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 en‐
16 countered first. If --rcfile is given, nano will read just the speci‐
17 fied 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 un‐
44 set.
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 Use this color combination for the concise function descriptions in
127 the two help lines at the bottom of the screen. See set titlecolor
128 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 ex‐
137 ecuted 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 Use this color combination for the shortcut key combos in the two
149 help lines at the bottom of the screen. See set titlecolor for more
150 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 us‐
161 ing libmagic to determine the applicable syntax. (Calling libmagic
162 can be relatively time consuming. It is therefore not done by de‐
163 fault.)
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 minibar
172 Suppress the title bar and instead show information about the cur‐
173 rent buffer at the bottom of the screen, in the space for the status
174 bar. In this "minibar" the file name is shown on the left, followed
175 by an asterisk if the buffer has been modified. On the right are
176 displayed the current line and column number, the code of the char‐
177 acter under the cursor (in Unicode format: U+xxxx), the same flags
178 as are shown by set stateflags, and a percentage that expresses how
179 far the cursor is into the file (linewise). When a file is loaded
180 or saved, and also when switching between buffers, the number of
181 lines in the buffer is displayed after the file name. This number
182 is cleared upon the next keystroke, or replaced with an [i/n]
183 counter when multiple buffers are open. The line plus column num‐
184 bers and the character code are displayed only when set constantshow
185 is used, and can be toggled on and off with M-C. The state flags
186 are displayed only when set stateflags is used.
187 set morespace
189 Deprecated option since it has become the default setting. When
190 needed, use unset emptyline instead.
191 set mouse
193 Enable mouse support, if available for your system. When enabled,
194 mouse clicks can be used to place the cursor, set the mark (with a
195 double click), and execute shortcuts. The mouse will work in the X
196 Window System, and on the console when gpm is running. Text can
197 still be selected through dragging by holding down the Shift key.
198 set multibuffer
200 When reading in a file with ^R, insert it into a new buffer by de‐
201 fault.
202 set noconvert
204 Don't convert files from DOS/Mac format.
205 set nohelp
207 Don't display the two help lines at the bottom of the screen.
208 set nonewlines
210 Don't automatically add a newline when a text does not end with one.
211 (This can cause you to save non-POSIX text files.)
212 set nopauses
214 Obsolete option. Ignored.
215 set nowrap
217 Deprecated option since it has become the default setting. When
218 needed, use unset breaklonglines instead.
219 set numbercolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
221 Use this color combination for line numbers. See set titlecolor for
222 more details.
223 set operatingdir directory
225 nano will only read and write files inside directory and its subdi‐
226 rectories. Also, the current directory is changed to here, so files
227 are inserted from this directory. By default, the operating direc‐
228 tory feature is turned off.
229 set positionlog
231 Save the cursor position of files between editing sessions. The
232 cursor position is remembered for the 200 most-recently edited
233 files.
234 set preserve
236 Preserve the XON and XOFF keys (^Q and ^S).
237 set promptcolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
239 Use this color combination for the prompt bar. (When this option is
240 not specified, the colors of the title bar are used.) See set ti‐
241 tlecolor for more details.
242 set punct "characters"
244 Set the characters treated as closing punctuation when justifying
245 paragraphs. This may not include blank characters. Only the spec‐
246 fified closing punctuation, optionally followed by closing brackets
247 (see brackets), can end sentences. The default value is "!.?".
248 set quickblank
250 Make status-bar messages disappear after 1 keystroke instead of af‐
251 ter 20. Note that options constantshow and minibar override this.
252 set quotestr "regex"
254 Set the regular expression for matching the quoting part of a line.
255 The default value is "^([ \t]*([!#%:;>|}]|//))+". (Note that \t
256 stands for an actual Tab character.) This makes it possible to re‐
257 justify blocks of quoted text when composing email, and to rewrap
258 blocks of line comments when writing source code.
259 set rawsequences
261 Interpret escape sequences directly (instead of asking ncurses to
262 translate them). If you need this option to get your keyboard to
263 work properly, please report a bug. Using this option disables
264 nano's mouse support.
265 set rebinddelete
267 Interpret the Delete and Backspace keys differently so that both
268 Backspace and Delete work properly. You should only use this option
269 when on your system either Backspace acts like Delete or Delete acts
270 like Backspace.
271 set regexp
273 Do regular-expression searches by default. Regular expressions in
274 nano are of the extended type (ERE).
275 set saveonexit
277 Save a changed buffer automatically on exit (^X); don't prompt.
278 (The old form of this option, set tempfile, is deprecated.)
279 set scrollercolor fgcolor,bgcolor
281 Use this color combination for the indicator alias "scrollbar". (On
282 terminal emulators that link to a libvte older than version 0.55,
283 using a background color here does not work correctly.) See set ti‐
284 tlecolor for more details.
285 set selectedcolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
287 Use this color combination for selected text. See set titlecolor
288 for more details.
289 set showcursor
291 Put the cursor on the highlighted item in the file browser, to aid
292 braille users.
293 set smarthome
295 Make the Home key smarter. When Home is pressed anywhere but at the
296 very beginning of non-whitespace characters on a line, the cursor
297 will jump to that beginning (either forwards or backwards). If the
298 cursor is already at that position, it will jump to the true begin‐
299 ning of the line.
300 set smooth
302 Deprecated option since it has become the default setting. When
303 needed, use unset jumpyscrolling instead.
304 set softwrap
306 Display lines that exceed the screen's width over multiple screen
307 lines. (You can make this soft-wrapping occur at whitespace instead
308 of rudely at the screen's edge, by using also set atblanks.)
309 set speller "program [argument ...]"
311 Use the given program to do spell checking and correcting, instead
312 of using the built-in corrector that calls hunspell(1) or spell(1).
313 set spotlightcolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
315 Use this color combination for highlighting a search match. The de‐
316 fault value is black,lightyellow. See set titlecolor for valid
317 color names.
318 set stateflags
320 Use the top-right corner of the screen for showing some state flags:
321 I when auto-indenting, M when the mark is on, L when hard-wrapping
322 (breaking long lines), R when recording a macro, and S when soft-
323 wrapping. When the buffer is modified, a star (*) is shown after
324 the filename in the center of the title bar.
325 set statuscolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
327 Use this color combination for the status bar. See set titlecolor
328 for more details.
329 set stripecolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
331 Use this color combination for the vertical guiding stripe. See set
332 titlecolor for more details.
333 set suspendable
335 Allow nano to be suspended (with ^Z by default).
336 set tabsize number
338 Use a tab size of number columns. The value of number must be
339 greater than 0. The default value is 8.
340 set tabstospaces
342 Convert typed tabs to spaces.
343 set titlecolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
345 Use this color combination for the title bar. Valid names for the
346 foreground and background colors are: red, green, blue, magenta,
347 yellow, cyan, white, and black. Each of these eight names may be
348 prefixed with the word light to get a brighter version of that
349 color. On terminal emulators that can do at least 256 colors, other
350 valid (but unprefixable) color names are: pink, purple, mauve, la‐
351 goon, mint, lime, peach, orange, latte, and normal -- where normal
352 means the default foreground or background color. Either "fgcolor"
353 or ",bgcolor" may be left out, and the pair may be preceded by bold
354 and/or italic (separated by commas) to get a bold and/or slanting
355 typeface, if your terminal can do those.
356 set trimblanks
358 Remove trailing whitespace from wrapped lines when automatic hard-
359 wrapping occurs or when text is justified.
360 set unix
362 Save a file by default in Unix format. This overrides nano's de‐
363 fault behavior of saving a file in the format that it had. (This
364 option has no effect when you also use set noconvert.)
365 set whitespace "characters"
367 Set the two characters used to indicate the presence of tabs and
368 spaces. They must be single-column characters. The default pair
369 for a UTF-8 locale is "»⋅", and for other locales ">.".
370 set wordbounds
372 Detect word boundaries differently by treating punctuation charac‐
373 ters as parts of words.
374 set wordchars "characters"
376 Specify which other characters (besides the normal alphanumeric
377 ones) should be considered as parts of words. When using this op‐
378 tion, you probably want to unset wordbounds.
379 set zap
381 Let an unmodified Backspace or Delete erase the marked region (in‐
382 stead of a single character, and without affecting the cutbuffer).
383
386 Coloring the different syntactic elements of a file is done via regular
387 expressions (see the color command below). This is inherently imper‐
388 fect, because regular expressions are not powerful enough to fully
389 parse a file. Nevertheless, regular expressions can do a lot and are
390 easy to make, so they are a good fit for a small editor like nano.
391 All regular expressions in nano are POSIX extended regular expressions.
393 This means that ., ?, *, +, ^, $, and several other characters are spe‐
394 cial. The period . matches any single character, ? means the preceding
395 item is optional, * means the preceding item may be matched zero or
396 more times, + means the preceding item must be matched one or more
397 times, ^ matches the beginning of a line, and $ the end, \< matches the
398 start of a word, and \> the end, and \s matches a blank. It also means
399 that lookahead and lookbehind are not possible. A complete explanation
400 can be found in the manual page of GNU grep: man grep.
401 For each kind of file a separate syntax can be defined via the follow‐
403 ing commands:
404 syntax name ["fileregex" ...]
406 Start the definition of a syntax with this name. All subsequent
407 color and other such commands will be added to this syntax, un‐
408 til a new syntax command is encountered.
409 When nano is run, this syntax will be automatically activated if
411 the current filename matches the extended regular expression
412 fileregex. Or the syntax can be explicitly activated by using
413 the -Y or --syntax command-line option followed by the name.
414 The syntax default is special: it takes no fileregex, and ap‐
416 plies to files that don't match any syntax's regexes. The syn‐
417 tax none is reserved; specifying it on the command line is the
418 same as not having a syntax at all.
419 header "regex" ...
421 If from all defined syntaxes no fileregex matched, then compare
422 this regex (or regexes) against the first line of the current
423 file, to determine whether this syntax should be used for it.
424 magic "regex" ...
426 If no fileregex matched and no header regex matched either, then
427 compare this regex (or regexes) against the result of querying
428 the magic database about the current file, to determine whether
429 this syntax should be used for it. (This functionality only
430 works when libmagic is installed on the system and will be
431 silently ignored otherwise.)
432 formatter program [argument ...]
434 Run the given program on the full contents of the current buf‐
435 fer. (The current buffer is written out to a temporary file,
436 the program is run on it, and then the temporary file is read
437 back in, replacing the contents of the buffer.)
438 linter program [argument ...]
440 Use the given program to run a syntax check on the current buf‐
441 fer.
442 comment "string"
444 Use the given string for commenting and uncommenting lines. If
445 the string contains a vertical bar or pipe character (|), this
446 designates bracket-style comments; for example, "/*|*/" for CSS
447 files. The characters before the pipe are prepended to the line
448 and the characters after the pipe are appended at the end of the
449 line. If no pipe character is present, the full string is
450 prepended; for example, "#" for Python files. If empty double
451 quotes are specified, the comment/uncomment function is dis‐
452 abled; for example, "" for JSON. The default value is "#".
453 tabgives "string"
455 Make the <Tab> key produce the given string. Useful for lan‐
456 guages like Python that want to see only spaces for indentation.
457 This overrides the setting of the tabstospaces option.
458 color [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor "regex" ...
460 Paint all pieces of text that match the extended regular expres‐
461 sion regex with the given foreground and background colors, at
462 least one of which must be specified. Valid color names are:
463 red, green, blue, magenta, yellow, cyan, white, and black. Each
464 of these eight names may be prefixed with the word light to get
465 a brighter version of that color. On terminal emulators that
466 can do at least 256 colors, other valid (but unprefixable) color
467 names are: pink, purple, mauve, lagoon, mint, lime, peach, or‐
468 ange, latte, and normal -- where normal means the default fore‐
469 ground or background color. The color pair may be preceded by
470 bold and/or italic (separated by commas) to get a bold and/or
471 slanting typeface, if your terminal can do those.
472 All coloring commands are applied in the order in which they are
474 specified, which means that later commands can recolor stuff
475 that was colored earlier.
476 icolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor "regex" ...
478 Same as above, except that the matching is case insensitive.
479 color [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor start="fromrx" end="torx"
481 Paint all pieces of text whose start matches extended regular
482 expression fromrx and whose end matches extended regular expres‐
483 sion torx with the given foreground and background colors, at
484 least one of which must be specified. This means that, after an
485 initial instance of fromrx, all text until the first instance of
486 torx will be colored. This allows syntax highlighting to span
487 multiple lines.
488 icolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor start="fromrx" end="torx"
490 Same as above, except that the matching is case insensitive.
491 include "syntaxfile"
493 Read in self-contained color syntaxes from syntaxfile. Note
494 that syntaxfile may contain only the above commands, from syntax
495 to icolor.
496 extendsyntax name command argument ...
498 Extend the syntax previously defined as name with another com‐
499 mand. This allows adding a new color, icolor, header, magic,
500 formatter, linter, comment, or tabgives command to an already
501 defined syntax -- useful when you want to slightly improve a
502 syntax defined in one of the system-installed files (which nor‐
503 mally are not writable).
504
507 Key bindings can be changed via the following three commands:
508 bind key function menu
510 Rebinds the given key to the given function in the given menu
511 (or in all menus where the function exists when all is used).
512 bind key "string" menu
514 Makes the given key produce the given string in the given
515 menu (or in all menus where the key exists when all is used).
516 The string can consist of text or commands or a mix of them.
517 (To enter a command into the string, precede its keystroke
518 with M-V.)
519 unbind key menu
521 Unbinds the given key from the given menu (or from all menus
522 where the key exists when all is used).
523 The format of key should be one of:
526 ^X where X is a Latin letter, or one of several ASCII characters
528 (@, ], \, ^, _), or the word "Space". Example: ^C.
529 M-X where X is any ASCII character except [, or the word "Space".
531 Example: M-8.
532 Sh-M-X where X is a Latin letter. Example: Sh-M-U. By default,
534 each Meta+letter keystroke does the same as the corresponding
535 Shift+Meta+letter. But when any Shift+Meta bind is made,
536 that will no longer be the case, for all letters.
537 FN where N is a numeric value from 1 to 24. Example: F10. (Of‐
539 ten, F13 to F24 can be typed as F1 to F12 with Shift.)
540 Ins or Del.
542 Rebinding ^M (Enter) or ^I (Tab) is probably not a good idea. Rebind‐
544 ing ^[ (Esc) is not possible, because its keycode is the starter byte
545 of Meta keystrokes and escape sequences. Rebinding any of the dedi‐
546 cated cursor-moving keys (the arrows, Home, End, PageUp and PageDown)
547 is not possible. On some terminals it's not possible to rebind ^H (un‐
548 less --raw is used) because its keycode is identical to that of the
549 Backspace key.
550 Valid function names to be bound are:
553 help
555 Invokes the help viewer.
556 cancel
558 Cancels the current command.
559 exit
561 Exits from the program (or from the help viewer or file browser).
562 writeout
564 Writes the current buffer to disk, asking for a name.
565 savefile
567 Writes the current file to disk without prompting.
568 insert
570 Inserts a file into the current buffer (at the current cursor po‐
571 sition), or into a new buffer when option multibuffer is set.
572 whereis
574 Starts a forward search for text in the current buffer -- or for
575 filenames matching a string in the current list in the file
576 browser.
577 wherewas
579 Starts a backward search for text in the current buffer -- or for
580 filenames matching a string in the current list in the file
581 browser.
582 findprevious
584 Searches the next occurrence in the backward direction.
585 findnext
587 Searches the next occurrence in the forward direction.
588 replace
590 Interactively replaces text within the current buffer.
591 cut
593 Cuts and stores the current line (or the marked region).
594 copy
596 Copies the current line (or the marked region) without deleting
597 it.
598 paste
600 Pastes the currently stored text into the current buffer at the
601 current cursor position.
602 zap
604 Throws away the current line (or the marked region). (This func‐
605 tion is bound by default to <Meta+Delete>.)
606 chopwordleft
608 Deletes from the cursor position to the beginning of the preceding
609 word. (This function is bound by default to <Shift+Ctrl+Delete>.
610 If your terminal produces ^H for <Ctrl+Backspace>, you can make
611 <Ctrl+Backspace> delete the word to the left of the cursor by re‐
612 binding ^H to this function.)
613 chopwordright
615 Deletes from the cursor position to the beginning of the next
616 word. (This function is bound by default to <Ctrl+Delete>.)
617 cutrestoffile
619 Cuts all text from the cursor position till the end of the buffer.
620 mark
622 Sets the mark at the current position, to start selecting text.
623 Or, when it is set, unsets the mark.
624 location
626 Reports the current position of the cursor in the buffer: the
627 line, column, and character positions. (The old name of this
628 function, 'curpos', is deprecated.)
629 wordcount
631 Counts the number of words, lines and characters in the current
632 buffer.
633 execute
635 Prompts for a program to execute. The program's output will be
636 inserted into the current buffer (or into a new buffer when M-F is
637 toggled).
638 speller
640 Invokes a spell-checking program, either the default hunspell(1)
641 or GNU spell(1), or the one defined by --speller or set speller.
642 formatter
644 Invokes a full-buffer-processing program (if the active syntax de‐
645 fines one).
646 linter
648 Invokes a syntax-checking program (if the active syntax defines
649 one).
650 justify
652 Justifies the current paragraph. A paragraph is a group of con‐
653 tiguous lines that, apart from possibly the first line, all have
654 the same indentation. The beginning of a paragraph is detected by
655 either this lone line with a differing indentation or by a preced‐
656 ing blank line.
657 fulljustify
659 Justifies the entire current buffer.
660 indent
662 Indents (shifts to the right) the currently marked text.
663 unindent
665 Unindents (shifts to the left) the currently marked text.
666 comment
668 Comments or uncomments the current line or marked lines, using the
669 comment style specified in the active syntax.
670 complete
672 Completes the fragment before the cursor to a full word found
673 elsewhere in the current buffer.
674 left
676 Goes left one position (in the editor or browser).
677 right
679 Goes right one position (in the editor or browser).
680 up
682 Goes one line up (in the editor or browser).
683 down
685 Goes one line down (in the editor or browser).
686 scrollup
688 Scrolls the viewport up one row (meaning that the text slides
689 down) while keeping the cursor in the same text position, if pos‐
690 sible.
691 scrolldown
693 Scrolls the viewport down one row (meaning that the text slides
694 up) while keeping the cursor in the same text position, if possi‐
695 ble.
696 center
698 Scrolls the line with the cursor to the middle of the screen.
699 prevword
701 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the previous word.
702 nextword
704 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the next word.
705 home
707 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current line.
708 end
710 Moves the cursor to the end of the current line.
711 beginpara
713 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current paragraph.
714 endpara
716 Moves the cursor to the end of the current paragraph.
717 prevblock
719 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current or preceding
720 block of text. (Blocks are separated by one or more blank lines.)
721 nextblock
723 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the next block of text.
724 pageup
726 Goes up one screenful.
727 pagedown
729 Goes down one screenful.
730 firstline
732 Goes to the first line of the file.
733 lastline
735 Goes to the last line of the file.
736 gotoline
738 Goes to a specific line (and column if specified). Negative num‐
739 bers count from the end of the file (and end of the line).
740 findbracket
742 Moves the cursor to the bracket (or brace or parenthesis, etc.)
743 that matches (pairs) with the one under the cursor. See set
744 matchbrackets.
745 anchor
747 Places an anchor at the current line, or removes it when already
748 present. (An anchor is visible when line numbers are activated.)
749 prevanchor
751 Goes to the first anchor before the current line.
752 nextanchor
754 Goes to the first anchor after the current line.
755 prevbuf
757 Switches to editing/viewing the previous buffer when multiple buf‐
758 fers are open.
759 nextbuf
761 Switches to editing/viewing the next buffer when multiple buffers
762 are open.
763 verbatim
765 Inserts the next keystroke verbatim into the file.
766 tab
768 Inserts a tab at the current cursor location.
769 enter
771 Inserts a new line below the current one.
772 delete
774 Deletes the character under the cursor.
775 backspace
777 Deletes the character before the cursor.
778 recordmacro
780 Starts the recording of keystrokes -- the keystrokes are stored as
781 a macro. When already recording, the recording is stopped.
782 runmacro
784 Replays the keystrokes of the last recorded macro.
785 undo
787 Undoes the last performed text action (add text, delete text,
788 etc).
789 redo
791 Redoes the last undone action (i.e., it undoes an undo).
792 refresh
794 Refreshes the screen.
795 suspend
797 Suspends the editor (if the suspending function is enabled, see
798 the suspendable toggle item below).
799 casesens
801 Toggles whether searching/replacing ignores or respects the case
802 of the given characters.
803 regexp
805 Toggles whether searching/replacing uses literal strings or regu‐
806 lar expressions.
807 backwards
809 Toggles whether searching/replacing goes forward or backward.
810 older
812 Retrieves the previous (earlier) entry at a prompt.
813 newer
815 Retrieves the next (later) entry at a prompt.
816 flipreplace
818 Toggles between searching for something and replacing something.
819 flipgoto
821 Toggles between searching for text and targeting a line number.
822 flipexecute
824 Toggles between inserting a file and executing a command.
825 flippipe
827 When executing a command, toggles whether the current buffer (or
828 marked region) is piped to the command.
829 flipnewbuffer
831 Toggles between inserting into the current buffer and into a new
832 empty buffer.
833 flipconvert
835 When reading in a file, toggles between converting and not con‐
836 verting it from DOS/Mac format. Converting is the default.
837 dosformat
839 When writing a file, switches to writing a DOS format (CR/LF).
840 macformat
842 When writing a file, switches to writing a Mac format.
843 append
845 When writing a file, appends to the end instead of overwriting.
846 prepend
848 When writing a file, 'prepends' (writes at the beginning) instead
849 of overwriting.
850 backup
852 When writing a file, creates a backup of the current file.
853 discardbuffer
855 When about to write a file, discard the current buffer without
856 saving. (This function is bound by default only when option
857 --saveonexit is in effect.)
858 browser
860 Starts the file browser (in the Read File and Write Out menus),
861 allowing to select a file from a list.
862 gotodir
864 Goes to a directory to be specified, allowing to browse anywhere
865 in the filesystem.
866 firstfile
868 Goes to the first file in the list when using the file browser.
869 lastfile
871 Goes to the last file in the list when using the file browser.
872 nohelp
874 Toggles the presence of the two-line list of key bindings at the
875 bottom of the screen. (This toggle is special: it is available in
876 all menus except the help viewer and the linter. All further tog‐
877 gles are available in the main menu only.)
878 constantshow
880 Toggles the constant display of the current line, column, and
881 character positions.
882 softwrap
884 Toggles the displaying of overlong lines on multiple screen lines.
885 linenumbers
887 Toggles the display of line numbers in front of the text.
888 whitespacedisplay
890 Toggles the showing of whitespace.
891 nosyntax
893 Toggles syntax highlighting.
894 smarthome
896 Toggles the smartness of the Home key.
897 autoindent
899 Toggles whether a newly created line will contain the same amount
900 of leading whitespace as the preceding line -- or as the next line
901 if the preceding line is the beginning of a paragraph.
902 cutfromcursor
904 Toggles whether cutting text will cut the whole line or just from
905 the current cursor position to the end of the line.
906 breaklonglines
908 Toggles whether long lines will be hard-wrapped to the next line.
909 (The old name of this function, 'nowrap', is deprecated.)
910 tabstospaces
912 Toggles whether typed tabs will be converted to spaces.
913 mouse
915 Toggles mouse support.
916 suspendable
918 Toggles whether the suspend keystroke (^Z by default) will actu‐
919 ally suspend the editor. (The old name of this function, 'sus‐
920 pendenable', is deprecated.)
921 Valid menu sections are:
924 main
926 The main editor window where text is entered and edited.
927 help
929 The help-viewer menu.
930 search
932 The search menu (AKA whereis).
933 replace
935 The 'search to replace' menu.
936 replacewith
938 The 'replace with' menu, which comes up after 'search to replace'.
939 yesno
941 The 'yesno' menu, where the Yes/No/All/Cancel question is asked.
942 gotoline
944 The 'goto line (and column)' menu.
945 writeout
947 The 'write file' menu.
948 insert
950 The 'insert file' menu.
951 browser
953 The 'file browser' menu, for selecting a file to be opened or in‐
954 serted or written to.
955 whereisfile
957 The 'search for a file' menu in the file browser.
958 gotodir
960 The 'go to directory' menu in the file browser.
961 execute
963 The menu for inserting the output from an external command, or for
964 filtering the buffer (or the marked region) through an external
965 command, or for executing one of several tools. (The old form of
966 this menu name, 'extcmd', is deprecated.)
967 spell
969 The menu of the integrated spell checker where the user can edit a
970 misspelled word.
971 linter
973 The linter menu, which allows jumping through the linting mes‐
974 sages.
975 all
977 A special name that encompasses all menus. For bind it means all
978 menus where the specified function exists; for unbind it means all
979 menus where the specified key exists.
980
983 /etc/nanorc
984 System-wide configuration file.
985 ~/.nanorc or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nano/nanorc or ~/.config/nano/nanorc
987 Per-user configuration file.
988 /usr/share/nano/*
990 Syntax definitions for the syntax coloring of common file types
991 (and for less common file types in the extra/ subdirectory).
992
995 nano(1)
996 https://nano-editor.org/cheatsheet.html
998 An overview of the default key bindings.
999March 2021 version 5.6.1 NANORC(5)