How to install Midnight Commander (MC File Manager) in Ubuntu – A Visual Linux File Manager

Midnight Commander is an open-source file manager for Ubuntu Linux. It is also referred to as MC File Manager. This text-based application is a good lightweight file manager app compared to others. It is completely free and has been released under the GNU GPL license. You can customize the source code of this application by downloading it from Github. In this article, we will learn How to install Midnight Commander (MC File Manager) in Ubuntu – A Visual Linux File Manager.

The Midnight commander has many good features in the Linux file manager, such as the directory tree can access full, copy/move data from it into a different directory. Create/delete and rename directories from this file manager. Create and edit Symlinks using the mc file manager.

Follow the below steps to install Midnight Commander (MC File Manager) in Ubuntu – A Visual Linux File Manager:

Before starting the installation of Midnight Commander we have to install the official PPA repository for that as it’s not a part of the default repository of Ubuntu. To install the PPA repository in Ubuntu, open the terminal and run the following command.

itsmarttricks@mangesh:~$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/unstable
[sudo] password for itsmarttricks:
This PPA currently holds unreleased / git builds for different applications like Turpial, mc, Audacious.

PPA for WebUpd8: http://www.webupd8.org

More info: https://launchpad.net/~webupd8team/+archive/ubuntu/unstable
Press [ENTER] to continue or Ctrl-c to cancel adding it.

Ign:1 cdrom://Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS _Bionic Beaver_ - Release amd64 (20180725) bionic InRelease
Err:2 cdrom://Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS _Bionic Beaver_ - Release amd64 (20180725) bionic Release
Please use apt-cdrom to make this CD-ROM recognized by APT. apt-get update cannot be used to add new CD-ROMs
0% [Working]
Ign:3 http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable InRelease
Ign:4 http://ppa.launchpad.net/aseman/desktop-apps/ubuntu bionic InRelease
Hit:5 http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian bionic InRelease

Now update the packages & repositories of Ubuntu, run the ‘sudo apt-get update’ command below.

itsmarttricks@mangesh:~$ sudo apt-get update
Ign:1 cdrom://Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS _Bionic Beaver_ - Release amd64 (20180725) bionic InRelease
Err:2 cdrom://Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS _Bionic Beaver_ - Release amd64 (20180725) bionic Release
Please use apt-cdrom to make this CD-ROM recognized by APT. apt-get update cannot be used to add new CD-ROMs
Ign:3 http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable InRelease
Ign:4 http://ppa.launchpad.net/aseman/desktop-apps/ubuntu bionic InRelease
Hit:5 http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian bionic InRelease
Hit:6 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic InRelease
Get:7 http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable Release [943 B]
Hit:8 http://ppa.launchpad.net/audio-recorder/ppa/ubuntu bionic InRelease
Get:9 http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable Release.gpg [819 B]
Hit:10 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security InRelease
Reading package lists... Done

Also Read- Most Dangerous Linux Commands Everyone Needs to Know.

Now we are ready to install the Midnight Commander (MC File Manager) Package. So let’s run the command ‘sudo apt-get install mc’ in the terminal.

itsmarttricks@mangesh:~$ sudo apt-get install mc
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
gconf-service gconf-service-backend gconf2-common libappindicator1
libgconf-2-4 libglib2.0-dev libglib2.0-dev-bin libindicator7 libpcre16-3
libpcre3-dev libpcre32-3 libpcrecpp0v5 libsecret-1-dev
linux-image-unsigned-4.15.0-29-generic pkg-config python3-distutils
The following NEW packages will be installed:
mc mc-data
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 91 not upgraded.
Need to get 1,712 kB of archives.
After this operation, 7,272 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Get:1 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/universe amd64 mc-data all 3:4.8.19-1 [1,238 kB]
Get:2 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/universe amd64 mc amd64 3:4.8.19-1 [474 kB]
Fetched 1,712 kB in 5s (341 kB/s)

As you can see above we have successfully installed the Midnight Commander (MC File Manager) package. To confirm the same reference the below command.

itsmarttricks@mangesh:~$ sudo dpkg -l mc
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Architecture Description
+++-==============-============-============-=================================
ii mc 3:4.8.19-1 amd64 Midnight Commander - a powerful f

Now to open the application just type the command mc on the terminal. Refer to the command below.

itsmarttricks@mangesh:~$ mc

Now you can see the Midnight Commander (MC File Manager) is open.

We have opened the Midnight Commander (MC File Manager) with the above command, You can also open the Midnight Commander (MC File Manager) graphically using Search your Ubuntu Desktop Application box. Refer to the snapshot below.

Also Read- Top Basic Linux Commands for Beginners.

How To Uninstall Midnight Commander (MC File Manager) in Ubuntu?

For any reason, if you don’t like Midnight Commander (MC File Manager) and want to uninstall the application from your system using the following commands.

itsmarttricks@mangesh:~$ sudo dpkg -r mc
(Reading database ... 188952 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing mc (3:4.8.19-1) ...
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/vim.tiny to provide /usr/bin/view (view) in auto mode
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.13.3-11ubuntu1.1) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.23-1ubuntu3.18.04.1) ...
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.60ubuntu1) ...

That’s all, In this article, we have explained How to install Midnight Commander (MC File Manager) in Ubuntu – A Visual Linux File Manager. I hope you enjoy this article. If you like this article, then just share it. If you have any questions about this article, please comment.