Simple question: How can I set up mc (midnight commander) to show columns for the file name, size, time *and* permissions all at once? I can cycle through 4 modes with Alt+T but none of them shows all desired data and still two panels side by side. Is this even possible? I'd be surprised if it wasn't. Every Windows file manager lets me precisely select the columns to show.

After installing Midnight Commander in CentOS 7, I looked for the configuration file in /home/$USER/.mc.ini but didn't find it. I want to change my default skin to another color scheme, but can't find config file.

Is there any way to prevent mc from taking 10-30 seconds to open?

There are endless number of helpful articles and answers on how set up ~/.ssh/config (e.g., this one's pretty good ), but none of them mentions what to do if the private key is also password protected.

I use midnight commander to sftp into my ubuntu VPS. The VPS requires sudo for anything important, e.g. copy/move/delete files. So for e.g. I cannot press F5 to copy (except into ~). Is it possible for mc to ask for user elevation / send sudo when needed?

I am trying the obvious:

mc file.tar.gz

but the tar.gz is not opened any ideas?

There is a folder with many files in it: 112.mkv 123.md5 123.mkv 221.mkv 467.mkv aa1.mkv abc.md5 abc.mkv bbc.mkv dde.md5 dde.mkv ggh.mkv .... xxy.md5 xxy.mkv xxz.mkv How can I move .md5 files and the associated .mkv files to a new directory (using Bash)? 123.md5 123.mkv abc.md5 abc.mkv dde.md5 dde.mkv xxy.md5 xxy.mkv I want to move these files into a new directory, like mkvandmd5/. Alternatively, are there any hints in Midnight Commander to mark these .md5 and associated .mkv files?

Normal Ubuntu 22.04 install, bash-completion is installed and works in a normal shell.  For example, if I type "docker " and press TAB, it will show a list of Docker subcommands. If I now start mc, hide the panels with Ctrl+O and then type "docker " and press TAB, it will not show the Docker subcommands.  (It does show some kind of file listing, which isn't helpful.)

I am using midnight commander. To view the content of a .txt file I press F3. Then I can select text holding Shift + selecting with mouse: But I would like to select the whole content of the file and it is not possible to scroll while I am selecting with the mouse. Is there a "select all" option in that View mode?

I use mcedit (part of GNU Midnight Commander) to edit text files in Linux. It has a hotkey for "Insert file..." - F15 (the same as F9 -> **F**ile -> Enter -> **I**nsert file). But my keyboard doesn't have F15 button, there are only F1...F12. How can I press **F15** button which isn't there? *I use Ubuntu 22.04 with bash 5.1 and mc 4.8, running on wsl2, Windows terminal 1.21.10351.0.*

I have a problem with Midnight Commander that I am finding exceptionally annoying. I hope that you can provide some relief to me. I want to use Midnight Commander without mouse support, with mouse actions invoking my X terminal emulator program's functionality rather than being passed through to Midnight Commander. So I invoke Midnight Commander with the command-line option that does that, via an alias

alias mc='mc -d'

This works all well and good ... until I press F4 to edit a file. Because (I think) I am using the so-called _internal_ editor, this brings up mcedit, to which all of my mouse actions are passed because the mouse is enabled in it. I know that the -d option works when I manually invoke the editor with mcedit -d and a file. How do I get the same when mc invokes the editor with F4? Midnight Commander has this option of not using the mouse for both its mc and mcedit programs and I want to know how to turn it on throughout the whole of Midnight Commander, including when invoking its supposedly _internal_ editor (that surely, if it _were_ internal, should be respecting the -d option that I gave to mc). Latter Edit: I have shell variables EDITOR and VISUAL set to '/usr/bin/mcedit', now I just changed them to /usr/bin/mcedit -d ... still don't work, then I tried to set a path with higher priority where I put a script called mcedit that call /usr/bin/mcedit -d $* (verified that is first with which mcedit) ... still same problem

Midnight Commander allows showing command prompt along with panels if the respective option is enabled in Options -> Layout -> Command prompt. I find the option pretty useless (for me) because entering and running a command would require hiding the panels with [Ctrl]+[O] anyway even if the command results not quickly because I mostly need to see the last a few output lines. I have the Command prompt option disabled because of that. Far Manager I used on Windows about a decade ago provides a way showing custom command prompt (that might be configured differently than the PROMPT environment variable if I recall correctly), panels of course, and an optional area displaying the last output lines so that the panels are like overlapping the command output and take a configurable percent of its overall space. This was like a killer feature to me those days. I've just installed Far2l, a Far Manager cross-platform fork, but can't recall/find how it could be configured (I don't even remember if Far Manager was able to do it either natively or using a plugin). I've found only screenshot that is exactly what I'm looking for. Is it possible in Midnight Commander somehow (hidden option, custom build, fork)? If no, are there any file managers to work like that? Far2l seems to be a good option, but I don't consider it as an alternative to Midnight Commander so far.

tar -I pixz -cf foo.tar.xz ./foo compress the Stuff. tar -I pixz -xf foo.tar.xz decompress the Stuff. And with pixz -l foo.tar.xz comes a list the contents. How can i do this with (mc) Midnight Commander? If i select foo.tar.xz in mc and press Enter, it comes nothing. The CPU usage goes for a moment high but nothing comes than, no error. Normaly mc can open archive files like this? How can mc open and browse an indexed .tar.xz file?

I am trying to edit color skins for midnight commander. When using 256 color palette, the colors are called color1 to color255. I am looking for particular tone of blue. Is there a palette of all 256 colors, where I can choose from? So that I can actually see that color24 is dark blue, etc.

In Midnight Commander, how to quickly set the right panel to the same directory as the left panel (and vice versa)?

I'm trying to select files that are older than a specific date & time, and found this MC ticket that exactly describes my issue, and this comment on it provides a workaround, but I cannot get it to work. To quote:

ok, you can use External panalize
0) touch -d "Jun 01 00:00 2011" /tmp/.date1
1) enter into your BIG dir
2) press C-x ! (External panalize )
3) add new command like a "find . -type f \( -newer /tmp/.date1 \) -print"

I get stuck at "Add new" and the window just exits; I tried entering something at "Other command", but no joy. This thread actually solves what I'm trying to do with find on the terminal, but I'm really curious how to do this in MC.

I am trying to use midnight commander (mc) to show disk usage of particular directories. I'm aware that I can use the command menu, but I need see individual directory sizes on the fly. I am using ctl + space, but it very quickly lists all the subdirectories/files in a popup which vanishes. As this popup with the disk usage vanishes it is not possible to see it. I am trying to use mc to find disk usage.

An essential convenience feature every reasonable shell provides is command / file name completion (usually triggered by pressing Tab). I miss it heavily when I use command line in Midnight Commander. Is there a way to use it (other than by hiding the panels with Ctrl+O)?

How to change sort order with shortcuts? I know that I can put that in ~/.config/mc/mc.keymap file but what exactly to type?

I am using Ubuntu 18LTS. I am making changes to file located in /usr/bin/ but after reboot it came back as before and also the last modification date, so from that rises my question: what does this "*" means at beginning of file name in Midnight Commander? Cause I can not modify it permanently. Thanks in advance.