MCDIFF(1)

📦
version 4.8.33 · 7 versions
, in alpine 3.22, alpine 3.23, alpine 3.24, arch rolling, fedora 43, fedora 44, opensuse-leap 16.0

💅 mcdiff(1) — the glow-up

okay bestie, welcome to mcdiff(1), the internal diff viewer of GNU Midnight Commander ✨

🌸 NAME

mcdiff — the internal diff viewer of GNU Midnight Commander. that's it, that's the vibe 🎀

🦋 USAGE

like, literally just that. two files, and we're comparing 💅

✨ DESCRIPTION

so mcdiff is a link to mc, the main GNU Midnight Commander executable — same binary, different name, different era 💫

when you run GNU Midnight Commander under this name, it's basically like "oh, she's here for the diff" and it starts the internal diff viewer, which compares file1 and file2 — the two files you put on the command line 🫶

ngl, that's the whole thing. name changes everything. main character energy fr fr.

👑 OPTIONS

  • -b — force black and white display. minimalism era, no color for you 🖤
  • -c — force color mode on terminals where mcdiff defaults to black and white. giving the people what they want 🌈
  • -C <keyword>=<fgcolor>,<bgcolor>,<attributes>:<keyword>= ... — specify a different color set ✨ see the Colors section in mc(1) for more info, iykyk
  • -d — disable mouse support. no clicking, only keys 💀
  • -f — display the compiled-in search paths for Midnight Commander files. lowkey a little map of where everything lives 🗺️
  • -t — used only if the code was compiled with S-Lang and terminfo: it makes the Midnight Commander use the value of the TERMCAP variable for the terminal information instead of the information on the system wide terminal database. very niche, very iconic 🧚
  • -V — displays the version of the program. vibe check on the build 🎀
  • -x — forces xterm mode. used when running on xterm-capable terminals (two screen modes, and able to send mouse escape sequences) 🖱️
also <kbd>-h</kbd> and <kbd>-?</kbd> are chillin' there in the usage line — they're part of the synopsis, so they get to be mentioned too, bestie 😌

🌈 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:\
normal=lightgray,black:\
selected=black,green"

slay. copy it exactly, don't retype it 🙈

🍓 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 🌍
  • ~/.config/mc/ini — user's own setup. if this file is present, the setup is loaded from here instead of the system-wide startup file 💅

💜 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 🫶

"lack of warranty" is doing a LOT of work in that sentence, bestie. read it. believe it. 😭

⭐ AVAILABILITY

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

🎀 SEE ALSO

mc(1), mcedit(1), mcview(1) — the whole friend group 💖

💀 BUGS

bugs should be reported to https://www.midnight-commander.org/

okay that's the whole page!! and for the cute sign-off: this is MC Version 4.8.33, dated January 2025 — go forth and diff, you gorgeous nerd, periodt 🌸🦋👑

📦 where this page comes from