Midnight Commander 4.8.26 arrives with interface design style, subshell buffer support, and more

After six months of development the release of the new version was announced from the console file manager Midnight Commander 4.8.26, version in which the main novelty is the support for persistent subshell buffer, which allows you to store information about the commands entered on the command line, regardless of the panel manipulations.

For those unaware of Midnight commander you should know that this is a file manager for Unix-like systems  and it's a Norton Commander clone that works in text mode. The main screen consists of two panels in which the file system is displayed.

It is used in a similar way to other applications that run on the Unix shell or command interface. The cursor keys allow you to scroll through the files, The insert key is used to select files and the function keys perform tasks such as deleting, renaming, editing, copying files, etc.

Although Midnight Commander also include mouse support to facilitate the handling of the application.

Midnight commander has characteristics such as the ability to explore the content of RPM files, work with common file formats as if they were a simple directory.

Includes an FTP transfer manager or FISH protocol client and also includes an editor called mcedit.

Main news in Midnight Commander 4.8.26

Of the main novelties that stand out in this new version, as we mentioned at the beginning, the persistent subshell buffer support, although a persistent buffer is also supported with bash 4+, zsh, and fish shells.

Previously, the input started after hiding the panels could be deleted or changed by returning the panels and manipulating them (for example, if you enter "ls" in the sublayer and then return the panels and run "test", then "lstest" will actually run ).

User can now start typing commands in the command line below the panels, press Ctrl + O and continue typing in the full screen sublayer, or vice versa.

Another change that stands out in the new version of Midnight Commander 4.8.26, is that added an interface design style, in which lframes and menus are shown with shadows, as in the interfaces based on Turbo Vision. The mode is enabled through the option «Options => Settings… => Dialog shadows».

Of the other changes that stand out in this new version:

  • Support is provided for file names of arbitrary length.
  • Fixed issues with displaying directory content on CIFS partitions mounted on Linux 5.1+ kernel systems.
  • Added the ability to use commands to work with the clipboard, even if the DISPLAY environment variable is not set.
  • Added support for "alacritty", "tmux" and "tmux-256color" terminals.
  • VFS adds support for the wim and pak file formats.
  • Mc.ext has improved the handling of compressed content and adds support for fodt, fods, fodp and fodg formats.
  • The panels highlight files with extensions fodg, fodp, fods, fodt, and odg.
  • The built-in editor has syntax highlighting for Swift code.

Finally if you are interested in knowing more about it About the release of this new version, you can check the details in the original announcement. The link is this.

How to install Midnight Commander on Linux?

For those who are interested in being able to install Midnight Commander on their system, they can do so by following the instructions we share below.

To install the new version, one method is by compiling the source code. This they can get it from the following link.

While for those who prefer to make use of already compiled packages, they can install the new version by typing the following commands, depending on the Linux distribution they are using.

Those who use Debian, Ubuntu or any of the derivatives of this. In a terminal they will type the following:

Only for Ubuntu and derivatives, must inhabit the universe repository:

sudo add-apt-repository universe

E install the application with:

sudo apt install mc

For those who use Arch Linux or some derivative of it:

sudo pacman -S mc

In the case of Fedora, RHEL, CentOS or derivatives:

sudo dnf install mc

Finally, para OpenSUSE:

sudo zypper in mc

A comment, leave yours

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked with *

*

*

  1. Responsible for the data: Miguel Ángel Gatón
  2. Purpose of the data: Control SPAM, comment management.
  3. Legitimation: Your consent
  4. Communication of the data: The data will not be communicated to third parties except by legal obligation.
  5. Data storage: Database hosted by Occentus Networks (EU)
  6. Rights: At any time you can limit, recover and delete your information.

  1.   A said

    oh yeah!