Colors overridden by Base16/Zsh theme

[rogierlommers]

Description
I’m running zsh with Base16 theming, and it appears to interfere with Midnight Commander’s default color scheme. Instead of using its built-in colors, MC inherits or is affected by the terminal/Base16 palette, which significantly degrades usability and visual clarity.

I would prefer Midnight Commander to always display its original (default) color scheme, regardless of the shell or terminal theme I use.

Expected behavior
Midnight Commander should either:

• Respect and enforce its own default color scheme, or
• Provide a clear option to ignore terminal/Base16 color overrides

Actual behavior
MC colors are altered by the active Base16 theme in zsh, leading to poor contrast and readability.

Environment

• Shell: zsh
• Theming: Base16
• Terminal: iTerm2 (but it also happens in MacOS default terminal app)
• Midnight Commander version: 4.8.33
• OS: MacOS

Steps to reproduce

1. Enable a Base16 theme in zsh
2. Launch Midnight Commander (mc)
3. Observe altered color scheme

Possible solutions / questions

• Is there a way to force MC to ignore terminal color definitions?
• Could an option be added to lock MC to its internal color scheme?
• Are there recommended configurations to prevent Base16 interference?

Thanks in advance for any guidance!

[zyv]

I would prefer Midnight Commander to always display its original (default) color scheme, regardless of the shell or terminal theme I use.

This is not possible; it's the whole point of using the palette. If you want a specific look while keeping custom palette, you have to use a skin that defines colors in terms of a 256-color scheme or even 16M:

https://skins.midnight-commander.org

Check this one (#5026) out as a starting point.

[rogierlommers]

But when I do that, f.e. when I start mc with the "mc46.ini" theme, then it still doesn't show that theme. Have a look at the screenshot. What I did is:

• I downloaded the theme file
• Then I stared MC like this: mc -S mc46.ini. I'm sure the theme file is actually used
• Midnight commander is not showing the correct colors; see screenshots.

What I see

What I expect

[zyv]

Where did you get the mc46.ini and what does it contain?

I have already told you that if you want to change your 16-color palette and still have mc look the way it does with a standard palette, you need a skin that encodes the colors using extended 256-color or 16M range, and not the 16-color palette that you decided to randomly reassign. I have also pointed you to an issue where you can get such a skin: #5026. I'm not sure how else I can explain that.

[rogierlommers]

Thanks for your patience, @zyv , but when I use this skin, I still don't see the colors as mentioned in #5026 . I don't know how to debug this. I'm using TERM=xterm-256color.

[zyv]

Thanks for your patience, @zyv , but when I use this skin, I still don't see the colors as mentioned in #5026 .

So which colors do you see then and are you sure that the skin is loaded in the first place? I would have expected you to get an error message, considering the below:

I don't know how to debug this. I'm using TERM=xterm-256color.

Now you have taken a 16M (true color) skin, apparently without reading up first on how to set up your terminal for true color support, because xterm-256color is pretty much what it says on the tin - a 256-color terminal.

If I were you, I would have first tried to understand if I can get a color-true rendering of some classic 256-color skin like modarin256 and then went on from there.