Midnight Command Cheatsheet

2026-07-03

Keyboard shortcuts

This is not (yet?) a complete cheatsheet, just the most useful stuff (my opinion). Navigation/Viewing

UP, DOWN, PGUP, PGDN, HOME, and END all work as expected to move the selection

TAB switch between left and right panels

ALT-o open selected directory in other panel (and moves selection to next directory)

ALT-i open same directory in other panel (both will now list the same directory)

CTRL-u swap panels

CTRL-r refresh file/dir list

ALT-SHIFT-h open directory history

ALT-y go to back a directory in your history (then ALT-u to go forward)

MC also has lots of powerful file viewing options such as:

F3 - view file in built-in viewer (and F4 in viewer to view in hex mode!)

CTRL-x q - toggle "quick view" mode with viewer in other panel

Actions for files and directories

F7 create new directory

SHIFT-F4 create a new file

These commands work for a single selected file/dir (the highlight that moves with your keyboard’s UP and DOWN keys) or on all “tagged” files/dirs (see below).

F5 copy a file (default copies from current panel to other panel)

F6 move a file (default moves from current panel to other panel)

    You can also give the file a different name so this is also the "rename" feature

F8 delete

CTRL-x c chmod - change "mode" permissions

CTRL-x o chown - change owner

I already mentioned F3 to use the internal MC viewer, which I think is great. For editing, I prefer to use my external editor of choice (Vim) - so I use Options > Configure and uncheck “Use internal edit”.

F3 - view file in built-in viewer (then F4 while in viewer for hex mode!)

F4 - edit file in built-in editor (but see my note above about using external editor)

“Tagging” files/dirs is like “selecting”, but keep in mind that “the selection” in MC is the file/dir that is highlighted in the current panel. You can tag files by selecting them, glob patterns, and even regex:

INS tag/untag a file (ALT-SHIFT-8 inverts selection)

+ (SHIFT-=) tags by search pattern! (then use pattern "*" to tag all)

- untags by search pattern (again, use pattern "*" to untag all)

CTRL-x s create a relative path symbolic link to file/dir in other panel

    CTRL-x v same, but with relative path

Shell:

Shell commands are always available in the little command line at the bottom. Just start typing to enter commands as you normally would.

CTRL-o toggles full screen subshell

Note for newcomers:

In the shortcuts below, “C” stands for CTRL and “A” stands for “ALT”. This is a convention used in the Midnight Commander documentation and was kept here.

You can also use “ESC” instead of “ALT”, which is useful on Macbooks.

Main View

File/directory operations F3 View file Shift + F3 View raw file (disregard extension) F5 Copy selected files F6 Move selected files Shift + F6 Rename file under cursor Shift-F4 Create a new file C-x d Compare directories C-x c Chmod dialog C-x o Chown dialog C-x C-s Edit symlink C-x s Create symlink dialog C-x l Create hard link dialog C-x v Run relative symbolic link tool on selected or tagged items C-x a List active VFS directories

Selection Insert / C-t Select/deselect file

                    Invert selection on files

                    Specify file selection options (including custom pattern)

                    Same as above, but for deselecting

Navigation TAB / / C-i Jump from one panel to the other F9 Select the top menu bar Esc Esc Quickly dismiss menus/pop-ups (skip the timeout for “Single press” from the configuration) A-c Quick cd dialog A-? Search dialog C-s Search for item A-s Incremental search (A-s again to jump to next occurence) A-y Move to the previous directory in the directory history A-u Move to the next directory in the directory history A-Shift-h Show path history C- Directory Hotlist C-p / Up arrow Move selection bar to the previous entry in the panel C-n / Down arrow Move selection bar to the next entry in the panel A-g Move selection bar to the first visible item in the panel A-r Move selection bar to the middle item in the panel A-j Move selection bar to the last visible item in the panel A-v / Page up Move selection bar one page up A-p / Page down Move selection bar one page down A-< / Home Move selection bar to the top (first entry) A-> / End Move selection bar to the bottom (last entry)
Display C-r Refresh current panel C-u Swap panels A-, Toggle panel layout (horizontal/vertical) C-x i Toggle other panel to information mode C-x q Toggle other panel to quick view mode A-i Make the other panel show the same directory as the current A-o Display the contents of the highlighted dir in the other panel A-t Change panel view (full, brief, long) A-. Toggle “Show Hidden Files” feature
Command prompt C-o Drop to the console A-Enter Put the name of the highlighted file on command line C-x t Put the name of the selected items on command line C-Shift-Enter Put the full path of the highlighted file on command line A-a / C-x p Put the full path of the pane directory on the command line A-h Show command history A-n / A-p Navigate up/down through the command history C-x ! External Panelize (fill current panel with the output of a command) C-x j Show background jobs F2-@ Run a command on the currently highlighted item, e.g.: F2-@ unzip Unzip selected file F2-@ zip -r foo.zip Zip current directory as foo.zip F2-@ 7za x Extract selected file with 7zip F2-@ 7za a foo.7z 7zip current directory as foo.7z
Others Shift-F10 Quiet exit, without confirmation

File View

C-f                           View the next file
C-b                           View the previous file