Midnight Commander/Tips

Tips is what helps to use application with its full potential.

Using Mouse

Although Midnight Commander is a text mode application it can make use of mouse. With SUSE Linux delivered mc used in GUI console will use mouse, out of the box, without any further configuration.

The text terminal that we get when booting in runlevels 2 or 3 is a bit different story. You have to install package gpm which is called also mouse server used in Linux to receive movements and clicks from mouse. Start gpm and than start Midnight commander.

If you come to the text terminal using Ctrl + Alt + F1, than gpm might not work as another driver that belongs to GUI (X Server) claims control over the mouse.

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Lynx like motion

This is browsing using cursor keys. You have never seen this fast run trough directories using graphic application like Konqueror.

To enable it

1. Press F9 to select drop down menus on the top of the screen.
2. Press Alt + o or move highlight with cursor keys for left or right to the Options, then press arrow down, to get drop down menu with options.
3. Press Alt + c or Enter to get dialog window with options.
4. Now don't use key shortcut, but use cursor key to move highlight to [ ] Lynx-like motion option,
5. Press Space to check option. It will show [x] Lynx-like motion if it is active (enabled)
6. Press Alt + s', or move highlight to the [ Save ] and press Enter to save setting.

Happy browsing.

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FTP browsing

This is file browsing on remote FTP server just as it is on your computer.

1. Press F9 to select drop down menus on the top of the screen.
2. Press Alt + L if you want to use left side panel, or Alt + R for right panel.
3. Press Alt + P for input box where you have enter server name. Enter for instance

ftp.gwdg.de/pub

and press Enter.

Now mc will try anonymous connection to remote machine. If machine responds, you'll get directory listing of /pub on remote server.

It is possible to the same from mc command line by typing:

cd /#ftp:ftp.gwdg.de/pub 

Happy browsing.

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Archive browsing

Archive in classic meaning is compressed file. In Linux you can recognize them by suffix like:

tgz, tar.gz, tbz, tar.bz2

and many more, but above few are the most used

1. Highlight the file
2. Press Enter

That's it. Midnight Commander will decompress file for you and present it's internal structure like any other directory. If you want to extract one or all files from archive mark what you want toextract and use F5 to copy in another panel. Done.

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RPM browsing

The installation files for SUSE are RPM and mc will let you browse them.

1. Highlight the file
2. Press Enter

You'll see few files:

/INFO
CONTENTS.cpio
HEADER
*INSTALL
*UPGRADE

Browse to see details of your RPM.

The CONTENTS.cpio is actual archive with files, and if you want to see within:

1. Highlight the file
2. Press Enter

(You know the drill)

The *INSTALL and *UPGRADE will do what the name tells, but if you want only to extract one or more files from CONTENTS.cpio than use F5 to copy them in the directory in the other panel.

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Here is place for your tips.

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Help

For any question that has to be answered ASAP, Midnight Commander has built in online help. Press F1 and you'll see.