# Midnight Commander - terminal based twin pane file manager **URL:** \ **Category:** Tips and Tricks\ **Created:** [January 6, 2026, 6:46pm UTC](https://discuss.freedombox.org/t/midnight-commander-terminal-based-twin-pane-file-manager/4053 "2026-01-06T18:46:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![poorboy](https://discuss.freedombox.org/user_avatar/discuss.freedombox.org/poorboy/32/1318_2.png) [@poorboy](https://discuss.freedombox.org/u/poorboy)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2026, 6:46pm UTC](https://discuss.freedombox.org/t/midnight-commander-terminal-based-twin-pane-file-manager/4053/1 "2026-01-06T18:46:35Z")
```auto sudo apt install mc ``` Download size: 1,891 kB - Space needed: 8,056 kB Works in the terminal in Cockpit or via SSH. Even though it’s in a terminal, a mouse works for many things. No drag and drop. It’s in Debian and has been for some time - [Debian -- Details of package mc in trixie](https://packages.debian.org/stable/mc) [Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Commander) [Home Page](https://midnight-commander.org/) ![mc](https://discuss.freedombox.org/uploads/default/original/2X/6/6a77540e2ed027a149d5ec1a1732d3eeacd2b50b.png) Screenshot is after me having updated WordPress. Files and wp-content folder remain on the left as I didn’t move those. The files had the same date so they haven’t been updated and wp-content never gets replaced when updating wp. The numbers at the bottom of MC pertain to F keys. F6 is RenMov or rename/move. MC gives a popup to confirm move/location and a second popup with an option to overwrite all. I’m not afraid of a terminal but I use it so infrequently, I have to look up commands every time for most things. Overwriting 3,217 files that will break my website if I screw up? Yeah, I’d like it to be visual. Commands also work within MC down in the black panel near the bottom. I was able to navigate to Downloads in left pane, use _wget_ to fetch the latest.tar.gz, use _tar_ to unpack it and F6 to move the new files from Downloads to /usr/share/wordpress all in one interface in just a few minutes. I would say this should be built into FBX but it runs in a terminal so there’s nothing to build in. Maybe preinstalled with mention of it in the FBX Manual and/or the SSH welcome text. ---
**Author:** ![Avron](https://discuss.freedombox.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@Avron](https://discuss.freedombox.org/u/Avron)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 9:30am UTC](https://discuss.freedombox.org/t/midnight-commander-terminal-based-twin-pane-file-manager/4053/2 "2026-01-08T09:30:56Z")
If you like file managers in the terminal, you could have a look at lf, ranger (those two have similarities), nnn, vifm (as the name says, you can use the vim commands in it) and ytree. In a terminal (not so much on freedombox on which I rarely use anything else than the web interface), I mostly use commands, like ls, mv, rm, find, grep, a bit of awk and bash scripting. I can agree that mv is command for which thinking twice, or trying with dummy files/folders, before running is a good idea. I forgot: I often run “apt search” to find useful software (I use Trisquel, not Debian, but it works the same). ---
**Author:** ![poorboy](https://discuss.freedombox.org/user_avatar/discuss.freedombox.org/poorboy/32/1318_2.png) [@poorboy](https://discuss.freedombox.org/u/poorboy)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 11:52am UTC](https://discuss.freedombox.org/t/midnight-commander-terminal-based-twin-pane-file-manager/4053/3 "2026-01-08T11:52:29Z")
Just tried apt search Question; how do you get out of the view with that long list of results? I tries q, Esc, Ctrl+D ---
**Author:** ![Avron](https://discuss.freedombox.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@Avron](https://discuss.freedombox.org/u/Avron)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 2:21pm UTC](https://discuss.freedombox.org/t/midnight-commander-terminal-based-twin-pane-file-manager/4053/4 "2026-01-08T14:21:44Z")
> [@poorboy](#): > > Question; how do you get out of the view with that long list of results? For me, q works. The keys I normally use from “less” work, so you could look at “man less”.