Midnight Commander settings/theme change

If MC is not saving your settings or you want to change its appearance, this howto is for you.


Maybe you've faced the problem with MC not savig your settings and starting always with the defaults.

The problem: MC uses configuration file which is stored in the users home directory under ~/.mc/ini. If this file doesn't exist, the default file stored under /usr/share/mc is used, but the common user doesn't have write permissions for this file. That's the reason why settings are not saved.

Solution: create the file ~/.mc/ini, open MC and save the settings.

Color change:
Blue-white combination is pretty good, but sometimes the time for change arrives. To change colors just edit the file ~/.mc/ini and add to the section [Colors] following:

[Colors]
base_color=normal=,default:selected=,:marked=,default:markselect=,:menu=,:
menuhot=,:menusel=,:menuhotsel=,:dnormal=,:dfocus=,:dhotnormal=,:
dhotfocus=,:input=,:reverse=,:executable=,default:directory=,default:link=,
default:device=,default:special=,:core=,:helpnormal=,:helplink=,:helpslink=,:

Alternative color settings (working on newer versions):
[Colors]
base_color=normal=,default:
selected=black,green:
marked=brightyellow,black:
markselect=white,cyan:
editnormal=white,black:
editbold=yellow,black:
menu=black,cyan:
menuhot=red,cyan:
menusel=white,blue:
menuhotsel=white,blue:
dnormal=black,cyan:
dfocus=white,blue:
dhotnormal=red,cyan:
dhotfocus=red,blue:
input=white,black:
reverse=black,cyan:
executable=brightred,black:
directory=brightgreen,black:
link=lightgray,black:
device=brightmagenta,black:
special=blue,black:
core=green,black

Note: if the [Color] section doesn't exist, create one.
Note: colors are depending also on your shell profile settings.

This is what it'll look like afterwards: