MCDIFF(1) GNU Midnight Commander MCDIFF(1)

# [NAME](#NAME)

mcdiff - Internal diff viewer of GNU Midnight Commander.

# [USAGE](#USAGE)

**mcdiff** \[-bcCdfhstVx?] file1 file2

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

mcdiff is a link to **mc**, the main GNU Midnight Commander executable. Executing GNU Midnight Commander under this name requests starting the internal diff viewer which compares *file1* and *file2* specified on the command line.

# [OPTIONS](#OPTIONS)

[*-b*](#b)

Force black and white display.

[*-c*](#c)

Force color mode on terminals where **mcdiff** defaults to black and white.

[*-C <keyword>=<fgcolor>,<bgcolor>,<attributes>:<keyword>= ...*](#C)

Specify a different color set. See the **Colors** section in [mc(1)](/man/os/midnight-commander/mc.1) for more information.

[*-d*](#d)

Disable mouse support.

[*-f*](#f)

Display the compiled-in search paths for Midnight Commander files.

[*-t*](#t)

Used only if the code was compiled with S-Lang and terminfo: it makes the Midnight Commander use the value of the **TERMCAP** variable for the terminal information instead of the information on the system wide terminal database

[*-V*](#V)

Displays the version of the program.

[*-x*](#x)

Forces xterm mode. Used when running on xterm-capable terminals (two screen modes, and able to send mouse escape sequences).

# [COLORS](#COLORS)

The default colors may be changed by appending to the **MC\_COLOR\_TABLE** environment variable. Foreground and background colors pairs may be specified for example with:

```
MC_COLOR_TABLE="$MC_COLOR_TABLE:\
normal=lightgray,black:\
selected=black,green"
```

# [FILES](#FILES)

*/usr/share/mc/mc.hlp*

The help file for the program.

*/usr/share/mc/mc.ini*

The default system-wide setup for GNU Midnight Commander, used only if the user's own ~/.config/mc/ini file is missing.

*/usr/share/mc/mc.lib*

Global settings for the Midnight Commander. Settings in this file affect all users, whether they have ~/.config/mc/ini or not.

*~/.config/mc/ini*

User's own setup. If this file is present, the setup is loaded from here instead of the system-wide startup file.

# [LICENSE](#LICENSE)

This program is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation. See the built-in help of the Midnight Commander for details on the License and the lack of warranty.

# [AVAILABILITY](#AVAILABILITY)

The latest version of this program can be found at http://ftp.midnight-commander.org/.

# [SEE ALSO](#SEE_ALSO)

[mc(1)](/man/os/midnight-commander/mc.1), [mcedit(1)](/man/os/midnight-commander/mcedit.1), [mcview(1)](/man/os/midnight-commander/mcview.1)

# [BUGS](#BUGS)

Bugs should be reported to https://www.midnight-commander.org/.

August 2026 MC Version 4.8.33

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Document: mcdiff(1) from midnight-commander 4.8.33-r2 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/MidnightCommander/mc