Midnight commander is a popular file manager available from repositories in almost all major Linux distributions. Many new users find it difficult to work on servers only from command line so midnight commander is a welcomed help. Here are some tips and notes how to use this tool together with my most used shortcuts that I used to give users that never worked with it before. As always for a complete list of keyboard shortcuts and much more man mc or info mc should work.
Usage tips
To start midnight commander simply type mc.
[podlevak@55cent:~]$ mc
If you want the panels pointing to some specific directories append a path (or two) after the mc:
[podlevak@55cent:~]$ mc /etc/httpd/ /var/log/
To go back to command line you don’t have to quit midnight commander with F10 – on most shells, here bash is used, ctrl-z will put mc into background and it can be put back to foreground with fg command.
[podlevak@55cent:~]$ mc /etc/httpd/ /var/log/ [1]+ Stopped /usr/bin/mc -P "$MC_PWD_FILE" "$@" [podlevak@55cent:~]$ fg
Another way is using the ctrl-o shortcut for hiding the panels; to show them press ctrl-o again.
Midnight commander comes with an integrated editor and viewer – you can use them also directly:
[podlevak@55cent:~]$ mcview /etc/hosts [podlevak@55cent:~]$ mcedit new_file
Shortcuts
I’ve divided the shortcuts into three groups according to their usage. A little note on how to use them:
- when using a shortcut like ctrl-r, hold down the control key and then press the r key
- for shortcut like ctrl-x-o hold down the control key and then press the x key, let go and press the o key
File manipulation and shell commands
- ctrl-x-c change permissions
- ctrl-x-o change owner
- ctrl-x-s create symlink
- ctrl-x-ctrl-s edit symlink
- esc-tab completion, like tab in shell
- alt-s search in active panel, after pressing keys just write
- alt-p previous entered command
- alt-n next entered command
- ctrl-space show directory size
- ctrl-x-i shows file / directory info, press again to return to panel
- ctrl-x-q quick view – view content of files in a preview window (F7 for search works), press again to return to panel
Displaying content
- ctrl-o turn off/hide the panels, 2x turns them on
- ctrl-r rescan (refresh active panel)
- ctrl-u flip panels
- alt-o open path in other panel
- ctrl- frequently used directories, directory hot-list
Selecting
- Insert select single file
- * (asterisk) select all files, 2x un-selects if all files were selected, or inverts selection if files were selected (using a mask or insert)
- + (plus) select mask, regular expression can be used
- – (minus) un-select mask, regular expression can be used
