1NANO(1)                     General Commands Manual                    NANO(1)
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NAME

6       nano - Nano's ANOther editor, an enhanced free Pico clone
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SYNOPSIS

10       nano [OPTIONS] [[+LINE,COLUMN] FILE]...
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DESCRIPTION

14       This manual page briefly documents the nano command.
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16       nano  is  a small, free and friendly editor which aims to replace Pico,
17       the default editor included in the non-free Pine package.  Rather  than
18       just  copying  Pico's  look and feel, nano also implements some missing
19       (or disabled by default) features in Pico, such as "search and replace"
20       and "go to line and column number".
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OPTIONS

24       +LINE,COLUMN
25              Places  cursor  at line number LINE and column number COLUMN (at
26              least one of which must be specified) on startup, instead of the
27              default of line 1, column 1.
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29       -?     Same as -h (--help).
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31       -A (--smarthome)
32              Make the Home key smarter.  When Home is pressed anywhere but at
33              the very beginning of non-whitespace characters on a  line,  the
34              cursor  will  jump  to  that beginning (either forwards or back‐
35              wards).  If the cursor is already at that position, it will jump
36              to the true beginning of the line.
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38       -B (--backup)
39              When  saving  a  file, back up the previous version of it to the
40              current filename suffixed with a ~.
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42       -C dir (--backupdir=dir)
43              Set the directory where nano puts unique backup  files  if  file
44              backups are enabled.
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46       -D (--boldtext)
47              Use bold text instead of reverse video text.
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49       -E (--tabstospaces)
50              Convert typed tabs to spaces.
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52       -F (--multibuffer)
53              Enable multiple file buffers, if available.
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55       -H (--historylog)
56              Log  search  and replace strings to ~/.nano_history, so they can
57              be retrieved in later sessions, if nanorc support is available.
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59       -I (--ignorercfiles)
60              Don't look at SYSCONFDIR/nanorc or ~/.nanorc, if nanorc  support
61              is available.
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63       -K (--rebindkeypad)
64              Interpret  the  numeric  keypad keys so that they all work prop‐
65              erly.  You should only need to use this option if they don't, as
66              mouse support won't work properly with this option enabled.
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68       -L (--nonewlines)
69              Don't add newlines to the ends of files.
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71       -N (--noconvert)
72              Disable automatic conversion of files from DOS/Mac format.
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74       -O (--morespace)
75              Use the blank line below the titlebar as extra editing space.
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77       -Q str (--quotestr=str)
78              Set   the   quoting  string  for  justifying.   The  default  is
79              "^([ \t]*[#:>\|}])+" if extended regular expression  support  is
80              available, or "> " otherwise.  Note that \t stands for a Tab.
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82       -R (--restricted)
83              Restricted  mode:  don't read or write to any file not specified
84              on the command line; read any nanorc  files;  allow  suspending;
85              allow  a  file to be appended to, prepended to, or saved under a
86              different name if it already has one; or  use  backup  files  or
87              spell  checking.  Also accessible by invoking nano with any name
88              beginning with 'r' (e.g. "rnano").
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90       -S (--smooth)
91              Enable smooth scrolling.  Text will scroll line-by-line, instead
92              of the usual chunk-by-chunk behavior.
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94       -T cols (--tabsize=cols)
95              Set  the  size  (width)  of a tab to cols columns.  The value of
96              cols must be greater than 0.  The default value is 8.
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98       -U (--quickblank)
99              Do quick statusbar blanking.  Statusbar messages will  disappear
100              after 1 keystroke instead of 25.  Note that -c overrides this.
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102       -V (--version)
103              Show the current version number and exit.
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105       -W (--wordbounds)
106              Detect  word  boundaries more accurately by treating punctuation
107              characters as part of a word.
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109       -Y str (--syntax=str)
110              Specify a specific syntax highlighting from the nanorc  to  use,
111              if available.
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113       -c (--const)
114              Constantly  show  the cursor position.  Note that this overrides
115              -U.
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117       -d (--rebinddelete)
118              Interpret the Delete key differently so that both Backspace  and
119              Delete  work  properly.  You should only need to use this option
120              if Backspace acts like Delete on your system.
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122       -h (--help)
123              Show a summary of command line options and exit.
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125       -i (--autoindent)
126              Indent new lines to the  previous  line's  indentation.   Useful
127              when editing source code.
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129       -k (--cut)
130              Enable cut from cursor to end of line.
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132       -l (--nofollow)
133              If  the  file  being edited is a symbolic link, replace the link
134              with a new file instead of following it.  Good for editing files
135              in /tmp, perhaps?
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137       -m (--mouse)
138              Enable  mouse  support,  if  available  for  your  system.  When
139              enabled, mouse clicks can be used to place the cursor,  set  the
140              mark  (with  a  double click), and execute shortcuts.  The mouse
141              will work in the X Window System, and on the console when gpm is
142              running.
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144       -o dir (--operatingdir=dir)
145              Set operating directory.  Makes nano set up something similar to
146              a chroot.
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148       -p (--preserve)
149              Preserve the XON and XOFF sequences (^Q and ^S) so they will  be
150              caught by the terminal.
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152       -r cols (--fill=cols)
153              Wrap lines at column cols.  If this value is 0 or less, wrapping
154              will occur at the width of the screen less cols columns,  allow‐
155              ing the wrap point to vary along with the width of the screen if
156              the screen is resized.  The default value is -8.
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158       -s prog (--speller=prog)
159              Enable alternative spell checker command.
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161       -t (--tempfile)
162              Always save changed buffer without prompting.  Same as Pico's -t
163              option.
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165       -v (--view)
166              View file (read only) mode.
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168       -w (--nowrap)
169              Disable wrapping of long lines.
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171       -x (--nohelp)
172              Disable help screen at bottom of editor.
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174       -z (--suspend)
175              Enable suspend ability.
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177       -a, -b, -e, -f, -g, -j
178              Ignored, for compatibility with Pico.
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INITIALIZATION FILE

182       nano   will   read   initialization   files  in  the  following  order:
183       SYSCONFDIR/nanorc, then ~/.nanorc.  Please see nanorc(5) and the  exam‐
184       ple file nanorc.sample, both of which should be provided with nano.
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NOTES

188       If  no  alternative  spell  checker command is specified on the command
189       line or in one of the nanorc files, nano will check the SPELL  environ‐
190       ment variable for one.
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192       In  some cases nano will try to dump the buffer into an emergency file.
193       This will happen mainly if nano receives a SIGHUP or  SIGTERM  or  runs
194       out of memory.  It will write the buffer into a file named nano.save if
195       the buffer didn't have a name already, or will add a ".save" suffix  to
196       the  current  filename.   If  an  emergency file with that name already
197       exists in the current directory, it will  add  ".save"  plus  a  number
198       (e.g.  ".save.1")  to  the current filename in order to make it unique.
199       In multibuffer mode, nano will write all  the  open  buffers  to  their
200       respective emergency files.
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BUGS

204       Please send any comments or bug reports to nano@nano-editor.org.
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206       The nano mailing list is available from nano-devel@gnu.org.
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208       To  subscribe,  email  to  nano-devel-request@gnu.org with a subject of
209       "subscribe".
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HOMEPAGE

213       http://www.nano-editor.org/
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SEE ALSO

217       nanorc(5)
218       /usr/share/doc/nano/ (or equivalent on your system)
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AUTHOR

221       Chris Allegretta <chrisa@asty.org>, et al (see AUTHORS and  THANKS  for
222       details).   This  manual  page  was originally written by Jordi Mallach
223       <jordi@gnu.org>, for the Debian system (but may be used by others).
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227August 23, 2007                  version 2.0.0                         NANO(1)
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