Can not change ctime display format

[BUGHUNTER]

I did not find any hint about this in the docs so I assume it is at least a documentation bug - how can I change the display format of ctime?

Unfortunatley mc does only display "Mon dd hh:ss" when I am using this is the mini status - there is NO YEAR dispayed.

If there is some secret configuration setting or environment var that helps to change this, please tell me, THANKS!

[BUGHUNTER]

mc ctime display without year

[andrew_b]

Replying to BUGHUNTER:

If there is some secret configuration setting or environment var that helps to change this, please tell me, THANKS!

Please find description of timeformat_recent and timeformat_old options in mc man page. That options are located in [Misc] section of mc ini file.

[BUGHUNTER]

sorry, I do not have any information about timeformat in mc manual page:

man -a mc | grep timeformat

gives nothing... this is Ubuntu 10.04. I however found via google some examples, but when I add this to the [Misc] section of ~/.mc/ini nothing changes as expected:

timeformat_recent=%Y %m %d %T
timeformat_old=%Y %m %D %T

It still shows ctime without the year. Why?

Thank you for your attention!

[andrew_b]

Replying to BUGHUNTER:

sorry, I do not have any information about timeformat in mc manual page:

man -a mc | grep timeformat

Use English man page to get an actual info. Localized man pages are obsoleted.

LC_ALL=C man mc | col -b | grep timeformat
       timeformat_recent
	      man page for the format specification. If this option is absent, default timeformat is used.
       timeformat_old
	      default timeformat is used.

I add this to the [Misc] section of ~/.mc/ini nothing changes as expected:

Look at the output of mc -F and find config directory. You'll see something like following:

[User data]
    Config directory: /home/borodin/.config/mc/

Since 4.8.0-pre1, mc respects FDO standard (see #1851).

[ossi]

Replying to andrew_b:

Use English man page to get an actual info. Localized man pages are obsoleted.

s/an actual/current/
s/obsoleted/outdated/
at least i hope this is what you mean, otherwise i'd suggest deleting the translated manuals to make a clear statement about the situation. ;)

[andrew_b]

Replying to ossi:

Replying to andrew_b:

Use English man page to get an actual info. Localized man pages are obsoleted.

s/an actual/current/
s/obsoleted/outdated/
at least i hope this is what you mean, otherwise i'd suggest deleting the translated manuals to make a clear statement about the situation. ;)

Thanks for the correction.

Actually, only English and Russian man pages are updated during development. Other man pages was updated last time:
es: 2009-09-30 (9a87c9cedf44d1aaf330de2dedf428a47ce9caa7)
hu, it. pl, sr: somewhen before 2009-01-10 (approx 3 yeas ago). They didn't contain description of new options, new features, etc, and there are no any volunteers to refresh them. Decide yourself what the status of that docs, whether they are obsoleted or outdated.

[BUGHUNTER]

Sorry, this is still not resolved, LC_ALL was a good guess, but I have already english localization, btw this is an utf-8 aware system so exporting LC_ALL=C only generates errors with "man mc | grep timeformat":

<standard input>:62: warning: can't find special character `u0444'
<standard input>:62: warning: can't find special character `u0430'
<standard input>:62: warning: can't find special character `u0438_0306'
<standard input>:62: warning: can't find special character `u043B'

I still may be wrong, but I believe there is no documentation to be found on an Ubuntu Lucid 10.04 LTS about the mentioned configuration strings. Also on this system these config strings do not have any effect at all - at which version where these settings introduced?

I found btw ​this thread - I am not the only one with these problems, however the author seems to be writing from the future: "(as of version 8.5)" ??? Or is there another source tree of mc around? Very confusing...

You might check the package yourself, it is here:
​http://packages.ubuntu.com/lucid/mc

Regarding mc -F - I get this result:

Unknown option -F

I tried mc -f and got /etc/mc/ (/usr/share/mc/) as values, however putting a file named mc.ini into /etc/mc that contains

timeformat_recent=%Y %m %d %T
timeformat_old=%Y %m %D %T

also has no effect on the display of ctime.

Seems like there was something lost / changed on the way to the Debian / Ubuntu repositories...??? Please do not close this ticket again as this issue is definitely not resolved and maybe anybody will find a solution to this and I would like to receive an update then, thanks!

Thanks again for your attention!

[andrew_b]

Replying to BUGHUNTER:

I still may be wrong, but I believe there is no documentation to be found on an Ubuntu Lucid 10.04 LTS about the mentioned configuration strings. Also on this system these config strings do not have any effect at all - at which version where these settings introduced?
You might check the package yourself, it is here:
​http://packages.ubuntu.com/lucid/mc

You're talking about 4.7.0 version. 4.7.0.x branch is not supported, use ​recent versions.

timeformat_recent=%Y %m %d %T
timeformat_old=%Y %m %D %T

also has no effect on the display of ctime.

man mc:

       timeformat_recent
              Change  the  time  format  used to display dates less than 6 months from now.  See strftime or date man
              page for the format specification. If this option is absent, default timeformat is used.

       timeformat_old
              Change the time format used to display  dates older than 6 months from now or for dates in the  future.
              See  strftime or date man page for the format specification. If this option is absent, default timefor
              mat is used.

Please read man strftime. I gess, you want the %Y conversion specification. Try

timeformat_recent=%b %e %Y %H:%M
timeformat_old=%b %e %Y %H:%M

in [Misc] section of ~/.mc/ini (for 4.7.0.x).