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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 executable. Executing GNU Midnight
       Commander under this name requests staring the internal editor and opening 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 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, 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 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  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 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 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, 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 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
              spacing 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 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  by
              immediately,  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  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 an 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).  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, breakpoints, etc.). M-n toglle this option.

       editor_visible_spaces
              Toggle show visible trailing spaces (TWS), if editor_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.

       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 (inserting/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  disable
              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
       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 number 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 Commander, 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.

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  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://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 the Midnight Commander's
       internal editor.

BUGS

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