5 The newest version of this document is available at
6 http://mc.blackdown.org/mc/answers0.html
9 + 1.1 What is Midnight Commander?
10 + 1.2 [UPDATED] Does it run on my machine?
11 + 1.3 Does it work with my terminal?
12 + 1.4 What else do I need to run MC?
13 + 1.5 Is Midnight Commander PD? Copyrighted?
14 + 1.6 Where can I get Midnight Commander?
15 + 1.7 I don't have FTP access. Where can I get MC?
17 + 2.1 What does documentation mean with the C-?, M-? and F?
19 + 2.2 [UPDATED] Why don't function keys (or some other key)
21 + 2.3 How do I use function keys F11 to F20?
22 + 2.4 Why does the ESC key behave funny?
23 + 2.5 How can I add the plus sign (+) on the command line?
25 + 3.1 How do I enable mouse support?
26 + 3.2 How do I cut and paste text with mouse?
28 + 4.1 Why do I keep getting "Terminal not powerful enough for
30 + 4.2 [UPDATED] Why don't line drawing characters work?
31 + 4.3 Can one use latin-1 characters without losing the lines?
32 + 4.4 I have problems with entering/viewing national
34 + 4.5 How can I get colors?
35 + 4.6 My color_xterm goes completely (or partially) black!
36 + 4.7 Where can I get color_xterm?
37 + 4.8 I got colors working with MC but the other programs don't
39 + 4.9 Why are there both terminfo and termcap? Wouldn't one
41 * 5 Graphical user interface
42 + 5.1 Xview and Tk editions?
43 * 6 Command line problems
44 + 6.1 How do I stay in the last directory when I exit Midnight
46 + 6.2 How can I access command line history?
47 + 6.3 How can I complete commands, file names, variable names
49 + 6.4 [NEW] I am using ksh. Can I use functions defined in the
51 + 6.5 [NEW] Is there any way to include additional options or
53 * 7 Virtual file systems
54 + 7.1 How can I see the contents of a tar archive?
55 + 7.2 How do I get out of a tar archive?
56 + 7.3 How do I do anonymous ftp with MC?
57 + 7.4 How do I do non-anonymous ftp with MC?
58 + 7.5 How do I close an ftp connection?
59 + 7.6 Why aren't the contents of ftp panel updated?
60 + 7.7 [NEW] What kind of proxy server works with Midnight
62 * 8 Other common problems
63 + 8.1 [UPDATED] How do I get the internal editor to work?
64 + 8.2 Why doesn't "mcedit newfile" work?
65 + 8.3 [UPDATED] Is there any way to 'bookmark' favourite ftp-fs
67 + 8.4 When copying the directories lose their original date,
69 + 8.5 [UPDATED] Why I keep getting: "There is no disk in the
70 drive. Please insert a disk into drive D:"?
71 + 8.6 [NEW] When I start Midnight Commander, nothing happens!
72 + 8.7 [NEW] When I try to view a file MC hangs!
74 + 9.1 Who has written Midnight Commander?
75 + 9.2 Do I dare to use a development version?
76 + 9.3 How can I report a bug/request for a feature?
77 + 9.4 How can I join the development?
79 + 10.1 [UPDATED] This document didn't answer my question. Where
80 else can I look for an answer?
81 + 10.2 What mailing lists are there for Midnight Commander?
82 + 10.3 Where should I look on the World Wide Web for MC stuff?
83 + 10.4 Are the mailing lists archived anywhere?
86 + 11.2 [UPDATED] File formats
87 + 11.3 Feedback is invited
88 + 11.4 Disclaimer and copyright
92 1.1 What is Midnight Commander?
94 The Midnight Commander is a user-friendly yet powerful file manager
95 and visual shell, useful to novice and guru alike. It provides a
96 clear, user-friendly, and somewhat protected interface to a Unix
97 system while making many frequent file operations more efficient and
98 preserving the full power of the command prompt. You will wonder how
99 you could ever live without it.
101 For more thorough description take a look at the announcement of
102 Midnight Commander 4.0.
104 1.2 [UPDATED] Does it run on my machine?
106 Yes, Midnight Commander can run on almost any machine, including Unix
107 clones, Windows 95/NT and OS/2. Midnight Commander does not run on
110 Midnight Commander uses GNU autoconfigure which can automatically
111 configure Midnight Commander for use on almost any (if not every) Unix
112 clone. Following configurations have been tested:
113 * i386-*-linux1.x, 2.x
115 * sparc-linux-linux2.x
116 * sparc64-linux-linux2.1
117 * mips-sgi-irix5.x, 6.x
119 * rs6000-ibm-aix3.2.5
121 * sparc-sun-solaris2.3, 2.4, 2.5
122 * sparc-sun-netbsd1.0
127 * mc88110-aviion-dgux5.4R2.01
130 * i386-*-windows-nt-3.51, 4.0
134 See http://mc.blackdown.org/mc/download.html.
136 There is also a preliminary Ms-Dos port at
137 http://mc.blackdown.org/cgi-mc/download/DOS/.html (but no Ms-Dos
140 Windows 95/NT port is compiled with Microsoft Visual C++ but it might
141 be possible to use cygwin32 or djgpp instead.
143 1.3 Does it work with my terminal?
147 Because Midnight Commander is a full screen program it doesn't run on
148 dummy terminals but anything more advanced will do (like vt100). If
149 your terminal works with vi, emacs, elm or pine it will work with
152 The XView and Tk editions currently under development will require an
155 1.4 What else do I need to run MC?
157 You need an Unix compatible operating system or Windows 95/NT or OS/2.
159 If you want to use mouse on the Linux console you need General Purpose
160 Mouse server from iride.unipv.it: /pub/gpm/. You need nothing extra to
163 To compile the XView edition (currently under development) you need
164 XView library. Xpm library and X11 non-rectangular shape extensions
167 To compile the Tk edition (currently under development) you need
168 Tk-4.0 libraries. Compilation of the Tk version won't be easy. Contact
171 If you do not want to use the slang library you could try using
172 ncurses (we recommend only version 4.1 and above).
174 You can get it along with other curses libraries, too, but results may
175 not be pretty or even usable.
177 1.5 Is Midnight Commander PD? Copyrighted?
179 Midnight Commander is under GNU Public License which basically means
180 that you may freely copy, change and distribute it, but that you may
181 not impose any restrictions on further distribution, and that you must
182 make the source code available. This is not the same as Public Domain.
183 For details, the GNU license is included in the Midnight Commander
184 source distribution (the COPYING file).
186 Midnight Commander is nowadays officially a part of GNU project. All
187 the authors of the Midnight Commander have given all their rights on
188 the program to the Free Software Foundation.
190 1.6 Where can I get Midnight Commander?
192 See http://mc.blackdown.org/mc/download.html. There are about seventy
193 download sites. Note that the newest files might not be present on all
194 the download sites yet.
196 In short: the main site is ftp://ftp.nuclecu.unam.mx/linux/local/ and
197 the sunsite.unc.edu mirrors have MC in the
198 /pub/Linux/utils/file/managers/mc directory.
200 1.7 I don't have FTP access. Where can I get MC?
202 Most Linux CD-ROMs include Midnight Commander. For example, Slackware,
203 Yggdrasil, S.U.S.E., Jurix, RedHat, Caldera and Debian.
207 2.1 What does documentation mean with the C-?, M-? and F? keys?
209 Midnight Commander documentation uses emacs style names for keyboard
212 C stands for the Ctrl key. For example, C-f means that you should hold
213 down the Ctrl key and press the f key.
215 M stands for the Meta key. Your terminal might call it Alt or Compose
216 instead of Meta. For example, M-f means that you should hold down the
217 Meta/Alt/Compose key and press the f key. If your terminal doesn't
218 have Meta, Alt or Compose or they don't work you can use Esc. For M-f
219 press the Esc key and then press the f key.
221 F? stands for a function key. If your terminal doesn't have function
222 keys or they don't work you can use Esc. For example, for F3 press the
223 Esc key and then press the 3 key.
225 2.2 [UPDATED] Why don't function keys (or some other key) work?
227 Your terminfo or termcap database has missing or incorrect definations
228 for function keys. Type "mc -V" to see what terminal database is being
229 used. If the result is "using the S-Lang library with terminfo
230 database" you should install one of the enhanced terminfo databases
231 included in the Midnight Commander source distribution. For example,
232 if you are using xterm type "tic xterm.ti".
234 If the result is "using the S-Lang library with termcap database" you
235 should fix your /etc/termcap database.
237 Best terminfo database is bundled with ncurses 4.2
239 You can select whether Midnight Commander will use terminfo or termcap
240 database by giving --with-terminfo or --with-termcap option to the
241 configure. Default is terminfo if found, otherwise termcap.
243 If you don't have permissions to edit terminal databases you can use
244 Learn keys feature of Midnight Commander instead. Press Esc 9 o k and
247 If all else fails you can emulate function keys by first pressing the
248 ESC key and then one of the number keys. For example, if you want to
249 produce F9, press ESC, then 9. If you don't have a ESC key on your
250 keyboard you can try alt-9 or meta-9.
252 2.3 How do I use function keys F11 to F20?
254 These can mapped to function keys F1 to F10 with Shift held. eg.
255 function key F13 can be activated by pressing Shift-F3. You can define
256 the keys this way in the Options menu. The convention for PC keyboards
257 is that F11-20 always means Shift with F1-10
259 Note! Windows 95/NT and OS/2 ports use F11 and F12 keys to change the
260 current disk drive. In this case F11 and F12 mean the real F11 and F12
261 keys, not shift-F1 and shift-F2.
263 2.4 Why does the ESC key behave funny?
265 Midnight Commander uses the ESC key as a prefix for simulating the
266 Meta and Alt keys (for terminals which don't have Meta or Alt, see the
267 three previous questions). For example, pressing ESC-a is the same as
268 pressing Meta-a. In addition most terminals use ESC for internal
269 representation of arrow keys, function keys and other enhanced keys.
270 If you want to use ESC to cancel things you have to press it twice i.
271 e. ESC-ESC. If you find this cumbersome you can generally use F10 to
272 cancel. Alternatively turn on the old_esc_mode setting in the
273 ~/.mc.ini file. The old_esc_mode setting makes ESC work as a prefix
274 only if another key is pressed within 0.5 seconds. After 0.5 seconds
275 the ESC key cancels. There is no way to make ESC cancel immediately
276 (if we want to be able to use arrows keys and function keys).
278 X terminals allow more control over keyboard, so these ESC limitations
279 might not concern the forthcoming XView and Tk editions of the
282 2.5 How can I add the plus sign (+) on the command line?
284 Press C-q first, then press the + sign.
286 The plus key is the hotkey for the select files command. If you want
287 to add a literal plus on to the command line you must quote it by
290 Another common key which needs the C-q prefix is backslash "\".
294 3.1 How do I enable mouse support?
296 Invoke mc like this (without quotes): "mc -x". If this doesn't work
297 upgrade to a terminal which compatible with the Xterm mouse sequences.
299 Alternatively, on Linux console you can use GPM.
301 3.2 How do I cut and paste text with mouse?
303 Hold down shift key while using mouse to cut'n'paste.
307 4.1 Why do I keep getting "Terminal not powerful enough for SLang"?
309 This means that your terminfo databases do not contain the correct
310 definitions for your terminal.
312 You could try using a different terminal setting. If you use csh or
317 or if you use sh, bash, ksh or zsh:
321 If this doesn't help you can recompile MC to use termcap instead of
324 ./configure --with-termcap
327 4.2 [UPDATED] Why don't line drawing characters work?
329 Since version 4.0.13 there's the commandline option -a to force use of
330 +, |, - for line drawing (only available when compiled with SLang).
331 Use this -a option if any of the suggestions below doesn't help.
333 In general, there are three subcases:
334 * Lines are shown as ASCII characters like this
339 This also happens when you use the -a option. Other than that possible
340 reason is 1, 2 or 3 (see below).
341 * Lines are shown as lower case characters like this
346 Possible reason is 2 or 3 (see below).
347 * Lines are shown as blanks or missing characters. Possible reason
348 is 3 or 4 (see below).
350 The reason for the problem is one of following:
351 1. Your curses library might not support line drawing characters.
352 Slang, Ncurses and System V curses do support them, BSD curses
353 doesn't. MC uses Slang by default so this is not usually a
355 2. Your terminal might not support line drawing characters. Vt100
356 compatible terminals, rxvt, xterm and color_xterm do support them.
357 3. Your terminfo or termcap database might have missing or incorrect
358 definations for line drawing characters. Set the acsc variable in
359 the terminfo database like this:
360 acsc=a\376k\277l\332m\300j\331n\305w\302v\301u\264t\303q\304x\263h
362 Don't forget issue 'tic' command. This supposes you are using pc
363 character set. The octal values might be different for other
364 character sets. If you are using termcap instead of terminfo, you
365 should modify above solution appropriately.
366 4. Your terminal font might not support line drawing characters. Try
369 Here is Miguel's answer to Torben on this subject.
373 When I load consolefonts/iso01.f16, I get perfectly right national
374 characters, but the line drawing characters in mc get wrong. Is it
375 a mc problem, or is it a problem with the font? (I guess it is).
381 First of all, we should determine whether the font has line drawing
384 If it has line drawing characters, then a new terminfo entry should
385 be written for this specific case. Let's call this linux-iso01. The
386 acsc variable should be modified to reflect which characters are
387 used to do the line drawing.
389 If it does not have line drawing characters, then we should get rid
390 of the switch to acsc sequences and make the acsc sequence be just
391 a mapping to the ugly +, -, |, - characters.
393 You can get your terminfo definition by running the infocmp
394 program, making the proper changes and running the tic program to
395 compile your new terminfo database.
397 4.3 Can one use latin-1 characters without losing the lines?
399 Yes, you need a correct font and a correct termcap/terminfo database.
401 For font, if you use xterm try "xterm -fn fixed".
403 For termcap/terminfo database, change the acsc capability in the
406 4.4 I have problems with entering/viewing national characters!
408 Upgrade to version 4.0.12 or newer.
410 From the Options - Display Bits dialog select Full 8 bits or ISO
411 8859-1. In addition, select 8 bit input from the same dialog.
413 4.5 How can I get colors?
415 Invoke mc like this (without quotes): "mc -c".
417 If you get colors, be happy.
419 If your terminal stays black and white, your terminal doesn't support
420 color. You might want to upgrade to a terminal which compatible with
421 the ANSI color sequences.
423 If your terminal goes compelety black, see the next question.
425 More detailed answer:
427 First, check that your terminal supports color. Color_xterm, rxvt and
428 Linux console do support, most other terminals don't. You can test
429 color support with following simple C program:
434 printf ("\033[32m Hello world! \033[m\n");
438 Compile and run it. If you see "Hello world!" text in green your
439 terminal supports color, otherwise not (however, for color_xterm see
440 also the next question).
442 Second, check that you are using Ncurses or the Slang library (type
443 "mc -V" to find out), in addition some System V curses implementations
444 do support color, most don't.
446 With Slang library you can force color support by setting the
447 environment variable COLORTERM to any value.
449 Third, if you use ncurses library, check that your terminfo database
450 supports color. If not you should install one of the enhanced terminfo
451 databases included in the Midnight Commander source distribution.
453 Fourth, you might want to set the TERM environment variable so that
454 you use the correct terminfo database or termcap entry.
456 If you use color_xterm (or rxvt) the correct value might be
457 xterm-color, xtermc or simply xterm.
459 If you use Linux console the correct value for TERM is linux or
462 4.6 My color_xterm goes completely (or partially) black!
464 Some color_xterm terminals define all colors as black instead of the
465 standard ANSI colors. This makes them go completely black when you try
466 to use Midnight Commander with colors.
468 You will have to override the defaults. Create a file "color.defaults"
469 which has the following contents:
471 color_xterm*color0: Black
472 color_xterm*color1: Red
473 color_xterm*color2: Green
474 color_xterm*color3: Yellow
475 color_xterm*color4: Blue
476 color_xterm*color5: Magenta
477 color_xterm*color6: Cyan
478 color_xterm*color7: White
479 color_xterm*background: White
480 color_xterm*foreground: Black
482 (replace color_xterm with the name of your color_xterm, color_xterm
483 mentions its name in its title bar)
487 xrdb -merge color.defaults
489 Alternatively you can add the suggested contents of the color.defaults
490 file to your .Xdefaults or .Xresources file (or what ever the name of
491 your X configuration file is). Or you can replace your non-ANSI
492 color_xterm with an ANSI color_xterm.
494 4.7 Where can I get color_xterm?
496 Try ftp.x.org: /contrib/utilities/colour_xterm.tar.gz.
498 Alternatively, rxvt is a better choice, see
499 http://mc.blackdown.org/cgi-mc/download/rxvt/.html
501 4.8 I got colors working with MC but the other programs don't work at all
504 Midnight Commander uses terminfo database (if available) but many
505 other programs use termcap database. If you set the TERM environment
506 variable to a value which has no corresponding entry in termcap
507 database those programs stop working. You should add the new value of
508 TERM to the termcap database.
510 Example: If you have set TERM to xterm-color locate from /etc/termcap
511 the line which starts:
513 xterm|vs100|xterm terminal emulator
517 xterm|xterm-color|vs100|xterm terminal emulator
519 4.9 Why are there both terminfo and termcap? Wouldn't one database be enough?
521 You might want to read the Unix-haters handbook at
522 http://www.digital.de/people/jmh/Unix_Haters/unix-haters.html. It
523 lists many more reasons why Unix sucks.
525 You can configure which terminal database you want to use with the
526 "--with-termcap" and "--with-terminfo" flags of configure. If you
527 don't specify them, the configure script will try to use terminfo if
528 available otherwise it will use termcap.
530 5 Graphical user interface
532 5.1 Xview and Tk editions?
534 Get the newest development version, give the "--with-xview" or
535 "--with-tk" option to the configure and otherwise compile as usual.
538 Xview and Tk editions are work in progress, they are not as robust as
539 the text mode edition.
541 6 Command line problems
543 6.1 How do I stay in the last directory when I exit Midnight Commander?
545 See the description of the -P option in the Options section of the
548 6.2 How can I access command line history?
550 You can browse previous commands with M-p and M-n. Alternatively, you
551 can summon the command history listbox by pressing F9 c h.
553 6.3 How can I complete commands, file names, variable names and so on?
555 Just press M-Tab. Press M-Tab again to get a listbox if there are
556 multiple possible completions.
558 6.4 [NEW] I am using ksh. Can I use functions defined in the .kshrc within
561 Sorry, MC only supports bash, tcsh and zsh functions. Ksh functions
562 are not supported because ksh lacks the necessary hooks needed for
563 subshell integration.
565 Switch to bash or zsh. They are both quite compatible with ksh. Your
566 ksh functions should work as such or after minimal changes.
568 6.5 [NEW] Is there any way to include additional options or hot keys to MC?
570 Yes, F2 invokes an user menu which fully configurable. You can add any
571 shell commands to the user menu. See
572 http://mc.blackdown.org/mc/manual-d.html#8 for more info.
574 Another way to add functionality is the external panelize feature. See
575 http://mc.blackdown.org/mc/manual-d.html#4 for more info.
577 And finally, you can code any feature you want yourself. MC source
578 code is free which means you can change it anyway you want. There are
579 some limitations to make sure MC stays free. See GNU General Public
582 7 Virtual file systems
584 Note! Virtual file systems are supported by Unix ports only. The
585 Windows 95/NT and OS/2 ports do NOT support virtual file systems. This
586 means you haven't got ftp, zip or tar support on Windows 95/NT and
589 7.1 How can I see the contents of a tar archive?
591 If you use keyboard just move the selection bar on the tar file and
594 If you use mouse just doubleclick on the tar file.
596 If these procedures don't work, your .mc.ext file is faulty. Replace
597 it with one from the MC source distribution.
599 You can also enter a tar archive by typing "cd tar:filename.tar.gz"
600 where filename.tar.gz is the name of the archive.
602 The recognized suffixes for tar archives are .tar, .tar.gz and .tgz.
603 If your tar archive uses different suffix you have to rename it.
605 7.2 How do I get out of a tar archive?
607 Just press enter on the toplevel ".." file or chdir to a non-tar
608 directory. Just typing "cd" with no parameters is enough (it will take
609 you to your home directory).
611 7.3 How do I do anonymous ftp with MC?
613 Just type "cd ftp://hostname" where hostname is the name of the host
614 you want to connect. Alternatively, select FTP link from the Left or
615 Right menu and type the name of the host you want to connect.
617 7.4 How do I do non-anonymous ftp with MC?
619 Non-anonymous ftp works just like the anonymous ftp but you give the
620 login name with the host name. For example, type "cd
621 ftp://username@hostname".
623 7.5 How do I close an ftp connection?
625 Just chdir to a non-ftp directory. Just typing "cd" with no parameters
626 is enough (it will take you to your home directory).
628 Internally Midnight Commander closes ftp connection only after a
629 timeout. This isn't visible to the end user.
631 7.6 Why aren't the contents of ftp panel updated?
633 Update is skipped because there would be a serious performance
634 penalty. Constantly updating directory panels through a ftp connection
635 would take too much time.
637 You can use C-r to force an update.
639 7.7 [NEW] What kind of proxy server works with Midnight Commander?
641 Midnight Commander only supports ftp-like ftp proxies. Common WWW
642 proxies (like Squid) are not supported yet because they make ftp
643 connections look like http connections.
645 8 Other common problems
647 8.1 [UPDATED] How do I get the internal editor to work?
649 The F4 key defaults to an external editor because thats what most
650 people are used to. To use the internal editor, select Configuration
651 from the Options menu and check the 'use internal edit' option.
653 Alternatively add the line
656 under the [Midnight-Commander] section in your .mc.ini file (which is
657 in your home directory).
659 To make the editor work all the time, go to the default/* section in
660 the file lib/mc/mc.ext file and remove the line
662 Edit=%var{EDITOR:vi} %f
664 The internal editor will now be invoked for anything not specified
665 elsewhere in the mc.ext file.
667 Make sure that you edit the correct mc.ext file. The Midnight
668 Commander first checks the existance of $HOME/.mc.ext. If this file is
669 missing MC will use $prefix/lib/mc/mc.ext instead ($prefix can be
670 changed with configure before compilation and it defaults to
673 When you run `F9/Command/Extension file edit' for the very first time
674 Midnight Commander copies the system-wide mc.ext from $prefix/lib/mc
675 into your home directory because you need write access in order to
678 And please don't forget that "make install" overwrites
679 $prefix/lib/mc/mc.ext.
681 8.2 Why doesn't "mcedit newfile" work?
685 If the newfile doesn't exist, mcedit fails.
687 Start mcedit with no parameters, this will create a blank file. Then
688 save the file with whatever name you like.
690 8.3 [UPDATED] Is there any way to 'bookmark' favourite ftp-fs links?
692 Use the directory hotlist. Just press control-backslash. If your
693 national keyboard layout doesn't have backslash key, just press the
694 control key with the key which is the backslash key in the English
697 8.4 When copying the directories lose their original date, uid and gid!
699 This is a known bug. At moment only files preserve their original
700 settings when copying, not directories.
702 Uid and gid is fixed since 4.0.1. "Preserve UIDs/GIDs" in the copy
703 dialog needs to be checked and you must be root.
705 Date problem is supposed to be fixed with 4.0.13.
707 8.5 [UPDATED] Why I keep getting: "There is no disk in the drive. Please
708 insert a disk into drive D:"?
710 This is a known bug of the Windows 95/NT and OS/2 ports. MC looks its
711 configuration files from the D:\MC directory and if the D: drive is a
712 removable drive (like a CD ROM drive) and there is no disk in drive
713 you get this message everytime you try to do anything.
715 Since version 4.0.6 you can specify the actual location of the
716 Midnight Commander configuration files with the MCHOME environment
719 8.6 [NEW] When I start Midnight Commander, nothing happens!
721 First, invoke MC without subshell support: "mc -u". If this helps
722 check the shell you are using. Subshell support works best with bash
723 although tcsh and zsh are also supported. You might want to upgrade
724 your shell to a newer version. If you use something else than bash,
725 tcsh or zsh, subshell support is disabled automatically.
727 If disabling subshell doesn't help, try to reconfigure MC with
728 "--with-our-slang" and "--with-termcap" options and recompile. If this
729 helps, there is something wrong with your terminfo database or shared
730 slang library. For better terminfo databases see chapter 4. For a
731 better slang library, upgrade to a newer version or keep using the
732 "--with-our-slang" option.
734 8.7 [NEW] When I try to view a file MC hangs!
736 This is known bug. A quick fix is "chmod 666 /dev/tty". For a more
737 complete fix, see http://mc.blackdown.org/mc/maillist/97-10/98.html.
739 This bug will probably be fixed in 4.1.6.
743 9.1 Who has written Midnight Commander?
745 Midnight Commander was started by Miguel de Icaza and he is the
746 maintainer of the package. Other authors have joined the project
748 * Mauricio Plaza (early releases, retired)
749 * Janne Kukonlehto (joined Sep 27 1994, retired Mar 8 1995, nowadays
750 Janne is the webmaster of the Midnight Commander web site)
751 * Radek Doulik (joined Oct 30 1994)
752 * Fred Leeflang (joined Nov 2 1994)
753 * Dugan Porter (joined Dec 1 1994)
754 * Jakub Jelinek (joined Feb 8 1995)
755 * Ching Hui (joined Jun 27 1995)
756 * Andrej Borsenkow (joined Jul 1996)
757 * Paul Sheer (joined Nov 1 1996)
761 Alessandro Rubini has been specially helpful with debugging and
762 enhancing of the mouse support. John Davis has made his S-Lang library
763 available to us and answered many questions about it.
765 The photographs of the authors are available as:
767 http://mc.blackdown.org/mc/about.html
769 Many people have contributed bug reports, feature suggestions and
770 small code bits (alphabetical order):
772 * Juan Jose Ciarlante
773 * Alexander Dong (OS/2 port, NT port updates)
775 * Torben Fjerdingstad
777 * Juan Grigera (NT port)
779 * Sergey Ya. Korshunoff
782 * Antonio Palama (old DOS port)
790 9.2 Do I dare to use a development version?
792 I am afraid you have to answer to this question yourself. Development
793 versions seldom cause data loss but they have usually got many bugs.
794 It's up to you to judge whether new features outweight the bugs.
796 9.3 How can I report a bug/request for a feature?
798 You might first want to get the newest development version to see if
799 the bug is fixed or the feature is added already.
801 Send your report/request to mc-devel@roxanne.nuclecu.unam.mx or
802 mc@roxanne.nuclecu.unam.mx. These mailing lists are the most certain
803 way to contact the developers. Remember to mention if you are not on
804 the mailing list to make sure that you will receive a copy of replies.
806 Give as much details as possible. A too long message is a lot better
807 than a too short message.
809 For segmentation faults a stack backtrace is appreciated. You can
810 produce stack backtrace as follows:
811 * If segmentation fault produced a core file:
812 1. Load the core file by typing "gdb mc core" or "dbx mc core".
814 3. Cut and paste the results to your message.
815 * If segmentation fault didn't produce a core file:
816 1. Load mc by typing "gdb mc" or "dbx mc".
817 2. Start mc by typing "run".
818 3. Try to reproduce the segmentation fault by doing whatever you
819 did last time when the segmentation fault occurred.
821 5. Cut and paste the results to your message.
822 6. For the future you might want to check out what is the
823 command in your shell to allow producing of the core files.
824 Usually it is "limit coredumpsize unlimited" or "ulimit
825 coredumpsize" or "ulimit -c unlimited".
827 9.4 How can I join the development?
829 To join the development just code the feature you want to add and send
830 your patch for inclusion. Email address is mc-devel@nuclecu.unam.mx.
831 Before you start coding check the latest development version. It might
832 be that your feature has already been implemented.
834 Note that the authors of the Midnight Commander have given all their
835 rights on the program to the Free Software Foundation. You will have
836 to do the same if you contribute non-trivial patches. Otherwise we
837 have to reject your patches in order to avoid copyright problems.
841 10.1 [UPDATED] This document didn't answer my question. Where else can I look
844 Read messages from the Discussion (mailing list archive), search the
845 web site or read the Manual.
847 Upgrade to a newer version of Midnight Commander. Many problems are
848 fixed in the new versions.
850 If you still can't find an answer, post your question to the Midnight
851 Commander mailing list. Its address is mc@nuclecu.unam.mx.
853 10.2 What mailing lists are there for Midnight Commander?
855 Following mailing lists discuss about Midnight Commander:
858 General discussion of the Midnight Commander
861 The mc list, in digest format
864 Major announcements about the Commander
867 The latest Commander patches
870 Technical development discussion
873 Non-MC related chatting by the developers (contact Miguel to
876 To subscribe, send e-mail to majordomo@roxanne.nuclecu.unam.mx with
877 the following line in the body of the message:
879 subscribe <list-name> [optional-address]
881 Replace <list-name> with the name of the list you want to subscribe
882 and [optional-address] with your email address.
884 10.3 Where should I look on the World Wide Web for MC stuff?
886 There is a WWW page for Midnight Commander. The URL is:
888 http://mc.blackdown.org/mc/
890 The WWW page features MC screen shots, photographs of the authors,
891 mailing list archive and a few other things.
893 10.4 Are the mailing lists archived anywhere?
895 The mc and mc-devel lists are archived on the World Wide Web page (see
896 the previous question). Other lists are not currently archived though
897 Miguel keeps a private archive. Contact him if you want copies of past
904 Questions and Answers is written by Janne Kukonlehto. Parts of it
905 originate from Ian Jackson, Miguel de Icaza, Dugan Porter, Norbert
906 Warmuth and Paul Sheer.
908 11.2 [UPDATED] File formats
910 This document is available in HTML, postscript and PDF formats at
911 http://mc.blackdown.org/mc/answers0.html.
913 This document is available in ASCII format in the Midnight Commander
916 11.3 Feedback is invited
918 Send your comments about this document to janne@mc.blackdown.org
920 Send your comments about the Midnight Commander to mc@nuclecu.unam.mx
922 11.4 Disclaimer and copyright
924 Note that this document is provided as is. The information in it is
925 not warranted to be correct; you use it at your own risk.
927 You can use Questions and Answers according to GNU Public License (see
928 the COPYING file in the Midnight Commander source distribution).
929 Questions and Answers is not public domain.
930 __________________________________________________________________
932 This document is maintained by Janne Kukonlehto
933 <janne@mc.blackdown.org>.