After seven months of development, the new version of the console file manager Midnight Commander 4.8.28 was recently released , in which a number of changes have been made.
For those unfamiliar with Midnight Commander, it's a file manager for Unix-like systems and a clone of Norton Commander that operates in text mode. The main screen consists of two panels that display the file system.
It is used similarly to other applications that run in the Unix shell or command-line interface. The cursor keys allow you to navigate through 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 includes mouse support to facilitate application handling.
Midnight Commander has features such as the ability to explore the contents of RPM files, and to work with common file formats as if they were a simple directory.
It includes an FTP transfer manager or FISH protocol client and also includes an editor called mcedit.
Main news in Midnight Commander 4.8.28
This new version of Midnight Commander 4.8.28 notably removes built-in support for the SMB protocol , whose implementation was outdated, incomplete, and had security issues. The developers now recommend using one of the many available VFS solutions for working with Windows shared resources.
Another notable change in this new version is that the built-in editor provides syntax highlighting for Ngspice/SPICE and DOT/Graphviz files.
In addition, it is also highlighted that support for file and directory replacement macros defined in the mc.ect file has been added to the built-in mcview viewer.
File name highlighting was added to the panels for avif, jp2, jxl, heic, heif, psb, psd, and Markdown formats.
Of the other changes that stand out:
- Fixed a slowdown issue when migrating a large number of files.
- Fix in VFS: FISH: Loading a symlink creates both the link and its target
- Fix on VFS: SFTP: Timestamps are not preserved for loaded symlink
- Fix in VFS: EXTFS: bad isoinfo test
- Code cleanup done
- There is now support for Shift+Fn keys for KiTTY
- Fixed a typo in skin files
- Segfault when changing panel mode
Finally, it's mentioned that Midnight Commander is not yet directly compatible with Apple M1 devices ; hopefully, the necessary changes will be made in Fedora 36. Until then, it's recommended to restart the build system on your Mac or use the following workaround:
CFLAGS="-target arm64-apple-macos12" \
./configure \
--host=aarch64-apple-darwin \
--target=aarch64-apple-darwin \
--build=aarch64-apple-darwin
Finally, if you're interested in learning more about the release of this new version, you can find the details in the original announcement. The link is here.
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. You can obtain 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 one of its derivatives . In a terminal, type the following:
For Ubuntu and derivatives only , you must use the universe repository:
sudo add-apt-repository universe
And they install the application with:
sudo apt install mc
For those who use Arch Linux or a derivative thereof:
sudo pacman -S mc
In the case of Fedora, RHEL, CentOS or derivatives:
sudo dnf install mc
Finally, for OpenSUSE:
sudo zypper in mc