mc (midnight commander) unable to look inside archives

[ssbarnea]

It seems that at least the current version of mc is not able to look inside archives, despite the fact that the same version from Fedora 36 does work as expected.

$ mc --version
GNU Midnight Commander 4.8.28
Built with GLib 2.72.0
Built with S-Lang 2.3.2 with terminfo database
Built with libssh2 1.10.0
With builtin Editor
With subshell support as default
With support for background operations
With mouse support on xterm
With internationalization support
With multiple codepages support
Virtual File Systems:
 cpiofs, tarfs, sfs, extfs, ftpfs, sftpfs, fish
Data types:
 char: 8; int: 32; long: 64; void *: 64; size_t: 64; off_t: 64;

Tries to press view (F3) or enter (return) on any zip file and it will not do anything about them.

[p-linnane]

Issues with the actual functioning of applications should be reported upstream.

https://www.midnight-commander.org/wiki/doc/reportDefects

[markstinson]

There was no mention if the zip and unzip utilities are installed as mc will open the archive in a subshell when viewing. I was able to create a zip archive and then view it with mc using the F3 key:

(deck@steamdeck ~)$ zip -rp dotbash.zip .bash*
  adding: .bash_history (deflated 63%)
  adding: .bash_logout (stored 0%)
  adding: .bash_profile (deflated 38%)
  adding: .bashrc (deflated 56%)
(deck@steamdeck ~)$ unzip -l dotbash.zip
Archive:  dotbash.zip
  Length      Date    Time    Name
---------  ---------- -----   ----
     2601  2022-07-22 23:41   .bash_history
       21  2022-01-08 12:31   .bash_logout
      489  2022-05-26 16:38   .bash_profile
     2951  2022-05-26 16:38   .bashrc
---------                     -------
     6062                     4 files
(deck@steamdeck ~)$ which zip
/usr/bin/zip
(deck@steamdeck ~)$ which unzip
/usr/bin/unzip
(deck@steamdeck ~)$ which mc
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/bin/mc
(deck@steamdeck ~)$ mc
# pressed F3 on the zip archive, the Esc zero twice to exit out
(deck@steamdeck ~)$ mc --version
GNU Midnight Commander 4.8.28
Built with GLib 2.72.0
Built with S-Lang 2.3.2 with terminfo database
Built with libssh2 1.10.0
With builtin Editor
With subshell support as default
With support for background operations
With mouse support on xterm
With internationalization support
With multiple codepages support
Virtual File Systems:
 cpiofs, tarfs, sfs, extfs, ftpfs, sftpfs, fish
Data types:
 char: 8; int: 32; long: 64; void *: 64; size_t: 64; off_t: 64;

[zyv]

This is fixed in 4.8.31, caused by changes in glib.

[artemsofs]

Hello, please help how update mc in ubuntu 24.04, no way

[zyv]

Use Ubuntu avenues to ask for help: https://ubuntu.com/#community

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mc/+bug/2062968

[artemsofs]

I installed mc 4.8.31 on ubuntu 24.04, but still can't open war files.

Peek.2024-05-26.12-29.mp4

[zyv]

Well, there is no support of war files in mc.ext and there have never been:

https://github.com/MidnightCommander/mc/blob/master/misc/mc.ext.ini.in

In theory ZIP support should kick in, but it seems it's not working. What does file on war say, does the MIME type detection work correctly on your system?

[artemsofs]

Dear zyv, I alway use mc to work with war files. and in video you can see that mc can open war files. The problem I see is in fresh installed ubuntu 24.04.

mime type seems ok
root@armamax:~/releases# file --mime-type web.hospital.war 
web.hospital.war: application/java-archive

Peek.2024-05-26.12-44.mp4

[zyv]

I don't have Ubuntu 20.04, this is a discussion area for a macOS package manager (homebrew). I asked what file says, not what mime-type it gives back. And I have already given you a link to the content of mc.ext. The relevant definitions are as follows:

[zip-by-type]
Type=\(Zip archive
Open=%cd %p/uzip://
View=%view{ascii} @EXTHELPERSDIR@/archive.sh view zip

[jar]
Type=\(Java\ (Jar\ file|archive)\ data\ \((zip|JAR)\)
TypeIgnoreCase=true
Open=%cd %p/uzip://
View=%view{ascii} @EXTHELPERSDIR@/archive.sh view zip

If this pattern is not matched because file output has changed, then you will not be able to enter the archives by pressing Enter.

[artemsofs]

ok Thank you

[eomer]

hello, same problem to open tar.gz files with mc 4.8.30-1build2 or 4.8.30 from universe in ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS
founded this, https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mc/+bug/2062968
seem resolved from post, but problem stay.

[eomer]

resolved..
*** This bug is a duplicate of bug 2062968 ***
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2062968

Workaround from #2062968:

sudo wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MidnightCommander/mc/master/misc/mc.ext.ini.in -O /etc/mc/mc.ext.ini

and mc reopen tar.gz to look in .. miracle!
GREAT THANKS to Yury V. Zaytsev

[icebob]

ubuntu 24.04

[icebob]

Press F3 and observe the error message.

Yeah, I saw. On F3 it shows error, but with ENTER it opens the war.

[artemsofs]

mc.ext.ini.txt
Just replace your mc.ext.ini file information with attached file information, and all will be work ok
/etc/mc/mc.ext.ini

[icebob]

Thx @artemsofs, entering war works with your mc.ext.ini as well!
However F3 drops the same error message.

[zyv]

I've told you guys to replace @EXTHELPERSDIR@ with /usr/lib/mc/ext.d, but you are not reading :(