Midnight Commander icon
Midnight Commander icon

Midnight Commander

 232 likes

GNU Midnight Commander is a visual file manager, licensed under GNU General Public License and therefore qualifies as Free Software. Its a feature rich full-screen text mode application that allows you to copy, move and delete files and whole directory trees, search for files...

Midnight Commander screenshot 1

License model

  • FreeOpen Source

Application types

Platforms

  • Mac
  • Windows  Not Official build hosted on SourceForge
  • Linux
  • BSD
  • Cygwin
  • MacPorts
4.2 / 5 Avg rating (8)
232 likes
11comments
0 news articles

Features

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Properties

  1.  Lightweight
  2.  Minimalistic

Features

  1.  Console-based
  2.  Support for FTP
  3.  Dual Pane Support
  4.  Two panels
  5.  Support for SFTP
  6.  SSH
  7.  Mounting drives
  8.  File Archiving

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Midnight Commander information

  • Licensing

    Open Source and Free product.
  • Written in

  • Rating

    Average rating of 4.2
  • Alternatives

    109 alternatives listed
  • Supported Languages

    • English

AlternativeTo Categories

File ManagementFile SharingOS & Utilities

GitHub repository

  •  2,688 Stars
  •  527 Forks
  •  27 Open Issues
  •   Updated Feb 9, 2025 
View on GitHub

Our users have written 11 comments and reviews about Midnight Commander, and it has gotten 232 likes

Midnight Commander was added to AlternativeTo by karak on Dec 9, 2009 and this page was last updated Sep 9, 2022.

Comments and Reviews

   
 Post comment/review
denismacdonald
  
Top positive commentJan 14, 2018

With Debian testing, I really appreciate the integrated text editor "mcedit". Midnight Commander and MCedit are also useful for administrative tasks (root).

2
Ludovico
  
Top negative commentFeb 20, 2022
• Edited Feb 21, 2022

Buggy Windows "version" (4.8.24). When moving the opened program, its window's edge never snaps to the sides and corners, unlike every other window panel opened on the desktop. I say version in quotation because it may be inappropriate to call it that, as it is independently available at separate websites unrelated to Midnight Commander official website where the Linux version is. So it seems like the Windows "version" of MC is not so much a version but may be independently ported and maintained at its own pace (the latest windows is several releases behind the latest non Windows versions) by seemingly a separate group.

1 reply
adamyg

mcwin32 is a text based application, like its Linux/Unix counter-part, it's screen behavior is similar to all console based applications. As this time the current published version is based on the latest 4.8.27 branch, see github / mcwin32. If there are issues, please raise a suitable ticket. Thanks

Reply written Mar 21, 2022

If this reply contains spam or other abuse, notify admins about it.
-1
Spruce Fir
CommentNov 6, 2023

Great 'continuation' on Norton Commander.

0
ab1
  
Positive commentJan 3, 2021

Has very fast text editor mcedit.

0
dszalkowski
  
Positive commentDec 28, 2018

The best curse editor on Linux !

0
tarberry
  
Positive commentFeb 8, 2018

Midnight Commander also functions as a TUI (text user interface - using ncurses) ftp client. However, I've noticed that the ftp connection keepalive seems non-existent so after a few minutes, you will no longer be connected. This keepalive behaviour is in contrast to what WinSCP would do. Also, moving, copying and traversing directories will run into the occasional hiccup.

1
d9kd9k
  
Positive commentNov 16, 2017

Replaced FileZilla for me (it crashed and I coundn't recompile new version on Ubuntu 16.04)

0
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7 of 11 comments

What is Midnight Commander?

GNU Midnight Commander is a visual file manager, licensed under GNU General Public License and therefore qualifies as Free Software. Its a feature rich full-screen text mode application that allows you to copy, move and delete files and whole directory trees, search for files and run commands in the subshell. Internal viewer and editor are included.

Midnight Commander is based on versatile text interfaces, such as Ncurses or S-Lang, which allows it to work on a regular console, inside an X Window terminal, over SSH connections and all kinds of remote shells.