+++ /dev/null
-
- Midnight Commander
- Questions and Answers
-
- The newest version of this document is available at
- http://mc.blackdown.org/mc/answers0.html
-
- * 1 Getting started
- + 1.1 What is Midnight Commander?
- + 1.2 [UPDATED] Does it run on my machine?
- + 1.3 Does it work with my terminal?
- + 1.4 What else do I need to run MC?
- + 1.5 Is Midnight Commander PD? Copyrighted?
- + 1.6 Where can I get Midnight Commander?
- + 1.7 I don't have FTP access. Where can I get MC?
- * 2 Keyboard
- + 2.1 What does documentation mean with the C-?, M-? and F?
- keys?
- + 2.2 [UPDATED] Why don't function keys (or some other key)
- work?
- + 2.3 How do I use function keys F11 to F20?
- + 2.4 Why does the ESC key behave funny?
- + 2.5 How can I add the plus sign (+) on the command line?
- * 3 Mouse
- + 3.1 How do I enable mouse support?
- + 3.2 How do I cut and paste text with mouse?
- * 4 Display
- + 4.1 Why do I keep getting "Terminal not powerful enough for
- SLang"?
- + 4.2 [UPDATED] Why don't line drawing characters work?
- + 4.3 Can one use latin-1 characters without losing the lines?
- + 4.4 I have problems with entering/viewing national
- characters!
- + 4.5 How can I get colors?
- + 4.6 My color_xterm goes completely (or partially) black!
- + 4.7 Where can I get color_xterm?
- + 4.8 I got colors working with MC but the other programs don't
- work at all anymore!
- + 4.9 Why are there both terminfo and termcap? Wouldn't one
- database be enough?
- * 5 Graphical user interface
- + 5.1 Xview and Tk editions?
- * 6 Command line problems
- + 6.1 How do I stay in the last directory when I exit Midnight
- Commander?
- + 6.2 How can I access command line history?
- + 6.3 How can I complete commands, file names, variable names
- and so on?
- + 6.4 [NEW] I am using ksh. Can I use functions defined in the
- .kshrc within MC?
- + 6.5 [NEW] Is there any way to include additional options or
- hot keys to MC?
- * 7 Virtual file systems
- + 7.1 How can I see the contents of a tar archive?
- + 7.2 How do I get out of a tar archive?
- + 7.3 How do I do anonymous ftp with MC?
- + 7.4 How do I do non-anonymous ftp with MC?
- + 7.5 How do I close an ftp connection?
- + 7.6 Why aren't the contents of ftp panel updated?
- + 7.7 [NEW] What kind of proxy server works with Midnight
- Commander?
- * 8 Other common problems
- + 8.1 [UPDATED] How do I get the internal editor to work?
- + 8.2 Why doesn't "mcedit newfile" work?
- + 8.3 [UPDATED] Is there any way to 'bookmark' favourite ftp-fs
- links?
- + 8.4 When copying the directories lose their original date,
- uid and gid!
- + 8.5 [UPDATED] Why I keep getting: "There is no disk in the
- drive. Please insert a disk into drive D:"?
- + 8.6 [NEW] When I start Midnight Commander, nothing happens!
- + 8.7 [NEW] When I try to view a file MC hangs!
- * 9 Development
- + 9.1 Who has written Midnight Commander?
- + 9.2 Do I dare to use a development version?
- + 9.3 How can I report a bug/request for a feature?
- + 9.4 How can I join the development?
- * 10 More information
- + 10.1 [UPDATED] This document didn't answer my question. Where
- else can I look for an answer?
- + 10.2 What mailing lists are there for Midnight Commander?
- + 10.3 Where should I look on the World Wide Web for MC stuff?
- + 10.4 Are the mailing lists archived anywhere?
- * 11 Administrivia
- + 11.1 Authorship
- + 11.2 [UPDATED] File formats
- + 11.3 Feedback is invited
- + 11.4 Disclaimer and copyright
-
-1 Getting started
-
- 1.1 What is Midnight Commander?
-
- The Midnight Commander is a user-friendly yet powerful file manager
- and visual shell, useful to novice and guru alike. It provides a
- clear, user-friendly, and somewhat protected interface to a Unix
- system while making many frequent file operations more efficient and
- preserving the full power of the command prompt. You will wonder how
- you could ever live without it.
-
- For more thorough description take a look at the announcement of
- Midnight Commander 4.0.
-
- 1.2 [UPDATED] Does it run on my machine?
-
- Yes, Midnight Commander can run on almost any machine, including Unix
- clones, Windows 95/NT and OS/2. Midnight Commander does not run on
- Macintosh.
-
- Midnight Commander uses GNU autoconfigure which can automatically
- configure Midnight Commander for use on almost any (if not every) Unix
- clone. Following configurations have been tested:
- * i386-*-linux1.x, 2.x
- * alpha-linux-linux2
- * sparc-linux-linux2.x
- * sparc64-linux-linux2.1
- * mips-sgi-irix5.x, 6.x
- * mips-dec-ultrix4.3
- * rs6000-ibm-aix3.2.5
- * sparc-sun-sunos4.1
- * sparc-sun-solaris2.3, 2.4, 2.5
- * sparc-sun-netbsd1.0
- * hppa-hp-hpux9
- * hppa-hp-hpux7
- * m68k-apple-aux
- * unixware
- * mc88110-aviion-dgux5.4R2.01
- * i386-*-sco3.2v4.2
- * i386-*-sco3.2v5
- * i386-*-windows-nt-3.51, 4.0
- * i386-*-windows95
- * i386-*-os2
-
- See http://mc.blackdown.org/mc/download.html.
-
- There is also a preliminary Ms-Dos port at
- http://mc.blackdown.org/cgi-mc/download/DOS/.html (but no Ms-Dos
- binary).
-
- Windows 95/NT port is compiled with Microsoft Visual C++ but it might
- be possible to use cygwin32 or djgpp instead.
-
- 1.3 Does it work with my terminal?
-
- Yes, it does.
-
- Because Midnight Commander is a full screen program it doesn't run on
- dummy terminals but anything more advanced will do (like vt100). If
- your terminal works with vi, emacs, elm or pine it will work with
- Midnight Commander.
-
- The XView and Tk editions currently under development will require an
- X terminal.
-
- 1.4 What else do I need to run MC?
-
- You need an Unix compatible operating system or Windows 95/NT or OS/2.
-
- If you want to use mouse on the Linux console you need General Purpose
- Mouse server from iride.unipv.it: /pub/gpm/. You need nothing extra to
- use mouse on xterm.
-
- To compile the XView edition (currently under development) you need
- XView library. Xpm library and X11 non-rectangular shape extensions
- are recommended.
-
- To compile the Tk edition (currently under development) you need
- Tk-4.0 libraries. Compilation of the Tk version won't be easy. Contact
- Miguel for details.
-
- If you do not want to use the slang library you could try using
- ncurses (we recommend only version 4.1 and above).
-
- You can get it along with other curses libraries, too, but results may
- not be pretty or even usable.
-
- 1.5 Is Midnight Commander PD? Copyrighted?
-
- Midnight Commander is under GNU Public License which basically means
- that you may freely copy, change and distribute it, but that you may
- not impose any restrictions on further distribution, and that you must
- make the source code available. This is not the same as Public Domain.
- For details, the GNU license is included in the Midnight Commander
- source distribution (the COPYING file).
-
- Midnight Commander is nowadays officially a part of GNU project. All
- the authors of the Midnight Commander have given all their rights on
- the program to the Free Software Foundation.
-
- 1.6 Where can I get Midnight Commander?
-
- See http://mc.blackdown.org/mc/download.html. There are about seventy
- download sites. Note that the newest files might not be present on all
- the download sites yet.
-
- In short: the main site is ftp://ftp.nuclecu.unam.mx/linux/local/ and
- the sunsite.unc.edu mirrors have MC in the
- /pub/Linux/utils/file/managers/mc directory.
-
- 1.7 I don't have FTP access. Where can I get MC?
-
- Most Linux CD-ROMs include Midnight Commander. For example, Slackware,
- Yggdrasil, S.U.S.E., Jurix, RedHat, Caldera and Debian.
-
-2 Keyboard
-
- 2.1 What does documentation mean with the C-?, M-? and F? keys?
-
- Midnight Commander documentation uses emacs style names for keyboard
- keys.
-
- C stands for the Ctrl key. For example, C-f means that you should hold
- down the Ctrl key and press the f key.
-
- M stands for the Meta key. Your terminal might call it Alt or Compose
- instead of Meta. For example, M-f means that you should hold down the
- Meta/Alt/Compose key and press the f key. If your terminal doesn't
- have Meta, Alt or Compose or they don't work you can use Esc. For M-f
- press the Esc key and then press the f key.
-
- F? stands for a function key. If your terminal doesn't have function
- keys or they don't work you can use Esc. For example, for F3 press the
- Esc key and then press the 3 key.
-
- 2.2 [UPDATED] Why don't function keys (or some other key) work?
-
- Your terminfo or termcap database has missing or incorrect definations
- for function keys. Type "mc -V" to see what terminal database is being
- used. If the result is "using the S-Lang library with terminfo
- database" you should install one of the enhanced terminfo databases
- included in the Midnight Commander source distribution. For example,
- if you are using xterm type "tic xterm.ti".
-
- If the result is "using the S-Lang library with termcap database" you
- should fix your /etc/termcap database.
-
- Best terminfo database is bundled with ncurses 4.2
-
- You can select whether Midnight Commander will use terminfo or termcap
- database by giving --with-terminfo or --with-termcap option to the
- configure. Default is terminfo if found, otherwise termcap.
-
- If you don't have permissions to edit terminal databases you can use
- Learn keys feature of Midnight Commander instead. Press Esc 9 o k and
- follow instructions.
-
- If all else fails you can emulate function keys by first pressing the
- ESC key and then one of the number keys. For example, if you want to
- produce F9, press ESC, then 9. If you don't have a ESC key on your
- keyboard you can try alt-9 or meta-9.
-
- 2.3 How do I use function keys F11 to F20?
-
- These can mapped to function keys F1 to F10 with Shift held. eg.
- function key F13 can be activated by pressing Shift-F3. You can define
- the keys this way in the Options menu. The convention for PC keyboards
- is that F11-20 always means Shift with F1-10
-
- Note! Windows 95/NT and OS/2 ports use F11 and F12 keys to change the
- current disk drive. In this case F11 and F12 mean the real F11 and F12
- keys, not shift-F1 and shift-F2.
-
- 2.4 Why does the ESC key behave funny?
-
- Midnight Commander uses the ESC key as a prefix for simulating the
- Meta and Alt keys (for terminals which don't have Meta or Alt, see the
- three previous questions). For example, pressing ESC-a is the same as
- pressing Meta-a. In addition most terminals use ESC for internal
- representation of arrow keys, function keys and other enhanced keys.
- If you want to use ESC to cancel things you have to press it twice i.
- e. ESC-ESC. If you find this cumbersome you can generally use F10 to
- cancel. Alternatively turn on the old_esc_mode setting in the
- ~/.mc.ini file. The old_esc_mode setting makes ESC work as a prefix
- only if another key is pressed within 0.5 seconds. After 0.5 seconds
- the ESC key cancels. There is no way to make ESC cancel immediately
- (if we want to be able to use arrows keys and function keys).
-
- X terminals allow more control over keyboard, so these ESC limitations
- might not concern the forthcoming XView and Tk editions of the
- Midnight Commander.
-
- 2.5 How can I add the plus sign (+) on the command line?
-
- Press C-q first, then press the + sign.
-
- The plus key is the hotkey for the select files command. If you want
- to add a literal plus on to the command line you must quote it by
- pressing C-q first.
-
- Another common key which needs the C-q prefix is backslash "\".
-
-3 Mouse
-
- 3.1 How do I enable mouse support?
-
- Invoke mc like this (without quotes): "mc -x". If this doesn't work
- upgrade to a terminal which compatible with the Xterm mouse sequences.
-
- Alternatively, on Linux console you can use GPM.
-
- 3.2 How do I cut and paste text with mouse?
-
- Hold down shift key while using mouse to cut'n'paste.
-
-4 Display
-
- 4.1 Why do I keep getting "Terminal not powerful enough for SLang"?
-
- This means that your terminfo databases do not contain the correct
- definitions for your terminal.
-
- You could try using a different terminal setting. If you use csh or
- tcsh:
-
- setenv TERM vt100
-
- or if you use sh, bash, ksh or zsh:
-
- export TERM=vt100
-
- If this doesn't help you can recompile MC to use termcap instead of
- terminfo:
-
- ./configure --with-termcap
- make
-
- 4.2 [UPDATED] Why don't line drawing characters work?
-
- Since version 4.0.13 there's the commandline option -a to force use of
- +, |, - for line drawing (only available when compiled with SLang).
- Use this -a option if any of the suggestions below doesn't help.
-
- In general, there are three subcases:
- * Lines are shown as ASCII characters like this
-
- +---------+
- | |
- +---------+
- This also happens when you use the -a option. Other than that possible
- reason is 1, 2 or 3 (see below).
- * Lines are shown as lower case characters like this
-
- lqqqqqqqqqk
- x x
- mqqqqqqqqqj
- Possible reason is 2 or 3 (see below).
- * Lines are shown as blanks or missing characters. Possible reason
- is 3 or 4 (see below).
-
- The reason for the problem is one of following:
- 1. Your curses library might not support line drawing characters.
- Slang, Ncurses and System V curses do support them, BSD curses
- doesn't. MC uses Slang by default so this is not usually a
- problem.
- 2. Your terminal might not support line drawing characters. Vt100
- compatible terminals, rxvt, xterm and color_xterm do support them.
- 3. Your terminfo or termcap database might have missing or incorrect
- definations for line drawing characters. Set the acsc variable in
- the terminfo database like this:
- acsc=a\376k\277l\332m\300j\331n\305w\302v\301u\264t\303q\304x\263h
- \2600\333
- Don't forget issue 'tic' command. This supposes you are using pc
- character set. The octal values might be different for other
- character sets. If you are using termcap instead of terminfo, you
- should modify above solution appropriately.
- 4. Your terminal font might not support line drawing characters. Try
- changing the font.
-
- Here is Miguel's answer to Torben on this subject.
-
- Torben:
-
- When I load consolefonts/iso01.f16, I get perfectly right national
- characters, but the line drawing characters in mc get wrong. Is it
- a mc problem, or is it a problem with the font? (I guess it is).
-
- Is there a trick?
-
- Miguel:
-
- First of all, we should determine whether the font has line drawing
- characters or not.
-
- If it has line drawing characters, then a new terminfo entry should
- be written for this specific case. Let's call this linux-iso01. The
- acsc variable should be modified to reflect which characters are
- used to do the line drawing.
-
- If it does not have line drawing characters, then we should get rid
- of the switch to acsc sequences and make the acsc sequence be just
- a mapping to the ugly +, -, |, - characters.
-
- You can get your terminfo definition by running the infocmp
- program, making the proper changes and running the tic program to
- compile your new terminfo database.
-
- 4.3 Can one use latin-1 characters without losing the lines?
-
- Yes, you need a correct font and a correct termcap/terminfo database.
-
- For font, if you use xterm try "xterm -fn fixed".
-
- For termcap/terminfo database, change the acsc capability in the
- database.
-
- 4.4 I have problems with entering/viewing national characters!
-
- Upgrade to version 4.0.12 or newer.
-
- From the Options - Display Bits dialog select Full 8 bits or ISO
- 8859-1. In addition, select 8 bit input from the same dialog.
-
- 4.5 How can I get colors?
-
- Invoke mc like this (without quotes): "mc -c".
-
- If you get colors, be happy.
-
- If your terminal stays black and white, your terminal doesn't support
- color. You might want to upgrade to a terminal which compatible with
- the ANSI color sequences.
-
- If your terminal goes compelety black, see the next question.
-
- More detailed answer:
-
- First, check that your terminal supports color. Color_xterm, rxvt and
- Linux console do support, most other terminals don't. You can test
- color support with following simple C program:
-
- #include <stdio.h>
-
- int main (void){
- printf ("\033[32m Hello world! \033[m\n");
- return 0;
- }
-
- Compile and run it. If you see "Hello world!" text in green your
- terminal supports color, otherwise not (however, for color_xterm see
- also the next question).
-
- Second, check that you are using Ncurses or the Slang library (type
- "mc -V" to find out), in addition some System V curses implementations
- do support color, most don't.
-
- With Slang library you can force color support by setting the
- environment variable COLORTERM to any value.
-
- Third, if you use ncurses library, check that your terminfo database
- supports color. If not you should install one of the enhanced terminfo
- databases included in the Midnight Commander source distribution.
-
- Fourth, you might want to set the TERM environment variable so that
- you use the correct terminfo database or termcap entry.
-
- If you use color_xterm (or rxvt) the correct value might be
- xterm-color, xtermc or simply xterm.
-
- If you use Linux console the correct value for TERM is linux or
- console.
-
- 4.6 My color_xterm goes completely (or partially) black!
-
- Some color_xterm terminals define all colors as black instead of the
- standard ANSI colors. This makes them go completely black when you try
- to use Midnight Commander with colors.
-
- You will have to override the defaults. Create a file "color.defaults"
- which has the following contents:
-
- color_xterm*color0: Black
- color_xterm*color1: Red
- color_xterm*color2: Green
- color_xterm*color3: Yellow
- color_xterm*color4: Blue
- color_xterm*color5: Magenta
- color_xterm*color6: Cyan
- color_xterm*color7: White
- color_xterm*background: White
- color_xterm*foreground: Black
-
- (replace color_xterm with the name of your color_xterm, color_xterm
- mentions its name in its title bar)
-
- Now type:
-
- xrdb -merge color.defaults
-
- Alternatively you can add the suggested contents of the color.defaults
- file to your .Xdefaults or .Xresources file (or what ever the name of
- your X configuration file is). Or you can replace your non-ANSI
- color_xterm with an ANSI color_xterm.
-
- 4.7 Where can I get color_xterm?
-
- Try ftp.x.org: /contrib/utilities/colour_xterm.tar.gz.
-
- Alternatively, rxvt is a better choice, see
- http://mc.blackdown.org/cgi-mc/download/rxvt/.html
-
- 4.8 I got colors working with MC but the other programs don't work at all
- anymore!
-
- Midnight Commander uses terminfo database (if available) but many
- other programs use termcap database. If you set the TERM environment
- variable to a value which has no corresponding entry in termcap
- database those programs stop working. You should add the new value of
- TERM to the termcap database.
-
- Example: If you have set TERM to xterm-color locate from /etc/termcap
- the line which starts:
-
- xterm|vs100|xterm terminal emulator
-
- Change it to start:
-
- xterm|xterm-color|vs100|xterm terminal emulator
-
- 4.9 Why are there both terminfo and termcap? Wouldn't one database be enough?
-
- You might want to read the Unix-haters handbook at
- http://www.digital.de/people/jmh/Unix_Haters/unix-haters.html. It
- lists many more reasons why Unix sucks.
-
- You can configure which terminal database you want to use with the
- "--with-termcap" and "--with-terminfo" flags of configure. If you
- don't specify them, the configure script will try to use terminfo if
- available otherwise it will use termcap.
-
-5 Graphical user interface
-
- 5.1 Xview and Tk editions?
-
- Get the newest development version, give the "--with-xview" or
- "--with-tk" option to the configure and otherwise compile as usual.
- See Download.
-
- Xview and Tk editions are work in progress, they are not as robust as
- the text mode edition.
-
-6 Command line problems
-
- 6.1 How do I stay in the last directory when I exit Midnight Commander?
-
- See the description of the -P option in the Options section of the
- manual.
-
- 6.2 How can I access command line history?
-
- You can browse previous commands with M-p and M-n. Alternatively, you
- can summon the command history listbox by pressing F9 c h.
-
- 6.3 How can I complete commands, file names, variable names and so on?
-
- Just press M-Tab. Press M-Tab again to get a listbox if there are
- multiple possible completions.
-
- 6.4 [NEW] I am using ksh. Can I use functions defined in the .kshrc within
- MC?
-
- Sorry, MC only supports bash, tcsh and zsh functions. Ksh functions
- are not supported because ksh lacks the necessary hooks needed for
- subshell integration.
-
- Switch to bash or zsh. They are both quite compatible with ksh. Your
- ksh functions should work as such or after minimal changes.
-
- 6.5 [NEW] Is there any way to include additional options or hot keys to MC?
-
- Yes, F2 invokes an user menu which fully configurable. You can add any
- shell commands to the user menu. See
- http://mc.blackdown.org/mc/manual-d.html#8 for more info.
-
- Another way to add functionality is the external panelize feature. See
- http://mc.blackdown.org/mc/manual-d.html#4 for more info.
-
- And finally, you can code any feature you want yourself. MC source
- code is free which means you can change it anyway you want. There are
- some limitations to make sure MC stays free. See GNU General Public
- License for details.
-
-7 Virtual file systems
-
- Note! Virtual file systems are supported by Unix ports only. The
- Windows 95/NT and OS/2 ports do NOT support virtual file systems. This
- means you haven't got ftp, zip or tar support on Windows 95/NT and
- OS/2.
-
- 7.1 How can I see the contents of a tar archive?
-
- If you use keyboard just move the selection bar on the tar file and
- press enter.
-
- If you use mouse just doubleclick on the tar file.
-
- If these procedures don't work, your .mc.ext file is faulty. Replace
- it with one from the MC source distribution.
-
- You can also enter a tar archive by typing "cd tar:filename.tar.gz"
- where filename.tar.gz is the name of the archive.
-
- The recognized suffixes for tar archives are .tar, .tar.gz and .tgz.
- If your tar archive uses different suffix you have to rename it.
-
- 7.2 How do I get out of a tar archive?
-
- Just press enter on the toplevel ".." file or chdir to a non-tar
- directory. Just typing "cd" with no parameters is enough (it will take
- you to your home directory).
-
- 7.3 How do I do anonymous ftp with MC?
-
- Just type "cd ftp://hostname" where hostname is the name of the host
- you want to connect. Alternatively, select FTP link from the Left or
- Right menu and type the name of the host you want to connect.
-
- 7.4 How do I do non-anonymous ftp with MC?
-
- Non-anonymous ftp works just like the anonymous ftp but you give the
- login name with the host name. For example, type "cd
- ftp://username@hostname".
-
- 7.5 How do I close an ftp connection?
-
- Just chdir to a non-ftp directory. Just typing "cd" with no parameters
- is enough (it will take you to your home directory).
-
- Internally Midnight Commander closes ftp connection only after a
- timeout. This isn't visible to the end user.
-
- 7.6 Why aren't the contents of ftp panel updated?
-
- Update is skipped because there would be a serious performance
- penalty. Constantly updating directory panels through a ftp connection
- would take too much time.
-
- You can use C-r to force an update.
-
- 7.7 [NEW] What kind of proxy server works with Midnight Commander?
-
- Midnight Commander only supports ftp-like ftp proxies. Common WWW
- proxies (like Squid) are not supported yet because they make ftp
- connections look like http connections.
-
-8 Other common problems
-
- 8.1 [UPDATED] How do I get the internal editor to work?
-
- The F4 key defaults to an external editor because thats what most
- people are used to. To use the internal editor, select Configuration
- from the Options menu and check the 'use internal edit' option.
-
- Alternatively add the line
- use_internal_edit=1
-
- under the [Midnight-Commander] section in your .mc.ini file (which is
- in your home directory).
-
- To make the editor work all the time, go to the default/* section in
- the file lib/mc/mc.ext file and remove the line
-
- Edit=%var{EDITOR:vi} %f
-
- The internal editor will now be invoked for anything not specified
- elsewhere in the mc.ext file.
-
- Make sure that you edit the correct mc.ext file. The Midnight
- Commander first checks the existance of $HOME/.mc.ext. If this file is
- missing MC will use $prefix/lib/mc/mc.ext instead ($prefix can be
- changed with configure before compilation and it defaults to
- /usr/local).
-
- When you run `F9/Command/Extension file edit' for the very first time
- Midnight Commander copies the system-wide mc.ext from $prefix/lib/mc
- into your home directory because you need write access in order to
- change it.
-
- And please don't forget that "make install" overwrites
- $prefix/lib/mc/mc.ext.
-
- 8.2 Why doesn't "mcedit newfile" work?
-
- This is a known bug.
-
- If the newfile doesn't exist, mcedit fails.
-
- Start mcedit with no parameters, this will create a blank file. Then
- save the file with whatever name you like.
-
- 8.3 [UPDATED] Is there any way to 'bookmark' favourite ftp-fs links?
-
- Use the directory hotlist. Just press control-backslash. If your
- national keyboard layout doesn't have backslash key, just press the
- control key with the key which is the backslash key in the English
- keyboard layout.
-
- 8.4 When copying the directories lose their original date, uid and gid!
-
- This is a known bug. At moment only files preserve their original
- settings when copying, not directories.
-
- Uid and gid is fixed since 4.0.1. "Preserve UIDs/GIDs" in the copy
- dialog needs to be checked and you must be root.
-
- Date problem is supposed to be fixed with 4.0.13.
-
- 8.5 [UPDATED] Why I keep getting: "There is no disk in the drive. Please
- insert a disk into drive D:"?
-
- This is a known bug of the Windows 95/NT and OS/2 ports. MC looks its
- configuration files from the D:\MC directory and if the D: drive is a
- removable drive (like a CD ROM drive) and there is no disk in drive
- you get this message everytime you try to do anything.
-
- Since version 4.0.6 you can specify the actual location of the
- Midnight Commander configuration files with the MCHOME environment
- variable.
-
- 8.6 [NEW] When I start Midnight Commander, nothing happens!
-
- First, invoke MC without subshell support: "mc -u". If this helps
- check the shell you are using. Subshell support works best with bash
- although tcsh and zsh are also supported. You might want to upgrade
- your shell to a newer version. If you use something else than bash,
- tcsh or zsh, subshell support is disabled automatically.
-
- If disabling subshell doesn't help, try to reconfigure MC with
- "--with-our-slang" and "--with-termcap" options and recompile. If this
- helps, there is something wrong with your terminfo database or shared
- slang library. For better terminfo databases see chapter 4. For a
- better slang library, upgrade to a newer version or keep using the
- "--with-our-slang" option.
-
- 8.7 [NEW] When I try to view a file MC hangs!
-
- This is known bug. A quick fix is "chmod 666 /dev/tty". For a more
- complete fix, see http://mc.blackdown.org/mc/maillist/97-10/98.html.
-
- This bug will probably be fixed in 4.1.6.
-
-9 Development
-
- 9.1 Who has written Midnight Commander?
-
- Midnight Commander was started by Miguel de Icaza and he is the
- maintainer of the package. Other authors have joined the project
- later:
- * Mauricio Plaza (early releases, retired)
- * Janne Kukonlehto (joined Sep 27 1994, retired Mar 8 1995, nowadays
- Janne is the webmaster of the Midnight Commander web site)
- * Radek Doulik (joined Oct 30 1994)
- * Fred Leeflang (joined Nov 2 1994)
- * Dugan Porter (joined Dec 1 1994)
- * Jakub Jelinek (joined Feb 8 1995)
- * Ching Hui (joined Jun 27 1995)
- * Andrej Borsenkow (joined Jul 1996)
- * Paul Sheer (joined Nov 1 1996)
- * Norbert Warmuth
- * Alex I. Tkachenko
-
- Alessandro Rubini has been specially helpful with debugging and
- enhancing of the mouse support. John Davis has made his S-Lang library
- available to us and answered many questions about it.
-
- The photographs of the authors are available as:
-
- http://mc.blackdown.org/mc/about.html
-
- Many people have contributed bug reports, feature suggestions and
- small code bits (alphabetical order):
- * Thomasz Cholewo
- * Juan Jose Ciarlante
- * Alexander Dong (OS/2 port, NT port updates)
- * Erwin van Eijk
- * Torben Fjerdingstad
- * Massimo Fontanelli
- * Juan Grigera (NT port)
- * Gerd Knorr
- * Sergey Ya. Korshunoff
- * Jean-Daniel Luiset
- * Wim Osterholt
- * Antonio Palama (old DOS port)
- * Thomas Pundt
- * Marcelo Roccasalva
- * Ilya Rybkin
- * Vadim Sinolits
- * Jon Stevens
- * Adam Tla/lka
-
- 9.2 Do I dare to use a development version?
-
- I am afraid you have to answer to this question yourself. Development
- versions seldom cause data loss but they have usually got many bugs.
- It's up to you to judge whether new features outweight the bugs.
-
- 9.3 How can I report a bug/request for a feature?
-
- You might first want to get the newest development version to see if
- the bug is fixed or the feature is added already.
-
- Send your report/request to mc-devel@roxanne.nuclecu.unam.mx or
- mc@roxanne.nuclecu.unam.mx. These mailing lists are the most certain
- way to contact the developers. Remember to mention if you are not on
- the mailing list to make sure that you will receive a copy of replies.
-
- Give as much details as possible. A too long message is a lot better
- than a too short message.
-
- For segmentation faults a stack backtrace is appreciated. You can
- produce stack backtrace as follows:
- * If segmentation fault produced a core file:
- 1. Load the core file by typing "gdb mc core" or "dbx mc core".
- 2. Type "where".
- 3. Cut and paste the results to your message.
- * If segmentation fault didn't produce a core file:
- 1. Load mc by typing "gdb mc" or "dbx mc".
- 2. Start mc by typing "run".
- 3. Try to reproduce the segmentation fault by doing whatever you
- did last time when the segmentation fault occurred.
- 4. Type "where".
- 5. Cut and paste the results to your message.
- 6. For the future you might want to check out what is the
- command in your shell to allow producing of the core files.
- Usually it is "limit coredumpsize unlimited" or "ulimit
- coredumpsize" or "ulimit -c unlimited".
-
- 9.4 How can I join the development?
-
- To join the development just code the feature you want to add and send
- your patch for inclusion. Email address is mc-devel@nuclecu.unam.mx.
- Before you start coding check the latest development version. It might
- be that your feature has already been implemented.
-
- Note that the authors of the Midnight Commander have given all their
- rights on the program to the Free Software Foundation. You will have
- to do the same if you contribute non-trivial patches. Otherwise we
- have to reject your patches in order to avoid copyright problems.
-
-10 More information
-
- 10.1 [UPDATED] This document didn't answer my question. Where else can I look
- for an answer?
-
- Read messages from the Discussion (mailing list archive), search the
- web site or read the Manual.
-
- Upgrade to a newer version of Midnight Commander. Many problems are
- fixed in the new versions.
-
- If you still can't find an answer, post your question to the Midnight
- Commander mailing list. Its address is mc@nuclecu.unam.mx.
-
- 10.2 What mailing lists are there for Midnight Commander?
-
- Following mailing lists discuss about Midnight Commander:
-
- mc
- General discussion of the Midnight Commander
-
- mc-digest
- The mc list, in digest format
-
- mc-announce
- Major announcements about the Commander
-
- mc-patch
- The latest Commander patches
-
- mc-devel
- Technical development discussion
-
- mc-chat
- Non-MC related chatting by the developers (contact Miguel to
- subscribe)
-
- To subscribe, send e-mail to majordomo@roxanne.nuclecu.unam.mx with
- the following line in the body of the message:
-
- subscribe <list-name> [optional-address]
-
- Replace <list-name> with the name of the list you want to subscribe
- and [optional-address] with your email address.
-
- 10.3 Where should I look on the World Wide Web for MC stuff?
-
- There is a WWW page for Midnight Commander. The URL is:
-
- http://mc.blackdown.org/mc/
-
- The WWW page features MC screen shots, photographs of the authors,
- mailing list archive and a few other things.
-
- 10.4 Are the mailing lists archived anywhere?
-
- The mc and mc-devel lists are archived on the World Wide Web page (see
- the previous question). Other lists are not currently archived though
- Miguel keeps a private archive. Contact him if you want copies of past
- messages.
-
-11 Administrivia
-
- 11.1 Authorship
-
- Questions and Answers is written by Janne Kukonlehto. Parts of it
- originate from Ian Jackson, Miguel de Icaza, Dugan Porter, Norbert
- Warmuth and Paul Sheer.
-
- 11.2 [UPDATED] File formats
-
- This document is available in HTML, postscript and PDF formats at
- http://mc.blackdown.org/mc/answers0.html.
-
- This document is available in ASCII format in the Midnight Commander
- source package.
-
- 11.3 Feedback is invited
-
- Send your comments about this document to janne@mc.blackdown.org
-
- Send your comments about the Midnight Commander to mc@nuclecu.unam.mx
-
- 11.4 Disclaimer and copyright
-
- Note that this document is provided as is. The information in it is
- not warranted to be correct; you use it at your own risk.
-
- You can use Questions and Answers according to GNU Public License (see
- the COPYING file in the Midnight Commander source distribution).
- Questions and Answers is not public domain.
- __________________________________________________________________
-
- This document is maintained by Janne Kukonlehto
- <janne@mc.blackdown.org>.
-
projects / reactos.git / blobdiff