MC doesn't open files with external editor

[ilson]

1. Run mc.
2. Press F9, navigate to "Options -> Configuration...", uncheck "Use internal edit" and press Enter.
3. Execute EDITOR=vim (or specify any other editor command).
4. Select a file and press F4. MC window flickers for an instant and nothing else seems to happen. FWIW, if I press and hold F4, I get this in console:

   ^[OS^[OS^[OS^[OS^[OS^[OS^[OS
   

"LC_MESSAGES=C mc -V" output:

GNU Midnight Commander 4.8.31
Built with GLib 2.80.3
Built with S-Lang 2.3.3 with terminfo database
Built with libssh2 1.11.0
With builtin Editor
With subshell support as default
With support for background operations
With mouse support on xterm and Linux console
With support for X11 events
With internationalization support
With multiple codepages support
With ext2fs attributes support
Virtual File Systems:
 cpiofs, tarfs, sfs, extfs, ftpfs, sftpfs, shell
Data types:
 char: 8; int: 32; long: 64; void *: 64; size_t: 64; off_t: 64;

"LC_MESSAGES=C mc -F" output:

Home directory: /home/ilf
Profile root directory: /home/ilf

[System data]
    Config directory: /usr/local/etc/mc/
    Data directory:   /usr/local/share/mc/
    File extension handlers: /usr/local/libexec/mc/ext.d/
    VFS plugins and scripts: /usr/local/libexec/mc/
	extfs.d:        /usr/local/libexec/mc/extfs.d/
	shell:          /usr/local/libexec/mc/shell/

[User data]
    Config directory: /home/ilf/.config/mc/
    Data directory:   /home/ilf/.local/share/mc/
	skins:          /home/ilf/.local/share/mc/skins/
	extfs.d:        /home/ilf/.local/share/mc/extfs.d/
	shell:          /home/ilf/.local/share/mc/shell/
	mcedit macros:  /home/ilf/.local/share/mc/mc.macros
	mcedit external macros: /home/ilf/.local/share/mc/mcedit/macros.d/macro.*
    Cache directory:  /home/ilf/.cache/mc/

"mc --configure-options" output:

(nothing)

Arch Linux,
$TERM: xterm-256color,
MC 4.8.31, compiled from ​http://ftp.midnight-commander.org/mc-4.8.31.tar.bz2.

Please let me know if you need additional info, thanks!

[andrew_b]

Replying to ilson:

1. Run mc.
2. Press F9, navigate to "Options -> Configuration...", uncheck "Use internal edit" and press Enter.
3. Execute EDITOR=vim (or specify any other editor command).

Execute where? In the MC's command line? This is doesn't work. You must define the EDITOR variable before start of MC, not in MC. In the command line, you define the environment variable for subshell (a child process) not for MC itself.

"mc --configure-options" output:

(nothing)

Why?

[ilson]

You must define the EDITOR variable before start of MC, not in MC. In the command line, you define the environment variable for subshell (a child process) not for MC itself.

Thanks for letting know! I added "export EDITOR=vim" to ~/.bashrc and that solved the issue.

(nothing)
Why?

I don't know - perhaps, because I ran ./configure without any parameters when compiling MC?

[zaytsev]

Closing as invalid, user misunderstood how environment variables work.