Connecting MC to arbitrary file storage via midlayer

[forthrin]

Say you have a remote file server with an arbitrary HTTPS/HTML interface. Is it possible to write a simple midlayer in eg. Ruby that MC communicates with to get files, download files, delete files, etc.?

[mc-worker]

Currently mc doesn't have a VFS unit for connection via HTTP(S).

#2190

[forthrin]

This is basically just a class that implements "ls", "cp", "mv" and "rm". But maybe the lack of a simple standard to hook into is holding it back.

[zyv]

Did you check the documentation?

https://source.midnight-commander.org/man/mc.html#EXTernal_File_System

https://github.com/MidnightCommander/mc/blob/master/src/vfs/extfs/helpers/README

Andrew mentioned a ticket where a generic solution was requested, but if you have a specific proprietary protocol to deal with, you can already now implement a custom extfs module for it (in any language). It's not a good solution for inclusion in mc, especially if it would depend on yet another language like Ruby, but if it's for your specific protocol, you wouldn't even want to have it included in mc for everyone.

If it's more like the case for a scraper like lftp, you could implement an lftp-based extfs script to deal with a more generic case, more like requested in #2190. But if it would be targeting inclusion, better do it in POSIX shell or, at least, Perl, with lftp as a backend. So far, nobody has been interested enough.

[forthrin]

1. Assuming "EXTFS" is unrelated to the Linux ExtFS file system, this is a simple config file that says which scripts to call for which actions? Eg. something like Copy points something like script.rb --copy $source $dest? Seems straight forward. Assuming also it runs transfers in the background, so MC is not locked up while transferring the Internet to your local computer.

2. lftp seems to require extensions in C, so would rather write a script that mimics a FTP/HTTP server and connect lftp to that.

3. Now on an fundamental side issue that has effectively ruined all use of NC clones (and a few other somethings) for decades, does MC now implement direct access to F-keys without having to press Fn, while the rest of macOS retains media keys?

[zyv]

1. Please read the documentation that I linked; it answers all your questions.
2. Either that, or you can use the extfs protocol and lftp binary directly.
3. Yes, please read the documentation on how to remap the keys to your liking.

[zyv]

#4858