              The directory name of the unselected panel.

       _%_t

              The currently tagged files.

       _%_T

              The tagged files in the unselected panel.

       _%_u and _%_U

              Similar  to  the %t and %T macros, but in
              addition the files are untagged. You can use
              this macro only once per menu  file  entry or
              extension  file  entry,  because  next time
              there will be no tagged files.

       _%_s and _%_S

              The selected files: The tagged files if there
              are any. Otherwise the current file.

       _%_q

              Dropped  files.  In  all places except in the
              Drop action of the mc.ext file, this will become
              a null string, in the Drop  action it  will  be
              replaced with a space separated list of files
              that were dropped on the file.

       _%_c_d

              This is a special macro that  is  used  to
              change  the  current directory  to  the
              directory specified in front of it.  This is
              used primarily as an interface to the Virtual
              File System.

       _%_v_i_e_w

              This macro is used to invoke the internal
              viewer.   This  macro can be used alone, or
              with arguments.  If you pass any arguments to
              this macro, they should be enclosed in brackets.

              The arguments are: _a_s_c_i_i to force the
              viewer  into  ascii  mode; _h_e_x  to force
              the viewer into hex mode; _n_r_o_f_f to
              tell the viewer that it should interpret the
              bold  and  underline  sequences  of nroff;
              _u_n_f_o_r_m_a_t_e_d to tell the
              viewer to not interpret nroff com‐ mands for
              making the text bold or underlined.

       _%_%

              The % character

       _%_{_s_o_m_e _t_e_x_t_}

              Prompt for the substitution. An input box is
              shown and the  text inside  the braces is used
              as a prompt. The macro is substituted by the
              text typed by the user. The user can press ESC
              or F10  to cancel. This macro doesn't work on
              the command line yet.

  TThhee ssuubbsshheellll ssuuppppoorrtt
       The  subshell  support  is  a  compile time option,
       that works with the shells: bash, tcsh and zsh.

       When the subshell code is activated the Midnight
       Commander will spawn a concurrent  copy  of  your shell
       (the one defined in the SSHHEELLLL variable and if
       it is not defined, then the one in the /etc/passwd file)
       and run it  in a pseudo terminal, instead of invoking a
       new shell each time you execute a command, the command
       will be passed to the subshell as if you had  typed  it.
       This  also allows you to change the environment vari‐
       ables, use shell functions and define aliases that
       are valid until  you quit the Midnight Commander.

       If you are using bbaasshh you can specify startup
       commands for the subshell in your ~/.mc/bashrc file and
       special keyboard maps in the  ~/.mc/inpu‐ trc  file.
       ttccsshh users may specify startup commands in
       the ~/.mc/tcshrc file.

       When the subshell code is used, you can  suspend
       applications  at  any time  with the sequence C-o and
       jump back to the Midnight Commander, if you interrupt
       an application, you will not be able to run other
       exter‐ nal commands until you quit the application
       you interrupted.

       An  extra  added  feature of using the subshell is that
       the prompt dis‐ played by the Midnight Commander is
       the same prompt that you  are  cur‐ rently using in
       your shell.

       The  OPTIONS  section  has  more information on how
       you can control the subshell code.

  CCoonnttrroolllliinngg MMiiddnniigghhtt
  CCoommmmaannddeerr
       The Midnight Commander defines an environment variable
       MC_CONTROL_FILE.  The  commands  executed by MC may give
       instructions to MC by writing to the file specified
       by this variable.  This is  only  available  if  you
       compiled  your  copy  of  the  Midnight  Commander
       with the WANT_PARSE option.

       The following instructions are supported.

       clear_tags          Clear all tags.  tag <filename>
       Tag specified file.  untag <filename>    Untag
       specified file.  select <filename>   Move pointer
       to file.  change_panel        Switch between panels.
       cd <path>      Change directory.

       If the first letter of the instruction is in lower case
       it operates  on the current panel. If the letter is in
       upper case the instruction oper‐ ates on the other
       panel. The additional letters must be in lower  case.
       Instructions  must  be  separated by exactly one space,
       tab or newline.  The instructions don't work in the
       Info,  Tree  and  Quick  views.  The first error causes
       the rest to be ignored.

CChhmmoodd
       The  Chmod  window  is  used to change the attribute
       bits in a group of files and directories.  It can be
       invoked with the C-x c  key  combina‐ tion.

       The Chmod window has two parts -
       _P_e_r_m_i_s_s_i_o_n_s and _F_i_l_e

       In the File section are displayed the name of the
       file or directory and its permissions in octal form,
       as well as its owner and group.

       In the Permissions section there is a set of check
       buttons which corre‐ spond  to  the  file attribute
       bits.  As you change the attribute bits, you can see
       the octal value change in the File section.

       To move between the widgets (buttons and check
       buttons) use  the  _a_r_r_o_w _k_e_y_s  or
       the  _T_a_b key.  To change the state of the check
       buttons or to select a button use _S_p_a_c_e_.
       You can also use the hotkeys on the buttons to quickly
       activate that selection (they are the highlit letters
       on the buttons).

       To set the attribute bits, use the Enter key.

       When working with a group of files or directories, you
       just  click  on the bits you want to set or clear.
       Once you have selected the bits you want to change,
       you select one of the action  buttons  (Set  marked
       or Clear marked).

       Finally,  to set the attributes exactly to those
       specified, you can use the [[SSeett aallll]]
       button, which will act on all the tagged files.

       [[MMaarrkkeedd aallll]] set only marked
       attributes to all selected files

       [[SSeett mmaarrkkeedd]] set marked bits in
       attributes of all selected files

       [[CClleeaann mmaarrkkeedd]] clear marked
       bits in attributes of all selected files

       [[SSeett]] set the attributes of one file

       [[CCaanncceell]] cancel the Chmod command

CChhoowwnn
       The Chown command is used to change the owner/group
       of a file. The  hot key for this command is C-x o.

FFiillee OOppeerraattiioonnss
       When  you  copy,  move or delete files the Midnight
       Commander shows the file operations dialog. It shows
       the files currently being operated  on and  there  are
       at most three progress bars. The file bar tells how big
       part of the current file has been copied so far. The
       count  bar  tells how  many of tagged files have been
       handled so far. The bytes bar tells how big part of
       total size of the tagged files has been handled so far.
       If the verbose option is off the file and bytes bars
       are not shown.

       There  are  two  buttons at the bottom of the
       dialog. Pressing the Skip button will skip the rest
       of the current file. Pressing the Abort  but‐ ton
       will abort the whole operation, the rest of the files
       are skipped.

       There  are  three  other dialogs which you can run
       into during the file operations.

       The error dialog informs about error conditions and
       has three  choices.  Normally  you  select  either
       the  Skip button to skip the file or the Abort button
       to abort the operation altogether. You can also select
       the Retry button if you fixed the problem from another
       terminal.

       The  replace dialog is shown when you attempt to copy or
       move a file on the top of an existing file. The dialog
       shows the dates  and  sizes  of the both files. Press
       the Yes button to overwrite the file, the No but‐
       ton to skip the file, the alL button to overwrite all
       the  files,  the nonE  button  to  never overwrite and
       the Update button to overwrite if the source file is
       newer than the target file. You can abort the  whole
       operation by pressing the Abort button.

       The recursive delete dialog is shown when you try
       to delete a directory which is not empty. Press the
       Yes button to delete the directory recur‐ sively,
       the  No button to skip the directory, the alL button
       to delete all the directories and the nonE  button  to
       skip  all  the  non-empty directories.  You  can  abort
       the whole operation by pressing the Abort button. If
       you selected the Yes or alL button you will be asked
       for  a confirmation. Type "yes" only if you are really
       sure you want to do the recursive delete.

       If you have tagged files and perform an  operation  on
       them  only  the files on which the operation succeeded
       are untagged. Failed and skipped files are left tagged.

MMaasskk CCooppyy//RReennaammee
       The copy/move operations lets you translate the names
       of  files  in  an easy  way.  To  do  it, you have
       to specify the correct source mask and usually in
       the trailing part of the destination specify some
       wildcards.  All  the files matching the source mask
       are copied/renamed according to the target mask. If
       there are  tagged  files,  only  the  tagged  files
       matching the source mask are renamed.

       There are other option which you can set:

       Follow  links  tells  whether  make  the  symlinks
       and hardlinks in the source directory (recursively in
       subdirectories) new links in the  tar‐ get directory
       or whether would you like to copy their content.

       Dive  into subdirs tells what to do if in the target
       directory exists a directory with the same name as the
       file/directory  being  copied.  The default action is to
       copy it's content into that directory, by enabling this
       you can copy the source directory into that directory.
       Perhaps an example will help:

       You  want  to  copy content of a directory
       foo to /bla/foo, which is an already existing
       directory. Normally (when Dive is not set),  mc  would
       copy  it  exactly into /bla/foo.  By enabling this
       option you will copy the content into /bla/foo/foo,
       because the directory already exists.

       Preserve attributes tells whether to preserve the
       original files'  per‐ missions, timestamps and if you
       are root whether to preserve the origi‐ nal files'
       UID and GID. If this option is not set the current
       value  of the umask will be respected.

       UUssee sshheellll ppaatttteerrnnss
       oonn

       When the shell patterns option is on you can use the
       '*' and '?'  wild‐ cards in the source mask. They work
       like they do in the shell.  In  the target  mask  only
       the  '*'  and '\<digit>' wildcards are allowed. The
       first '*' wildcard in the target mask corresponds to the
       first wildcard group  in  the  source  mask,  the second
       '*' corresponds to the second group and so on. The '\1'
       wildcard corresponds to  the  first  wildcard group
       in  the source mask, the '\2' wildcard corresponds to
       the second group and so on all the way up to '\9'. The
       '\0' wildcard is the  whole filename of the source file.

       Two examples:

       If  the  source mask is "*.tar.gz", the destination is
       "/bla/*.tgz" and the file to be copied is "foo.tar.gz",
       the copy will  be  "foo.tgz"  in "/bla".

       Let's  suppose you want to swap basename and extension
       so that "file.c" will become "c.file" and so on. The
       source mask for this is  "*.*"  and the destination is
       "\2.\1".

       UUssee sshheellll ppaatttteerrnnss
       ooffff

       When  the  shell  patterns  option  is  off the MC
       doesn't do automatic grouping anymore. You must use
       '\(...\)' expressions in the source mask to  specify
       meaning for the wildcards in the target mask. This is
       more flexible but also requires more typing. Otherwise
       target masks are sim‐ ilar to the situation when
       the shell patterns option is on.

       Two examples:

       If   the   source  mask  is  "^\(.*\)\.tar\.gz$",  the
       destination  is "/bla/*.tgz" and the file to be copied
       is "foo.tar.gz", the  copy  will be "/bla/foo.tgz".

       Let's  suppose you want to swap basename and extension
       so that "file.c" will  become  "c.file"  and  so  on.
       The  source  mask  for  this   is "^\(.*\)\.\(.*\)$"
       and the destination is "\2.\1".

       CCaassee CCoonnvveerrssiioonnss

       You  can  also  change  the  case  of the filenames. If
       you use '\u' or uppercase or lowercase correspondingly.

       If you use '\U' or '\L' in the target mask the next
       characters will  be converted to uppercase or lowercase
       correspondingly up to the next

       The '\u' and '\l' are stronger than '\U' and '\L'.

       For  example,  if  the  source  mask  is  '*'  (shell
       patterns  on) or '^\(.*\)$' (shell patterns off) and the
       target mask is '\L\u*' the file names  will be converted
       to have initial upper case and otherwise lower case.

       You can also use '\' as a quote character. For example,
       '\\' is a back‐ slash and '\*' is an asterisk.

IInntteerrnnaall FFiillee VViieewweerr
       The internal file viewer provides two display modes:
       ASCII and hex.  To toggle between modes, use the
       F4 key.  If you have the GNU gzip program installed,
       it  will  be  used to automatically decompress the
       files on demand.

       The viewer will try to use the best method provided
       by your  system  or the  file  type  to  display the
       information.  The internal file viewer will interpret
       some string sequences to  set  the  bold  and  underline
       attributes, thus making a pretty display of your files.

       When in hex mode, the search function accepts text in
       quotes as well as hexadecimal constants.

       You can mix quoted text with constants like this:
       "String"  0xFE  0xBB "more text".  Text between
       constants and quoted text is just ignored.

       Some  internal  details  about  the viewer: On systems
       that provide the mmap(2) system call, the program
       maps the file instead of  loading  it; if  the  system
       does  not  provide the mmap(2) system call or the file
       matches an action that requires a filter, then the
       viewer will use it's growing  buffers,  thus  loading
       only those parts of the file that you actually access
       (this includes compressed files).

       Here is a listing of the actions associated with each
       key that the Mid‐ night Commander handles in the
       internal file viewer.

       FF11 Invoke the builtin hypertext help viewer.

       FF22 Toggle the wrap mode.

       FF44 Toggle the hex mode.

       FF55  Goto line.  This will prompt you for a line
       number and will display that line.

       FF66,, //..  Regular expression search.

       ??,, Reverse regular expression search.

       FF77 Normal search / hex mode search.

       CC--ss..  Start normal search if there was no
       previous  search  expression else find next match.

       CC--rr..   Start  reverse search if there was no
       previous search expression else find next match.

       nn..  Find next match.

       FF88 Toggle Raw/Parsed mode: This will show the file
       as found on disk  or if  a processing filter has been
       specified in the mc.ext file, then the output from
       the filter. Current mode is always the other  than
       written on the button label, since on the button is
       the mode which you enter by that key.

       FF99 Toggle the format/unformat mode: when format
       mode is on  the  viewer will  interpret  some  string
       sequences to show bold and underline with different
       colors. Also, on button label is the other mode than
       current.

       FF1100,, EEsscc..  Exit the internal file
       viewer.

       nneexxtt--ppaaggee,, ssppaaccee,,
       CC--vv..  Scroll one page forward.

       pprreevv--ppaaggee,, MM--vv,, CC--bb,,
       bbaacckkssppaaccee..  Scroll one page
       backward.

       ddoowwnn--kkeeyy Scroll one line forward.

       uupp--kkeeyy Scroll one line backward.

       CC--ll Refresh the screen.

       !!  Spawn a shell in the currently working directory.

       [[nn]] mm Set the mark n.

       [[nn]] rr Jump to the mark n.

       CC--ff Jump to the next file.

       CC--bb Jump to the previous file.

       MM--rr Toggle the ruler.

       It's possible to instruct the file viewer how to display
       a  file,  look at the Extension File Edit section

IInntteerrnnaall FFiillee EEddiittoorr
       The  internal  file editor provides
       most of the features of common full screen
       editors. It is invoked using FF44 provided  the
       _u_s_e___i_n_t_e_r_n_a_l___e_d_i_t
       option  is  set  in  the initialization file. It has
       an extensible file size limit of sixteen megabytes
       and edits binary files flawlessly.

       The features it presently supports are: Block copy,
       move, delete,  cut, paste;  _k_e_y _f_o_r
       _k_e_y _u_n_d_o _; pull-down menus; file
       insertion; macro defi‐ nition; regular expression
       search and replace (and our own scanf-printf search
       and  replace);  shift-arrow  MSW-MAC text highlighting
       (for the linux console only); insert-overwrite toggle;
       and  an  option  to  pipe text blocks through shell
       commands like indent.

       The  editor  is very easy to use and requires
       no tutoring.  To see what keys do what,
       just consult the appropriate pull-down menu.
       Other  keys are:  Shift movement keys do text
       highlighting.  CCttrrll--IInnss copies to
       the file ccoooolleeddiitt..cclliipp
       aanndd SShhiifftt--IInnss pastes from
       cooledit.clip.   SShhiifftt--DDeell cuts
       to ccoooolleeddiitt..cclliipp,, and
       CCttrrll--DDeell deletes highlighted text. The
       com‐ pletion key also does a Return with an automatic
       indent.  Mouse  high‐ lighting also works, and you
       can override the mouse as usual by holding down the
       shift key while dragging the  mouse  to  let  normal
       terminal mouse highlighting work.

       To define a macro, press CCttrrll--RR
        and then type out the key strokes you want to be
        executed. Press CCttrrll--
       RR
        again when finished. You can then assign the macro
        to any key you like
       by  pressing  that key. The macro is executed
       when you press CCttrrll--AA aanndd
       tthheenn tthhee aassssiiggnneedd
       kkeeyy.. TThhee mmaaccrroo iiss
       aallssoo eexxeeccuutteedd iiff  you  press
       Meta, Ctrl,  or  Esc  and the assigned key, provided
       that the key is not used for any other function. Once
       defined, the macro commands  go  into  the file
       cceeddiitt//ccoooolleeddiitt..mmaaccrrooss
        in  your home directory. You can delete a macro by
        deleting the appro‐
       priate line in this file.

       FF1199 wwiillll ffoorrmmaatt
       CC ccooddee wwhheenn iitt iiss
       hhiigghhlliigghhtteedd.. FFoorr
       tthhiiss to  work,  make an  executable  file called
       cceeddiitt//eeddiitt..iinnddeenntt..rrcc
       in your home directory containing the following:

       #!/bin/sh /usr/bin/indent -kr -pcs
       ~/cedit/cooledit.block >& /dev/null cat /dev/null >
       ~/cedit/cooledit.error

       You can use scanf search and replace to search and
       replace a  C  format string.  First  take  a look
       at the ssssccaannff and sspprriinnttff
       mmaann ppaaggeess ttoo sseeee wwhhaatt
       aa ffoorrmmaatt ssttrriinngg is and
       how it works. An  example  is  as  follows: Suppose
       you  want  to  replace all occurences of say, an open
       bracket, three comma seperated numbers, and  a  close
       bracket,  with  the  word _a_p_p_l_e_s_,  the
       third number, the word _o_r_a_n_g_e_s and then
       the second number, I would fill in the Replace dialog
       box as follows:

        Enter search string
       (%d,%d,%d)
        Enter replace string
       apples %d oranges %d
        Enter replacement argument order
       3,2

       The last line specifies that the third and then the
       second  number  are to be used in place of the first
       and second.

       It  is advisable to use this feature with Prompt on
       replace on, because a match is thought to be found
       whenever the number of  arguments  found matches  the
       number given, which is not always a real match. Scanf
       also treats whitespace as being elastic.  Note that the
       scanf  format  %  is very useful for scanning strings,
       and whitespace.

       The  editor also displays non-us characters
       (160+). When editing binary files, you should set
       ddiissppllaayy bbiittss to 7 bits in  the
       options  menu  to keep the spacing clean.

       See also the file RREEAADDMMEE..eeddiitt
       in the source tree for some more info.

CCoommpplleettiioonn
       Let the Midnight Commander type for you.

       Attempt  to  perform completion on the text before
       current position. MC attempts completion treating the
       text as variable (if the  text  begins with  $$ ),
       username (if the text begins with ~~ ), hostname (if
       the text begins with @@ ) or command (if you are on
       the command line in the posi‐ tion  where you might
       type a command, possible completions then include
       shell reserved words and shell builtin commands as
       well)  in  turn.  If none of these produces a match,
       filename completion is attempted.

       Filename, username, variable and hostname completion
       works on all input lines, command completion is
       command line specific.  If the  completion is ambiguous
       (there are more different possibilities), MC beeps and
       the following action depends on the setting  of  the
       show_all_if_ambiguous variable  in  the  Initialization
       file. If it is nonzero, a list of all possibilities pops
       up next to the current position and you  can  select
       with  the arrow keys and EEnntteerr the correct
       entry. You can also type the first letters in which
       the possibilities differ to move to a subset  of all
       possibilities and complete as much as possible. If you
       press MM--TTaabb again, only the subset will be
       shown  in  the  listbox,  otherwise  the first  item
       which  matches  all  the previous characters will be
       high‐ lighted. As soon as there is no ambiguity,
       dialog disappears,  but  you can  hide  it by canceling
       keys EEsscc,, FF1100 and left and right arrow
       keys.  If show_all_if_ambiguous is set to zero, the
       dialog pops up only if you press MM--TTaabb for
       the second time, for the first time MC just beeps.

VViirrttuuaall FFiillee SSyysstteemm
       The Midnight Commander is provided with a code layer
       to access the file system; this code layer is known as
       the  virtual  file  system  switch.  The virtual file
       system switch allows the Midnight Commander to manipu‐
       late files not located on the Unix file system.

       Currently the Midnight Commander is packaged  with  five
       Virtual  File Systems  (VFS):  the  local file system,
       used for accessing the regular Unix file system; the
       ftpfs, used to manipulate files on remote systems with
       the FTP protocol; the tarfs, used to manipulate tar
       and compressed tar files; the undelfs, used to recover
       deleted files on ext2 file sys‐ tems  (the  default
       file system for Linux systems) and finally the mcfs
       (Midnight Commander file system), a network based
       file system.

       The VFS switch code will interpret all of the path names
       used and  will forward  them to the correct file system,
       the formats used for each one of the file systems is
       described later in their own section.

  FFTTPP FFiillee SSyysstteemm
       The ftpfs allows you to manipulate files on remote
       machines,  to  actu‐ ally  use it, you may try
       to use the panel command FTP link (accessible from
       the menubar) or you may directly change your current
       directory  to it using the cd command to a path name
       that looks like this:

       _f_t_p_:_/_/_[_!_]_[_u_s_e_r_[_:_p_a_s_s_]_@_]_m_a_c_h_i_n_e_[_:_p_o_r_t_]_[_r_e_m_o_t_e_-_d_i_r_]

       The,  _u_s_e_r_,  _p_o_r_t and
       _r_e_m_o_t_e_-_d_i_r elements are optional.
       If you specify the _u_s_e_r element, then the
       Midnight Commander will try to logon on  the remote
       machine  as  that  user, otherwise it will use your
       login name.  The optional _p_a_s_s element, if
       present is the password used for the con‐ nection.
       This use is not recomented (nor keeping this in your
       hotlist, unless you set the appropiate permissions
       there, and then, it  may  not be entirely safe anyways).

       Examples:

           ftp://ftp.nuclecu.unam.mx/linux/local
           ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/packages
           ftp://!behind.firewall.edu/pub
           ftp://guest@remote-host.com:40/pub
           ftp://miguel:xxx@server/pub

       To  connect to sites behind a firewall, you will need to
       use the prefix ftp://! (ie, with a bang character after
       the double slash) to make  the Midnight  Commander  use
       a proxy host for doing the ftp transfer.  You can define
       the proxy host in the Virtual File System dialog box.

       Another option is to set the
       _f_t_p_f_s___a_l_w_a_y_s___u_s_e___p_r_o_x_y
       parameter  in  the initialization file.  This will
       configure the program to always use the proxy host.
       If this variable is set, the program will do  two
       things: consult the /nonexistent/lib/mc.no_proxy
       file for lines containing host names that are local
       (if the host name starts with a dot, it is assumed to
       be a domain) and to assume that any hostnames without
       dots in their names are directly accessible.

       If you are using the ftpfs code with a  filtering
       packet  router  that does  not  allow  you to use the
       regular mode of opening files, you may want to force the
       program to use the passive-open mode.  To  use  this,
       set the ftpfs_use_passive_connections option.

       The  Midnight  Commander  keeps  the directory listing
       in a cache.  The cache expire time is configurable in
       the  Virtual  File  System  dialog box.   This  has
       the funny behavior that even if you make changes to a
       directory, they will not be reflected in the  directory
       listing  until you force a cache reload with the C-r
       key.  This is a feature (when you think it's a bug,
       think about manipulating files on the other  side  of
       the Atlantic with ftpfs).

  TTaarr FFiillee SSyysstteemm
       The  tar  file  system  provides  you with read-only
       access to your tar files and compressed tar files by
       using the chdir command.   To  change your  directory
       to a tar file, you change your current directory to
       the tar file by using the following syntax:

       _t_a_r_:_f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e_._t_a_r_[_d_i_r_-_i_n_s_i_d_e_-_t_a_r_]

       The mc.ext file already provides a shortcut for tar
       files,  this  means that  usually  you  just  point to
       a tar file and press return to enter into the tar file,
       see the Extension File Edit section for  details  on
       how this is done.

       Examples:

           tar:mc-3.0.tar.gz/mc-3.0/vfs
           tar:/ftp/GCC/gcc-2.7.0.tar

       The latter specifies the full path of the tar archive.

  NNeettwwoorrkk FFiillee SSyysstteemm
       The  Midnight  Commander file system is a network base
       file system that allows you to manipulate the files
       in a remote machine as if they  were local.   To  use
       this, the remote machine must be running the mcserv(8)
       server program.

       To connect to a remote machine, you just need to
       chdir into  a  special directory which name is in the
       following format:

       _m_c_:_[_u_s_e_r_@_]_m_a_c_h_i_n_e_[_:_p_o_r_t_]_[_r_e_m_o_t_e_-_d_i_r_]

       The,  _u_s_e_r_,  _p_o_r_t and
       _r_e_m_o_t_e_-_d_i_r elements are optional.
       If you specify the _u_s_e_r element then the
       Midnight Commander will try to logon  on  the remote
       machine as that user, otherwise it will use your
       login name.

       The  _p_o_r_t  element is used when the remote
       machine running on a special port (see the mcserv(8)
       manual page for more information about  ports);
       finally,  if  the _r_e_m_o_t_e_-_d_i_r
       element is present, your current directory on the
       remote machine will be set to this one.

       Examples:

           mc:ftp.nuclecu.unam.mx/linux/local
           mc:joe@foo.edu:11321/private

  UUnnddeelleettee FFiillee SSyysstteemm
       On Linux systems, if you asked configure to  use  the
       ext2fs  undelete facilities, you will have the undelete
       file system available.  Recovery of deleted files is
       only available on ext2 file systems.  The  undelete file
       system is just an interface to the ext2fs library to:
       retrieve all of the deleted files names on an ext2fs
       and provides and to extract the selected files into
       a regular partition.

       To  use  this file system, you have to chdir into the
       special file name formed by the "undel:" prefix and
       the file name where the  actual  file system resides.

       For  example,  to  recover deleted files on the second
       partition of the first scsi disk on Linux, you would
       use the following path name:

           undel:/dev/sda2

       It may take a while for the undelfs to load  the
       required  information before you start browsing
       files there.

CCoolloorrss
       The  Midnight  Commander  will  try to detect if your
       terminal supports color using the terminal database
       and your terminal name.  Sometimes it gets  confused,
       so you may force color mode or disable color mode
       using the -c and -b flag respectively.

       If the program is compiled with the Slang  screen
       manager  instead  of ncurses,  it  will  also check the
       variable CCOOLLOORRTTEERRMM,, if it is set,
       it has the same effect as the -c flag.

       You may specify terminals that always
       force color mode  by  adding  the
       _c_o_l_o_r___t_e_r_m_i_n_a_l_s
       variable  to  the Colors section of the initialization
       file. This will prevent the Midnight Commander
       from trying to detect if your terminal supports
       color. Example: [Colors] color_terminals=linux,xterm
       color_terminals=terminal-name1,terminal-name2...

       The  program  can be compiled with both ncurses and
       slang, ncurses does not provide a way to force color
       mode: ncurses uses just  the  informa‐ tion in the
       terminal database.

       The  Midnight  Commander  provides  a way to
       change the default colors.  Currently the colors
       are  configured  using  the  environment  variable
       MMCC__CCOOLLOORR__TTAABBLLEE or the
       Colors section in the initialization file.

       In  the  Colors  section,  the  default  color  map  is
       loaded from the _b_a_s_e___c_o_l_o_r variable.
       You can specify an alternate color map for a ter‐
       minal by using the terminal name as the key in this
       section.  Example:

       [Colors] base_color=
       xterm=menu=magenta:marked=,magenta:markselect=,red

       The format for the color definition is:

         <keyword>=<foregroundcolor>,<backgroundcolor>:<keyword>=
         ...

       The  colors  are  optional,  and  the  keywords  are:
       normal, selected, marked, markselect, errors,  input,
       reverse  menu,  menusel,  menuhot, menuhotsel, gauge;
       the dialog colors are: dnormal, dfocus, dhotnormal,
       dhotfocus; Help colors are: helpnormal, helpitalic,
       helpbold, helplink, helpslink;  Viewer  color is:
       viewunderline; Special highlighting mode: executable,
       directory, link, device, special.

       The dialog boxes use the following colors:
       _d_n_o_r_m_a_l is used for the nor‐
       mal  text,  _d_f_o_c_u_s  is the color
       used for the currently selected compo‐ nent,
       _d_h_o_t_n_o_r_m_a_l is the color used to
       differentiate the hotkey color in normal  components,
       whereas  the _d_h_o_t_f_o_c_u_s color is
       used for the high‐ lighted color in the currently
       selected component.

       Menus use the same scheme but  uses  the  menu,
       menusel,  menuhot  and menuhotsel tags instead.

       Help  uses  the  following  colors:
       _h_e_l_p_n_o_r_m_a_l is used for normal
       text, _h_e_l_p_i_t_a_l_i_c is used for
       text which is emphasized in italic in the manual
       page, _h_e_l_p_b_o_l_d is used for text
       which is emphasized in bold in the man‐ ual page,
       _h_e_l_p_l_i_n_k is used for not selected
       hyperlinks and _h_e_l_p_s_l_i_n_k is used
       for selected hyperlink.

       _g_a_u_g_e  determines  color  of  filled  part
       of the progress bar (gauge), which shows how many
       percent of files were copied etc. in  a  graphical way.

       For  file type highlighting mode
       _d_i_r_e_c_t_o_r_y specifies the color in which
       directories are shown; _e_x_e_c_u_t_a_b_l_e
       for executable files; _l_i_n_k is used to
       represent links; _d_e_v_i_c_e for character and
       block devices; _s_p_e_c_i_a_l is for special
       files, such as FIFO and IPC sockets; _c_o_r_e
       is  for  core  files (see  also  the  option
       hhiigghhlliigghhtt__mmooddee  at the
       section on Special Set‐ tings).


       The possible colors are: black, gray, red,  brightred,
       green,  bright‐ green,  brown,  yellow, blue,
       brightblue, magenta, brightmagenta, cyan, brightcyan,
       lightgray and white.

SSppeecciiaall SSeettttiinnggss
       Most of the settings of the Midnight Commander can be
       changed from  the menus.  However, there are a small
       number of settings which can only be changed by editing
       the setup file.

       These variables may be set in your ~/.mc/ini file:

       _c_l_e_a_r___b_e_f_o_r_e___e_x_e_c_.

              By default the Midnight Commander clears the
              screen before  exe‐ cuting  a  command. If
              you would prefer to see the output of the
              command at the bottom of the screen, edit your
              ~/mc.ini file and change the value of the field
              clear_before_exec to 0.

       _c_o_n_f_i_r_m___v_i_e_w___d_i_r_.

              If  you  press F3 on a directory, normally MC
              enters that direc‐ tory. If this flag is set to
              1, then MC will ask  for  confirma‐ tion before
              changing the directory if you have files tagged.

       _d_r_o_p___m_e_n_u_s_.

              If  this  variable  is  set, when you press the
              F9 key, the pull down menus will be activated,
              else, you will only  be  presented with  the
              menu title, and you will have to select the
              entry with the arrow keys or the first letter
              and from  there  select  your option in the menu.

       _f_t_p_f_s___r_e_t_r_y___s_e_c_o_n_d_s_.

              This  value is the number of seconds the
              Midnight Commander will wait before attempting
              a reconnection to an ftp server that  has
              denied  the  login.   If the value is zero,
              the the program will not retry the login.

       _f_t_p_f_s___u_s_e___p_a_s_s_i_v_e___c_o_n_n_e_c_t_i_o_n_s_.

              This option is by off default.  This makes the
              ftpfs  code  use the  passive  open  mode for
              transfering files.  This is used by people
              that are behind a filtering packet router.
              This  option just works if you are not using
              an ftp proxy.

       _m_a_x___d_i_r_t___l_i_m_i_t_.

              Specifies  how many screen updates can be
              skipped at most in the internal file viewer.
              Normally this value is  not  significant,
              because  the code automatically adjusts the
              number of updates to skip according to the
              rate of incoming keypresses.  However,  on
              very  slow  machines  or  terminals  with  a
              fast keyboard auto repeat, a big value can make
              screen updates too jumpy.

              It seems that setting  max_dirt_limit  to  10
              causes  the  best behavior, and that is the
              default value.

       _m_o_u_s_e___m_o_v_e___p_a_g_e_s_.

              Controls  whenever  scrolling with the mouse
              is done by pages or line by line on the panels.

       _m_o_u_s_e___m_o_v_e___p_a_g_e_s___v_i_e_w_e_r_.

              Controls if scrolling with the mouse is done
              by pages or line by line on the internal
              file viewer.

       _n_a_v_i_g_a_t_e___w_i_t_h___a_r_r_o_w_s_.

              If  this  setting is turned on, then you may use
              the arrows keys to automatically chdir if the
              current selection is  a  subdirec‐ tory and
              the shell command line is empty.  By default,
              this set‐ ting is off.

       _n_i_c_e___r_o_t_a_t_i_n_g___d_a_s_h

              When on, this flag causes the commander to show
              a rotating  dash as a work in progress indicator.

       _o_l_d___e_s_c___m_o_d_e

              By  default  the  Midnight Commander treats the
              ESC key as a key prefix   (old_esc_mode=0),    if
              you    set    this    option (old_esc_mode=1),
              then the ESC key will act as a prefix key for
              one second, and if no extra keys have arrived,
              then the ESC  key is interpreted as a cancel key
              (ESC ESC).

       _o_n_l_y___l_e_a_d_i_n_g___p_l_u_s___m_i_n_u_s

              set special treatment for '+', '-', '*'
              in command line (select, unselect, reverse
              selection) only if command line is  empty.
              No need to quote this characters in the middle
              of the command line.  But we can not change
              selection when command line is not  empty.
              _p_a_n_e_l___s_c_r_o_l_l___p_a_g_e_s

              If set (the default), panel will scroll by half
              the display when the cursor reaches the end or
              the beginning of the panel, other‐ wise it
              will just scroll a file at a time.

       _p_r_e_s_e_r_v_e___u_i_d_g_i_d

              If  this option is set (the default), when logged
              in as root the default will be to preserve the
              UID and the GID of files.   Some users  prefer
              to disable this option, so that's why it's
              config‐ urable.

       _s_h_o_w___o_u_t_p_u_t___s_t_a_r_t_s___s_h_e_l_l

              This variable only works if you are not using
              the subshell  sup‐ port.   When  you  use  the
              C-o keystroke to go back to the user screen,
              if this one is set, you will get a fresh shell.
              Other‐ wise,  pressing any key will bring
              you back to the Midnight Com‐ mander.

       _s_h_o_w___a_l_l___i_f___a_m_b_i_g_u_o_u_s_.

              By default the Midnight Commander pops up all
              possible  comple‐ tions  if the completion
              is ambiguous if you press MM--TTaabb for
              the second time, for the first time it just
              completes  as  much  as possible  and in the case
              of ambiguity beeps. If you want to see all the
              possible  completions  already  after  the  first
              MM--TTaabb pressing, set this option to 1.

       _t_o_r_b_e_n___f_j___m_o_d_e

              If  this  flag  is  set,  then  the  home and
              end keys will work slightly different on the
              panels, instead of moving  the  selec‐ tion
              to the first and last files in the panels,
              they will act as follows:

              The home key will: Go up to the middle line,
              if below  it;  else go to the top line unless
              it is already on the top line, in this case it
              will go to the first file in the panel.

              The end key has a similar behavior: Go down to
              the middle  line, if over it; else go to the
              bottom line unless you already are at the bottom
              line, in such case it will move the selection
              to  the last file name in the panel.

       _h_i_g_h_l_i_g_h_t___m_o_d_e  By
       default all information on panels displayed with
       the same color. If this variable is set to 1, then
       _p_e_r_m or _m_o_d_e  tokens  in display  format
       get  ability  to show access rights of the user to the
       shown file. Appropriate  triplet  of  reading,  writing
       and  execution rights  highlighted with the yellow (
       _s_e_l_e_c_t_e_d ) color. In addition, if the
       variable is equal to 2, then all lines are displaying
       by the  color according  to  their  type (see Colors).
       Permissions highlighting also works in this mode.

       _u_s_e___f_i_l_e___t_o___g_u_e_s_s___t_y_p_e

              If this variable is on (the default) it will
              spawn the file com‐ mand to match the file
              types listed on the mc.ext file.

       _x_t_e_r_m___m_o_d_e

              If this variable is on (default is off) when
              you browse the file system on a Tree panel,
              it will automatically reload  the  other panel
              with the contents of the selected directory.

TTeerrmmiinnaall ddaattaabbaasseess
       The Midnight Commander provides a way to fix your
       system terminal data‐ base  without  requiring
       root  privileges.   The  Midnight   Commander
       searches  in the system initialization file (the
       mc.lib file located in the Midnight Commander library
       directory) or in the ~/.mc/ini file  for the  section
       "terminal:your-terminal-name"  and  then  for the
       section "terminal:general", each line of the section
       contains a key symbol that you  want  to  define,
       followed by an equal sign and the definition for
       the key.  You can use the special \E form to represent
       the escape char‐ acter and the ^x to represent the
       control-x character.

       The possible key symbols are:

       f0 to f20     Function keys f0-f20 bs         backspace
       home          home key end           end key
       up            up arrow key down          down arrow key
       left          left arrow key right         right arrow
       key pgdn          page down key pgup          page up
       key insert        the insert character delete        the
       delete character complete      to do completion

       For example, to define the key insert to be the Escape +
       [ + O + p, you set this in the ini file:

       insert=\E[Op

       The _c_o_m_p_l_e_t_e key symbol represents
       the escape sequences used to  invoke the  completion
       process, this is invoked with M-tab, but you can define
       other keys to do the same work (on those keyboard with
       tons of nice and unused keys everywhere).


FFIILLEESS
       /nonexistent/lib/mc.hlp

              The help file for the program.

       /nonexistent/lib/mc/mc.ext

              The default system-wide extensions file.

       ~/.mc/ext

              User's  own extension, view configuration and
              edit configuration file.  They override the
              contents of the system  wide  files  if present.

       /nonexistent/lib/mc/mc.ini

              The  default  system-wide setup for the Midnight
              Commander, used only if the user lacks his own
              ~/.mc/ini file.

       /nonexistent/lib/mc/mc.lib

              Global settings for the Midnight Commander.
              Settings  in  this file  are  global  to  any
              Midnight  Commander, it is useful to define
              site-global terminal settings.

       ~/.mc/ini

              User's own setup. If this file is  present  then
              the  setup  is loaded from here instead of the
              system-wide startup file.

       /nonexistent/lib/mc/mc.hint

              This file contains the hints (cookies) displayed
              by the program.

       /nonexistent/lib/mc/mc.menu

              This file contains the default system-wide
              applications menu.

       ~/.mc/menu

              User's  own application menu. If this file is
              present it is used instead of the system-wide
              applications menu.

       ~/.mc/tree

              The directory list for the directory tree  and
              tree  view  fea‐ tures.   Each line is one
              entry. The lines starting with a slash are
              full directory names. The lines starting with
              a number  have that  many  characters  equal
              to the previous directory. If you want you may
              create this file by  giving  the  command  "find
              / -type  d -print | sort > ~/.mc.tree". Normally
              there is no sense in doing it because the
              Midnight Commander automatically updates this
              file for you.

       ./.mc.menu

              Local  user-defined  menu.  If  this  file
              is present it is used instead of the home or
              system-wide applications menu.

LLIICCEENNSSEE
       This program is distributed under the terms of the
       GNU  General  Public License  as published by the Free
       Software Foundation. See the built-in help for details
       on the License and the lack of warranty.

AAVVAAIILLAABBIILLIITTYY
       The latest version of this program can be found at
       ftp.nuclecu.unam.mx in the directory /linux/local and
       from Europe at sunsite.mff.cuni.cz in the directory
       /GNU/mc and at ftp.teuto.de in the directory /lmb/mc.

SSEEEE AALLSSOO
       ed(1),  gpm(1),  mcserv(8),  terminfo(1),  view(1),
       sh(1),   bash(1), tcsh(1), zsh(1).

       The Midnight Commander page on the World Wide Web:
            http://mc.blackdown.org/mc

AAUUTTHHOORRSS
       Miguel  de  Icaza  (miguel@roxanne.nuclecu.unam.mx),
       Janne  Kukonlehto (jtklehto@paju.oulu.fi),
       Radek   Doulik   (rodo@earn.cvut.cz),   Fred
       Leeflang  (fredl@nebula.ow.org),  Dugan  Porter
       (dugan@b011.eunet.es), Jakub      Jelinek
       (jj@sunsite.mff.cuni.cz),       Ching       Hui
       (mr854307@cs.nthu.edu.tw),   Andrej  Borsenkow
       (borsenkow.msk@sni.de), Norbert   Warmuth
       (k3190@fh-sw.de),    Mauricio    Plaza    (mok@rox‐
       anne.nuclecu.unam.mx) and Paul Sheer (psheer@icon.co.za)
       are the devel‐ opers of this package; Alessandro
       Rubini  (rubini@ipvvis.unipv.it)  has been  especially
       helpful  debugging  and enhancing the program's mouse
       support, John Davis (davis@space.mit.edu) also made
       his S-Lang  library available  to  us under the GPL
       and answered my questions about it, and the following
       people have contributed  code  and  many  bug  fixes
       (in alphabetical order):

       Adam   Tla/lka   (atlka@sunrise.pg.gda.pl),
       alex@bcs.zp.ua  (Alex  I.  Tkachenko), Antonio
       Palama, DOS port (palama@posso.dm.unipi.it),
       Erwin van  Eijk  (wabbit@corner.iaf.nl), Gerd
       Knorr (kraxel@cs.tu-berlin.de), Jean-Daniel  Luiset
       (luiset@cih.hcuge.ch),  Jon   Stevens   (root@dol‐
       phin.csudh.edu),   Juan   Francisco   Grigera,
       Win32   port  (j-grig‐ era@usa.net), Juan  Jose
       Ciarlante  (jjciarla@raiz.uncu.edu.ar),  Ilya
       Rybkin    (rybkin@rouge.phys.lsu.edu),   Marcelo
       Roccasalva   (mfroc‐ cas@raiz.uncu.edu.ar),
       Massimo  Fontanelli  (MC8737@mclink.it),  Pavel
       Roskin     (pavel.roskin@ecsoft.co.uk),     Sergey
       Ya.    Korshunoff (root@seyko.msk.su), Thomas
       Pundt (pundtt@math.uni-muenster.de),  Timur Bakeyev
       (timur@goff.comtat.kazan.su),       Tomasz       Cholewo
       (tjchol01@mecca.spd.louisville.edu), Torben Fjerdingstad
       (torben.fjerd‐ ingstad@uni-c.dk), Vadim Sinolitis
       (vvs@nsrd.npi.msu.su) and Wim Oster‐ holt
       (wim@djo.wtm.tudelft.nl).

BBUUGGSS
       See the file TODO in the distribution for information
       on  what  remains to be done.

       If  you  want to report a problem with the
       program, please send mail to this address:
       mc-bugs@roxanne.nuclecu.unam.mx.

       Provide a detailed description of the bug, the version
       of  the  program you  are running (mc -V display this
       information), the operating system you are running the
       program on and if the  program  crashes,  we  would
       appreciate a stack trace.




                                20 October 1997
                                mc(1)
