Emacs: how to make it an editor in a midnight-commander?

Question

My question is about Midnight-commander. I've unset usage of internal editor (in Options -> Configuration) and put in .bashrc:

export EDITOR='emacsclient -n'

still - pressing F4 gives nothing, pressing F3 - opens in vi. Is there a way to make emacsclient to be a default text editor in mc?

Works fine for me if I do `export EDITOR=pico`. Try running the `export`-command manually first, it could be that you put it in .bashrc without re-reading it (with `. ~/.bashrc`). — bos, Nov 08 '11 at 16:39
Setting the `EDITOR` variable does work. What @bos said, did you actually set the variable by exporting it in the current process or by sourcing `.bashrc`? — Christoffer Hammarström, Nov 10 '11 at 12:26

Mingjie Li · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-20T08:35:38.893

7

Remove ~/.selected_editor, then when you press F4 next time, MC will prompt for select editor. Or, you may directly change it.

$ cat .selected_editor
# Generated by /usr/bin/select-editor
SELECTED_EDITOR="/usr/bin/vim.basic"

This works on Ubuntu. I have tried any other ways to setup default editor which won't help.

edited Apr 20 '12 at 08:35

answered Apr 20 '12 at 08:28

Mingjie Li

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Editing the file directly has some advantages, since the mc uses the full path to the editor, so if you share the `.selected_editor` file across multiple computers (e.g. at work or school), it may not work. If you try `SELECTED_EDITOR="/usr/bin/env emacs"`, then it should work anywhere the `emacs` command works. – Jindra Helcl Jul 21 '14 at 18:35

El Hannes · Answer 2 · 2015-11-07T22:12:50.217

Here is another solution: edit the extension-file and add an Edit-entry.
(Sorry, not enough reputation to add this as comment to Gustav Bertram's answer.)

Be sure to use MidnightCommander's built-in functionality, as the location of config-files seems to change between some versions of MC.

So press F9 or ESC,9 (to open the menu), then go to Command -> Edit Extension File.
In the editor, find the last block looking like that:

# Default target for anything not described above
default /*
            Open=
            View=

Change it to something like that (note the added Edit-line!!!):

# Default target for anything not described above
default/*
        Open= %var{EDITOR:emacs} %f &
        View=
        Edit= %var{EDITOR:emacs} %f &

After saving the file, be sure to turn the internal editor off!!
(F9 or ESC,9, Options -> Configuration, "Use internal edit" must be unchecked)

That way (working at least with later versions of MC) you can have three different editors (or command-line options) to open a file: "View" (F3), "Edit" (F4) and "Open" (Enter) - each individually configurable.

Note #1: If you added a custom view-command, do not forget to uncheck "Use internal view" under Options -> Configuration.
Note #2: MC still uses its preferred editor (e.g. nano) for editing config-files when opening them from within MC.

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 28 '16 at 12:29

3

Run MC as usual. On the command line right above the bottom row of menu selections type "select-editor" without the quotes. This should open a menu with a list of all of your installed editors. This is working for me on all my current linux machines.

answered Apr 28 '16 at 12:29

Grzegorz Brzęczyszczykiewicz

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Gustav Bertram · Answer 4 · 2017-01-12T08:07:39.937

3

What I do is change the ~/.mc/bindings file:

### Default ###

# Default target for anything not described above
default/*
    Open=%var{EDITOR:emacs} %f &
    View=

That way I can still view files with F3, but F4 or enter usually edits them with Emacs.

By the way, the ampersand is so that the file will pop up in X, and I can continue in mc. You may have to remove that if you're only working on the command line.

UPDATE: If you don't have a ~/.mc/bindings file, from inside mc, press F9 c e (Menu, Commands, Edit extension file), and it should get you there.

In addition, you need to switch off the internal edit option by going to F9 o c t (Menu, Options, Configuration, use Internal edit), unchecking the box, and then saving the options.

edited Jan 12 '17 at 08:07

answered Nov 10 '11 at 12:03

Gustav Bertram

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I don't have `bindings` file at all. Can You upload it here? – Adobe Nov 10 '11 at 12:53
From inside mc, **F9 c e** (Menu, Commands, Edit extension file) should get you there. My own `bindings` file will probably not work for you. – Gustav Bertram Nov 10 '11 at 13:44
I did as You told me. `bindings` file appeared in `~./mc`. Unbelievably but it doesn't work for me - `emacs` nor `emacsclient` nor `'emacsclient -n'`. – Adobe Nov 10 '11 at 14:00
See the answer above - you need to disable the internal editor too. – Gustav Bertram Nov 10 '11 at 14:43

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 10 '11 at 11:42

2

I found a way: one can use mc's macro feature. For that make a file:

e   Open in emacsclient
    emacsclient -n %s

and save it as ~/.mc/menu or ~/.mc.menu. After that on pressin F2 - You'll get a list of Your's functions. And there will be a function Open in emacs - which will be accessible by the e. So the two keys F2-e open current file (or all selected files) in emacsclient -n.

answered Nov 10 '11 at 11:42

Adobe

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I really don't think Your way was impossible. I must be doing smth in a wrong way. – Adobe Nov 17 '11 at 12:56

Emacs: how to make it an editor in a midnight-commander?

5 Answers5