1NANORC(5) File Formats Manual NANORC(5)
2
6 nanorc - GNU nano's configuration file
7
10 The nanorc files contain the default settings for nano, a small and
11 friendly editor. During startup, if --rcfile is not given, nano will
12 read two files: first the system-wide settings, from /etc/nanorc (the
13 exact path might be different on your system), and then the user-spe‐
14 cific settings, either from ~/.nanorc or from $XDG_CON‐
15 FIG_HOME/nano/nanorc or from ~/.config/nano/nanorc, whichever is
16 encountered first. If --rcfile is given, nano will read just the spec‐
17 ified settings file.
18
21 Since version 4.0, nano by default:
22 · does not automatically hard-wrap lines that become overlong,
24 · includes the line below the title bar in the editing area,
25 · does linewise (smooth) scrolling.
26 To get the old, Pico behavior back, you can use set breaklonglines, set
28 emptyline, and set jumpyscrolling.
29
32 The configuration file accepts a series of set and unset commands,
33 which can be used to configure nano on startup without using command-
34 line options. Additionally, there are some commands to define syntax
35 highlighting and to rebind keys -- see the two separate sections on
36 those. nano reads one command per line. All commands and keywords
37 should be written in lowercase.
38 Options in nanorc files take precedence over nano's defaults, and com‐
40 mand-line options override nanorc settings. Also, options that do not
41 take an argument are unset by default. So using the unset command is
42 only needed when wanting to override a setting of the system's nanorc
43 file in your own nanorc. Options that take an argument cannot be
44 unset.
45 Quotes inside the characters parameters below should not be escaped.
47 The last double quote on the line will be seen as the closing quote.
48 The supported commands and arguments are:
50 set afterends
52 Make Ctrl+Right and Ctrl+Delete stop at word ends instead of begin‐
53 nings.
54 set allow_insecure_backup
56 When backing up files, allow the backup to succeed even if its per‐
57 missions can't be (re)set due to special OS considerations. You
58 should NOT enable this option unless you are sure you need it.
59 set atblanks
61 When soft line wrapping is enabled, make it wrap lines at blank
62 characters (tabs and spaces) instead of always at the edge of the
63 screen.
64 set autoindent
66 Automatically indent a newly created line to the same number of tabs
67 and/or spaces as the previous line (or as the next line if the pre‐
68 vious line is the beginning of a paragraph).
69 set backup
71 When saving a file, create a backup file by adding a tilde (~) to
72 the file's name.
73 set backupdir directory
75 Make and keep not just one backup file, but make and keep a uniquely
76 numbered one every time a file is saved -- when backups are enabled
77 with set backup or --backup or -B. The uniquely numbered files are
78 stored in the specified directory.
79 set boldtext
81 Use bold instead of reverse video for the title bar, status bar, key
82 combos, function tags, line numbers, and selected text. This can be
83 overridden by setting the options titlecolor, statuscolor, keycolor,
84 functioncolor, numbercolor, and selectedcolor.
85 set bookstyle
87 When justifying, treat any line that starts with whitespace as the
88 beginning of a paragraph (unless auto-indenting is on).
89 set brackets "characters"
91 Set the characters treated as closing brackets when justifying para‐
92 graphs. This may not include blank characters. Only closing punc‐
93 tuation (see set punct), optionally followed by the specified clos‐
94 ing brackets, can end sentences. The default value is ""')>]}".
95 set breaklonglines
97 Automatically hard-wrap the current line when it becomes overlong.
98 set casesensitive
100 Do case-sensitive searches by default.
101 set constantshow
103 Constantly display the cursor position in the status bar. This
104 overrides the option quickblank.
105 set cutfromcursor
107 Use cut-from-cursor-to-end-of-line by default, instead of cutting
108 the whole line.
109 set emptyline
111 Do not use the line below the title bar, leaving it entirely blank.
112 set errorcolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
114 Use this color combination for the status bar when an error message
115 is displayed. The default value is brightwhite,red. See set title‐
116 color for valid color names.
117 set fill number
119 Set the target width for justifying and automatic hard-wrapping at
120 this number of columns. If the value is 0 or less, wrapping will
121 occur at the width of the screen minus number columns, allowing the
122 wrap point to vary along with the width of the screen if the screen
123 is resized. The default value is -8.
124 set functioncolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
126 Specify the color combination to use for the function descriptions
127 in the two help lines at the bottom of the screen. See set title‐
128 color for more details.
129 set guidestripe number
131 Draw a vertical stripe at the given column, to help judge the width
132 of the text. (The color of the stripe can be changed with set
133 stripecolor.)
134 set historylog
136 Save the last hundred search strings and replacement strings and
137 executed commands, so they can be easily reused in later sessions.
138 set indicator
140 Display a "scrollbar" on the righthand side of the edit window. It
141 shows the position of the viewport in the buffer and how much of the
142 buffer is covered by the viewport.
143 set jumpyscrolling
145 Scroll the buffer contents per half-screen instead of per line.
146 set keycolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
148 Specify the color combination to use for the shortcut key combos in
149 the two help lines at the bottom of the screen. See set titlecolor
150 for more details.
151 set linenumbers
153 Display line numbers to the left of the text area. (Any line with
154 an anchor additionally gets a mark in the margin.)
155 set locking
157 Enable vim-style lock-files for when editing files.
158 set magic
160 When neither the file's name nor its first line give a clue, try
161 using libmagic to determine the applicable syntax. (Calling lib‐
162 magic can be relatively time consuming. It is therefore not done by
163 default.)
164 set matchbrackets "characters"
166 Specify the opening and closing brackets that can be found by
167 bracket searches. This may not include blank characters. The open‐
168 ing set must come before the closing set, and the two sets must be
169 in the same order. The default value is "(<[{)>]}".
170 set morespace
172 Deprecated option since it has become the default setting. When
173 needed, use unset emptyline instead.
174 set mouse
176 Enable mouse support, if available for your system. When enabled,
177 mouse clicks can be used to place the cursor, set the mark (with a
178 double click), and execute shortcuts. The mouse will work in the X
179 Window System, and on the console when gpm is running. Text can
180 still be selected through dragging by holding down the Shift key.
181 set multibuffer
183 When reading in a file with ^R, insert it into a new buffer by
184 default.
185 set noconvert
187 Don't convert files from DOS/Mac format.
188 set nohelp
190 Don't display the two help lines at the bottom of the screen.
191 set nonewlines
193 Don't automatically add a newline when a text does not end with one.
194 (This can cause you to save non-POSIX text files.)
195 set nopauses
197 Obsolete option. Ignored.
198 set nowrap
200 Deprecated option since it has become the default setting. When
201 needed, use unset breaklonglines instead.
202 set numbercolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
204 Specify the color combination to use for line numbers. See set
205 titlecolor for more details.
206 set operatingdir directory
208 nano will only read and write files inside directory and its subdi‐
209 rectories. Also, the current directory is changed to here, so files
210 are inserted from this directory. By default, the operating direc‐
211 tory feature is turned off.
212 set positionlog
214 Save the cursor position of files between editing sessions. The
215 cursor position is remembered for the 200 most-recently edited
216 files.
217 set preserve
219 Preserve the XON and XOFF keys (^Q and ^S).
220 set punct "characters"
222 Set the characters treated as closing punctuation when justifying
223 paragraphs. This may not include blank characters. Only the spec‐
224 fified closing punctuation, optionally followed by closing brackets
225 (see brackets), can end sentences. The default value is "!.?".
226 set quickblank
228 Do quick status-bar blanking: status-bar messages will disappear
229 after 1 keystroke instead of 25. The option constantshow overrides
230 this.
231 set quotestr "regex"
233 Set the regular expression for matching the quoting part of a line.
234 The default value is "^([ \t]*([!#%:;>|}]|//))+". (Note that \t
235 stands for an actual Tab character.) This makes it possible to
236 rejustify blocks of quoted text when composing email, and to rewrap
237 blocks of line comments when writing source code.
238 set rawsequences
240 Interpret escape sequences directly (instead of asking ncurses to
241 translate them). If you need this option to get your keyboard to
242 work properly, please report a bug. Using this option disables
243 nano's mouse support.
244 set rebinddelete
246 Interpret the Delete and Backspace keys differently so that both
247 Backspace and Delete work properly. You should only use this option
248 when on your system either Backspace acts like Delete or Delete acts
249 like Backspace.
250 set regexp
252 Do regular-expression searches by default. Regular expressions in
253 nano are of the extended type (ERE).
254 set saveonexit
256 Save a changed buffer automatically on exit (^X); don't prompt.
257 (The old form of this option, set tempfile, is deprecated.)
258 set scrollercolor fgcolor,bgcolor
260 Specify the color combination to use for the indicator alias
261 "scrollbar". (On terminal emulators that link to a libvte older
262 than version 0.55, using a background color here does not work cor‐
263 rectly.) See set titlecolor for more details.
264 set selectedcolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
266 Specify the color combination to use for selected text. See set
267 titlecolor for more details.
268 set showcursor
270 Put the cursor on the highlighted item in the file browser, to aid
271 braille users.
272 set smarthome
274 Make the Home key smarter. When Home is pressed anywhere but at the
275 very beginning of non-whitespace characters on a line, the cursor
276 will jump to that beginning (either forwards or backwards). If the
277 cursor is already at that position, it will jump to the true begin‐
278 ning of the line.
279 set smooth
281 Deprecated option since it has become the default setting. When
282 needed, use unset jumpyscrolling instead.
283 set softwrap
285 Display lines that exceed the screen's width over multiple screen
286 lines. (You can make this soft-wrapping occur at whitespace instead
287 of rudely at the screen's edge, by using also set atblanks.)
288 set speller "program [argument ...]"
290 Use the given program to do spell checking and correcting, instead
291 of using the built-in corrector that calls hunspell(1) or spell(1).
292 set stateflags
294 Use the top-right corner of the screen for showing some state flags:
295 I when auto-indenting, M when the mark is on, L when hard-wrapping
296 (breaking long lines), R when recording a macro, and S when soft-
297 wrapping. When the buffer is modified, a star (*) is shown after
298 the filename in the center of the title bar.
299 set statuscolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
301 Specify the color combination to use for the status bar. See set
302 titlecolor for more details.
303 set stripecolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
305 Specify the color combination to use for the vertical guiding
306 stripe. See set titlecolor for more details.
307 set suspendable
309 Allow nano to be suspended (with ^Z by default).
310 set tabsize number
312 Use a tab size of number columns. The value of number must be
313 greater than 0. The default value is 8.
314 set tabstospaces
316 Convert typed tabs to spaces.
317 set titlecolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
319 Specify the color combination to use for the title bar. Valid names
320 for the foreground and background colors are: red, green, blue,
321 magenta, yellow, cyan, white, and black. Each of these eight names
322 may be prefixed with the word light to get a brighter version of
323 that color. On terminal emulators that can do at least 256 colors,
324 other valid (but unprefixable) color names are: pink, purple, mauve,
325 lagoon, mint, lime, peach, orange, latte, and normal -- where normal
326 means the default foreground or background color. Either "fgcolor"
327 or ",bgcolor" may be left out, and the pair may be preceded by bold
328 and/or italic (separated by commas) to get a bold and/or slanting
329 typeface, if your terminal can do those.
330 set trimblanks
332 Remove trailing whitespace from wrapped lines when automatic hard-
333 wrapping occurs or when text is justified.
334 set unix
336 Save a file by default in Unix format. This overrides nano's
337 default behavior of saving a file in the format that it had. (This
338 option has no effect when you also use set noconvert.)
339 set view
341 Disallow file modification: read-only mode. This mode allows the
342 user to open also other files for viewing, unless --restricted is
343 given on the command line.
344 set whitespace "characters"
346 Set the two characters used to indicate the presence of tabs and
347 spaces. They must be single-column characters. The default pair
348 for a UTF-8 locale is "»⋅", and for other locales ">.".
349 set wordbounds
351 Detect word boundaries differently by treating punctuation charac‐
352 ters as parts of words.
353 set wordchars "characters"
355 Specify which other characters (besides the normal alphanumeric
356 ones) should be considered as parts of words. When using this
357 option, you probably want to unset wordbounds.
358 set zap
360 Let an unmodified Backspace or Delete erase the marked region
361 (instead of a single character, and without affecting the cut‐
362 buffer).
363
366 Coloring the different syntactic elements of a file is done via regular
367 expressions (see the color command below). This is inherently imper‐
368 fect, because regular expressions are not powerful enough to fully
369 parse a file. Nevertheless, regular expressions can do a lot and are
370 easy to make, so they are a good fit for a small editor like nano.
371 All regular expressions in nano are POSIX extended regular expressions.
373 This means that ., ?, *, +, ^, $, and several other characters are spe‐
374 cial. The period . matches any single character, ? means the preceding
375 item is optional, * means the preceding item may be matched zero or
376 more times, + means the preceding item must be matched one or more
377 times, ^ matches the beginning of a line, and $ the end, \< matches the
378 start of a word, and \> the end, and \s matches a blank. It also means
379 that lookahead and lookbehind are not possible. A complete explanation
380 can be found in the manual page of GNU grep: man grep.
381 For each kind of file a separate syntax can be defined via the follow‐
383 ing commands:
384 syntax name ["fileregex" ...]
386 Start the definition of a syntax with this name. All subsequent
387 color and other such commands will be added to this syntax,
388 until a new syntax command is encountered.
389 When nano is run, this syntax will be automatically activated if
391 the current filename matches the extended regular expression
392 fileregex. Or the syntax can be explicitly activated by using
393 the -Y or --syntax command-line option followed by the name.
394 The syntax default is special: it takes no fileregex, and
396 applies to files that don't match any syntax's regexes. The
397 syntax none is reserved; specifying it on the command line is
398 the same as not having a syntax at all.
399 header "regex" ...
401 If from all defined syntaxes no fileregex matched, then compare
402 this regex (or regexes) against the first line of the current
403 file, to determine whether this syntax should be used for it.
404 magic "regex" ...
406 If no fileregex matched and no header regex matched either, then
407 compare this regex (or regexes) against the result of querying
408 the magic database about the current file, to determine whether
409 this syntax should be used for it. (This functionality only
410 works when libmagic is installed on the system and will be
411 silently ignored otherwise.)
412 formatter program [argument ...]
414 Run the given program on the full contents of the current buf‐
415 fer. (The current buffer is written out to a temporary file,
416 the program is run on it, and then the temporary file is read
417 back in, replacing the contents of the buffer.)
418 linter program [argument ...]
420 Use the given program to run a syntax check on the current buf‐
421 fer.
422 comment "string"
424 Use the given string for commenting and uncommenting lines. If
425 the string contains a vertical bar or pipe character (|), this
426 designates bracket-style comments; for example, "/*|*/" for CSS
427 files. The characters before the pipe are prepended to the line
428 and the characters after the pipe are appended at the end of the
429 line. If no pipe character is present, the full string is
430 prepended; for example, "#" for Python files. If empty double
431 quotes are specified, the comment/uncomment function is dis‐
432 abled; for example, "" for JSON. The default value is "#".
433 tabgives "string"
435 Make the <Tab> key produce the given string. Useful for lan‐
436 guages like Python that want to see only spaces for indentation.
437 This overrides the setting of the tabstospaces option.
438 color [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor "regex" ...
440 Paint all pieces of text that match the extended regular expres‐
441 sion regex with the given foreground and background colors, at
442 least one of which must be specified. Valid color names are:
443 red, green, blue, magenta, yellow, cyan, white, and black. Each
444 of these eight names may be prefixed with the word light to get
445 a brighter version of that color. On terminal emulators that
446 can do at least 256 colors, other valid (but unprefixable) color
447 names are: pink, purple, mauve, lagoon, mint, lime, peach,
448 orange, latte, and normal -- where normal means the default
449 foreground or background color. The color pair may be preceded
450 by bold and/or italic (separated by commas) to get a bold and/or
451 slanting typeface, if your terminal can do those.
452 All coloring commands are applied in the order in which they are
454 specified, which means that later commands can recolor stuff
455 that was colored earlier.
456 icolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor "regex" ...
458 Same as above, except that the matching is case insensitive.
459 color [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor start="fromrx" end="torx"
461 Paint all pieces of text whose start matches extended regular
462 expression fromrx and whose end matches extended regular expres‐
463 sion torx with the given foreground and background colors, at
464 least one of which must be specified. This means that, after an
465 initial instance of fromrx, all text until the first instance of
466 torx will be colored. This allows syntax highlighting to span
467 multiple lines.
468 icolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor start="fromrx" end="torx"
470 Same as above, except that the matching is case insensitive.
471 include "syntaxfile"
473 Read in self-contained color syntaxes from syntaxfile. Note
474 that syntaxfile may contain only the above commands, from syntax
475 to icolor.
476 extendsyntax name command argument ...
478 Extend the syntax previously defined as name with another com‐
479 mand. This allows adding a new color, icolor, header, magic,
480 formatter, linter, comment, or tabgives command to an already
481 defined syntax -- useful when you want to slightly improve a
482 syntax defined in one of the system-installed files (which nor‐
483 mally are not writable).
484
487 Key bindings can be changed via the following three commands:
488 bind key function menu
490 Rebinds the given key to the given function in the given menu
491 (or in all menus where the function exists when all is used).
492 bind key "string" menu
494 Makes the given key produce the given string in the given
495 menu (or in all menus where the key exists when all is used).
496 The string can consist of text or commands or a mix of them.
497 (To enter a command into the string, precede its keystroke
498 with M-V.)
499 unbind key menu
501 Unbinds the given key from the given menu (or from all menus
502 where the key exists when all is used).
503 The format of key should be one of:
506 ^X where X is a Latin letter, or one of several ASCII characters
508 (@, ], \, ^, _), or the word "Space". Example: ^C.
509 M-X where X is any ASCII character except [, or the word "Space".
511 Example: M-8.
512 Sh-M-X where X is a Latin letter. Example: Sh-M-U. By default,
514 each Meta+letter keystroke does the same as the corresponding
515 Shift+Meta+letter. But when any Shift+Meta bind is made,
516 that will no longer be the case, for all letters.
517 FN where N is a numeric value from 1 to 24. Example: F10.
519 (Often, F13 to F24 can be typed as F1 to F12 with Shift.)
520 Ins or Del.
522 Rebinding ^M (Enter) or ^I (Tab) is probably not a good idea. Rebind‐
524 ing ^[ (Esc) is not possible, because its keycode is the starter byte
525 of Meta keystrokes and escape sequences. Rebinding any of the dedi‐
526 cated cursor-moving keys (the arrows, Home, End, PageUp and PageDown)
527 is not possible. On some terminals it's not possible to rebind ^H
528 (unless --raw is used) because its keycode is identical to that of the
529 Backspace key.
530 Valid function names to be bound are:
533 help
535 Invokes the help viewer.
536 cancel
538 Cancels the current command.
539 exit
541 Exits from the program (or from the help viewer or file browser).
542 writeout
544 Writes the current buffer to disk, asking for a name.
545 savefile
547 Writes the current file to disk without prompting.
548 insert
550 Inserts a file into the current buffer (at the current cursor
551 position), or into a new buffer when option multibuffer is set.
552 whereis
554 Starts a forward search for text in the current buffer -- or for
555 filenames matching a string in the current list in the file
556 browser.
557 wherewas
559 Starts a backward search for text in the current buffer -- or for
560 filenames matching a string in the current list in the file
561 browser.
562 findprevious
564 Searches the next occurrence in the backward direction.
565 findnext
567 Searches the next occurrence in the forward direction.
568 replace
570 Interactively replaces text within the current buffer.
571 cut
573 Cuts and stores the current line (or the marked region).
574 copy
576 Copies the current line (or the marked region) without deleting
577 it.
578 paste
580 Pastes the currently stored text into the current buffer at the
581 current cursor position.
582 zap
584 Throws away the current line (or the marked region). (This func‐
585 tion is bound by default to <Meta+Delete>.)
586 chopwordleft
588 Deletes from the cursor position to the beginning of the preceding
589 word. (This function is bound by default to <Shift+Ctrl+Delete>.
590 If your terminal produces ^H for <Ctrl+Backspace>, you can make
591 <Ctrl+Backspace> delete the word to the left of the cursor by
592 rebinding ^H to this function.)
593 chopwordright
595 Deletes from the cursor position to the beginning of the next
596 word. (This function is bound by default to <Ctrl+Delete>.)
597 cutrestoffile
599 Cuts all text from the cursor position till the end of the buffer.
600 mark
602 Sets the mark at the current position, to start selecting text.
603 Or, when it is set, unsets the mark.
604 location
606 Reports the current position of the cursor in the buffer: the
607 line, column, and character positions. (The old name of this
608 function, 'curpos', is deprecated.)
609 wordcount
611 Counts the number of words, lines and characters in the current
612 buffer.
613 execute
615 Prompts for a program to execute. The program's output will be
616 inserted into the current buffer (or into a new buffer when M-F is
617 toggled).
618 speller
620 Invokes a spell-checking program, either the default hunspell(1)
621 or GNU spell(1), or the one defined by --speller or set speller.
622 formatter
624 Invokes a full-buffer-processing program (if the active syntax
625 defines one).
626 linter
628 Invokes a syntax-checking program (if the active syntax defines
629 one).
630 justify
632 Justifies the current paragraph. A paragraph is a group of con‐
633 tiguous lines that, apart from possibly the first line, all have
634 the same indentation. The beginning of a paragraph is detected by
635 either this lone line with a differing indentation or by a preced‐
636 ing blank line.
637 fulljustify
639 Justifies the entire current buffer.
640 indent
642 Indents (shifts to the right) the currently marked text.
643 unindent
645 Unindents (shifts to the left) the currently marked text.
646 comment
648 Comments or uncomments the current line or marked lines, using the
649 comment style specified in the active syntax.
650 complete
652 Completes the fragment before the cursor to a full word found
653 elsewhere in the current buffer.
654 left
656 Goes left one position (in the editor or browser).
657 right
659 Goes right one position (in the editor or browser).
660 up
662 Goes one line up (in the editor or browser).
663 down
665 Goes one line down (in the editor or browser).
666 scrollup
668 Scrolls the viewport up one row (meaning that the text slides
669 down) while keeping the cursor in the same text position, if pos‐
670 sible.
671 scrolldown
673 Scrolls the viewport down one row (meaning that the text slides
674 up) while keeping the cursor in the same text position, if possi‐
675 ble.
676 center
678 Scrolls the line with the cursor to the middle of the screen.
679 prevword
681 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the previous word.
682 nextword
684 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the next word.
685 home
687 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current line.
688 end
690 Moves the cursor to the end of the current line.
691 beginpara
693 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current paragraph.
694 endpara
696 Moves the cursor to the end of the current paragraph.
697 prevblock
699 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current or preceding
700 block of text. (Blocks are separated by one or more blank lines.)
701 nextblock
703 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the next block of text.
704 pageup
706 Goes up one screenful.
707 pagedown
709 Goes down one screenful.
710 firstline
712 Goes to the first line of the file.
713 lastline
715 Goes to the last line of the file.
716 gotoline
718 Goes to a specific line (and column if specified). Negative num‐
719 bers count from the end of the file (and end of the line).
720 findbracket
722 Moves the cursor to the bracket (or brace or parenthesis, etc.)
723 that matches (pairs) with the one under the cursor. See set
724 matchbrackets.
725 anchor
727 Places an anchor at the current line, or removes it when already
728 present. (An anchor is visible when line numbers are activated.)
729 prevanchor
731 Goes to the first anchor before the current line.
732 nextanchor
734 Goes to the first anchor after the current line.
735 prevbuf
737 Switches to editing/viewing the previous buffer when multiple buf‐
738 fers are open.
739 nextbuf
741 Switches to editing/viewing the next buffer when multiple buffers
742 are open.
743 verbatim
745 Inserts the next keystroke verbatim into the file.
746 tab
748 Inserts a tab at the current cursor location.
749 enter
751 Inserts a new line below the current one.
752 delete
754 Deletes the character under the cursor.
755 backspace
757 Deletes the character before the cursor.
758 recordmacro
760 Starts the recording of keystrokes -- the keystrokes are stored as
761 a macro. When already recording, the recording is stopped.
762 runmacro
764 Replays the keystrokes of the last recorded macro.
765 undo
767 Undoes the last performed text action (add text, delete text,
768 etc).
769 redo
771 Redoes the last undone action (i.e., it undoes an undo).
772 refresh
774 Refreshes the screen.
775 suspend
777 Suspends the editor (if the suspending function is enabled, see
778 the suspendable toggle item below).
779 casesens
781 Toggles whether searching/replacing ignores or respects the case
782 of the given characters.
783 regexp
785 Toggles whether searching/replacing uses literal strings or regu‐
786 lar expressions.
787 backwards
789 Toggles whether searching/replacing goes forward or backward.
790 older
792 Retrieves the previous (earlier) entry at a prompt.
793 newer
795 Retrieves the next (later) entry at a prompt.
796 flipreplace
798 Toggles between searching for something and replacing something.
799 flipgoto
801 Toggles between searching for text and targeting a line number.
802 flipexecute
804 Toggles between inserting a file and executing a command.
805 flippipe
807 When executing a command, toggles whether the current buffer (or
808 marked region) is piped to the command.
809 flipnewbuffer
811 Toggles between inserting into the current buffer and into a new
812 empty buffer.
813 flipconvert
815 When reading in a file, toggles between converting and not con‐
816 verting it from DOS/Mac format. Converting is the default.
817 dosformat
819 When writing a file, switches to writing a DOS format (CR/LF).
820 macformat
822 When writing a file, switches to writing a Mac format.
823 append
825 When writing a file, appends to the end instead of overwriting.
826 prepend
828 When writing a file, 'prepends' (writes at the beginning) instead
829 of overwriting.
830 backup
832 When writing a file, creates a backup of the current file.
833 discardbuffer
835 When about to write a file, discard the current buffer without
836 saving. (This function is bound by default only when option
837 --saveonexit is in effect.)
838 browser
840 Starts the file browser (in the Read File and Write Out menus),
841 allowing to select a file from a list.
842 gotodir
844 Goes to a directory to be specified, allowing to browse anywhere
845 in the filesystem.
846 firstfile
848 Goes to the first file in the list when using the file browser.
849 lastfile
851 Goes to the last file in the list when using the file browser.
852 nohelp
854 Toggles the presence of the two-line list of key bindings at the
855 bottom of the screen. (This toggle is special: it is available in
856 all menus except the help viewer and the linter. All further tog‐
857 gles are available in the main menu only.)
858 constantshow
860 Toggles the constant display of the current line, column, and
861 character positions.
862 softwrap
864 Toggles the displaying of overlong lines on multiple screen lines.
865 linenumbers
867 Toggles the display of line numbers in front of the text.
868 whitespacedisplay
870 Toggles the showing of whitespace.
871 nosyntax
873 Toggles syntax highlighting.
874 smarthome
876 Toggles the smartness of the Home key.
877 autoindent
879 Toggles whether a newly created line will contain the same amount
880 of leading whitespace as the preceding line -- or as the next line
881 if the preceding line is the beginning of a paragraph.
882 cutfromcursor
884 Toggles whether cutting text will cut the whole line or just from
885 the current cursor position to the end of the line.
886 nowrap
888 Toggles whether long lines will be hard-wrapped to the next line.
889 tabstospaces
891 Toggles whether typed tabs will be converted to spaces.
892 mouse
894 Toggles mouse support.
895 suspendable
897 Toggles whether the suspend keystroke (^Z by default) will actu‐
898 ally suspend the editor. (The old name of this function, 'sus‐
899 pendenable', is deprecated.)
900 Valid menu sections are:
903 main
905 The main editor window where text is entered and edited.
906 help
908 The help-viewer menu.
909 search
911 The search menu (AKA whereis).
912 replace
914 The 'search to replace' menu.
915 replacewith
917 The 'replace with' menu, which comes up after 'search to replace'.
918 yesno
920 The 'yesno' menu, where the Yes/No/All/Cancel question is asked.
921 gotoline
923 The 'goto line (and column)' menu.
924 writeout
926 The 'write file' menu.
927 insert
929 The 'insert file' menu.
930 browser
932 The 'file browser' menu, for selecting a file to be opened or
933 inserted or written to.
934 whereisfile
936 The 'search for a file' menu in the file browser.
937 gotodir
939 The 'go to directory' menu in the file browser.
940 execute
942 The menu for inserting the output from an external command, or for
943 filtering the buffer (or the marked region) through an external
944 command, or for executing one of several tools. (The old form of
945 this menu name, 'extcmd', is deprecated.)
946 spell
948 The menu of the integrated spell checker where the user can edit a
949 misspelled word.
950 linter
952 The linter menu, which allows jumping through the linting mes‐
953 sages.
954 all
956 A special name that encompasses all menus. For bind it means all
957 menus where the specified function exists; for unbind it means all
958 menus where the specified key exists.
959
962 /etc/nanorc
963 System-wide configuration file.
964 ~/.nanorc or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nano/nanorc or ~/.config/nano/nanorc
966 Per-user configuration file.
967 /usr/share/nano/*
969 Syntax definitions for the syntax coloring of common file types
970 (and for less common file types in the extra/ subdirectory).
971
974 nano(1)
975 https://nano-editor.org/cheatsheet.html
977 An overview of the default key bindings.
978October 2020 version 5.3 NANORC(5)