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When dealing with large files in MC, I have difficulties counting the digits to get the order of magnitude of the file size (hundreds of MB, or tens of GB, etc.). Sometimes, I use the trick to press insert key, which highlights the file and shows the file size in a nicely formatted way (i.e. 123,456,789), which makes it a thousand times more readable.

I am wondering if/how I could set up MC to show the file size in this format by default, in the size column.

I assume, this has nothing to do with locale

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1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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You can adjust the displayed digits with the column size option, see the “Listing mode” section in the manual. The file to edit is ~/.config/mc/panels.ini.

To list the file sizes as K, M or G use a narrow size column using the user_format key:

[New Left Panel]
user_format=half type name mark size:4 space mtime

If you want the size without abbreviation, reserve enough space for it:

[New Right Panel]
user_format=half type name mark size:16 space mtime
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  • but this will not display the filesize as: 123,456,789
    – user1968963
    May 23, 2013 at 17:01
  • You didn't exactly specify what you want, you said “nicely formatted”. What is wrong with this, is it the missing comma?
    – Marco
    May 23, 2013 at 17:23
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    123,456,789 is what I would like to have
    – user1968963
    May 23, 2013 at 17:43
  • You should add, that the changes are only visible by setting the Listing mode for each panel to custom. Left -> Listing mode... -> (*) User defined:
    – loki
    Apr 4, 2019 at 10:57
  • after edited the ~/.config/mc/panels.ini i start the mc but it doesn't show as you said? do I need to run something like source ~/.bashrc to notify mc to update the config?
    – Luke
    Jan 20, 2020 at 9:18

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