How to Install and Use Midnight Commander on Ubuntu
To Install and Use Midnight Commander on Ubuntu
Midnight Commander, or MC, is a file manager released under the GNU license. Like every file manager, it enables the users to easily copy, move, delete and manage files and folders, having a full-screen text mode user interface.
The latest version available is Midnight Commander 4.8.15, which has been recently released, coming with the below changes.
Core:
&bull Minimal version of GLib is 2.26.0
&bull Use the PATH environment variable to search for the executable when opening pipe
&bull Support more than 2 (up to 9) columns in file panel in brief mode
&bull Clarify file sorting in “ Unsorted” mode
&bull WGroupbox: respect dialog’ s colors
&bull Highlight find file’ s result in internal viewer
VFS:
&bull s3 extfs vfs: bugfixes and improvements
Editor
&bull Add hidden option to choose full or base file name in the status line
Misc:
&bull Text alignment in Info panel
&bull Select of menu file edit: change default button to “ User”
&bull Recognize .gmo files as well as .mo ones
&bull Fix mc.pot comment tripping up Transifex and unportable inplace sed
&bull A lot of code clean up
&bull Documentation updates:
&bull Spanish man and help: Diff Viewer section and minor fixes
&bull VFS garbage collection
Fixes:
&bull Various memory leaks
&bull Linux kernel-specific segfault on startup
&bull Lost of Panelize contents in some cases
&bull Wrong highlight of search result in case of “ Regular expression” and “ Whole words”
&bull “ Whole words” search works only in Normal mode
&bull View find results doesn’ t jump to match line if file is too short to scroll page
&bull SFTP VFS: segfault
&bull Segfault in “ Find file” due to invalid UTF-8 sequences
&bull Bash variable ‘ PROMPT_COMMAND’ in pantheon-terminal
Installation instructions:
The latest Midnight Commander builds are available via some third party PPA, so installing MC and keeping it up to date on your Ubuntu system is piece of cake. You only need to add the PPA to your system, update the local repositories and install the mc package.
user1@linuxhelp:~$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:eugenesan/ppa
[sudo] password for user1:
This repository contains collection of customized, updated, ported and backported
packages for two last LTS releases and latest pre-LTS release.
Packages for older releases relocated to ppa:eugenesan/archive or deleted.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Disclaimer:
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
* Packages in this a nd related PPAs are for personal use only.
They developed specifically for several custom environments and may not work for you.
* Usage of packages in this PPA, in some forms, might contradict licenses of software
packaged in this and related PPAs. End users and administrator are responsible for
runtime licensing and possible legal consequences.
* Some packages provided with their dependencies while some might require additional
Ubuntu repositories and external PPAs. Below is the list of
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| To add this repository, to your Ubuntu installation, invoke:
+----------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------+
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:eugenesan/ppa
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| To access experimental packages before they enter main PPA, invoke:
+---------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------+
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:eugenesan/boiler
.
.
.
gpg: key 8313A596: public key " Launchpad synergy+" imported
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg: imported: 1 (RSA: 1)
OK
After adding the PPA, update the apt sources list as follows.
user1@linuxhelp:~$ sudo apt-get update
Get:1 http://ppa.launchpad.net wily InRelease [15.4 kB]
Hit http://in.archive.ubuntu.com wily InRelease
Get:2 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com wily-updates InRelease [65.9 kB]
Get:3 http://security.ubuntu.com wily-security InRelease [65.9 kB]
Get:4 http://ppa.launchpad.net wily/main amd64 Packages [32.8 kB]
Get:5 http://ppa.launchpad.net wily/main i386 Packages [33.1 kB]
Hit http://in.archive.ubuntu.com wily-backports InRelease
Get:6 http://ppa.launchpad.net wily/main Translation-en [21.6 kB]
Hit http://in.archive.ubuntu.com wily/main Sources
Hit http://in.archive.ubuntu.com wily/restricted Sources
Hit http://in.archive.ubuntu.com wily/universe Sources
Hit http://in.archive.ubuntu.com wily/multiverse Sources
Get:7 http://security.ubuntu.com wily-security/main Sources [55.8 kB]
Hit http://in.archive.ubuntu.com wily/main amd64 Packages
.
.
Hit http://in.archive.ubuntu.com wily-backports/universe Translation-en
Fetched 1,862 kB in 23s (78.4 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
After updating the apt sources-list, install Midnight Commander as follows.
user1@linuxhelp:~$ sudo apt-get install mc
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
libssh2-1 mc-data
Suggested packages:
arj catdvi texlive-binaries dbview djvulibre-bin gv links w3m lynx odt2txt python-boto
python-tz
The following NEW packages will be installed:
libssh2-1 mc mc-data
0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 234 not upgraded.
Need to get 1,856 kB of archives.
After this operation, 7,417 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
.
.
Setting up mc-data (3:4.8.16-0~eugenesan~wily4) ...
Setting up mc (3:4.8.16-0~eugenesan~wily4) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.21-0ubuntu4) ...
Once the package is installed, open Ubuntu dash and type MC as follows.
You' ll be taken to MC window like below.