Re: Error: "The shell is already running a command"

[Pavel Roskin <proski gnu org>]

Hello, Peter!

> When I am trying to run a command from MC's command line,
> MC gives me an error message "The shell is already running a command".
>
> How to find out which command is running, how to stop it?

The error message is a bit misleading.  It meant that the state of the
subshell is unknown to mc.  This happens if something was entered on the
subshell command line, but the command wasn't executed yet or it's
running.  Use Ctrl-O to switch to the subshell and see what's happening.
If the the command line is empty, just press enter - this will inform mc
that the shell is ready.

> I know I can exit MC and it should kill all child processes (right?),

Yes.

> but in Linux there is always *smart* way to do it
> without rebooting and reinstalling all aps like on Windoze.

This limitation is not Linux specific.  It comes from the fact that the
subshell can only inform mc when it finishes the command, but not when it
starts execution.

> My MC is 4.5.51. I'll like to upgrade - are there somewhere
> RPMs of any recent version? We have redHat and our admin likes RPMs.

This question means that the mc website is really badly designed if you
(or your admin) could not find the binaries :-(

I suggest that you rebuild the RPM package from the tarball using "rpm
-tb" or "rpmbuild -tb" (on Red Hat 8.0).

If you have problems finding anything on the mc website, please describe
where you were looking.  I only can improve the website if I understand
what people are looking for and what they fail to find.

-- 
Regards,
Pavel Roskin