Read the INSTALL file for the complete instructions. GNU Midnight Commander requires glib2. GNU Midnight Commander uses the S-Lang screen library by default. It tries the S-Lang library installed on the system. If it's not found, the included S-Lang sources are used. It is also possible to use ncurses as the screen library. 1. Configure the package for your system. Normally, you just `cd' to the package main directory and type `./configure'. The most often needed options to configure are following: `--prefix=PATH' By default, `make install' will install the package's files in `/usr/local/bin', `/usr/local/man', etc. or to `/usr/bin', `/usr/man', etc. depending on the location of an old mc binary. If you have none in your system, default will be `/usr/local'. You can specify an installation prefix other than default by giving `configure' the option `--prefix=PATH'. `--with-screen={slang|ncurses}' Choose the library used to manage interaction with the terminal. `slang' means S-Lang library already installed on the system, `ncurses' means ncurses library already installed on the system. The installed S-Lang library is used by default if found. You may also want to specify CFLAGS for the compiler, even if it finds itself some defaults by typing e.g. ./configure CFLAGS=-O3 2. Type `make' to compile the package. 3. Type `make install' to install programs, data files, and documentation. You may need to run this command as root. If you're on a GNU/Linux system, this will install the `cons.saver' utility, which allows the Midnight Commander to save and restore the screen contents. This utility can be installed setuid root, but it's only needed on systems where users cannot access /dev/vcsaN, where N is the virtual console number, on which the uses is logged on. If you're making a mc binary distribution for other people and want to package the whole installed tree, use `make install DESTDIR=PATH', which will make PATH the root for installation. 4. Type `mc' and enjoy!