This is an overview of the capabilities of skin files.
See the FAQ for instructions on setting up 256 color or truecolor support in
your terminal.
Header section
==============
[skin]
Skin files should define this header section.
description
A brief text description of the skin. Currently not used by mc.
256colors
Set the value to "true" if the skin uses 256 color extension, but
does not use truecolor extension. It is a convention to also
include "256" in the filename.
truecolors
Set the value to "true" if the skin uses truecolor extension,
perhaps along with 256 color extension (but do not set "256colors"
in that case). It is a convention to also include "16M" in the
filename.
Color and attribute sections
============================
These sections define the foreground and background colors, and other
graphical attributes to be used in various contexts. See later in this
document for the available color and attribute names.
If a certain keyword is missing from the file, it falls back to the
"_default_" value of the same section. If that is also missing then it further
falls back to the "[core]" section's "_default_".
If a keyword is present but its value does not specify all three of the
foreground color, background color and attributes, then the same fallback rule
applies individually to each of these three properties.
[core]
This section describes the elements that are used everywhere.
_default_
Default color
selected
The file under the cursor
marked
Files marked using the Insert or Ctrl-T key
markselect
A file that is both marked and is under the cursor
gauge
Filled part of the progress bar
input
Input lines used in query dialogs
inputmark
Input selected text (e.g. Shift-Arrows)
inputunchanged
Input text before first modification or cursor movement
disabled
Disabled UI elements, e.g. in Find File and some Options dialogs
commandlinemark
Selected text in command line
reverse
Text on the top of the frame (typically the directory name, but
could also be "Quick view" or "Directory tree"), if the given
panel is active
header
Header entries of panels (e.g. Name, Size, Modify time)
inputhistory
Button to open the history window of various input fields
commandhistory
Button to open the command history window
shadow
Shadow cast by dialogs
frame
Frame
[filehighlight]
Filename highlighting. Name of parameters must be equal to names of
sections into filehighlight.ini file. See the manual page's Filenames
Highlight section for more info.
directory
executable
symlink
hardlink
stalelink
device
special
core
temp
archive
doc
source
media
graph
database
Colors of the given file type
[dialog]
Non-error dialog windows.
_default_
dfocus
Active element (in focus)
dhotnormal
Hotkeys
dhotfocus
Hotkey of the active element
dselnormal
Selected items in non-focused dropdown lists, e.g. in Find File
results after Tab'bing away
dselfocus
Selected item in focused dropdown lists, e.g. in Find File results
or skin selector
dtitle
Title
dframe
Frame
[error]
Error dialog windows.
_default_
errdfocus
errdhotnormal
errdhotfocus
errdtitle
errdframe
Like their counterpart in "[dialog]"
[menu]
Dropdown menu (F9).
_default_
Inactive items
menusel
Active item (in focus)
menuhot
Hotkeys
menuhotsel
Hotkey of the active item
menuinactive
The menubar when the menu is not invoked
menuframe
Frame
[popupmenu]
Popup menu (user menu: F2 in panels, F11 in editor; also Alt-E for
codepage).
_default_
Inactive items
menusel
Active item (in focus)
menutitle
Title
menuframe
Frame
[buttonbar]
The bottom row.
hotkey
Function key number
button
Action's brief label
[statusbar]
Editor's, viewer's, diffviewer's top bar
_default_
Default color
[help]
Help window (F1).
_default_
Default color
helpbold
Element originally intended to be displayed in bold
helpitalic
Element originally intended to be displayed in italic
helplink
Links
helpslink
Active link (on focus)
helpframe
Frame
[editor]
Built-in editor, or mcedit.
_default_
Default color
editbold
Element with bold attribute (e.g. found text)
editmarked
Selected text
editwhitespace
Tabs and trailing spaces
editnonprintable
Non-printable characters
editrightmargin
Right margin
editlinestate
Line state area
editbg
Area not covered by any editor window (in multi-window mode)
editframe
Frame of non-active editor window (in multi-window mode)
editframeactive
Frame of active editor window (in multi-window mode)
editframedrag
Frame of editor window being moved or resized (in multi-window
mode)
bookmark
Lines bookmarked manually
bookmarkfound
Lines as the result of "Find all"
[viewer]
Built-in viewer, or mcview.
_default_
Default color
viewbold
Bold text in manual pages (roff documents)
viewunderline
Underlined text in manual pages (roff documents)
viewboldunderline
Bold and underlined text in manual pages (roff documents)
viewselected
Selected text (e.g. search result)
viewframe
Frame (e.g. in panel's "Quick view")
[diffviewer]
Built-in diff viewer, or mcdiff.
added
changedline
changednew
changed
removed
error
According to what happens to a line of text
Character sections
==================
The following keys define characters to be shown at various positions on the
display. The characters in the skin files need to be encoded in UTF-8.
[Lines]
Frame characters used all throughout mc.
horiz
vert
lefttop
righttop
leftbottom
rightbottom
topmiddle
bottommiddle
leftmiddle
rightmiddle
cross
Light frames, or inner lines of frames. Typically represented by
single lines.
dhoriz
dvert
dlefttop
drighttop
dleftbottom
drightbottom
dtopmiddle
dbottommiddle
dleftmiddle
drightmiddle
Heavy frames, used for major boxes. Often identical to light
frames, but often double lines are used. For "d*middle", the short
stem is supposed to be light (matching "horiz", "vert" etc.).
[widget-panel]
Characters used on the main panels.
sort-up-char
sort-down-char
Ascending vs. descending sorting (in the header row)
hiddenfiles-show-char
hiddenfiles-hide-char
Whether dot files are shown or hidden (in the top border)
history-prev-item-char
history-next-item-char
history-show-list-char
Arrows related to directory history (in the top border)
filename-scroll-left-char
filename-scroll-right-char
Long, truncated, scrollable file names
[widget-scrollbar]
Symbols of the scrollbar. Not yet implemented.
up-char
down-char
left-char
right-char
Endpoints of vertical and horizontal scrollbars
thumb-char
track-char
The look of the scrollbar itself
[widget-editor]
Symbols managing multple windows of the editor
window-state-char
Maximize or unmaximize an editor window
window-close-char
Close an exitor window
Aliases section
===============
[aliases]
This optional section can define aliases for single colors (not color
pairs), or for combination of attributes; in other words, for
semicolon-separated fragments of parameters.
This can make it easier to develop skins, or a set of similar skins,
that reuse the same color in multiple contexts.
Aliases can refer to other aliases as long as they don't form a loop.
Example:
[aliases]
myfavfg = green
myfavbg = black
myfavattr = bold+italic
[core]
_default_ = myfavfg;myfavbg;myfavattr
Aliases can refer to other aliases as long as they don't form a loop.
Color pair and attribute definitions
====================================
Keywords defining the colors and attributes have the following syntax:
keyword = foreground_color;background_color;attributes
Omitted values are each subjected to the fallback rules described above.
Example:
[core]
# green text on blue background
_default_ = green;blue
# green (default) text on black background
selected = ;black
# yellow text on blue (default) background
marked = yellow
# yellow text on blue (default) background, underlined
markselect = yellow;;underline
Default colors
--------------
The color name "default" refers to the terminal's default colors. That is, if
used in foreground color position then it refers to the terminal's default
foreground color, and if used in background color position then it's the
terminal's default background.
This is mostly useful for creating a transparent skin where the terminal's
(or desktop's) background color or background picture remains visible.
Legacy 16 color mode
--------------------
If you aim for the highest compatibility with terminals, you should restrict
your skin to the standard 16 colors (in addition to the terminal's defaults).
These colors each have two names: the preferred human-friendly one, and a
technical one referring to their color index.
black = color0 gray = color8
red = color1 brightred = color9
green = color2 brightgreen = color10
brown = color3 yellow = color11
blue = color4 brightblue = color12
magenta = color5 brightmagenta = color13
cyan = color6 brightcyan = color14
lightgray = color7 white = color15
With 8 color terminal settings (such as TERM=linux or TERM=xterm), bright
foreground colors (second column) are emulated in mc by enabling the bold
attribute, and the colors are mapped to their darker counterpart (first
column). In turn, the terminal may (or may not) interpret the bold flag as
brighter foreground color, thus reverting to the originally specified bright
foreground.
Even in terminals that support more colors (such as TERM=xterm-256color), the
first 8 foreground colors combined with the bold attribute might be converted
to their brighter counterpart. This depends on choice of the terminal or a
setting thereof, mc having no control over it.
Plus, the exact color values heavily depend on the user's chosen palette.
For all these reasons, a skin using these colors can look quite different
across systems.
256 color extension
-------------------
Almost all graphical terminal emulators support the 256 color extension.
By adding "256colors = true" to the "[skin]" section, you get access to 240
additional colors (a 6x6x6 color cube and a 24 color grayscale ramp) on top of
the standard 16 and the default colors.
Colors of the 6x6x6 cube are called "rgb000" to "rgb555", all three digits
ranging from 0 to 5, corresponding to the R, G and B color components.
Alternatively, you can use their technical color index: "color16" to
"color231".
Colors of the grayscale ramp are "gray0" to "gray23", or "color232" to
"color255".
There are scripts available that display these colors in the terminal (e.g.
"256colors2.pl" shipped in Xterm's source code), as well as web pages showing
them (e.g. https://www.ditig.com/256-colors-cheat-sheet).
Truecolor extension
-------------------
A wide range of terminals support the truecolor extension.
By adding "truecolors = true" to the "[skin]" section (instead of the
"256colors" keyword), you get access to 2^24 (about 16 million) direct colors
on top of the 256 palette and the default ones.
Truecolors are referred to by the standard "#rrggbb" or "#rgb" notation. The
short form is interpreted by repeating each hex digit, e.g. "#5AF" is a
shorthand for "#55AAFF".
Attributes
----------
The third value can specify special attributes to apply. Supported attributes
are:
bold
underline
italic
reverse
blink
Append more with a plus sign, e.g. "bold+italic".
Omitting the field makes it use the fallback value as described above. Use any
unrecognized word (e.g. "none" or "default") to prevent fallback and disable
all attributes.
Support for each attribute is subject to the underlying terminal. "bold", if
combined with the first 8 palette colors, often converts those colors to their
brighter counterpart. "reverse" has a wide range of interpretations across
terminals, the only case you should use it is when a "default" color is
involved, otherwise you can just directly set the desired colors.
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