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MCEDIT(1)		    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 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 sup‐
       ported 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  con‐
       trol  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 naviga‐
       tion 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 con‐
       texts (like C comments, string constants, etc) are highlighted in  dif‐
       ferent  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/Syn‐
       tax is rescanned on opening of a any new editor file.   The  file  con‐
       tains  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 follow‐
       ing section applies to the file.	 The second argument is	 the  descrip‐
       tion  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 bound‐
       ary 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 high‐
       lighted, 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	 spec‐
       ify 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 con‐
       text 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 char‐
       acters.	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 con‐
       tinue across multiple lines.

       The  possible  colors  are: black, gray, red, brightred, green, bright‐
       green, 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 casein‐
       sensitive  directive. It should be specified at the beginning of syntax
       file.

       Because of the simplicity of the implementation, there are a few intri‐
       cacies  that  will  not	be  dealt with correctly but these are a minor
       irritation.  On the whole, a broad spectrum of quite complicated situa‐
       tions 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 sup‐
       port, 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  ~/.con‐
       fig/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	  edi‐
	      tor_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 par‐
	      tially 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_visi‐
	      ble_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_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 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/over‐
	      writing, 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.

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

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.mid‐
       night-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  Mid‐
       night Commander's internal editor.

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

MC Version 4.8.12		 February 2014			     MCEDIT(1)
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