1NANO(1) General Commands Manual NANO(1)
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6 nano - Nano's ANOther editor, an enhanced free Pico clone
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10 nano [options] [[+line[,column]] file]...
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14 nano is a small and friendly editor. It copies the look and feel of
15 Pico, but is free software, and implements several features that Pico
16 lacks, such as: opening multiple files, scrolling per line, undo/redo,
17 syntax coloring, line numbering, and soft-wrapping overlong lines.
18 When giving a filename on the command line, the cursor can be put on a
20 specific line by adding the line number with a plus sign (+) before the
21 filename, and even in a specific column by adding it with a comma.
22 As a special case: if instead of a filename a dash (-) is given, nano
24 will read data from standard input.
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28 Entering text and moving around in a file is straightforward: typing
29 the letters and using the normal cursor movement keys. Commands are
30 entered by using the Control (^) and the Alt or Meta (M-) keys. Typing
31 ^K deletes the current line and puts it in the cutbuffer. Consecutive
32 ^Ks will put all deleted lines together in the cutbuffer. Any cursor
33 movement or executing any other command will cause the next ^K to over‐
34 write the cutbuffer. A ^U will paste the current contents of the cut‐
35 buffer at the current cursor position.
36 When a more precise piece of text needs to be cut or copied, one can
38 mark its start with ^6, move the cursor to its end (the marked text
39 will be highlighted), and then use ^K to cut it, or M-6 to copy it to
40 the cutbuffer. One can also save the marked text to a file with ^O, or
41 spell check it with ^T.
42 On some terminals, text can be selected also by holding down Shift
44 while using the arrow keys. Holding down the Ctrl or Alt key too will
45 increase the stride. Any cursor movement without Shift being held will
46 cancel such a selection.
47 The two lines at the bottom of the screen show some important commands;
49 the built-in help (^G) lists all the available ones. The default key
50 bindings can be changed via a nanorc file -- see nanorc(5).
51
54 -A, --smarthome
55 Make the Home key smarter. When Home is pressed anywhere but at
56 the very beginning of non-whitespace characters on a line, the
57 cursor will jump to that beginning (either forwards or back‐
58 wards). If the cursor is already at that position, it will jump
59 to the true beginning of the line.
60 -B, --backup
62 When saving a file, back up the previous version of it, using
63 the current filename suffixed with a tilde (~).
64 -C directory, --backupdir=directory
66 Make and keep not just one backup file, but make and keep a
67 uniquely numbered one every time a file is saved -- when backups
68 are enabled (-B). The uniquely numbered files are stored in the
69 specified directory.
70 -D, --boldtext
72 Use bold text instead of reverse video text.
73 -E, --tabstospaces
75 Convert typed tabs to spaces.
76 -F, --multibuffer
78 Read a file into a new buffer by default.
79 -G, --locking
81 Use vim-style file locking when editing files.
82 -H, --historylog
84 Save the last hundred search strings and replacement strings and
85 executed commands, so they can be easily reused in later ses‐
86 sions.
87 -I, --ignorercfiles
89 Don't look at the system's nanorc nor at the user's nanorc.
90 -K, --rebindkeypad
92 Interpret the numeric keypad keys so that they all work prop‐
93 erly. You should only need to use this option if they don't, as
94 mouse support won't work properly with this option enabled.
95 -L, --nonewlines
97 Don't automatically add a newline when a file does not end with
98 one.
99 -M, --trimblanks
101 Snip trailing whitespace from the wrapped line when automatic
102 hard-wrapping occurs or when text is justified.
103 -N, --noconvert
105 Disable automatic conversion of files from DOS/Mac format.
106 -O, --morespace
108 Use the blank line below the title bar as extra editing space.
109 -P, --positionlog
111 For the 200 most recent files, log the last position of the cur‐
112 sor, and place it at that position again upon reopening such a
113 file.
114 -Q "regex", --quotestr="regex"
116 Set the regular expression for matching the quoting part of a
117 line. This is used when justifying. The default value is
118 "^([ \t]*([#:>|}]|//))+". Note that \t stands for an actual
119 Tab.
120 -R, --restricted
122 Restricted mode: don't read or write to any file not specified
123 on the command line; don't read any nanorc files nor history
124 files; don't allow suspending nor spell checking; don't allow a
125 file to be appended to, prepended to, or saved under a different
126 name if it already has one; and don't use backup files. This
127 restricted mode is also accessible by invoking nano with any
128 name beginning with 'r' (e.g. "rnano").
129 -S, --smooth
131 Use smooth scrolling: text will scroll line-by-line, instead of
132 the usual chunk-by-chunk behavior.
133 -T number, --tabsize=number
135 Set the size (width) of a tab to number columns. The value of
136 number must be greater than 0. The default value is 8.
137 -U, --quickblank
139 Do quick status-bar blanking: status-bar messages will disappear
140 after 1 keystroke instead of 25. Note that option -c (--con‐
141 stantshow) overrides this.
142 -V, --version
144 Show the current version number and exit.
145 -W, --wordbounds
147 Detect word boundaries differently by treating punctuation char‐
148 acters as part of a word.
149 -X "characters", --wordchars="characters"
151 Specify which other characters (besides the normal alphanumeric
152 ones) should be considered as part of a word. This overrides
153 option -W (--wordbounds).
154 -Y name, --syntax=name
156 Specify the name of the syntax highlighting to use from among
157 the ones defined in the nanorc files.
158 -a, --atblanks
160 When doing soft line wrapping, wrap lines at whitespace instead
161 of always at the edge of the screen.
162 -c, --constantshow
164 Constantly show the cursor position on the status bar. Note
165 that this overrides option -U (--quickblank).
166 -d, --rebinddelete
168 Interpret the Delete key differently so that both Backspace and
169 Delete work properly. You should only need to use this option
170 if Backspace acts like Delete on your system.
171 -g, --showcursor
173 Make the cursor visible in the file browser, putting it on the
174 highlighted item. Useful for braille users.
175 -h, --help
177 Show a summary of the available command-line options and exit.
178 -i, --autoindent
180 Automatically indent a newly created line to the same number of
181 tabs and/or spaces as the previous line (or as the next line if
182 the previous line is the beginning of a paragraph).
183 -k, --cutfromcursor
185 Make the 'Cut Text' command (normally ^K) cut from the current
186 cursor position to the end of the line, instead of cutting the
187 entire line.
188 -l, --linenumbers
190 Display line numbers to the left of the text area.
191 -m, --mouse
193 Enable mouse support, if available for your system. When
194 enabled, mouse clicks can be used to place the cursor, set the
195 mark (with a double click), and execute shortcuts. The mouse
196 will work in the X Window System, and on the console when gpm is
197 running. Text can still be selected through dragging by holding
198 down the Shift key.
199 -n, --noread
201 Treat any name given on the command line as a new file. This
202 allows nano to write to named pipes: it will start with a blank
203 buffer, and will write to the pipe when the user saves the
204 "file". This way nano can be used as an editor in combination
205 with for instance gpg without having to write sensitive data to
206 disk first.
207 -o directory, --operatingdir=directory
209 Set the operating directory. This makes nano set up something
210 similar to a chroot.
211 -p, --preserve
213 Preserve the XON and XOFF sequences (^Q and ^S) so they will be
214 caught by the terminal.
215 -q, --quiet
217 Obsolete option. Recognized but ignored.
218 -r number, --fill=number
220 Hard-wrap lines at column number. If this value is 0 or less,
221 wrapping will occur at the width of the screen less number col‐
222 umns, allowing the wrap point to vary along with the width of
223 the screen if the screen is resized. The default value is -8.
224 This option conflicts with -w (--nowrap) -- the last one given
225 takes effect.
226 -s program, --speller=program
228 Use this alternative spell checker command.
229 -t, --tempfile
231 Save a changed buffer without prompting (when exiting with ^X).
232 -u, --unix
234 Save a file by default in Unix format. This overrides nano's
235 default behavior of saving a file in the format that it had.
236 (This option has no effect when you also use --noconvert.)
237 -v, --view
239 Just view the file and disallow editing: read-only mode.
240 -w, --nowrap
242 Disable the hard-wrapping of long lines. This option conflicts
243 with -r (--fill) -- the last one given takes effect.
244 -x, --nohelp
246 Don't show the two help lines at the bottom of the screen.
247 -y, --afterends
249 Make Ctrl+Right stop at word ends instead of beginnings.
250 -z, --suspend
252 Enable the suspend ability.
253 -$, --softwrap
255 Enable 'soft wrapping'. This will make nano attempt to display
256 the entire contents of any line, even if it is longer than the
257 screen width, by continuing it over multiple screen lines.
258 Since '$' normally refers to a variable in the Unix shell, you
259 should specify this option last when using other options (e.g.
260 'nano -wS$') or pass it separately (e.g. 'nano -wS -$').
261 -b, -e, -f, -j
263 Ignored, for compatibility with Pico.
264
267 Several of the above options can be switched on and off also while nano
268 is running. For example, M-L toggles the hard-wrapping of long lines,
269 M-$ toggles soft-wrapping, M-# toggles line numbers, M-M toggles the
270 mouse, M-I auto-indentation, and M-X the help lines. See at the end of
271 the ^G help text for a complete list.
272
275 nano will read two configuration files: first the system's nanorc (if
276 it exists), and then the user's nanorc (if it exists), either ~/.nanorc
277 or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nano/nanorc or ~/.config/nano/nanorc, whichever is
278 encountered first. See nanorc(5) for more information on the possible
279 contents of those files.
280
283 If no alternative spell checker command is specified on the command
284 line nor in one of the nanorc files, nano will check the SPELL environ‐
285 ment variable for one.
286 In some cases nano will try to dump the buffer into an emergency file.
288 This will happen mainly if nano receives a SIGHUP or SIGTERM or runs
289 out of memory. It will write the buffer into a file named nano.save if
290 the buffer didn't have a name already, or will add a ".save" suffix to
291 the current filename. If an emergency file with that name already
292 exists in the current directory, it will add ".save" plus a number
293 (e.g. ".save.1") to the current filename in order to make it unique.
294 In multibuffer mode, nano will write all the open buffers to their
295 respective emergency files.
296
299 Justifications (^J) are not yet covered by the general undo system. So
300 after a justification that is not immediately undone, earlier edits
301 cannot be undone any more. The workaround is, of course, to exit with‐
302 out saving.
303 The recording and playback of keyboard macros works correctly only on a
305 terminal emulator, not on a Linux console (VT), because the latter does
306 not by default distinguish modified from unmodified arrow keys.
307 Please report any other bugs that you encounter via:
309 https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=nano.
310 When nano crashes, it will save any modified buffers to emergency .save
312 files. If you are able to reproduce the crash and you want to get a
313 backtrace, define the environment variable NANO_NOCATCH.
314
317 https://nano-editor.org/
318
321 nanorc(5)
322 /usr/share/doc/nano/ (or equivalent on your system)
324
327 Chris Allegretta and others (see the files AUTHORS and THANKS for
328 details). This manual page was originally written by Jordi Mallach for
329 the Debian system (but may be used by others).
330September 2018 version 3.0 NANO(1)