Midnight Commander

The Midnight Commander is file system browser and file manager for text mode. It has two panels (frames) where it can show content of 2 directories, 1 directory and view content of the selected file in another and more. The other often used features are embedded file viewer and plain text editor, very useful to see and edit content of configuration files.

One function that is not enabled by default that allows very fast browsing using cursor keys is Lynx like motion.

Start Midnight Commander

Open console and type:

mc

and press Enter.

It will open text window like this:

Capabilities

Directory browsing
- One function that is not enabled by default that allows very fast browsing using cursor keys is Lynx like motion.
View files
View archives (compressed files)
Edit files
Execute commands
...

Keyboard Shortcuts

Common

Enter has few functions:

if you have text in command line (one with command prompt, above function keys in the last) it will be executed as command
if command line is empty than it will do something with selected file in active panel:
- if file is executable - it will be executed
- if there is plugin able to open file it will be opened (rpm, tgz, gz, etc)
Ctrl + r will refresh active panel
Ctrl + x c opens chmod dialog for marked file
Ctrl + x o opens chown dialog for marked file
Alt + ? opens search dialog

Panel Functions

TAB is switching focus between left and right panel
Insert marks or removes mark on file(s)
Alt + g marks first file or directory in active panel
Alt + r marks middle file or directory in active panel
Alt + j marks last file or directory in active panel
Ctrl + / Look for filename given in last line of active panel (not whole screen), and jumps on first file
* marks removes marking for all files in active panel (not directories)
+ (Plus) brings up the input box where it can be given regular expression. All files with names that fill condition(s) in regular expression will be marked.
\ (Backslash) remove marking for more data (opposite to "+")

Shell Functions

Alt + Enter copies selected filename in command line
Ctrl + Shift + Enter copies full path of selected file in the command line
Alt + H shows command line history

Function Keys

F1 Help
F2 Opens user menu
F3 View selected file content
F4 Opens file in internal text editor
F5 Copies selected file. Default is to another panel, but it asks first.
F6 Moving file. Default is to another panel, but it asks first.
F7 Make directory.
F8 Delete file or directory.
F9 Opens main menu at the top of the screen.
F10 Ends current action; editor, viewer, dialog window or ends mc program.

External Links

The http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/ is Midnight Commander home.
The Frequently Asked Questions