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NAME

       mcedit - Internal file editor of GNU Midnight Commander.

SYNOPSIS

       mcedit [-bcCdfhstVx?] [+lineno] [file1] [file2] ...

       mcedit [-bcCdfhstVx?] file1:lineno[:] file2:lineno[:] ...

DESCRIPTION

       mcedit is a link to mc, the main GNU Midnight Commander executable. Executing GNU Midnight
       Commander under this name runs the internal  editor  and  opens  files  specified  on  the
       command  line. The editor is based on the terminal 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 numbers are allowed but only the last one will be used, 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. Maximum size of each file is 64 megabytes. It is possible  to  edit  binary
       files.  The  features it presently supports are: block copy, 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 highlighted text.  Mouse highlighting
       also  works  on  some  terminals.   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) completes 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;

       This  means that ctrl-W hotkey initiates the ExecuteScript(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 Edit  Menu  File  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:

       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 for navigation through code with tags files created by etags or ctags
       commands. If there is no TAGS file code navigation will not work.  For example, in case of
       exuberant-ctags for C language command will be:

       ctags -e --language-force=C -R ./

       Meta-Enter  shows  list box to select item under cursor (cursor should stand at the end of
       the word).

       Meta-Minus where minus is symbol "-" goes to previous function in  navigation  list  (like
       browser's Back button).

       Meta-Equal  where  equal  is  symbol  "="  goes  to next function in navigation list (like
       browser's Forward button).

SYNTAX HIGHLIGHTING

       mcedit supports syntax highlighting.  This  means  that  keywords  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/syntax/Syntax     is     used.      The    file
       ~/.config/mc/mcedit/Syntax is rescanned on opening of every 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 with 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 first line of text matches.

       A section ends with the start of another section.  Each section is divided into  contexts,
       and  each  context contains rules.  A context is a scope within the text that a particular
       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]

       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 similarly 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 command.  The left and right set of characters can be  set  separately
       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   foreground    [background]
       [attributes]

       Context  or  keyword strings are interpreted, so that you can include tabs and spaces with
       the sequences \t  and  \s.   Newlines  and  backslashes  are  specified  with  \n  and  \\
       respectively.   Since  whitespace is used as a separator, it may not be used as is.  Also,
       \* must be used to specify an asterisk.  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
       cannot have a wildcard as the last or first character.

       Important to note is the line

         keyword  \\\n  brightgreen

       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 separating 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, italic, 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 spectrum
       of quite complicated situations are handled with these simple rules.  It is a good idea to
       take  a  look  at the syntax 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  useful, 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 error,  not  to  make  code  look
       pretty.

       The syntax highlighting can be toggled using Ctrl-s shortcut.

COLORS

       The default colors may be changed by appending to the MC_COLOR_TABLE environment variable.
       Foreground and background 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 be set from 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 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
              spacing of 8. Use editor_fake_half_tabs to simulate a smaller tab spacing.

       editor_fill_tabs_with_spaces
              Never  insert  a  tab  character.  Rather  insert  spaces (ascii 32) to fill to the
              desired tab size.

       editor_return_does_auto_indent
              Pressing return will tab across to match the indentation 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 program 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 editing  between  text  and  the  left
              margin,  moving  and  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  immediately,
              truncating  the  disk  file  to zero length (i.e.  erasing it) and then writing the
              editor contents to the file.  This method is fast, but dangerous,  since  a  system
              error  during  a  file  save  will  leave the file only partially written, possibly
              rendering the data irretrievable.  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 a problem, the original file is untouched.  When the temporary file is
              successfully  written,  it  is  renamed  to  the  name  of  the original file, thus
              replacing it.  The safest method is create backups (2): 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 at. Default is 72.

       editor_backup_extension
              Symbol to add to name of backup files. Default is "~".

       editor_line_state
              Show state line of editor. Currently it shows current line number (in the future it
              might show things like folding, breakpoints, etc.). M-n toggles this option.

       editor_visible_spaces
              Toggle "show visible trailing spaces".  If editor_visible_spaces=1, they are  shown
              as '.'

       editor_visible_tabs
              Toggle "show visible tabs".  If editor_visible_tabs=1, tabs are shown as '<---->'

       editor_persistent_selections
              Do not remove block selection after cursor movement.

       editor_drop_selection_on_copy
              Reset selection after copy to clipboard.

       editor_cursor_beyond_eol
              Allow moving cursor beyond the end of line.

       editor_cursor_after_inserted_block
              Allow moving cursor after inserted block.

       editor_syntax_highlighting
              enable syntax highlighting.

       editor_edit_confirm_save
              Show confirmation 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
              Combine UNDO actions for several of the same type of action (inserting/overwriting,
              deleting, navigating, typing)

       editor_wordcompletion_collect_entire_file
              Search autocomplete candidates in entire file (1) or just from beginning of file to
              cursor position (0).

       editor_wordcompletion_collect_all_files
              Search  autocomplete  candidates  from all loaded files (1, default), not only from
              the currently edited one (0).

       spell_language
              Spelling language (en, en-variant_0, ru, etc) installed with aspell package (a full
              list can be obtained using 'aspell' utility).  Use spell_language = NONE to disable
              aspell support. Default value is  'en'.  Option  must  be  located  in  the  [Misc]
              section.

       editor_stop_format_chars
              Set of characters to stop paragraph formatting. If one of those characters is found
              in the beginning of line, that line and all following lines of  paragraph  will  be
              untouched. Default value is "-+*\,.;:&>".

       editor_state_full_filename
              Show  full path name in the status line. If disabled, only base name of the file is
              shown.

MISCELLANEOUS

       The editor also displays non-us characters (160+).  When editing binary files, you  should
       set display bits to 7 bits in Midnight Commander's options menu to keep the spacing clean.

FILES

       /usr/share/mc/help/mc.hlp

              The help file for the program.

       /usr/share/mc/mc.ini

              The  default  system-wide setup for GNU Midnight Commander, used only if the user's
              own ~/.config/mc/ini file is missing.

       /usr/share/mc/mc.lib

              Global settings for 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.

LICENSE

       This program is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published
       by  the Free Software Foundation.  See the built-in help of Midnight Commander for details
       on the License and the lack of warranty.

AVAILABILITY

       The latest version of this program can be found at http://ftp.midnight-commander.org/.

SEE ALSO

       cooledit(1), mc(1), gpm(1), terminfo(1), scanf(3).

AUTHORS

       Paul Sheer (psheer@obsidian.co.za) is the original author of Midnight Commander's internal
       editor.

BUGS

       Bugs should be reported to http://www.midnight-commander.org/.