-*-text-*- Read the INSTALL file for the complete instructions. The Midnight Commander by default will use the Slang screen manager, if something fails with the Slang screen manager, you may compile the program with your system curses (You will need a SysV compatible curses, in case you don't have such, read the README file for directions on getting the ncurses package, a freely available replacement for SysV curses). 1. Configure the package for your system. Normally, you just `cd' to the package main directory and type `./configure'. The most often needed options to configure are following: `--prefix=PATH' By default, `make install' will install the package's files in `/usr/local/bin', `/usr/local/man', etc. or to `/usr/bin', `/usr/man', etc. depending on the location of an old mc binary. If you have none in your system, default will be `/usr/local'. You can specify an installation prefix other than default by giving `configure' the option `--prefix=PATH'. `--with-slang' (default) The easy way to get the Commander running: Slang is part of the distribution. This is the default screen manager, if you run configure without any --with-*curses parameter. `--with-ncurses[=PATH]' Use the flag without =PATH if you want to compile with ncurses (default is in version 3.0 the SLang screen manager included in the distribution). Use this flag with =PATH part, if you want to compile with ncurses and your ncurses is not installed in any of the places configure checks (/usr/include, /usr/include/ncurses, /usr/local/include and /usr/local/include/ncurses). The configure script will append `lib' and `include' to find the libncurses.a and ncurses.h files respectively. `--with-gpm-mouse[=PATH]' Use this flag if your GPM mouse package cannot be detected by the configure. Use =PATH if it is installed in a non-standard place. The configure will append `lib' and `include' to find the libgpm.a and gpm.h files respectively. `--with-sco' If you are compiling on a SCO machine. You may also want to specify CFLAGS for the compiler, even if it finds itself some defaults by typing e.g. `CFLAGS=-O2 ./configure' 2. Type `make' to compile the package. 3. Type `make install' (as root) to install programs, data files, and documentation. If you're on a Linux system, this will install the `cons.saver' utility, which allows the Midnight Commander to save and restore the screen contents. If you're making a mc binary distribution for other people and want to tar the whole binary later, you may want to specify `make install DESTDIR=PATH', which will make PATH the root for installation (but in the installed stuff will be still stored only --prefix). 3a. Type `make mcfninstall' to get an interactive program check if you want to define an useful alias for the Midnight Commander. 4. Type `mc' and enjoy!