mcedit
(1)
Name
mcedit - Internal file editor of GNU Midnight Commander.
Synopsis
Please see following description for synopsis
Description
GNU Midnight Commander MCEDIT(1)
NAME
mcedit - Internal file editor of GNU Midnight Commander.
USAGE
mcedit [-bcCdfhstVx?] [+lineno] [file1] [file2] ...
mcedit [-bcCdfhstVx?] file1:lineno[:] file2:lineno[:] ...
DESCRIPTION
mcedit is a link to mc, the main GNU Midnight Commander exe-
cutable. Executing GNU Midnight Commander under this name
requests staring the internal editor and opening files spec-
ified on the command line. The editor is based on the termi-
nal version of cooledit - standalone editor for X Window
System.
OPTIONS
+lineno
Go to the line specified by number (do not put a space
between the + sign and the number). Several line num-
bers are allowed but the last one will be actual and it
will be applied to the first file only.
-b Force black and white display.
-c Force ANSI color mode on terminals that don't seem to
have color support.
-C <keyword>=<fgcolor>,<bgcolor>,<attributes>:<keyword>= ...
Specify a different color set. See the Colors section
in mc(1) for more information.
-d Disable mouse support.
-f Display the compiled-in search path for GNU Midnight
Commander data files.
-t Force using termcap database instead of terminfo. This
option is only applicable if GNU Midnight Commander was
compiled with S-Lang library with terminfo support.
-V Display the version of the program.
-x Force xterm mode. Used when running on xterm-capable
terminals (two screen modes, and able to send mouse
escape sequences).
FEATURES
The internal file editor is a full-featured windowed editor.
It can edit several files at the same time. Maximim size of
each file is 64 megabytes. It is possible to edit binary
files. The features it presently supports are: block copy,
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move, delete, cut, paste; key for key undo; pull-down menus;
file insertion; macro commands; regular expression search
and replace; shift-arrow text highlighting (if supported by
the terminal); insert-overwrite toggle; autoindent; tunable
tab size; syntax highlighting for various file types; and an
option to pipe text blocks through shell commands like
indent and ispell.
Each file is opened in its own window in full-screen mode.
Window control in mcedit is similar to the window control in
other multi-window program: double click on window title
maximizes the window to full-screen or restores window size
and position; left-click on window title and mouse drag
moves the window in editor area; left-click on low-right
frame corner and mouse drag resizes the window. These
actions can be made using "Window" menu.
KEYS
The editor is easy to use and can be used without learning.
The pull-down menu is invoked by pressing F9. You can learn
other keys from the menu and from the button bar labels.
In addition to that, Shift combined with arrows does text
highlighting (if supported by the terminal): Ctrl-Ins copies
to the file ~/.cache/mc/mcedit/mcedit.clip, Shift-Ins pastes
from ~/.cache/mc/mcedit/mcedit.clip, Shift-Del cuts to
~/.cache/mc/mcedit/mcedit.clip, and Ctrl-Del deletes high-
lighted text. Mouse highlighting also works on some termi-
nals. To use the standard mouse support provided by your
terminal, hold the Shift key. Please note that the mouse
support in the terminal doesn't share the clipboard with
mcedit.
The completion key (usually Meta-Tab or Escape Tab) com-
pletes the word under the cursor using the words used in the
file.
MACRO
To define a macro, press Ctrl-R and then type out the keys
you want to be executed. Press Ctrl-R again when finished.
The macro can be assigned to any key by pressing that key.
The macro is executed when you press the assigned key.
The macro commands are stored in section [editor] it the
file ~/.local/share/mc/mc.macros.
External scripts (filters) can be assigned into the any
hotkey by edit mc.macros like following:
[editor]
ctrl-W=ExecuteScript:25;
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This means that ctrl-W hotkey initiates the Execute-
Script(25) action, then editor handler translates this into
execution of ~/.local/share/mc/mcedit/macros.d/macro.25.sh
shell script.
External scripts are stored in
~/.local/share/mc/mcedit/macros.d/ directory and must be
named as macro.XXXX.sh where XXXX is the number from 0 to
9999. See Menu File Edit for more detail about format of
the script.
Following macro definition and directives can be used:
#silent
If this directive is set, then script starts without
interactive subshell.
%c The cursor column position number.
%i The indent of blank space, equal the cursor column.
%y The syntax type of current file.
%b The block file name.
%f The current file name.
%n Only the current file name without extension.
%x The extension of current file name.
%d The current directory name.
%F The current file in the unselected panel.
%D The directory name of the unselected panel.
%t The currently tagged files.
%T The tagged files in the unselected panel.
%u and %U Similar to the %t and %T macros, but in addition
the files are untagged. You can use this macro only
once per menu file entry or extension file entry,
because next time there will be no tagged files.
%s and %S The selected files: The tagged files if there
are any. Otherwise the current file.
Feel free to edit this files, if you need. Here is a sample
external script:
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l comment selection
TMPFILE=`mktemp ${MC_TMPDIR:-/tmp}/up.XXXXXX` || exit 1
echo #if 0 > $TMPFILE
cat %b >> $TMPFILE
echo #endif >> $TMPFILE
cat $TMPFILE > %b
rm -f $TMPFILE
If some keys don't work, you can use Learn Keys in the
Options menu.
CODE NAVIGATION
mcedit can be used to navigation through code with tags
files created by etags or ctags commands. If there is no
file TAGS code navigation would not work. In example, in
case of exuberant-ctags for C language command will be:
ctags -e --language-force=C -R ./
Meta-Enter show list box to select item under cursor (cusor
should stand at end of word).
Meta-Minus where minus is symbol "-" go to previous function
in navigation list (like a browser Back).
Meta-Equal where equal is symbol "=" go to next function in
navigation list (like a browser Forward).
SYNTAX HIGHLIGHTING
mcedit supports syntax highlighting. This means that key-
words and contexts (like C comments, string constants, etc)
are highlighted in different colors. The following section
explains the format of the file ~/.config/mc/mcedit/Syntax.
If this file is missing, system-wide /usr/share/mc/syn-
tax/Syntax is used. The file ~/.config/mc/mcedit/Syntax is
rescanned on opening of a any new editor file. The file
contains rules for highlighting, each of which is given on a
separate line, and define which keywords will be highlighted
to what color.
The file is divided into sections, each beginning with a
line with the file command. The sections are normally put
into separate files using the include command.
The file command has three arguments. The first argument is
a regular expression that is applied to the file name to
determine if the following section applies to the file. The
second argument is the description of the file type. It is
used in cooledit; future versions of mcedit may use it as
well. The third optional argument is a regular expression
to match the first line of text of the file. The rules in
the following section apply if either the file name or the
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first line of text matches.
A section ends with the start of another section. Each sec-
tion is divided into contexts, and each context contains
rules. A context is a scope within the text that a particu-
lar set of rules belongs to. For instance, the text within
a C style comment (i.e. between /* and */) has its own
color. This is a context, although it has no further rules
inside it because there is probably nothing that we want
highlighted within a C comment.
A trivial C programming section might look like this:
file .\*\\.c C\sProgram\sFile (#include|/\\\*)
wholechars abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ_
# default colors
define comment brown
context default
keyword whole if yellow
keyword whole else yellow
keyword whole for yellow
keyword whole while yellow
keyword whole do yellow
keyword whole switch yellow
keyword whole case yellow
keyword whole static yellow
keyword whole extern yellow
keyword { brightcyan
keyword } brightcyan
keyword '*' green
# C comments
context /\* \*/ comment
# C preprocessor directives
context linestart # \n red
keyword \\\n brightred
# C string constants
context " " green
keyword %d brightgreen
keyword %s brightgreen
keyword %c brightgreen
keyword \\" brightgreen
Each context starts with a line of the form:
context [exclusive] [whole|wholeright|wholeleft [linestart]
delim [linestart] delim [foreground] [background]
[attributes]
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The first context is an exception. It must start with the
command
context default [foreground] [background] [attributes]
otherwise mcedit will report an error. The linestart option
specifies that delim must start at the beginning of a line.
The whole option tells that delim must be a whole word. To
specify that a word must begin on the word boundary only on
the left side, you can use the wholeleft option, and simi-
larly a word that must end on the word boundary is specified
by wholeright.
The set of characters that constitute a whole word can be
changed at any point in the file with the wholechars com-
mand. The left and right set of characters can be set sepa-
rately with
wholechars [left|right] characters
The exclusive option causes the text between the delimiters
to be highlighted, but not the delimiters themselves.
Each rule is a line of the form:
keyword [whole|wholeright|wholeleft [linestart] string fore-
ground [background] [attributes]
Context or keyword strings are interpreted, so that you can
include tabs and spaces with the sequences \t and \s. New-
lines and backslashes are specified with \n and \\ respec-
tively. Since whitespace is used as a separator, it may not
be used as is. Also, \* must be used to specify an aster-
isk. The * itself is a wildcard that matches any length of
characters. For example,
keyword '*' green
colors all C single character constants green. You also
could use
keyword "*" green
to color string constants, but the matched string would not
be allowed to span across multiple newlines. The wildcard
may be used within context delimiters as well, but you can-
not have a wildcard as the last or first character.
Important to note is the line
keyword \\\n brightgreen
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This line defines a keyword containing the backslash and
newline characters. Since the keywords are matched before
the context delimiters, this keyword prevents the context
from ending at the end of the lines that end in a backslash,
thus allowing C preprocessor directive to continue across
multiple lines.
The possible colors are: black, gray, red, brightred, green,
brightgreen, brown, yellow, blue, brightblue, magenta,
brightmagenta, cyan, brightcyan, lightgray and white. The
special keyword "default" means the terminal's default.
Another special keyword "base" means mc's main colors, it is
useful as a placeholder if you want to specify attributes
without modifying the background color. When 256 colors are
available, they can be specified either as color16 to
color255, or as rgb000 to rgb555 and gray0 to gray23.
If the syntax file is shared with cooledit, it is possible
to specify different colors for mcedit and cooledit by sepa-
rating them with a slash, e.g.
keyword #include red/Orange
mcedit uses the color before the slash. See cooledit(1) for
supported cooledit colors.
Attributes can be any of bold, underline, reverse and blink,
appended by a plus sign if more than one are desired.
Comments may be put on a separate line starting with the
hash sign (#).
If you are describing case insensitive language you need to
use caseinsensitive directive. It should be specified at the
beginning of syntax file.
Because of the simplicity of the implementation, there are a
few intricacies that will not be dealt with correctly but
these are a minor irritation. On the whole, a broad spec-
trum of quite complicated situations are handled with these
simple rules. It is a good idea to take a look at the syn-
tax file to see some of the nifty tricks you can do with a
little imagination. If you cannot get by with the rules I
have coded, and you think you have a rule that would be use-
ful, please email me with your request. However, do not ask
for regular expression support, because this is flatly
impossible.
A useful hint is to work with as much as possible with the
things you can do rather than try to do things that this
implementation cannot deal with. Also remember that the aim
of syntax highlighting is to make programming less prone to
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error, not to make code look pretty.
The syntax highlighting can be toggled using Ctrl-s short-
cut.
COLORS
The default colors may be changed by appending to the
MC_COLOR_TABLE environment variable. Foreground and back-
ground colors pairs may be specified for example with:
MC_COLOR_TABLE="$MC_COLOR_TABLE:\
editnormal=lightgray,black:\
editbold=yellow,black:\
editmarked=black,cyan"
OPTIONS
Most options can now be set from the editors options dialog
box. See the Options menu. The following options are
defined in ~/.config/mc/ini and have obvious counterparts in
the dialog box. You can modify them to change the editor
behavior, by editing the file. Unless specified, a 1 sets
the option to on, and a 0 sets it to off, as is usual.
use_internal_edit
This option is ignored when invoking mcedit.
editor_tab_spacing
Interpret the tab character as being of this length.
Default is 8. You should avoid using other than 8 since
most other editors and text viewers assume a tab spac-
ing of 8. Use editor_fake_half_tabs to simulate a
smaller tab spacing.
editor_fill_tabs_with_spaces
Never insert a tab space. Rather insert spaces (ascii
20h) to fill to the desired tab size.
editor_return_does_auto_indent
Pressing return will tab across to match the indenta-
tion of the first line above that has text on it.
editor_backspace_through_tabs
Make a single backspace delete all the space to the
left margin if there is no text between the cursor and
the left margin.
editor_fake_half_tabs
This will emulate a half tab for those who want to pro-
gram with a tab spacing of 4, but do not want the tab
size changed from 8 (so that the code will be formatted
the same when displayed by other programs). When edit-
ing between text and the left margin, moving and
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tabbing will be as though a tab space were 4, while
actually using spaces and normal tabs for an optimal
fill. When editing anywhere else, a normal tab is
inserted.
editor_option_save_mode
Possible values 0, 1 and 2. The save mode (see the
options menu also) allows you to change the method of
saving a file. Quick save (0) saves the file by imme-
diately, truncating the disk file to zero length (i.e.
erasing it) and the writing the editor contents to the
file. This method is fast, but dangerous, since a sys-
tem error during a file save will leave the file only
partially written, possibly rendering the data irre-
trievable. When saving, the safe save (1) option
enables creation of a temporary file into which the
file contents are first written. In the event of an
problem, the original file is untouched. When the tem-
porary file is successfully written, it is renamed to
the name of the original file, thus replacing it. The
safest method is create backups (2). Where a backup
file is created before any changes are made. You can
specify your own backup file extension in the dialog.
Note that saving twice will replace your backup as well
as your original file.
editor_word_wrap_line_length
line length to wrap. 72 default.
editor_backup_extension
symbol for add extension to name of backup files.
Default "~".
editor_line_state
show state line of editor now it show number of file
line (in future it can show things like folding, break-
points, etc.). M-n toglle this option.
editor_visible_spaces
Toggle show visible trailing spaces (TWS), if edi-
tor_visible_spaces=1 TWS showed as '.'
editor_visible_tabs
Toggle show visible tabs, if editor_visible_tabs=1 tabs
showed as '<---->'
editor_persistent_selections
Do not remove block selection after moving the cursor.
editor_cursor_beyond_eol
Allow moving cursor beyond the end of line.
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editor_cursor_after_inserted_block
Allow moving cursor after inserted block.
editor_syntax_highlighting
enable syntax highlighting.
editor_edit_confirm_save
show confirm dialog on save.
editor_option_typewriter_wrap
to be described
editor_option_auto_para_formatting
to be described
editor_option_save_position
save file position on exit.
source_codepage
symbol representation of codepage name for file (i.e.
CP1251, ~ - default).
editor_group_undo
do UNDO for several of the same type of action (insert-
ing/overwriting, deleting, navigating, typing)
editor_wordcompletion_collect_entire_file
Search autocomplete candidates in entire of file or
just from begin of file to cursor position (0)
spell_language
Spelling language (en, en-variant_0, ru, etc) installed
with aspell package (a full list can be get using
'aspell' utility). Use spell_language = NONE to dis-
able aspell support. Default value is 'en'. Option must
located in the [Misc] section.
MISCELLANEOUS
You can use scanf search and replace to search and replace a
C format string. First take a look at the sscanf and
sprintf man pages to see what a format string is and how it
works. Here's an example: suppose that you want to replace
all occurrences of an open bracket, three comma separated
numbers, and a close bracket, with the word apples, the
third number, the word oranges and then the second number.
You would fill in the Replace dialog box as follows:
Enter search string
(%d,%d,%d)
Enter replace string
apples %d oranges %d
Enter replacement argument order
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3,2
The last line specifies that the third and then the second
number are to be used in place of the first and second.
It is advisable to use this feature with Prompt On Replace
on, because a match is thought to be found whenever the num-
ber of arguments found matches the number given, which is
not always a real match. Scanf also treats whitespace as
being elastic. Note that the scanf format %[ is very useful
for scanning strings, and whitespace.
The editor also displays non-us characters (160+). When
editing binary files, you should set display bits to 7 bits
in the Midnight Commander options menu to keep the spacing
clean.
FILES
/usr/share/mc/mc.hlp
The help file for the program.
/usr/share/mc/mc.ini
The default system-wide setup for GNU Midnight Comman-
der, used only if the user's own ~/.config/mc/ini file
is missing.
/usr/share/mc/mc.lib
Global settings for the Midnight Commander. Settings
in this file affect all users, whether they have
~/.config/mc/ini or not.
/usr/share/mc/syntax/*
The default system-wide syntax files for mcedit, used
only if the corresponding user's own
~/.local/share/mc/mcedit/ file is missing.
~/.config/mc/ini
User's own setup. If this file is present then the
setup is loaded from here instead of the system-wide
setup file.
~/.local/share/mc/mcedit/
User's own directory where block commands are processed
and saved and user's own syntax files are located.
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LICENSE
This program is distributed under the terms of the GNU Gen-
eral Public License as published by the Free Software Foun-
dation. See the built-in help of the Midnight Commander for
details on the License and the lack of warranty.
AVAILABILITY
The latest version of this program can be found at
http://midnight-commander.org/.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following
attributes:
+---------------+------------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+---------------+------------------+
|Availability | file/mc |
+---------------+------------------+
|Stability | Uncommitted |
+---------------+------------------+
SEE ALSO
cooledit(1), mc(1), gpm(1), terminfo(1), scanf(3).
AUTHORS
Paul Sheer (psheer@obsidian.co.za) is the original author of
the Midnight Commander's internal editor.
BUGS
Bugs should be reported to mc-devel@gnome.org
NOTES
This software was built from source available at
https://java.net/projects/solaris-userland. The original
community source was downloaded from http://www.midnight-
commander.org/downloads/mc-4.8.8.tar.bz2
Further information about this software can be found on the
open source community website at http://www.midnight-comman-
der.org/.
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