This file contains: - Installation instructions for GNU Midnight Commander - Where to get more information on GNU Midnight Commander - Notes about GNU Midnight Commander installation - Obtaining related software Installation instructions for GNU Midnight Commander ---------------------------------------------------- The `configure' shell script attempts to guess correct values for various system-dependent variables used during compilation, and creates the makefiles. It also creates a file `config.status' that you can run in the future to recreate the current configuration. To compile this package: 1. Configure the package for your system. Normally, you just `cd' to the directory containing the package's source code and type `./configure'. If you're using `csh' on an old version of SystemV, you might need to type `sh configure' instead to prevent `csh' from trying to execute `configure' itself. Under AIX, you may need to use ksh instead of sh. Running `configure' takes a while. While it is running, it prints some messages that tell what it is doing. If you don't want to see any messages, run `configure' with the `--quiet' option. To compile the package in a different directory than the one containing the source code, you must use a version of `make' supporting the `VPATH' variable, such as GNU `make'. Change to the directory where you want the object files and executables to go and run the `configure' script with the full path. If for some reason `configure' cannot find the source code directory, run `configure' with the option `--srcdir=DIR', where DIR is the directory that contains the source code. By default, `make install' will install the package's files in `/usr/local/bin', `/usr/local/man', etc. You can specify an installation prefix other than `/usr/local' by giving `configure' the option `--prefix=PATH'. You can specify separate installation prefixes for architecture specific files and architecture-independent files. If you give `configure' the option `--exec-prefix=PATH', the package will use PATH as the prefix for installing binary programs and libraries. Data files and documentation will still use the regular prefix. Normally, all files are installed using the same prefix. If compiled on GNU/Linux, Midnight Commander detects if you have the gpm library installed. If you installed the gpm mouse library in a non-standard place, you will need to use the --with-gpm-mouse flag with the directory base where you installed the gpm package. `configure' recognizes the following options (the list may be incomplete, use `configure --help' to get the full list): `--help' Print a summary of the options to `configure' and exit. `--quiet' `--silent' Do not print messages saying which checks are being made. `--verbose' Print the results of the checks. `--version' Print the version of Autoconf used to generate the `configure' script, and exit. `--without-edit' Configure GNU Midnight Commander to be compiled without the built-in file editor. The built-in editor is compiled in by default. `--with-ext2undel' On systems that use the ext2 or ext3 file system and have the libext2fs library available, this option adds support for recovering deleted files (the undel virtual file system). `--without-gpm-mouse' Use this flag to disable gpm mouse support (e.g. if you want to use mouse only on X terminals). `--with-glib12' Force using glib 1.2.x even if glib 2.0.x is present. Use this flag for testing or if you want to use the binary on systems that don't have glib 2.0.x installed. `--with-glib-static' Force linking against glib statically. This option is intended for building binaries for distribution purposes and may not work on some operating systems. `--with-mmap', `--without-mmap' Force using or not using the mmap function. It is currently used in the internal viewer. `--with-mmap' may be useful on some versions of AIX where the `configure' script decides that mmap is broken, but it's actually suitable for the internal viewer. `--with-subshell[=optional]', `--without-subshell' The subshell support is by default turned on, you can disable this by using the --without-subshell option. If you pass the =optional parameter, then the subshell support is turned off by default. To turn it on, specify the `-U' option to the program. `--without-x' By default, the Midnight Commander tries to connect to the X Window System events to query the status of the keyboard modifiers, such as Control, Shift and Alt, when invoked in a terminal emulator under X11. This is necessary (but not always sufficient) to recognize some optional but handy key combinations like Ctrl-Home and Shift-Cursor keys. Use `--without-x' if the dependency on X11 libraries is not desired. `--without-vfs' This option disables the Virtual File System switch code in the Midnight Commander and uses the standard file system calls for file access. If you specify this option, you won't get the transparent access to archives and remote directories. `--with-mcfs' This option enables mcfs - a non-standard remote filesystem designed specifically for the Midnight Commander. It also enables a server for that filesystem, mcserv. Please note that the implementation of mcfs is not optimized for speed. There may be security issues with mcserv - don't run it if you don't need it. `--with-samba' This option enables remote VFS over the SMB protocol. A stripped down version of samba distributed with the sources is compiled and linked with the mc executable. It is recommended that you install Samba client, since mc uses some files from Samba under certain conditions. Please visit http://www.samba.org/ to learn more. `--disable-largefile' This option disables support for large files (2 gigabytes and more) on the systems where file operations use 32-bit offsets by default, but support for 64-bit offsets is available. May be useful for slow processors and embedded systems. `--enable-charset' This option adds support for selecting character set of the text in the internal viewer and editor and converting it on the fly. The implementation of this option is currently incomplete. `--disable-background' This option disables support for background operations. Background operations allow to perform some tasks such as copying files in a separate background process. Any messages from the background process are forwarded to the foreground process. More advanced dialogs cannot be forwarded yet, so the background process uses the default. Background code is known to be less stable than the rest of the code, so you may want to disable it at the compile time. `--disable-netcode' This option disables support for networked virtual filesystems. It's primarily used by developers to make sure that the code would compile and run on operating systems that lack POSIX compatible network support. But you can use it is you know that you won't be accessing remote filesystems from GNU Midnight Commander. You may also tell configure which screen library you want to use with the Midnight Commander. The configure script will use S-Lang as default, and prefers an already installed S-Lang library over the included one, but you can override this by using the following flag (please note that since S-Lang is default, it is tested better than ncurses): `--with-screen={slang|mcslang|ncurses}' Choose the library used to manage interaction with the terminal. `slang' means S-Lang library already installed on the system, `mcslang' means S-Lang library included with the sources of GNU Midnight Commander, `ncurses' means ncurses library already installed on the system. The installed S-Lang library is used by default if found, otherwise the included S-Lang library is used. `--with-termcap' If the included S-Lang library is used, this option forces it to use the termcap database, as opposed to the default terminfo database. On systems that require unusual options for compilation or linking that the package's `configure' script does not know about, you can give `configure' initial values for variables by placing them in the command line: ./configure CC='gcc -traditional' LIBS=-lposix Here are the variables that you might want to override when running `configure'. - Variable: CC C compiler program. The default is `gcc' if found, otherwise `cc'. - Variable: CFLAGS The default flags used to build the program. - Variable: INSTALL Program to use to install files. The default is `install' if you have it, `cp' otherwise. For these variables, any value given in the command line is added to the value that `configure' decides to use: - Variable: LIBS Libraries to link with, in the form `-lfoo -lbar...'. - Variable: LDFLAGS Linker flags, e.g. -L if you have libraries in a nonstandard directory - Variable: CPPFLAGS C/C++ preprocessor flags, e.g. -I if you have headers in a nonstandard directory If you need to do unusual things to compile the package, we encourage you to figure out how `configure' could check whether to do them, and mail diffs or instructions to the address given in the README so we can include them in the next release. 2. Type `make' to compile the package. 3. Type `make install' to install programs, data files, and the documentation. On GNU/Linux the console screen saver is installed as well. 4. You can remove the program binaries and object files from the source directory by typing `make clean'. If you want to clean the source tree completely, so that it contains only those files that should be packaged in the archive, issue `make distclean'. If you've run configure in a different directory than the source tree, distclean won't remove your *.o and linked programs in that directory. 5. GNU Midnight Commander allows you to stay in the last current directory after exiting MC. This is done with a shell function, the man page has more information about this. The file `configure.in' is used to create `configure' by a program called `autoconf'. You only need it if you want to regenerate `configure' using a newer version of `autoconf'. Where to get more information on GNU Midnight Commander ------------------------------------------------------- There are two mailing lists for the program: mc@gnome.org: Discussion on GNU Midnight Commander file manager. mc-devel@gnome.org: Discussion between the developers of the program. To subscribe to the mailing lists, visit their respective pages: http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/mc/ http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/mc-devel/ Notes about GNU Midnight Commander installation ----------------------------------------------- GNU Midnight Commander has been run in the following configurations: i386-*-linux sparc-*-linux alpha-*-linux powerpc-*-linux mips-dec-ultrix4.3 mips-dec-{open,net}bsd1.0 mips-sgi-irix5.2 mips-sgi-irix5.3 rs6000-ibm-aix3.2.5 sparc-sun-sunos4.1 sparc-sun-netbsd1.0 sparc-sun-solaris2.3 hppa-hp-hpux9 hppa-hp-hpux7 m68k-apple-aux mc88110-aviion-dgux5.4 i386-*-bsdi2 i386-*-freebsd4.3 i386-*-openbsd2.9 Midnight Commander is written in a portable manner and uses GNU Autoconf for configuration, so it is expected to compile without changes on many other operating systems. You will need an ANSI C Compiler (such as GCC) and glib library to compile the source. GNU Midnight Commander now comes with the S-Lang screen manager, a fast screen manager, but you may want to use the already installed S-Lang or ncurses library. If you insist on using ncurses, it's recommended to use ncurses 4.1 and above, since the older versions don't support resizing in the xterm window. GNU Midnight Commander comes with the mouse support on xterms and in the Linux console. In order to take advantage of the mouse support on the Linux console you will need the gpm mouse server (see the section "Obtaining related software" in this file). Once you get gpm, compile it and install it, then you will have to specify the `--with-gpm-mouse' flag to the configure program if you installed it in a non-standard directory. If you installed the gpm package under /usr or /usr/local, you don't need to specify this flag; configure will find gpm for you. The support for mice on xterms is always compiled in. We are working on further enhancements to the program, but we're not sure which ones must go first. If you would like to point us in the Right Direction we will be glad to hear from you (you could check the file TODO included with this distribution for the current projects). If you happen to find a feature that doesn't do what you expect, please write to mc@gnome.org telling as much as you can about the problem you're experiencing. Please don't send personal messages to the maintainers. Obtaining related software -------------------------- glib ---- The only "hard" dependency of GNU Midnight Commander is glib. You can get glib from ftp://ftp.gtk.org/pub/gtk/ Note that only versions 1.2.x and 2.0.x are supported. Newer versions may work, but haven't been tested. Terminal database ----------------- There are many incomplete terminal databases out there, however, a complete terminfo is bundled with ncurses. (It is simple to generate the termcap database using the infocmp utility in ncurses). Some terminfo data are included with the mc distribution (lib/*.ti). Particularly linux, xterm and vt100. Use e.g. ''tic linux.ti'' to use them. If you want to run mc on xterm/color_xterm/ansi_xterm (not rxvt), then you might read lib/README.xterm for further information. Screen libraries ---------------- GNU Midnight Commander can use the included version of S-Lang, but you can get the latest version here: http://www.s-lang.org/ Alternatively, you can use ncurses: http://www.gnu.org/software/ncurses/ncurses.html Mouse support ------------- The general purpose mouse (gpm) daemon is available from ftp://arcana.linux.it/pub/gpm/ Compiler -------- If your C compiler is not powerful enough to compile GNU Midnight Commander, you should report is as a bug to the GNU Midnight Commander team. Sometimes there is no solution than upgrading to a modern and free compiler - GCC (Compiler Collection): http://gcc.gnu.org/