# Midnight Commander

Related articles

- File manager functionality

Midnight Commander is a visual file manager, that allows to copy, move and delete files and whole directory trees, search for files and run commands in the subshell. It includes an internal viewer and editor.

As it is based on versatile text interfaces, such as Ncurses or S-Lang, it works on a regular console, inside an X Window terminal, over SSH connections and all kinds of remote shells.

## Installation

Install mc from the official repositories. The development version is available in the AUR as mc-git.

## Themes

- mc-solarized-git — Solarized color scheme for Midnight Commander

  https://github.com/nkulikov/mc-solarized-skin || mc-solarized-git

## Tips and Tricks

### Enable Lynx-like motion

To browse folders using the cursor keys, go to >PullDn `F9` >Options `o` >Panel Options `p` >Navigation >Lynx-like motion `y`.

### Start from the menu

Midnight commander can be run from a menu with the correct Desktop entry. For example:

    [Desktop Entry]
    Type=Application
    Version=1.0
    Name=Midnight Commander
    Comment=Visual file manager
    Exec=mc
    Icon=folder
    MimeType=inode/directory
    Terminal=true
    Categories=Utility;

### Trash support

Midnight Commander does not support a Trash can by default. See libtrash from the AUR for a (system-wide) alternative.

## Troubleshooting

### Exit to the current directory

On exit, the shell returns to the directory Midnight Commander was started from instead of the last selected directory. A simple workaround is to hide the interface (instead of quit) with `Ctrl+o`.

### Garbled screen

Press `Ctrl+l` to redraw the display. This only redraws, but does not refresh (`Ctrl+r`) the file list.

## See also

- Cheatsheet for Midnight Commander
- Midnight Commander Guide

Category:

- File managers