NAME

mcedit6 - Internal file editor of M-Commander.

SYNOPSIS

mcedit6 [-bcdfhstVx?] [+lineno] [file1] [file2] ...

mcedit6 [-bcdfhstVx?] file1:lineno[:] file2:lineno[:] ...

DESCRIPTION

mcedit6 is a link to mcommander, the main M-Commander executable. Executing M-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.

-d

Disable mouse support.

-h, -?, --help

Show the options and what they do.

-f

Display the compiled-in search path for M-Commander data files.

-S arg, --skin=arg

Specify a name of skin in the command line. See the Skins section in mcommander(1) for more information.

-s

Run on a slow terminal: the screen is drawn with fewer updates.

-t

Force using termcap database instead of terminfo. This option is only applicable if M-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. A file larger than editor_filesize_threshold (64 MB by default) is opened after a question, not refused. 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 mcedit6 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 ~/.local/share/mc6/mcedit/mcedit.clip, Shift-Ins pastes from it, Shift-Del cuts to it, 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 mcedit6.

The completion key (usually Meta-Tab or Escape Tab) completes the word under the cursor using the words used in the file.

These commands have keys but no menu entry of their own: Meta-t sorts the selected lines, Meta-u runs a shell command and puts its output in, Meta-p formats the paragraph the cursor is in, Ctrl-q inserts the next key, or a code point written as U+XXXX, as it stands, Meta-m mails the file, and Ctrl-p checks the spelling of the word under the cursor. The first five are Lua scripts of the editor and go away with them; the last one belongs to the spell plugin, which also has an entry in the Plugins menu, as every editor plugin that carries one does.

The Filter button of the search dialog (F7) hides every line that does not match the search string, with the search dialog's own type, case and whole-word settings. Line numbers keep their original values. The set of hidden lines is fixed when the button is pressed: editing never re-applies the match, so split, joined and newly typed lines stay shown. Meta-s lifts the filter and, pressed again, puts the last search back on as a filter.

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/mc6/macros.

External scripts (filters) can be assigned into the any hotkey by edit 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/mc6/mcedit/macros.d/macro.25.sh shell script.

External scripts are stored in ~/.local/share/mc6/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 an interactive shell.

%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.

%v and %V

Similar to the %t and %T , but expands to full names of tagged files.

%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

mcedit6 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). The tags are read by the etags plugin of the editor, so the key does nothing where that plugin is switched off.

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

Meta-Plus where plus is symbol "+" goes to next function in navigation list (like browser's Forward button).

SYNTAX HIGHLIGHTING

mcedit6 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 ~/.local/share/mc6/syntax/Syntax. If this file is missing, system-wide /usr/share/mcommander/syntax/Syntax is used. The file ~/.local/share/mc6/syntax/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 mcedit6 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 mcedit6 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 mcommander'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 mcedit6 and cooledit by separating them with a slash, e.g.

keyword  #include  red/Orange

mcedit6 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.

The special line-local syntax mode is intended for plain text. It resets at every newline and screen boundary, and only scans the displayed text. It supports number max foreground for decimal numbers up to max digits, string quote foreground for single- or double-quoted strings, and symbols characters foreground for individually colored punctuation characters.

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.

OPTIONS

Most options can be set from Options dialog box. See the Options menu. The following options are defined in ~/.config/mc6/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 mcedit6.

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_show_control_chars

Show control characters in caret notation, for example '^M' or '^L'. If editor_show_control_chars=0, each of them takes one blank cell instead. The "Toggle control characters" item of the Command menu switches this option.

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

Break the line at editor_word_wrap_line_length while it is typed, the way a typewriter does. One of the three wrap modes of the options dialog.

editor_option_auto_para_formatting

Format the paragraph the cursor is in while it is typed. The other of the three wrap modes; off means no wrapping at all.

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 (default), only base name of the file is shown.

editor_filesize_threshold

The size above which a file is opened only after a question. The value takes a suffix, as in 64M or 512K. Default is 64M.

editor_show_right_margin

Mark the column of editor_word_wrap_line_length as the right margin. The "Toggle right margin" item of the Command menu switches this option. Disabled by default.

editor_simple_statusbar

Show a shorter status line, without the offset and the character under the cursor. Disabled by default.

editor_check_new_line

Ask about the missing newline at the end of the file when it is saved. The "Check POSIX new line" option of the save mode dialog switches it. Disabled by default.

editor_ask_filename_before_edit

Ask for the name of the file before the editor is started from the file manager. The "Ask new file name" option of the Configuration dialog switches it. Disabled by default.

Internal File Editor

The internal file editor is a full-featured full screen editor. A file larger than editor_filesize_threshold (64 MB by default) is opened after a question. It is possible to edit binary files. The internal file editor is invoked using F4 if the use_internal_edit option is set in the initialization file.

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; S-arrow text highlighting (if supported by the terminal); insert-overwrite toggle; word wrap; autoindent; tunable tab size; syntax highlighting for various file types; and an option to pipe text blocks through shell commands like indent and ispell.

Sections:

The keys

Macros

Options of editor in ini-file

Editor options

The editor is very easy to use and requires no tutoring. To see what keys do what, just consult the appropriate pull-down menu. Other keys are: Shift movement keys do text highlighting. C-Ins copies to the clipfile ~/.local/share/mc6/mcedit/mcedit.clip, S-Ins pastes from it, S-Del cuts to it, and C-Del deletes highlighted text. Mouse highlighting also works, and you can override the mouse as usual by holding down the shift key while dragging the mouse to let normal terminal mouse highlighting work.

To define a macro, press C-R and then type out the key strokes you want to be executed. Press C-R again when finished, and assign the macro to a key by pressing that key. The macro is executed by that key, and by C-A and the assigned key. The macros are kept in the section [editor] of the file ~/.local/share/mc6/macros, and a macro is deleted by deleting its line there; the Macros section says how a macro calls a script of its own.

To change charset of displayed text may use Alt-e (M-e). Recoding is made from selected codepage into system codepage. To cancel the recoding you may select "<No translation>" in charset selection dialog.

The Filter button of the search dialog (F7) hides every line that does not match the search string, using the same type, case and whole-word settings as the search. Line numbers keep their original values and the line state gutter marks each hidden run. The set of hidden lines is fixed at the moment the button is pressed: editing never re-applies the match, so a shown line that is split or joined stays shown, and lines typed afterwards stay shown even if they do not match. M-s lifts the filter; pressed again it puts the last search back on as a filter. "Unfold all" in the Command menu lifts it as well.

Editor options

The settings of the internal editor, as the Options menu of the editor and the Editor options entry of the Options menu of the file manager open them. They are written to the ini file under the names the OPTIONS section of this page describes.

Wrap mode. Off, dynamic paragraph formatting, or the typewriter wrap that breaks a line at the word wrap line length while it is typed.

Fake half tabs. Move and indent by half a tab between the text and the left margin, with spaces, while a tab stays a tab everywhere else.

Backspace through tabs. One backspace deletes all the space to the left margin when there is no text between the cursor and the margin.

Fill tabs with spaces. Insert spaces up to the next tab stop instead of a tab character.

Tab spacing. The width a tab character stands for. 8 by default, and other editors and viewers assume 8 as well.

Return does autoindent. A new line starts at the indentation of the line above.

Confirm before saving. Ask before the file is written.

Save file position. Open a file at the place it was left the last time.

Visible trailing spaces. Mark the spaces at the end of a line.

Visible tabs. Mark the tab characters.

Show control characters. Print the control characters of the text instead of hiding them.

Syntax highlighting. Color the text by the syntax rules of its file type.

Cursor after inserted block. Leave the cursor at the end of a block that was just inserted, not at its start.

Persistent selection. A selection stays when the cursor moves, instead of being dropped.

Cursor beyond end of line. The cursor may stand past the last character of a line.

Group undo. One undo takes back a run of the same kind of change, not a single key.

Word wrap line length. The column the wrap modes break a line at. 72 by default.

Save As

The name to write the file under, and the line breaks to write it with: as the file has them, Unix (LF), Windows and DOS (CR LF), or Macintosh (CR). The choice holds for that save; the file keeps what it is given.

Edit Save Mode

How a file is written, the same three modes the editor_option_save_mode setting takes:

Quick save

Write over the file at once. Fast, and a failure in the middle leaves the file half written.

Safe save

Write a temporary file first and rename it over the original when it is whole, so a failure leaves the original untouched.

Do backups with following extension

Safe save, and the original is kept under its name with the extension of the input line added, "~" by default. Saving twice replaces the backup as well.

Check POSIX new line

Ask about the missing newline at the end of the file before it is written.

Macro Explorer

The macros that are recorded, with the key each one answers to and what it does. The buttons are

Run

Play the macro the cursor is on.

Delete

Remove it, after a question.

Edit file

Open the file the macros live in, which the Macros section describes.

Open files

The files the editor has open, one to a line. Enter goes to the file the cursor is on, Esc leaves the file that is shown where it is. The same list is the List... item of the Window menu.

Plugin info

The plugins the editor has loaded: the name, whether it is on, what it provides and what it does. It is a list to look at; a plugin is switched off and its settings are opened in the Manage plugins dialog of the file manager.

Options of editor in ini-file

Some editor options of ini-file are described in this section. Options are placed in [Midnight-Commander] section

editor_wordcompletion_collect_entire_file

Search autocomplete candidates in entire of file or just from begin of file to cursor position (0)

FILES

/usr/share/mcommander/help/mcommander.md

The help file for the program.

/usr/share/mcommander/mc.ini

The default system-wide setup for M-Commander, used only if the user's own ~/.config/mc6/ini file is missing.

/usr/share/mcommander/defaults.ini

Global settings for M-Commander. Settings in this file affect all users, whether they have ~/.config/mc6/ini or not.

/usr/share/mcommander/syntax/*

The default system-wide syntax files for mcedit6, used only if the corresponding user's own file in ~/.local/share/mc6/syntax/ is missing.

~/.config/mc6/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/mc6/mcedit6/

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 M-Commander for details on the License and the lack of warranty.

AVAILABILITY

The latest version of this program can be found at https://github.com/blue-panels/mcommander/releases .

SEE ALSO

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

AUTHORS

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

BUGS

Bugs should be reported to https://github.com/blue-panels/mcommander/issues .