Re: Can't use mc's editor
On Tue 22 Mar 2022 at 04:17:37 (-0500), Nate Bargmann wrote:
> * On 2022 21 Mar 23:30 -0500, Felix Miata wrote:
> > David Wright composed on 2022-03-21 23:07 (UTC-0500):
> > > Felix Miata wrote:
> >
> > >> IIUC, and assuming standard file/directory permissions, if all instances
> > >> of MC are
> > >> closed, and its ini file is then removed, every setting (except for
> > >> panels
> > >> configuration? and hotlist), gets reverted to default on next startup.
> >
> > > I've attached the result of that reversion (from buster). The critical
> > > line is, of course, line 4. I assume that, like me, a long time ago,
> > > you altered it to auto_save_setup=false.
> >
> > Actually the first thing I do with any new instance of MC is set the right
> > panel
> > listing to long. I follow that with F9, Options, Configuration, where Auto
> > save
> > setup gets deselected, among other changes. :)
>
> And I have Autosave selected in all my installations of mc so IME, the
> last one to close writes the file. It's not unusual for me to have half
> a dozen instances of mc running at once! Sometimes I find I had two or
> three running in the same terminal session. Oh dear...
Somewhat like myself, then, except that I feel no need for regret.
AIUI, mc was developed in a world where we worked in one console
session on one machine, and there are a number of features to support
this style of working.
I've never made use of mcedit, history, hotlist, etc, nor do I save
their configuration state (or use -P) when closing. Instead of using
such "bookmark" concepts, I just leave the "book" open on the "desk"
while I turn to or open another one.
So typically I will have several mc instances on the local machine,
± instances over ssh on other machines, and occasional instances
with a different machine in the left panel. They're colour-coded
by host, with another colour reserved for mixed machine sessions.
As I see it, it's a natural consequence of working across 20
virtual desktops.
Sanity is preserved by having every mc session start in /one/ fixed
configuration state, in one of three layouts:
Invocation Left Panel Right Panel
$ mc [dir] ‖ ${1:-$PWD} | $HOME ‖
or
$ mc1 [dir]‖ ${1:-$HOME} ‖
or
$ mc-foo ‖ sh://foo/$HOME | $HOME ‖
Cheers,
David.
Re: Can't use mc's editor
* On 2022 21 Mar 23:30 -0500, Felix Miata wrote: > David Wright composed on 2022-03-21 23:07 (UTC-0500): > > > Felix Miata wrote: > > >> IIUC, and assuming standard file/directory permissions, if all instances > >> of MC are > >> closed, and its ini file is then removed, every setting (except for panels > >> configuration? and hotlist), gets reverted to default on next startup. > > > I've attached the result of that reversion (from buster). The critical > > line is, of course, line 4. I assume that, like me, a long time ago, > > you altered it to auto_save_setup=false. > > Actually the first thing I do with any new instance of MC is set the right > panel > listing to long. I follow that with F9, Options, Configuration, where Auto > save > setup gets deselected, among other changes. :) And I have Autosave selected in all my installations of mc so IME, the last one to close writes the file. It's not unusual for me to have half a dozen instances of mc running at once! Sometimes I find I had two or three running in the same terminal session. Oh dear... - Nate -- "The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears this is true." Web: https://www.n0nb.us Projects: https://github.com/N0NB GPG fingerprint: 82D6 4F6B 0E67 CD41 F689 BBA6 FB2C 5130 D55A 8819 signature.asc Description: PGP signature
Re: Can't use mc's editor
* On 2022 21 Mar 20:56 -0500, David Wright wrote: > On Mon 21 Mar 2022 at 19:34:46 (-0500), Nate Bargmann wrote: > > * On 2022 21 Mar 15:19 -0500, Joe wrote: > > > Probably best try nano unless you're particularly keen on vim. Don't > > > forget that geany is a GUI IDE, whereas mc is a ncurses application. > > > > Actually, mc and mcedit are linked to libslang, not ncurses. Visually > > it's not much difference but otherwise a world of difference, mostly to > > developers. > > > > One thing that really helped me when working with mcedit is to have this > > snippet in my ~/.bashrc: > > > > # Modify Midnight Commander editor background color > > export MC_COLOR_TABLE="$MC_COLOR_TABLE:\ > > editnormal=lightgray,black:\ > > editbold=yellow,black:\ > > editmarked=black,cyan" > > > > There may be more parameters available and it has been many years since > > I found that somewhere on the 'Net and I failed to note the source. > > man mc ? Indeed, there is an entire section called "Colors" and lists the keywords for the editor as: Editor colors are: editnormal, editbold, editmarked, editwhitespace, editlinestate I probably got the color snippet from mcedit(1) and its COLORS section which looks suspiciously the same and only contains three of the five keywords. I'm not completely ignorant of man pages, having authored a few! ;-) I suppose it just slipped my mind when I typed that mail. - Nate -- "The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears this is true." Web: https://www.n0nb.us Projects: https://github.com/N0NB GPG fingerprint: 82D6 4F6B 0E67 CD41 F689 BBA6 FB2C 5130 D55A 8819 signature.asc Description: PGP signature
Re: Can't use mc's editor
David Wright composed on 2022-03-21 23:07 (UTC-0500): > Felix Miata wrote: >> IIUC, and assuming standard file/directory permissions, if all instances of >> MC are >> closed, and its ini file is then removed, every setting (except for panels >> configuration? and hotlist), gets reverted to default on next startup. > I've attached the result of that reversion (from buster). The critical > line is, of course, line 4. I assume that, like me, a long time ago, > you altered it to auto_save_setup=false. Actually the first thing I do with any new instance of MC is set the right panel listing to long. I follow that with F9, Options, Configuration, where Auto save setup gets deselected, among other changes. :) -- Evolution as taught in public schools is, like religion, based on faith, not based on science. Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! Felix Miata
Re: Can't use mc's editor
On Mon 21 Mar 2022 at 22:43:50 (-0400), Felix Miata wrote: > David Wright composed on 2022-03-21 20:55 (UTC-0500): > > On Mon 21 Mar 2022 at 14:08:14 (-0400), Felix Miata wrote: > >> Nate Bargmann composed on 2022-03-21 12:35 (UTC-0500): > > >> > tinkering with mc's config files directly which can only be done if all > >> > instances of mc are closed. > > >> Not IME, at least for ini and hotlist, the former which I change nearly as > >> often > >> with mcedit as I do via menu. Hotlist I only do with mcedit. > > > My recollection is that when you close mc, it writes back the current > > settings to the ini file, which is why I keep mine readonly. > Felix Miata composed on 2022-03-21 18:07 (UTC-0400): > > > My main user's MC ini file was last written 8 years ago. > > And, it's not immutable. On a second PC I have running Bookworm ATM, the last > write date on its MC ini is 9 days short of 5 years ago. But you also wrote: > IIUC, and assuming standard file/directory permissions, if all instances of > MC are > closed, and its ini file is then removed, every setting (except for panels > configuration? and hotlist), gets reverted to default on next startup. I've attached the result of that reversion (from buster). The critical line is, of course, line 4. I assume that, like me, a long time ago, you altered it to auto_save_setup=false. The default lines safe_delete=false and safe_overwrite=false are so dangerous that I don't rely just on line 4, but make ini readonly too. I keep my panels configuration readonly too (actually a symlink to a default-panels.ini or a single panelled my-panels.ini) to prevent accidents, though auto_save_setup_panels=false is the default anyway. Cheers, David. [Midnight-Commander] verbose=true shell_patterns=true auto_save_setup=true preallocate_space=false auto_menu=false use_internal_view=true use_internal_edit=false clear_before_exec=true confirm_delete=true confirm_overwrite=true confirm_execute=false confirm_history_cleanup=true confirm_exit=false confirm_directory_hotlist_delete=false confirm_view_dir=false safe_delete=false safe_overwrite=false use_8th_bit_as_meta=false mouse_move_pages_viewer=true mouse_close_dialog=false fast_refresh=false drop_menus=false wrap_mode=true old_esc_mode=true cd_symlinks=true show_all_if_ambiguous=false use_file_to_guess_type=true alternate_plus_minus=false only_leading_plus_minus=true show_output_starts_shell=false xtree_mode=false file_op_compute_totals=true classic_progressbar=true use_netrc=true ftpfs_always_use_proxy=false ftpfs_use_passive_connections=true ftpfs_use_passive_connections_over_proxy=false ftpfs_use_unix_list_options=true ftpfs_first_cd_then_ls=true ignore_ftp_chattr_errors=true editor_fill_tabs_with_spaces=false editor_return_does_auto_indent=false editor_backspace_through_tabs=false editor_fake_half_tabs=true editor_option_save_position=true editor_option_auto_para_formatting=false editor_option_typewriter_wrap=false editor_edit_confirm_save=true editor_syntax_highlighting=true editor_persistent_selections=true editor_drop_selection_on_copy=true editor_cursor_beyond_eol=false editor_cursor_after_inserted_block=false editor_visible_tabs=true editor_visible_spaces=true editor_line_state=false editor_simple_statusbar=false editor_check_new_line=false editor_show_right_margin=false editor_group_undo=true editor_state_full_filename=true editor_ask_filename_before_edit=false nice_rotating_dash=true mcview_remember_file_position=false auto_fill_mkdir_name=true copymove_persistent_attr=true pause_after_run=1 mouse_repeat_rate=100 double_click_speed=250 old_esc_mode_timeout=100 max_dirt_limit=10 num_history_items_recorded=60 vfs_timeout=60 ftpfs_directory_timeout=900 ftpfs_retry_seconds=30 fish_directory_timeout=900 editor_tab_spacing=8 editor_word_wrap_line_length=72 editor_option_save_mode=0 editor_backup_extension=~ editor_filesize_threshold=64M editor_stop_format_chars=-+*\\,.;:&> mcview_eof= skin=default [Layout] message_visible=1 keybar_visible=1 xterm_title=1 output_lines=0 command_prompt=1 menubar_visible=1 free_space=1 horizontal_split=0 vertical_equal=1 left_panel_size=50 horizontal_equal=1 top_panel_size=1 [Misc] timeformat_recent=%b %e %H:%M timeformat_old=%b %e %Y ftp_proxy_host=gate ftpfs_password=anonymous@ display_codepage=UTF-8 source_codepage=Other_8_bit autodetect_codeset= spell_language=en clipboard_store= clipboard_paste= [Colors] base_color= xterm= color_terminals= [Panels] show_mini_info=true kilobyte_si=false mix_all_files=false show_backups=true show_dot_files=true fast_reload=false fast_reload_msg_shown=false mark_moves_down=true reverse_files_only=true auto_save_setup_panels=false navigate_with_arrows=false panel_scroll_pages=true panel_scroll_center=false mouse_move_pages=true filetype_mode=true permission_mode=false torben_fj_mode=false quick_search_mode=2 select_flags=6 [Panelize] Find *.orig after patching=find . -name \\*.orig -print Find SUID and SGID programs=find . \\( \\( -perm
Re: Can't use mc's editor
David Wright composed on 2022-03-21 20:55 (UTC-0500): > On Mon 21 Mar 2022 at 14:08:14 (-0400), Felix Miata wrote: >> Nate Bargmann composed on 2022-03-21 12:35 (UTC-0500): >> > tinkering with mc's config files directly which can only be done if all >> > instances of mc are closed. >> Not IME, at least for ini and hotlist, the former which I change nearly as >> often >> with mcedit as I do via menu. Hotlist I only do with mcedit. > My recollection is that when you close mc, it writes back the current > settings to the ini file, which is why I keep mine readonly. Felix Miata composed on 2022-03-21 18:07 (UTC-0400): > My main user's MC ini file was last written 8 years ago. And, it's not immutable. On a second PC I have running Bookworm ATM, the last write date on its MC ini is 9 days short of 5 years ago. -- Evolution as taught in public schools is, like religion, based on faith, not based on science. Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! Felix Miata
Re: Can't use mc's editor
On Mon 21 Mar 2022 at 14:08:14 (-0400), Felix Miata wrote: > Nate Bargmann composed on 2022-03-21 12:35 (UTC-0500): > > > tinkering with mc's config files directly which can only be done if all > > instances of mc are closed. > > Not IME, at least for ini and hotlist, the former which I change nearly as > often > with mcedit as I do via menu. Hotlist I only do with mcedit. My recollection is that when you close mc, it writes back the current settings to the ini file, which is why I keep mine readonly. With multiple instances of mc running, one might get Nate's impression above, unless any changes intended to be persistent are made in the instance that's closed last. > Mcedit is giving me no trouble. I use most than once a day most days. I find the 4[Edit] key more useful as an extra alternative to 3[View] and [Return] in choosing the Edit/View/Open scripts to run from mc.ext, eg a different application, or windowed/fullscreen, or view metadata rather than the file, etc. If you want to edit the currently selected file, is there any major disadvantage in simply typing edit %p in mc's command line? There's one obvious advantage: you can type the name of any editor, rather than being restricted to the list given by select-editor (see Joe's post). Cheers, David.
Re: Can't use mc's editor
On Mon 21 Mar 2022 at 19:34:46 (-0500), Nate Bargmann wrote: > * On 2022 21 Mar 15:19 -0500, Joe wrote: > > Probably best try nano unless you're particularly keen on vim. Don't > > forget that geany is a GUI IDE, whereas mc is a ncurses application. > > Actually, mc and mcedit are linked to libslang, not ncurses. Visually > it's not much difference but otherwise a world of difference, mostly to > developers. > > One thing that really helped me when working with mcedit is to have this > snippet in my ~/.bashrc: > > # Modify Midnight Commander editor background color > export MC_COLOR_TABLE="$MC_COLOR_TABLE:\ > editnormal=lightgray,black:\ > editbold=yellow,black:\ > editmarked=black,cyan" > > There may be more parameters available and it has been many years since > I found that somewhere on the 'Net and I failed to note the source. man mc ? Cheers, David.
Re: Can't use mc's editor
On Monday, 21 March 2022 18:07:28 EDT Felix Miata wrote: > gene heskett composed on 2022-03-21 17:26 (UTC-0400): > > whatever I do to it, has zero effect. > > IIUC, and assuming standard file/directory permissions, if all > instances of MC are closed, and its ini file is then removed, every > setting (except for panels configuration? and hotlist), gets reverted > to default on next startup. > > Long long ago, MC user settings were in ~/.mc/. Now they are in > ~/.config/mc/. For old users you still have you might want to > eradicate any ~/.mc/ directories. My ~/.config/mc/ is a symlink to > ~/.mc/. > > My main user's MC ini file was last written 8 years ago. > -- > Evolution as taught in public schools is, like religion, > based on faith, not based on science. > > Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! > > Felix Miata > Noted, thanks Felix. But it doesn't change a whit when I set the kde5 colors to something a little easier on these ancient eyes. I went looking for something that if I print a msg from kmail, the whole header was white text on an ounce of black toner. Obviously that had to be fixed. :) Thanks Felix, take care and stay well. Cheers, Gene Heskett. -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author, 1940) If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable. - Louis D. Brandeis
Re: Can't use mc's editor
* On 2022 21 Mar 15:19 -0500, Joe wrote: > Probably best try nano unless you're particularly keen on vim. Don't > forget that geany is a GUI IDE, whereas mc is a ncurses application. Actually, mc and mcedit are linked to libslang, not ncurses. Visually it's not much difference but otherwise a world of difference, mostly to developers. One thing that really helped me when working with mcedit is to have this snippet in my ~/.bashrc: # Modify Midnight Commander editor background color export MC_COLOR_TABLE="$MC_COLOR_TABLE:\ editnormal=lightgray,black:\ editbold=yellow,black:\ editmarked=black,cyan" There may be more parameters available and it has been many years since I found that somewhere on the 'Net and I failed to note the source. - Nate -- "The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears this is true." Web: https://www.n0nb.us Projects: https://github.com/N0NB GPG fingerprint: 82D6 4F6B 0E67 CD41 F689 BBA6 FB2C 5130 D55A 8819 signature.asc Description: PGP signature
Re: Can't use mc's editor
On 2022-03-21 21:26, gene heskett wrote: On Monday, 21 March 2022 16:46:01 EDT mick crane wrote: On 2022-03-21 18:08, Felix Miata wrote: > Nate Bargmann composed on 2022-03-21 12:35 (UTC-0500): >> tinkering with mc's config files directly which can only be done if >> all >> instances of mc are closed. > > Not IME, at least for ini and hotlist, the former which I change > nearly as often > with mcedit as I do via menu. Hotlist I only do with mcedit. > > Mcedit is giving me no trouble. I use most than once a day most days. I don't *think* I changed mc's configuration for editor, maybe changed system default somehow. mick -- Key ID4BFEBB31 . And whatever I do to it, has zero effect. I know I've changed default editor for affect in mc from vi to nano but no idea how, maybe you can change it in ~/.profile Cheers, Gene Heskett. -- Key ID4BFEBB31
Re: Can't use mc's editor
gene heskett composed on 2022-03-21 17:26 (UTC-0400): > whatever I do to it, has zero effect. IIUC, and assuming standard file/directory permissions, if all instances of MC are closed, and its ini file is then removed, every setting (except for panels configuration? and hotlist), gets reverted to default on next startup. Long long ago, MC user settings were in ~/.mc/. Now they are in ~/.config/mc/. For old users you still have you might want to eradicate any ~/.mc/ directories. My ~/.config/mc/ is a symlink to ~/.mc/. My main user's MC ini file was last written 8 years ago. -- Evolution as taught in public schools is, like religion, based on faith, not based on science. Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! Felix Miata
Re: Can't use mc's editor
On Monday, 21 March 2022 16:46:01 EDT mick crane wrote: > On 2022-03-21 18:08, Felix Miata wrote: > > Nate Bargmann composed on 2022-03-21 12:35 (UTC-0500): > >> tinkering with mc's config files directly which can only be done if > >> all > >> instances of mc are closed. > > > > Not IME, at least for ini and hotlist, the former which I change > > nearly as often > > with mcedit as I do via menu. Hotlist I only do with mcedit. > > > > Mcedit is giving me no trouble. I use most than once a day most days. > > I don't *think* I changed mc's configuration for editor, maybe changed > system default somehow. > > mick > -- > Key ID4BFEBB31 > > . And whatever I do to it, has zero effect. Cheers, Gene Heskett. -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author, 1940) If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable. - Louis D. Brandeis
Re: Can't use mc's editor
On 2022-03-21 18:08, Felix Miata wrote: Nate Bargmann composed on 2022-03-21 12:35 (UTC-0500): tinkering with mc's config files directly which can only be done if all instances of mc are closed. Not IME, at least for ini and hotlist, the former which I change nearly as often with mcedit as I do via menu. Hotlist I only do with mcedit. Mcedit is giving me no trouble. I use most than once a day most days. I don't *think* I changed mc's configuration for editor, maybe changed system default somehow. mick -- Key ID4BFEBB31
Re: Can't use mc's editor
On Sun, 20 Mar 2022 15:25:02 -0400 Celejar wrote: > On Sun, 20 Mar 2022 13:53:52 -0400 > gene heskett wrote: > > > Greetings all; > > > > The colors used by mc's editor are making the editor impossible to > > use as they can't be used by someone with good color vision even, > > they are all so alike. > > > > Where can I change mc's default editor to something as clear and > > easy to use as geany? Seems to me that used to be a menu choice, > > but thats not findable when the menus except for the click on it > > character are all solid 100% bright blue and cannot be read by > > human eyes. > > There are two questions here: > > 1) How can mc's colors be changed? > > Answer: via environment variables or the configuration file > (~/.config/mc/ini) - see the "Colors" section of the mc manpage. And a nasty job that is. And you *still* can't change the dark brown of programming comments to something readable on a dark background. > > 2) How can mc's default editor be changed? > > Answer: via mc.ext (copy /etc/mc/mc.ext to ~/.config/mc/mc.ext and > edit the copied version) > Also: "Run MC as usual. On the command line right above the bottom row of menu selections type select-editor. This should open a menu with a list of all of your installed editors. This is working for me on all my current linux machines." https://askubuntu.com/questions/16776/how-to-switch-the-editor-in-mc-midnight-commander-from-nano-to-mcedit I think you're fairly limited in choices by default. I have a couple of other small text-mode editors installed, and mc can't see them. Probably best try nano unless you're particularly keen on vim. Don't forget that geany is a GUI IDE, whereas mc is a ncurses application. -- Joe
Re: Can't use mc's editor
Nate Bargmann composed on 2022-03-21 12:35 (UTC-0500): > tinkering with mc's config files directly which can only be done if all > instances of mc are closed. Not IME, at least for ini and hotlist, the former which I change nearly as often with mcedit as I do via menu. Hotlist I only do with mcedit. Mcedit is giving me no trouble. I use most than once a day most days. -- Evolution as taught in public schools is, like religion, based on faith, not based on science. Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! Felix Miata
Re: Can't use mc's editor
In the configuration dialog there is the option to use the internal editor. Make sure that option is not selected. On Debian systems you should get prompted for which editor to use by the select-editor script. In my case I chose vim.basic. This avoids tinkering with mc's config files directly which can only be done if all instances of mc are closed. - Nate -- "The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears this is true." Web: https://www.n0nb.us Projects: https://github.com/N0NB GPG fingerprint: 82D6 4F6B 0E67 CD41 F689 BBA6 FB2C 5130 D55A 8819 signature.asc Description: PGP signature
Re: Can't use mc's editor
On Sunday, 20 March 2022 15:25:02 EDT Celejar wrote: > On Sun, 20 Mar 2022 13:53:52 -0400 > > gene heskett wrote: > > Greetings all; > > > > The colors used by mc's editor are making the editor impossible to > > use as they can't be used by someone with good color vision even, > > they are all so alike. > > > > Where can I change mc's default editor to something as clear and easy > > to use as geany? Seems to me that used to be a menu choice, but > > thats not findable when the menus except for the click on it > > character are all solid 100% bright blue and cannot be read by human > > eyes. > > There are two questions here: > > 1) How can mc's colors be changed? > > Answer: via environment variables or the configuration file > (~/.config/mc/ini) - see the "Colors" section of the mc manpage. > > 2) How can mc's default editor be changed? > > Answer: via mc.ext (copy /etc/mc/mc.ext to ~/.config/mc/mc.ext and edit > the copied version) > > Celejar > Sounds great, Calejar, I'll give it a try. Thank you, take care and stay well. Cheers, Gene Heskett. -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author, 1940) If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable. - Louis D. Brandeis
Re: Can't use mc's editor
On Sun, 20 Mar 2022 13:53:52 -0400 gene heskett wrote: > Greetings all; > > The colors used by mc's editor are making the editor impossible to use as > they can't be used by someone with good color vision even, they are all > so alike. > > Where can I change mc's default editor to something as clear and easy to > use as geany? Seems to me that used to be a menu choice, but thats not > findable when the menus except for the click on it character are all > solid 100% bright blue and cannot be read by human eyes. There are two questions here: 1) How can mc's colors be changed? Answer: via environment variables or the configuration file (~/.config/mc/ini) - see the "Colors" section of the mc manpage. 2) How can mc's default editor be changed? Answer: via mc.ext (copy /etc/mc/mc.ext to ~/.config/mc/mc.ext and edit the copied version) Celejar
Can't use mc's editor
Greetings all; The colors used by mc's editor are making the editor impossible to use as they can't be used by someone with good color vision even, they are all so alike. Where can I change mc's default editor to something as clear and easy to use as geany? Seems to me that used to be a menu choice, but thats not findable when the menus except for the click on it character are all solid 100% bright blue and cannot be read by human eyes. Thanks all. Cheers, Gene Heskett. -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author, 1940) If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable. - Louis D. Brandeis
