FC/L console mode or lite version

[Dominik Chmaj]

Hello, 

I recently decided to give a try fc in linux and to my great surprise it needs so many things to work. I expected to replace midnight commander, but there are so much dependencies that it's just not option on server env. 

mc has almost none dependencies, nothing from x server for sure, just few basic commands, packers. It's easy to install, works fast and reliable. For fc-remote basically huge configuration is needed, many packages, working tunnel, port and for most of functionalities only basics are needed. 

What are those advanced functionalities that need whole x and makes FC not working in console mode? Is there any option to release lite version without clipboard or others? I'm happy with just few things - ability to run command, edit files, and browse panels. It's not much. For now I'm not able to run FC in gnu screen :/ 

Is FC/L really that far away from text mode? 

[Brian Havard]

FC/L is an X Windows application. I implemented it as such mainly due to
the limitations of the unix console's keyboard support. There are many
key combinations that simply don't have a terminal escape sequence.

However, the situation you describe is the intended use case for
fc-remote which I use regularly to administer assorted servers. See
https://silk.apana.org.au/fcmanual-dev/fcl.html#remote
for a quick description of how it works and
https://silk.apana.org.au/pub/fc-remote/
for downloads of fc-remote builds.

[Dominik Chmaj]

niedz., 2 cze 2024 o 07:25 Brian Havard <brian....@gmail.com> napisał(a):
> > Is FC/L really that far away from text mode?
>
> FC/L is an X Windows application. I implemented it as such mainly due to
> the limitations of the unix console's keyboard support. There are many
> key combinations that simply don't have a terminal escape sequence.

While being keyboard shortcut ninja would help for sure, most of us
don't remember many of them and just use the menu to find whatever is
needed. For sure it would be awesome to get same shortcuts on
different systems, but this is not always possible. On Linux I'm happy
when Fx keys are working, sometimes those needs to be escaped with esc
key and number, many others are not working (also because of national
keyboard shortcuts for non-ascii characters).
My conclusion is that keyboard shortcuts are great, but just less
important than few core functions and ability to install software.

> However, the situation you describe is the intended use case for
> fc-remote which I use regularly to administer assorted servers. See
> https://silk.apana.org.au/fcmanual-dev/fcl.html#remote
> for a quick description of how it works and
> https://silk.apana.org.au/pub/fc-remote/
> for downloads of fc-remote builds.

I already checked it.
This is brilliant idea and I'll use it for sure at few places, I
especially love the fact that it will allow exchange with system
clipboard and formatted text.

Still there are much more limitations of this solution, let me explain:
+ setup is much more difficult than installing mc (usually takes just
few seconds), with fcl-remote You need to get it, install and make
sure to get right ssh tunnel from client to server. It's nothing more
than forwarding ssh, but it's also yet another thing to do, sometimes
routed through other servers.
+ today we have many web-based ssh terminals, where You can't simply
forward needed port, some of them are dynamically created and
integrated with remote system, yet again it's just easier to fire up
program there instead of forwarding whole traffic
+ I'm not sure about user management in fc-remote, I usually need to
do something as someone else, few things as root (sudo) or some
service user, those are sequences that I need to edit several things,
run some commands, can I do it now with fc-remote? Mostly I don't want
to repeat sudo before them, as easy as running fc-l as different user.
+ first command for me is always gnu screen, I need more "windows",
ability to split screen (both vertically and horizontally), run
something in background as well as leave everything running on server,
right now mc is just small part of my usage, I can do many things with
console and for now mc is on one or two gnu screen windows only
+ also I need to be able to use sleep/hibernation on my computer, it
takes some time to connect to wifi, then vpn and right server, that is
why I'm leaving sessions with gnu screen windows running on server - I
got them until server is restarted, with personal laptop constantly
turned off/sleep this just breaks session

For now FC/L compared to FC-remote has some limitations, mainly I
can't get it to work with a full window, it doesn't respect terminal
size change as well as cannot read that correctly. On one or two
instances fc-remote was not able to display correctly. This may
require more attention, maybe something is not configured well for
now, but for sure is some step backwards with something that we
already used to have.

I think that both ways of using FC have their benefits and worth to
develop those in their paths with one feature rich and tightly
integrated with system (and keyboard shortcuts + clipboard)
desktop/remote version and one optimised for simplicity - like mc
alternative just with basics and internal (own) clipboard. 98% of time
I'm using just file panels, executing console commands and editing
simple text files, literally no difference in anything advanced :)
On linux on most I have no X installed, most are headless, connected
via ssh, many though something weird and port forwarding is rather
complicated. This applies for many use cases when You fire up some vm
on digital ocean and use their console via web.
Yet again - I really appreciate fc-remote way, it's unique for sure,
this will solve many problems like the one with clipboard and allow
better inter-system information exchange but it brakes many other
things that we already used to do in console with best things that are
already there. If it's really mostly about keyboard shortcuts - let's
remove/remap those in such LITE version.

:)