editor

NANO(1)                     General Commands Manual                    NANO(1)

NAME
       nano - Nano's ANOther editor, inspired by Pico

SYNOPSIS
       nano [options] [[+line[,column]] file]...

       nano [options] [[+[crCR](/|?)string] file]...

NOTICE
       Since version 4.0, nano by default:

           o does not automatically hard-wrap lines that become overlong,
           o includes the line below the title bar in the editing area,
           o does linewise (smooth) scrolling.

       If  you want the old, Pico behavior back, you can use --breaklonglines,
       --emptyline, and --jumpyscrolling (or -bej for short).

DESCRIPTION
       nano is a small and friendly editor.  It copies the look  and  feel  of
       Pico,  but  is free software, and implements several features that Pico
       lacks, such as: opening multiple files, scrolling per line,  undo/redo,
       syntax coloring, line numbering, and soft-wrapping overlong lines.

       When  giving a filename on the command line, the cursor can be put on a
       specific line by adding the line number with a plus sign (+) before the
       filename,  and  even  in  a  specific column by adding it with a comma.
       (Negative numbers count from the end of the file or line.)  The  cursor
       can  be  put  on  the  first or last occurrence of a specific string by
       specifying that string after +/ or +? before the filename.  The  string
       can be made case sensitive and/or caused to be interpreted as a regular
       expression by inserting c and/or r after  the  +  sign.   These  search
       modes  can  be  explicitly  disabled  by using the uppercase variant of
       those letters: C and/or R.  When the string contains spaces,  it  needs
       to  be  enclosed  in quotes.  To give an example: to open a file at the
       first occurrence of the word "Foo", one would do:

           nano +c/Foo file

       As a special case: if instead of a filename a dash (-) is  given,  nano
       will read data from standard input.

EDITING
       Entering  text  and  moving around in a file is straightforward: typing
       the letters and using the normal cursor movement  keys.   Commands  are
       entered by using the Control (^) and the Alt or Meta (M-) keys.  Typing
       ^K deletes the current line and puts it in the cutbuffer.   Consecutive
       ^Ks  will  put all deleted lines together in the cutbuffer.  Any cursor
       movement or executing any other command will cause the next ^K to over-
       write  the cutbuffer.  A ^U will paste the current contents of the cut-
       buffer at the current cursor position.

       When a more precise piece of text needs to be cut or  copied,  one  can
       mark  its  start  with  ^6, move the cursor to its end (the marked text
       will be highlighted), and then use ^K to cut it, or M-6 to copy  it  to
       the cutbuffer.  One can also save the marked text to a file with ^O, or
       spell check it with ^T.

       On some terminals, text can be selected  also  by  holding  down  Shift
       while  using the arrow keys.  Holding down the Ctrl or Alt key too will
       increase the stride.  Any cursor movement without Shift being held will
       cancel such a selection.

       The two lines at the bottom of the screen show some important commands;
       the built-in help (^G) lists all the available ones.  The  default  key
       bindings can be changed via a nanorc file -- see nanorc(5).

OPTIONS
       -A, --smarthome
              Make the Home key smarter.  When Home is pressed anywhere but at
              the very beginning of non-whitespace characters on a  line,  the
              cursor  will  jump  to  that beginning (either forwards or back-
              wards).  If the cursor is already at that position, it will jump
              to the true beginning of the line.

       -B, --backup
              When  saving  a  file, back up the previous version of it, using
              the current filename suffixed with a tilde (~).

       -C directory, --backupdir=directory
              Make and keep not just one backup file,  but  make  and  keep  a
              uniquely numbered one every time a file is saved -- when backups
              are enabled (-B).  The uniquely numbered files are stored in the
              specified directory.

       -D, --boldtext
              For the interface, use bold instead of reverse video.  This will
              be overridden by setting the  options  titlecolor,  statuscolor,
              keycolor,  functioncolor,  numbercolor,  and/or selectedcolor in
              your nanorc file.  See nanorc(5).

       -E, --tabstospaces
              Convert typed tabs to spaces.

       -F, --multibuffer
              Read a file into a new buffer by default.

       -G, --locking
              Use vim-style file locking when editing files.

       -H, --historylog
              Save the last hundred search strings and replacement strings and
              executed  commands,  so  they can be easily reused in later ses-
              sions.

       -I, --ignorercfiles
              Don't look at the system's nanorc nor at the user's nanorc.

       -J number, --guidestripe=number
              Draw a vertical stripe at the given column, to  help  judge  the
              width of the text.  (The color of the stripe can be changed with
              set stripecolor in your nanorc file.)

       -K, --rawsequences
              Interpret escape sequences directly (instead of  asking  ncurses
              to  translate  them).   If you need this option to get your key-
              board to work properly, please report a bug.  Using this  option
              disables nano's mouse support.

       -L, --nonewlines
              Don't  automatically add a newline when a text does not end with
              one.  (This can cause you to save non-POSIX text files.)

       -M, --trimblanks
              Snip trailing whitespace from the wrapped  line  when  automatic
              hard-wrapping occurs or when text is justified.

       -N, --noconvert
              Disable automatic conversion of files from DOS/Mac format.

       -O, --morespace
              Obsolete  and ignored option, since the line below the title bar
              is included into the editing space by default.  If you prefer to
              keep this line blank, use -e or --emptyline.

       -P, --positionlog
              For the 200 most recent files, log the last position of the cur-
              sor, and place it at that position again upon reopening  such  a
              file.

       -Q "regex", --quotestr="regex"
              Set  the  regular  expression for matching the quoting part of a
              line.  The default value is "^([ \t]*([!#%:;>|}]|//))+".   (Note
              that  \t  stands  for an actual Tab.)  This makes it possible to
              rejustify blocks of quoted text when composing email, and to re-
              wrap blocks of line comments when writing source code.

       -R, --restricted
              Restricted  mode:  don't read or write to any file not specified
              on the command line.  This means: don't read  or  write  history
              files; don't allow suspending; don't allow spell checking; don't
              allow a file to be appended to, prepended to, or saved  under  a
              different  name  if  it  already  has one; and don't make backup
              files.  Restricted mode can also be activated by  invoking  nano
              with any name beginning with 'r' (e.g. "rnano").

       -S, --smooth
              Obsolete  and  ignored option, since smooth scrolling has become
              the default.  If you prefer the chunk-by-chunk scrolling  behav-
              ior, use -j or --jumpyscrolling.

       -T number, --tabsize=number
              Set  the  size (width) of a tab to number columns.  The value of
              number must be greater than 0.  The default value is 8.

       -U, --quickblank
              Do quick status-bar blanking: status-bar messages will disappear
              after  1  keystroke  instead of 25.  Note that option -c (--con-
              stantshow) overrides this.

       -V, --version
              Show the current version number and exit.

       -W, --wordbounds
              Detect word boundaries differently by treating punctuation char-
              acters as part of a word.

       -X "characters", --wordchars="characters"
              Specify  which other characters (besides the normal alphanumeric
              ones) should be considered as part of a  word.   This  overrides
              option -W (--wordbounds).

       -Y name, --syntax=name
              Specify  the  name  of the syntax highlighting to use from among
              the ones defined in the nanorc files.

       -Z, --zap
              Let an unmodified Backspace or Delete erase  the  marked  region
              (instead  of  a single character, and without affecting the cut-
              buffer).

       -a, --atblanks
              When doing soft line wrapping, wrap lines at whitespace  instead
              of always at the edge of the screen.

       -b, --breaklonglines
              Automatically  hard-wrap  the current line when it becomes over-
              long.  (This option is the opposite of -w (--nowrap) -- the last
              one given takes effect.)

       -c, --constantshow
              Constantly  show  the  cursor  position on the status bar.  Note
              that this overrides option -U (--quickblank).

       -d, --rebinddelete
              Interpret the Delete and Backspace keys differently so that both
              Backspace  and  Delete  work properly.  You should only use this
              option when on your system either Backspace acts like Delete  or
              Delete acts like Backspace.

       -e, --emptyline
              Do  not  use  the  line below the title bar, leaving it entirely
              blank.

       -f file, --rcfile=file
              Read only this file for setting nano's options, instead of read-
              ing both the system-wide and the user's nanorc files.

       -g, --showcursor
              Make  the  cursor visible in the file browser (putting it on the
              highlighted item) and in the help viewer.   Useful  for  braille
              users and people with poor vision.

       -h, --help
              Show a summary of the available command-line options and exit.

       -i, --autoindent
              Automatically  indent a newly created line to the same number of
              tabs and/or spaces as the previous line (or as the next line  if
              the previous line is the beginning of a paragraph).

       -j, --jumpyscrolling
              Scroll the buffer contents per half-screen instead of per line.

       -k, --cutfromcursor
              Make  the  'Cut Text' command (normally ^K) cut from the current
              cursor position to the end of the line, instead of  cutting  the
              entire line.

       -l, --linenumbers
              Display line numbers to the left of the text area.

       -m, --mouse
              Enable  mouse  support,  if available for your system.  When en-
              abled, mouse clicks can be used to place  the  cursor,  set  the
              mark  (with  a  double click), and execute shortcuts.  The mouse
              will work in the X Window System, and on the console when gpm is
              running.  Text can still be selected through dragging by holding
              down the Shift key.

       -n, --noread
              Treat any name given on the command line as a  new  file.   This
              allows  nano to write to named pipes: it will start with a blank
              buffer, and will write to the  pipe  when  the  user  saves  the
              "file".   This  way nano can be used as an editor in combination
              with for instance gpg without having to write sensitive data  to
              disk first.

       -o directory, --operatingdir=directory
              Set  the  operating directory.  This makes nano set up something
              similar to a chroot.

       -p, --preserve
              Preserve the XON and XOFF sequences (^Q and ^S) so they will  be
              caught by the terminal.

       -r number, --fill=number
              Set  the target width for justifying and automatic hard-wrapping
              at this number of columns.  If the value is 0 or less,  wrapping
              will  occur at the width of the screen minus number columns, al-
              lowing the wrap point to vary along with the width of the screen
              if the screen is resized.  The default value is -8.

       -s "program [argument ...]", --speller="program [argument ...]"
              Use  this  command to perform spell checking and correcting, in-
              stead of using the built-in corrector that calls hunspell or GNU
              spell.

       -t, --tempfile
              Save a changed buffer without prompting (when exiting with ^X).

       -u, --unix
              Save  a  file  by default in Unix format.  This overrides nano's
              default behavior of saving a file in the  format  that  it  had.
              (This option has no effect when you also use --noconvert.)

       -v, --view
              Just  view  the file and disallow editing: read-only mode.  This
              mode allows the user to open also other files for  viewing,  un-
              less --restricted is given too.

       -w, --nowrap
              Do  not automatically hard-wrap the current line when it becomes
              overlong.  This is the default.  (This option is the opposite of
              -b (--breaklonglines) -- the last one given takes effect.)

       -x, --nohelp
              Don't show the two help lines at the bottom of the screen.

       -y, --afterends
              Make Ctrl+Right stop at word ends instead of beginnings.

       -z, --suspend
              Enable the suspend ability.

       -$, --softwrap
              Enable  'soft wrapping'.  This will make nano attempt to display
              the entire contents of any line, even if it is longer  than  the
              screen  width,  by  continuing  it  over  multiple screen lines.
              Since '$' normally refers to a variable in the Unix  shell,  you
              should  specify  this option last when using other options (e.g.
              'nano -wS$') or pass it separately (e.g. 'nano -wS -$').

TOGGLES
       Several of the above options can be switched on and off also while nano
       is  running.  For example, M-L toggles the hard-wrapping of long lines,
       M-S toggles soft-wrapping, M-N toggles line numbers,  M-M  toggles  the
       mouse, M-I auto-indentation, and M-X the help lines.  See at the end of
       the ^G help text for a complete list.

FILES
       When --rcfile is given, nano will read just the specified file for set-
       ting  its  options and syntaxes and key bindings.  Without that option,
       nano will read two configuration files: first the system's  nanorc  (if
       it exists), and then the user's nanorc (if it exists), either ~/.nanorc
       or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nano/nanorc or ~/.config/nano/nanorc, whichever  is
       encountered  first.  See nanorc(5) for more information on the possible
       contents of those files.

NOTES
       If no alternative spell checker command is  specified  on  the  command
       line nor in one of the nanorc files, nano will check the SPELL environ-
       ment variable for one.

       In some cases nano will try to dump the buffer into an emergency  file.
       This  will  happen  mainly if nano receives a SIGHUP or SIGTERM or runs
       out of memory.  It will write the buffer into a file named nano.save if
       the  buffer didn't have a name already, or will add a ".save" suffix to
       the current filename.  If an emergency file with that name already  ex-
       ists  in the current directory, it will add ".save" plus a number (e.g.
       ".save.1") to the current filename in order  to  make  it  unique.   In
       multibuffer mode, nano will write all the open buffers to their respec-
       tive emergency files.

BUGS
       The recording and playback of keyboard macros works correctly only on a
       terminal emulator, not on a Linux console (VT), because the latter does
       not by default distinguish modified from unmodified arrow keys.

       Please report any other bugs that you encounter via:
       https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=nano.

       When nano crashes, it will save any modified buffers to emergency .save
       files.   If  you  are able to reproduce the crash and you want to get a
       backtrace, define the environment variable NANO_NOCATCH.

HOMEPAGE
       https://nano-editor.org/

SEE ALSO
       nanorc(5)

       /usr/share/doc/nano/ (or equivalent on your system)

February 2020                     version 4.8                          NANO(1)