Interactive command to let user change directory in bash

Posted by Rich on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Rich
Published on 2011-02-18T15:14:43Z Indexed on 2011/02/18 15:27 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 218

Filed under:

midnight-commander

|

ncurses

I am looking for a CURSES-based way (bash, c, doesn't really matter) of letting a user choose a folder or even a file in roughly the same way that they would do using Midnight Commander.

I envisage using up/down for moving the cursor, esc to cancel, and enter to select the item under the cursor. If the item is a file, then return the full path to that file, if the item is a folder, change into that folder.

Does anyone know of one that exists?

If not, how would I go about writing one? I'm mainly a Java programmer, so I could use JavaCurses, but it feels a bit like overkill.

© Super User or respective owner

Related posts about midnight-commander

Midnight Commander(MC) binary/setup/installer for the Mac(10.6)

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
hi there, I use MC on windows and linux. would like to use it on my Mac ? Can someone point me to an URL where I can download a binary setup/install ? Thank you, BR, ~A >>> More
Problem with arrow keys in Midnight Commander under MacOS after update to 10.6.3

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
After updating MacOS to 10.6.3 the arrow keys do not work in MC anymore - instead of moving cursor it types, for instance, B for down key, C for right key. Although, if I quit MC and try it in terminal, then it works. Has anyone experienced this problem? Is there any solution for this? >>> More
Favorite Midnight Commander tips & trick

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Please share your favorite mc tips here. My favorites: I just learned that Alt+. enables easily to toggle display of hidden files (on mc 4.7). Ctrl+\ - favorite dirs Alt+s - quick search BTW: how to use command line completion without switching to Ctrl+o mode? (TAB does not work, since it… >>> More
Midnight Commander: how to enable find-as-you-type behavior

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
Ok, I just need Total Commander 'quick search' feature. >>> More
Why is Midnight Commander crapped in SSH clients?

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Why does MC look like this in SSH clients (I've tried PuTTY and MindTerm) and how to fix it? On the server side is fresh installed 64-bit Ubuntu 10.04 Server. On the client side is XP SP3. >>> More

Related posts about ncurses

Getting 256 colors out of ruby-ncurses

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I've got 256 colors working great in my terminal (test scripts here), but it stops working when I use ncurses (via Ruby-ncurses). Printing the escape sequences given on that page works fine, but when I initialize ncurses 'puts' stops working and I can't output the colors with any of the various ncurses… >>> More
Linux ncurses outliner options

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I'm looking for a replacement for hnb, which served me well but seems to be abandoned. Please do not suggest text-editor based approaches like emacs org mode or vim outliner. I want a stand-alone tool, preferably written in Python, with ncurses interface (so it could run on Linux with no X server). >>> More
redrawing on ncurses

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I'm trying to redraw the content of a simple loop. So far it prints out to the stdscr 100 lines, and then by using scrl to scroll n lines I get n blank rows. What I want is to keep with the sequence. However, I'm not sure how to redraw the stdscr with the n extra lines. Any ideas will be appreciate… >>> More
NCurses-Like System for Windows

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Are there any C++ libraries similar to Ncurses, but for Windows? It seems there are no ports of Ncurses and I need a really good display system like it. Any suggestions? Cross-platform is a plus. >>> More
Cannot do a ncurses overwrite(curscr, savewin) correctly because I ripoffline() before

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I have a C/ncurses program that I'm debugging/maintaining. This program does ripoffline twice: first, to put a title bar and the second time to put a menu bar on the top of the page. I need to dropdown some menus so I save the screen before I drop down the menus. In the InitMenu function, I have… >>> More