1NANORC(5)                     File Formats Manual                    NANORC(5)
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NAME

6       nanorc - GNU nano's rcfile
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DESCRIPTION

9       This manual page briefly documents GNU nano's rcfile.
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11       nano  is  a small, free and friendly editor which aims to replace Pico,
12       the default editor included in the non-free Pine package.  Rather  than
13       just  copying  Pico's  look and feel, nano also implements some missing
14       (or disabled by default) features in Pico, such as "search and replace"
15       and "go to line and column number".
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17       The  nanorc file contains the default settings for nano.  It should not
18       be in DOS or Mac format.  During startup, nano will first read its sys‐
19       tem-wide  settings  from SYSCONFDIR/nanorc, and then user-specific set‐
20       tings from ~/.nanorc.
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OPTIONS

24       The configuration file accepts a series  of  set  and  unset  commands,
25       which  can  be used to configure nano on startup without using the com‐
26       mand line options.  Additionally, the syntax, color,  and  icolor  key‐
27       words  are  used to define syntax highlighting rules for different text
28       patterns.  nano will read one command per line.
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30       Options in nanorc files take precedence over nano's defaults, and  com‐
31       mand line options override nanorc settings.  Also, options are unset by
32       default, except for those that take arguments.
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34       Quotes inside string parameters don't have to  be  escaped  with  back‐
35       slashes.   The  last  double quote in the string will be treated as its
36       end.  For example, for the brackets option, ""')>]}" will match  ",  ',
37       ), >, ], and }.
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39       The supported commands and arguments are:
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41
42       set/unset autoindent
43          Use auto-indentation.
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45       set/unset backup
46          Create backup files in filename~.
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48       set backupdir directory
49          Set  the directory where nano puts unique backup files if file back‐
50          ups are enabled.
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52       set/unset backwards
53          Do backwards searches by default.
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55       set/unset boldtext
56          Use bold text instead of reverse video text.
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58       set brackets string
59          Set the characters treated as closing brackets when justifying para‐
60          graphs.  They cannot contain blank characters.  Only closing punctu‐
61          ation, optionally followed by closing brackets, can  end  sentences.
62          The default value is ""')>]}".
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64       set/unset casesensitive
65          Do case sensitive searches by default.
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67       set/unset const
68          Constantly display the cursor position in the status bar.
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70       set/unset cut
71          Use cut to end of line by default.
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73       set fill n
74          Wrap  lines at column number n.  If n is 0 or less, the maximum line
75          length will be the screen width less n columns.  The  default  value
76          is -8.
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78       set/unset historylog
79          Enable   ~/.nano_history   for  saving  and  reading  search/replace
80          strings.
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82       set matchbrackets string
83          Set the opening and closing brackets that can be  found  by  bracket
84          searches.   They  cannot  contain  blank characters.  The former set
85          must come before the latter set, and both must be in the same order.
86          The default value is "(<[{)>]}".
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88       set/unset morespace
89          Use the blank line below the titlebar as extra editing space.
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91       set/unset mouse
92          Enable  mouse  support, if available for your system.  When enabled,
93          mouse clicks can be used to place the cursor, set the mark  (with  a
94          double  click), and execute shortcuts.  The mouse will work in the X
95          Window System, and on the console when gpm is running.
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97       set/unset multibuffer
98          Allow inserting files into their own buffers.
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100       set/unset noconvert
101          Don't convert files from DOS/Mac format.
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103       set/unset nofollow
104          Don't follow symlinks when writing files.
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106       set/unset nohelp
107          Don't display the help lists at the bottom of the screen.
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109       set/unset nonewlines
110          Don't add newlines to the ends of files.
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112       set/unset nowrap
113          Don't wrap text at all.
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115       set operatingdir directory
116          nano will only read and write files inside directory and its  subdi‐
117          rectories.  Also, the current directory is changed to here, so files
118          are inserted from this diractory.  By default, the operating  direc‐
119          tory feature is turned off.
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121       set/unset preserve
122          Preserve the XON and XOFF keys (^Q and ^S).
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124       set punct string
125          Set  the  characters  treated as closing punctuation when justifying
126          paragraphs.  They cannot contain  blank  characters.   Only  closing
127          punctuation,  optionally  followed by closing brackets, can end sen‐
128          tences.  The default value is "!.?".
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130       set/unset quickblank
131          Do quick statusbar  blanking.   Statusbar  messages  will  disappear
132          after 1 keystroke instead of 25.
133
134       set quotestr string
135          The  email-quote  string,  used  to justify email-quoted paragraphs.
136          This is an extended regular expression if your system supports them,
137          otherwise    a    literal    string.     The    default   value   is
138          "^([ \t]*[#:>\|}])+" if you have extended  regular  expression  sup‐
139          port,  or  "> "  otherwise.  Note that '\t' stands for a literal Tab
140          character.
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142       set/unset rebinddelete
143          Interpret the Delete key differently  so  that  both  Backspace  and
144          Delete  work  properly.   You should only need to use this option if
145          Backspace acts like Delete on your system.
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147       set/unset rebindkeypad
148          Interpret the numeric keypad keys so that they  all  work  properly.
149          You should only need to use this option if they don't, as mouse sup‐
150          port won't work properly with this option enabled.
151
152       set/unset regexp
153          Do extended regular expression searches by default.
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155       set/unset smarthome
156          Make the Home key smarter.  When Home is pressed anywhere but at the
157          very  beginning  of  non-whitespace characters on a line, the cursor
158          will jump to that beginning (either forwards or backwards).  If  the
159          cursor  is already at that position, it will jump to the true begin‐
160          ning of the line.
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162       set/unset smooth
163          Use smooth scrolling by default.
164
165       set speller spellprog
166          Use spelling checker spellprog instead of the  built-in  one,  which
167          calls spell.
168
169       set/unset suspend
170          Allow nano to be suspended.
171
172       set tabsize n
173          Use a tab size of n columns.  The value of n must be greater than 0.
174          The default value is 8.
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176       set/unset tabstospaces
177          Convert typed tabs to spaces.
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179       set/unset tempfile
180          Save automatically on exit, don't prompt.
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182       set/unset view
183          Disallow file modification.
184
185       set whitespace string
186          Set the two characters used to display the first characters of  tabs
187          and spaces.  They must be single-column characters.
188
189       set/unset wordbounds
190          Detect word boundaries more accurately by treating punctuation char‐
191          acters as parts of words.
192
193       syntax str ["fileregex" ... ]
194          Defines a syntax named str which can be activated via the  -Y/--syn‐
195          tax  command  line option, or will be automatically activated if the
196          current filename matches the extended regular expression  fileregex.
197          All following color and icolor statements will apply to syntax until
198          a new syntax is defined.
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200          The none syntax is reserved; specifying it on the  command  line  is
201          the  same as not having a syntax at all.  The default syntax is spe‐
202          cial: it takes no fileregex, and applies to files that  don't  match
203          any other syntax's fileregex.
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205       color fgcolor,bgcolor regex ...
206          For  the  currently defined syntax, display all expressions matching
207          the extended regular expression regex with foreground color  fgcolor
208          and  background  color bgcolor, at least one of which must be speci‐
209          fied.  Legal colors for foreground and background color are:  white,
210          black, red, blue, green, yellow, magenta, and cyan.  You may use the
211          prefix "bright" to force a stronger color highlight  for  the  fore‐
212          ground.   If  your  terminal supports transparency, not specifying a
213          bgcolor tells nano to attempt to use a transparent background.
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215       icolor fgcolor,bgcolor regex ...
216          Same as above, except that the expression matching is case  insensi‐
217          tive.
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219       color fgcolor,bgcolor start="sr" end="er"
220          Display expressions which start with the extended regular expression
221          sr and end with the extended regular expression er  with  foreground
222          color  fgcolor  and  background color bgcolor, at least one of which
223          must be specified.  This allows syntax highlighting to span multiple
224          lines.  Note that all subsequent instances of sr after an initial sr
225          is found will be highlighted until the first instance of er.
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227       icolor fgcolor,bgcolor start="sr" end="er"
228          Same as above, except that the expression matching is case  insensi‐
229          tive.
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231       include syntaxfile
232          Read  in  self-contained  color syntaxes from syntaxfile.  Note that
233          syntaxfile can only contain syntax, color, and icolor commands.
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FILES

236       SYSCONFDIR/nanorc
237              System-wide configuration file
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239       ~/.nanorc
240              Per-user configuration file
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SEE ALSO

243       nano(1)
244       /usr/share/doc/nano/examples/nanorc.sample (or equivalent on your  sys‐
245       tem)

AUTHOR

247       Chris  Allegretta  <chrisa@asty.org>, et al (see AUTHORS and THANKS for
248       details).  This manual page was originally  written  by  Jordi  Mallach
249       <jordi@gnu.org>, for the Debian system (but may be used by others).
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253August 23, 2007                  version 2.0.0                       NANORC(5)
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