NAME¶
nano - Nano's ANOther editor, an enhanced free Pico clone
SYNOPSIS¶
nano [OPTIONS] [[+LINE,COLUMN] FILE]...
DESCRIPTION¶
This manual page briefly documents the
nano command.
nano is a small, free and friendly editor which aims to replace Pico, the
default editor included in the non-free Pine package. Rather than just copying
Pico's look and feel,
nano also implements some missing (or disabled by
default) features in Pico, such as "search and replace" and "go
to line and column number".
OPTIONS¶
- +LINE,COLUMN
- Places cursor at line number LINE and column number
COLUMN (at least one of which must be specified) on startup,
instead of the default of line 1, column 1.
- -?
- Same as -h (--help).
- -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 backwards). 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 to
the current filename suffixed with a ~.
- -C dir (--backupdir=dir)
- Set the directory where nano puts unique backup
files if file backups are enabled.
- -D (--boldtext)
- Use bold text instead of reverse video text.
- -E (--tabstospaces)
- Convert typed tabs to spaces.
- -F (--multibuffer)
- Enable multiple file buffers, if available.
- -H (--historylog)
- Log search and replace strings to ~/.nano_history,
so they can be retrieved in later sessions, if nanorc support is
available.
- -I (--ignorercfiles)
- Don't look at SYSCONFDIR/nanorc or ~/.nanorc,
if nanorc support is available.
- -K (--rebindkeypad)
- Interpret the numeric keypad keys so that they all work
properly. You should only need to use this option if they don't, as mouse
support won't work properly with this option enabled.
- -L (--nonewlines)
- Don't add newlines to the ends of files.
- -N (--noconvert)
- Disable automatic conversion of files from DOS/Mac
format.
- -O (--morespace)
- Use the blank line below the titlebar as extra editing
space.
- -Q str (--quotestr=str)
- Set the quoting string for justifying. The default is
" ^([ \t]*[#:>\|}])+" if extended regular
expression support is available, or " > "
otherwise. Note that \t stands for a Tab.
- -R (--restricted)
- Restricted mode: don't read or write to any file not
specified on the command line; read any nanorc files; allow
suspending; allow a file to be appended to, prepended to, or saved under a
different name if it already has one; or use backup files or spell
checking. Also accessible by invoking nano with any name beginning
with 'r' (e.g. "rnano").
- -S (--smooth)
- Enable smooth scrolling. Text will scroll line-by-line,
instead of the usual chunk-by-chunk behavior.
- -T cols (--tabsize=cols)
- Set the size (width) of a tab to cols columns. The
value of cols must be greater than 0. The default value is 8.
- -U (--quickblank)
- Do quick statusbar blanking. Statusbar messages will
disappear after 1 keystroke instead of 25. Note that -c overrides
this.
- -V (--version)
- Show the current version number and exit.
- -W (--wordbounds)
- Detect word boundaries more accurately by treating
punctuation characters as part of a word.
- -Y str (--syntax=str)
- Specify a specific syntax highlighting from the
nanorc to use, if available.
- -c (--const)
- Constantly show the cursor position. Note that this
overrides -U.
- -d (--rebinddelete)
- Interpret the Delete key differently so that both Backspace
and Delete work properly. You should only need to use this option if
Backspace acts like Delete on your system.
- -h (--help)
- Show a summary of command line options and exit.
- -i (--autoindent)
- Indent new lines to the previous line's indentation. Useful
when editing source code.
- -k (--cut)
- Enable cut from cursor to end of line.
- -l (--nofollow)
- If the file being edited is a symbolic link, replace the
link with a new file instead of following it. Good for editing files in
/tmp, perhaps?
- -m (--mouse)
- Enable mouse support, if available for your system. When
enabled, 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.
- -o dir (--operatingdir=dir)
- Set operating directory. 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.
- -q (--quiet)
- Do not report errors in the nanorc file and ask them
to be acknowledged by pressing Enter at startup.
- -r cols (--fill=cols)
- Wrap lines at column cols. If this value is 0 or
less, wrapping will occur at the width of the screen less cols
columns, allowing the wrap point to vary along with the width of the
screen if the screen is resized. The default value is -8.
- -s prog (--speller=prog)
- Enable alternative spell checker command.
- -t (--tempfile)
- Always save changed buffer without prompting. Same as
Pico's -t option.
- -u (--undo)
- Enable experimental generic-purpose undo code. By default,
the undo and redo shortcuts are Meta-U and Meta-E, respectively.
- -v (--view)
- View file (read only) mode.
- -w (--nowrap)
- Disable wrapping of long lines.
- -x (--nohelp)
- Disable help screen at bottom of editor.
- -z (--suspend)
- Enable suspend ability.
- -$ (--softwrap)
- Enable 'soft wrapping'. nano will attempt to display
the entire contents of a line, even if it is longer than the screen width.
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 -$').
- -a, -b, -e, -f, -g, -j
- Ignored, for compatibility with Pico.
INITIALIZATION FILE¶
nano will read initialization files in the following order:
SYSCONFDIR/nanorc, then
~/.nanorc. Please see
nanorc(5)
and the example file
nanorc.sample, both of which should be provided
with
nano.
NOTES¶
If no alternative spell checker command is specified on the command line or in
one of the
nanorc files,
nano will check the
SPELL
environment 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 exists 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
respective emergency files.
BUGS¶
Please send any comments or bug reports to
nano@nano-editor.org.
The
nano mailing list is available from
nano-devel@gnu.org.
To subscribe, email to
nano-devel-request@gnu.org with a subject of
"subscribe".
HOMEPAGE¶
http://www.nano-editor.org/
SEE ALSO¶
- nanorc(5)
/usr/share/doc/nano/ (or equivalent on your system)
AUTHOR¶
Chris Allegretta <chrisa@asty.org>, et al (see
AUTHORS and
THANKS for details). This manual page was originally written by Jordi
Mallach <jordi@gnu.org>, for the Debian system (but may be used by
others).