1NANORC(5) 2021" 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 minicolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
189 Use this color combination for the minibar. (When this option is
190 not specified, the colors of the title bar are used.) See set ti‐
191 tlecolor for more details.
192 set mouse
194 Enable mouse support, if available for your system. When enabled,
195 mouse clicks can be used to place the cursor, set the mark (with a
196 double click), and execute shortcuts. The mouse will work in the X
197 Window System, and on the console when gpm is running. Text can
198 still be selected through dragging by holding down the Shift key.
199 set multibuffer
201 When reading in a file with ^R, insert it into a new buffer by de‐
202 fault.
203 set noconvert
205 Don't convert files from DOS/Mac format.
206 set nohelp
208 Don't display the two help lines at the bottom of the screen.
209 set nonewlines
211 Don't automatically add a newline when a text does not end with one.
212 (This can cause you to save non-POSIX text files.)
213 set nowrap
215 Deprecated option since it has become the default setting. When
216 needed, use unset breaklonglines instead.
217 set numbercolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
219 Use this color combination for line numbers. See set titlecolor for
220 more details.
221 set operatingdir directory
223 nano will only read and write files inside directory and its subdi‐
224 rectories. Also, the current directory is changed to here, so files
225 are inserted from this directory. By default, the operating direc‐
226 tory feature is turned off.
227 set positionlog
229 Save the cursor position of files between editing sessions. The
230 cursor position is remembered for the 200 most-recently edited
231 files.
232 set preserve
234 Preserve the XON and XOFF keys (^Q and ^S).
235 set promptcolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
237 Use this color combination for the prompt bar. (When this option is
238 not specified, the colors of the title bar are used.) See set ti‐
239 tlecolor for more details.
240 set punct "characters"
242 Set the characters treated as closing punctuation when justifying
243 paragraphs. This may not include blank characters. Only the spec‐
244 fified closing punctuation, optionally followed by closing brackets
245 (see brackets), can end sentences. The default value is "!.?".
246 set quickblank
248 Make status-bar messages disappear after 1 keystroke instead of af‐
249 ter 20. Note that options constantshow and minibar override this.
250 set quotestr "regex"
252 Set the regular expression for matching the quoting part of a line.
253 The default value is "^([ \t]*([!#%:;>|}]|//))+". (Note that \t
254 stands for an actual Tab character.) This makes it possible to re‐
255 justify blocks of quoted text when composing email, and to rewrap
256 blocks of line comments when writing source code.
257 set rawsequences
259 Interpret escape sequences directly (instead of asking ncurses to
260 translate them). If you need this option to get your keyboard to
261 work properly, please report a bug. Using this option disables
262 nano's mouse support.
263 set rebinddelete
265 Interpret the Delete and Backspace keys differently so that both
266 Backspace and Delete work properly. You should only use this option
267 when on your system either Backspace acts like Delete or Delete acts
268 like Backspace.
269 set regexp
271 Do regular-expression searches by default. Regular expressions in
272 nano are of the extended type (ERE).
273 set saveonexit
275 Save a changed buffer automatically on exit (^X); don't prompt.
276 (The old form of this option, set tempfile, is deprecated.)
277 set scrollercolor fgcolor,bgcolor
279 Use this color combination for the indicator alias "scrollbar". (On
280 terminal emulators that link to a libvte older than version 0.55,
281 using a background color here does not work correctly.) See set ti‐
282 tlecolor for more details.
283 set selectedcolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
285 Use this color combination for selected text. See set titlecolor
286 for more details.
287 set showcursor
289 Put the cursor on the highlighted item in the file browser, to aid
290 braille users.
291 set smarthome
293 Make the Home key smarter. When Home is pressed anywhere but at the
294 very beginning of non-whitespace characters on a line, the cursor
295 will jump to that beginning (either forwards or backwards). If the
296 cursor is already at that position, it will jump to the true begin‐
297 ning of the line.
298 set softwrap
300 Display lines that exceed the screen's width over multiple screen
301 lines. (You can make this soft-wrapping occur at whitespace instead
302 of rudely at the screen's edge, by using also set atblanks.)
303 set speller "program [argument ...]"
305 Use the given program to do spell checking and correcting, instead
306 of using the built-in corrector that calls hunspell(1) or spell(1).
307 set spotlightcolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
309 Use this color combination for highlighting a search match. The de‐
310 fault value is black,lightyellow. See set titlecolor for valid
311 color names.
312 set stateflags
314 Use the top-right corner of the screen for showing some state flags:
315 I when auto-indenting, M when the mark is on, L when hard-wrapping
316 (breaking long lines), R when recording a macro, and S when soft-
317 wrapping. When the buffer is modified, a star (*) is shown after
318 the filename in the center of the title bar.
319 set statuscolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
321 Use this color combination for the status bar. See set titlecolor
322 for more details.
323 set stripecolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
325 Use this color combination for the vertical guiding stripe. See set
326 titlecolor for more details.
327 set suspendable
329 Allow nano to be suspended (with ^Z by default).
330 set tabsize number
332 Use a tab size of number columns. The value of number must be
333 greater than 0. The default value is 8.
334 set tabstospaces
336 Convert typed tabs to spaces.
337 set titlecolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
339 Use this color combination for the title bar. Valid names for the
340 foreground and background colors are: red, green, blue, magenta,
341 yellow, cyan, white, and black. Each of these eight names may be
342 prefixed with the word light to get a brighter version of that
343 color. The word grey or gray may be used as a synonym for light‐
344 black. On terminal emulators that can do at least 256 colors, other
345 valid (but unprefixable) color names are: pink, purple, mauve, la‐
346 goon, mint, lime, peach, orange, latte, and normal -- where normal
347 means the default foreground or background color. Either "fgcolor"
348 or ",bgcolor" may be left out, and the pair may be preceded by bold
349 and/or italic (separated by commas) to get a bold and/or slanting
350 typeface, if your terminal can do those.
351 set trimblanks
353 Remove trailing whitespace from wrapped lines when automatic hard-
354 wrapping occurs or when text is justified.
355 set unix
357 Save a file by default in Unix format. This overrides nano's de‐
358 fault behavior of saving a file in the format that it had. (This
359 option has no effect when you also use set noconvert.)
360 set whitespace "characters"
362 Set the two characters used to indicate the presence of tabs and
363 spaces. They must be single-column characters. The default pair
364 for a UTF-8 locale is "»⋅", and for other locales ">.".
365 set wordbounds
367 Detect word boundaries differently by treating punctuation charac‐
368 ters as parts of words.
369 set wordchars "characters"
371 Specify which other characters (besides the normal alphanumeric
372 ones) should be considered as parts of words. When using this op‐
373 tion, you probably want to unset wordbounds.
374 set zap
376 Let an unmodified Backspace or Delete erase the marked region (in‐
377 stead of a single character, and without affecting the cutbuffer).
378
381 Coloring the different syntactic elements of a file is done via regular
382 expressions (see the color command below). This is inherently imper‐
383 fect, because regular expressions are not powerful enough to fully
384 parse a file. Nevertheless, regular expressions can do a lot and are
385 easy to make, so they are a good fit for a small editor like nano.
386 All regular expressions in nano are POSIX extended regular expressions.
388 This means that ., ?, *, +, ^, $, and several other characters are spe‐
389 cial. The period . matches any single character, ? means the preceding
390 item is optional, * means the preceding item may be matched zero or
391 more times, + means the preceding item must be matched one or more
392 times, ^ matches the beginning of a line, and $ the end, \< matches the
393 start of a word, and \> the end, and \s matches a blank. It also means
394 that lookahead and lookbehind are not possible. A complete explanation
395 can be found in the manual page of GNU grep: man grep.
396 For each kind of file a separate syntax can be defined via the follow‐
398 ing commands:
399 syntax name ["fileregex" ...]
401 Start the definition of a syntax with this name. All subsequent
402 color and other such commands will be added to this syntax, un‐
403 til a new syntax command is encountered.
404 When nano is run, this syntax will be automatically activated if
406 the current filename matches the extended regular expression
407 fileregex. Or the syntax can be explicitly activated by using
408 the -Y or --syntax command-line option followed by the name.
409 The syntax default is special: it takes no fileregex, and ap‐
411 plies to files that don't match any syntax's regexes. The syn‐
412 tax none is reserved; specifying it on the command line is the
413 same as not having a syntax at all.
414 header "regex" ...
416 If from all defined syntaxes no fileregex matched, then compare
417 this regex (or regexes) against the first line of the current
418 file, to determine whether this syntax should be used for it.
419 magic "regex" ...
421 If no fileregex matched and no header regex matched either, then
422 compare this regex (or regexes) against the result of querying
423 the magic database about the current file, to determine whether
424 this syntax should be used for it. (This functionality only
425 works when libmagic is installed on the system and will be
426 silently ignored otherwise.)
427 formatter program [argument ...]
429 Run the given program on the full contents of the current buf‐
430 fer. (The current buffer is written out to a temporary file,
431 the program is run on it, and then the temporary file is read
432 back in, replacing the contents of the buffer.)
433 linter program [argument ...]
435 Use the given program to run a syntax check on the current buf‐
436 fer.
437 comment "string"
439 Use the given string for commenting and uncommenting lines. If
440 the string contains a vertical bar or pipe character (|), this
441 designates bracket-style comments; for example, "/*|*/" for CSS
442 files. The characters before the pipe are prepended to the line
443 and the characters after the pipe are appended at the end of the
444 line. If no pipe character is present, the full string is
445 prepended; for example, "#" for Python files. If empty double
446 quotes are specified, the comment/uncomment function is dis‐
447 abled; for example, "" for JSON. The default value is "#".
448 tabgives "string"
450 Make the <Tab> key produce the given string. Useful for lan‐
451 guages like Python that want to see only spaces for indentation.
452 This overrides the setting of the tabstospaces option.
453 color [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor "regex" ...
455 Paint all pieces of text that match the extended regular expres‐
456 sion regex with the given foreground and background colors, at
457 least one of which must be specified. Valid color names are:
458 red, green, blue, magenta, yellow, cyan, white, and black. Each
459 of these eight names may be prefixed with the word light to get
460 a brighter version of that color. On terminal emulators that
461 can do at least 256 colors, other valid (but unprefixable) color
462 names are: pink, purple, mauve, lagoon, mint, lime, peach, or‐
463 ange, latte, and normal -- where normal means the default fore‐
464 ground or background color. The color pair may be preceded by
465 bold and/or italic (separated by commas) to get a bold and/or
466 slanting typeface, if your terminal can do those.
467 All coloring commands are applied in the order in which they are
469 specified, which means that later commands can recolor stuff
470 that was colored earlier.
471 icolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor "regex" ...
473 Same as above, except that the matching is case insensitive.
474 color [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor start="fromrx" end="torx"
476 Paint all pieces of text whose start matches extended regular
477 expression fromrx and whose end matches extended regular expres‐
478 sion torx with the given foreground and background colors, at
479 least one of which must be specified. This means that, after an
480 initial instance of fromrx, all text until the first instance of
481 torx will be colored. This allows syntax highlighting to span
482 multiple lines.
483 icolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor start="fromrx" end="torx"
485 Same as above, except that the matching is case insensitive.
486 include "syntaxfile"
488 Read in self-contained color syntaxes from syntaxfile. Note
489 that syntaxfile may contain only the above commands, from syntax
490 to icolor.
491 extendsyntax name command argument ...
493 Extend the syntax previously defined as name with another com‐
494 mand. This allows adding a new color, icolor, header, magic,
495 formatter, linter, comment, or tabgives command to an already
496 defined syntax -- useful when you want to slightly improve a
497 syntax defined in one of the system-installed files (which nor‐
498 mally are not writable).
499
502 Key bindings can be changed via the following three commands:
503 bind key function menu
505 Rebinds the given key to the given function in the given menu
506 (or in all menus where the function exists when all is used).
507 bind key "string" menu
509 Makes the given key produce the given string in the given
510 menu (or in all menus where the key exists when all is used).
511 The string can consist of text or commands or a mix of them.
512 (To enter a command into the string, precede its keystroke
513 with M-V.)
514 unbind key menu
516 Unbinds the given key from the given menu (or from all menus
517 where the key exists when all is used).
518 The format of key should be one of:
521 ^X where X is a Latin letter, or one of several ASCII characters
523 (@, ], \, ^, _), or the word "Space". Example: ^C.
524 M-X where X is any ASCII character except [, or the word "Space".
526 Example: M-8.
527 Sh-M-X where X is a Latin letter. Example: Sh-M-U. By default,
529 each Meta+letter keystroke does the same as the corresponding
530 Shift+Meta+letter. But when any Shift+Meta bind is made,
531 that will no longer be the case, for all letters.
532 FN where N is a numeric value from 1 to 24. Example: F10. (Of‐
534 ten, F13 to F24 can be typed as F1 to F12 with Shift.)
535 Ins or Del.
537 Rebinding ^M (Enter) or ^I (Tab) is probably not a good idea. Rebind‐
539 ing ^[ (Esc) is not possible, because its keycode is the starter byte
540 of Meta keystrokes and escape sequences. Rebinding any of the dedi‐
541 cated cursor-moving keys (the arrows, Home, End, PageUp and PageDown)
542 is not possible. On some terminals it's not possible to rebind ^H (un‐
543 less --raw is used) because its keycode is identical to that of the
544 Backspace key.
545 Valid function names to be bound are:
548 help
550 Invokes the help viewer.
551 cancel
553 Cancels the current command.
554 exit
556 Exits from the program (or from the help viewer or file browser).
557 writeout
559 Writes the current buffer to disk, asking for a name.
560 savefile
562 Writes the current file to disk without prompting.
563 insert
565 Inserts a file into the current buffer (at the current cursor po‐
566 sition), or into a new buffer when option multibuffer is set.
567 whereis
569 Starts a forward search for text in the current buffer -- or for
570 filenames matching a string in the current list in the file
571 browser.
572 wherewas
574 Starts a backward search for text in the current buffer -- or for
575 filenames matching a string in the current list in the file
576 browser.
577 findprevious
579 Searches the next occurrence in the backward direction.
580 findnext
582 Searches the next occurrence in the forward direction.
583 replace
585 Interactively replaces text within the current buffer.
586 cut
588 Cuts and stores the current line (or the marked region).
589 copy
591 Copies the current line (or the marked region) without deleting
592 it.
593 paste
595 Pastes the currently stored text into the current buffer at the
596 current cursor position.
597 zap
599 Throws away the current line (or the marked region). (This func‐
600 tion is bound by default to <Meta+Delete>.)
601 chopwordleft
603 Deletes from the cursor position to the beginning of the preceding
604 word. (This function is bound by default to <Shift+Ctrl+Delete>.
605 If your terminal produces ^H for <Ctrl+Backspace>, you can make
606 <Ctrl+Backspace> delete the word to the left of the cursor by re‐
607 binding ^H to this function.)
608 chopwordright
610 Deletes from the cursor position to the beginning of the next
611 word. (This function is bound by default to <Ctrl+Delete>.)
612 cutrestoffile
614 Cuts all text from the cursor position till the end of the buffer.
615 mark
617 Sets the mark at the current position, to start selecting text.
618 Or, when it is set, unsets the mark.
619 location
621 Reports the current position of the cursor in the buffer: the
622 line, column, and character positions. (The old name of this
623 function, 'curpos', is deprecated.)
624 wordcount
626 Counts the number of words, lines and characters in the current
627 buffer.
628 execute
630 Prompts for a program to execute. The program's output will be
631 inserted into the current buffer (or into a new buffer when M-F is
632 toggled).
633 speller
635 Invokes a spell-checking program, either the default hunspell(1)
636 or GNU spell(1), or the one defined by --speller or set speller.
637 formatter
639 Invokes a full-buffer-processing program (if the active syntax de‐
640 fines one).
641 linter
643 Invokes a syntax-checking program (if the active syntax defines
644 one).
645 justify
647 Justifies the current paragraph. A paragraph is a group of con‐
648 tiguous lines that, apart from possibly the first line, all have
649 the same indentation. The beginning of a paragraph is detected by
650 either this lone line with a differing indentation or by a preced‐
651 ing blank line.
652 fulljustify
654 Justifies the entire current buffer.
655 indent
657 Indents (shifts to the right) the currently marked text.
658 unindent
660 Unindents (shifts to the left) the currently marked text.
661 comment
663 Comments or uncomments the current line or marked lines, using the
664 comment style specified in the active syntax.
665 complete
667 Completes the fragment before the cursor to a full word found
668 elsewhere in the current buffer.
669 left
671 Goes left one position (in the editor or browser).
672 right
674 Goes right one position (in the editor or browser).
675 up
677 Goes one line up (in the editor or browser).
678 down
680 Goes one line down (in the editor or browser).
681 scrollup
683 Scrolls the viewport up one row (meaning that the text slides
684 down) while keeping the cursor in the same text position, if pos‐
685 sible.
686 scrolldown
688 Scrolls the viewport down one row (meaning that the text slides
689 up) while keeping the cursor in the same text position, if possi‐
690 ble.
691 center
693 Scrolls the line with the cursor to the middle of the screen.
694 prevword
696 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the previous word.
697 nextword
699 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the next word.
700 home
702 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current line.
703 end
705 Moves the cursor to the end of the current line.
706 beginpara
708 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current paragraph.
709 endpara
711 Moves the cursor to the end of the current paragraph.
712 prevblock
714 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current or preceding
715 block of text. (Blocks are separated by one or more blank lines.)
716 nextblock
718 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the next block of text.
719 pageup
721 Goes up one screenful.
722 pagedown
724 Goes down one screenful.
725 firstline
727 Goes to the first line of the file.
728 lastline
730 Goes to the last line of the file.
731 gotoline
733 Goes to a specific line (and column if specified). Negative num‐
734 bers count from the end of the file (and end of the line).
735 findbracket
737 Moves the cursor to the bracket (or brace or parenthesis, etc.)
738 that matches (pairs) with the one under the cursor. See set
739 matchbrackets.
740 anchor
742 Places an anchor at the current line, or removes it when already
743 present. (An anchor is visible when line numbers are activated.)
744 prevanchor
746 Goes to the first anchor before the current line.
747 nextanchor
749 Goes to the first anchor after the current line.
750 prevbuf
752 Switches to editing/viewing the previous buffer when multiple buf‐
753 fers are open.
754 nextbuf
756 Switches to editing/viewing the next buffer when multiple buffers
757 are open.
758 verbatim
760 Inserts the next keystroke verbatim into the file.
761 tab
763 Inserts a tab at the current cursor location.
764 enter
766 Inserts a new line below the current one.
767 delete
769 Deletes the character under the cursor.
770 backspace
772 Deletes the character before the cursor.
773 recordmacro
775 Starts the recording of keystrokes -- the keystrokes are stored as
776 a macro. When already recording, the recording is stopped.
777 runmacro
779 Replays the keystrokes of the last recorded macro.
780 undo
782 Undoes the last performed text action (add text, delete text,
783 etc).
784 redo
786 Redoes the last undone action (i.e., it undoes an undo).
787 refresh
789 Refreshes the screen.
790 suspend
792 Suspends the editor (if the suspending function is enabled, see
793 the suspendable toggle item below).
794 casesens
796 Toggles whether searching/replacing ignores or respects the case
797 of the given characters.
798 regexp
800 Toggles whether searching/replacing uses literal strings or regu‐
801 lar expressions.
802 backwards
804 Toggles whether searching/replacing goes forward or backward.
805 older
807 Retrieves the previous (earlier) entry at a prompt.
808 newer
810 Retrieves the next (later) entry at a prompt.
811 flipreplace
813 Toggles between searching for something and replacing something.
814 flipgoto
816 Toggles between searching for text and targeting a line number.
817 flipexecute
819 Toggles between inserting a file and executing a command.
820 flippipe
822 When executing a command, toggles whether the current buffer (or
823 marked region) is piped to the command.
824 flipnewbuffer
826 Toggles between inserting into the current buffer and into a new
827 empty buffer.
828 flipconvert
830 When reading in a file, toggles between converting and not con‐
831 verting it from DOS/Mac format. Converting is the default.
832 dosformat
834 When writing a file, switches to writing a DOS format (CR/LF).
835 macformat
837 When writing a file, switches to writing a Mac format.
838 append
840 When writing a file, appends to the end instead of overwriting.
841 prepend
843 When writing a file, 'prepends' (writes at the beginning) instead
844 of overwriting.
845 backup
847 When writing a file, creates a backup of the current file.
848 discardbuffer
850 When about to write a file, discard the current buffer without
851 saving. (This function is bound by default only when option
852 --saveonexit is in effect.)
853 browser
855 Starts the file browser (in the Read File and Write Out menus),
856 allowing to select a file from a list.
857 gotodir
859 Goes to a directory to be specified, allowing to browse anywhere
860 in the filesystem.
861 firstfile
863 Goes to the first file in the list when using the file browser.
864 lastfile
866 Goes to the last file in the list when using the file browser.
867 nohelp
869 Toggles the presence of the two-line list of key bindings at the
870 bottom of the screen. (This toggle is special: it is available in
871 all menus except the help viewer and the linter. All further tog‐
872 gles are available in the main menu only.)
873 constantshow
875 Toggles the constant display of the current line, column, and
876 character positions.
877 softwrap
879 Toggles the displaying of overlong lines on multiple screen lines.
880 linenumbers
882 Toggles the display of line numbers in front of the text.
883 whitespacedisplay
885 Toggles the showing of whitespace.
886 nosyntax
888 Toggles syntax highlighting.
889 smarthome
891 Toggles the smartness of the Home key.
892 autoindent
894 Toggles whether a newly created line will contain the same amount
895 of leading whitespace as the preceding line -- or as the next line
896 if the preceding line is the beginning of a paragraph.
897 cutfromcursor
899 Toggles whether cutting text will cut the whole line or just from
900 the current cursor position to the end of the line.
901 breaklonglines
903 Toggles whether long lines will be hard-wrapped to the next line.
904 (The old name of this function, 'nowrap', is deprecated.)
905 tabstospaces
907 Toggles whether typed tabs will be converted to spaces.
908 mouse
910 Toggles mouse support.
911 suspendable
913 Toggles whether the suspend keystroke (^Z by default) will actu‐
914 ally suspend the editor. (The old name of this function, 'sus‐
915 pendenable', is deprecated.)
916 Valid menu sections are:
919 main
921 The main editor window where text is entered and edited.
922 help
924 The help-viewer menu.
925 search
927 The search menu (AKA whereis).
928 replace
930 The 'search to replace' menu.
931 replacewith
933 The 'replace with' menu, which comes up after 'search to replace'.
934 yesno
936 The 'yesno' menu, where the Yes/No/All/Cancel question is asked.
937 gotoline
939 The 'goto line (and column)' menu.
940 writeout
942 The 'write file' menu.
943 insert
945 The 'insert file' menu.
946 browser
948 The 'file browser' menu, for selecting a file to be opened or in‐
949 serted or written to.
950 whereisfile
952 The 'search for a file' menu in the file browser.
953 gotodir
955 The 'go to directory' menu in the file browser.
956 execute
958 The menu for inserting the output from an external command, or for
959 filtering the buffer (or the marked region) through an external
960 command, or for executing one of several tools. (The old form of
961 this menu name, 'extcmd', is deprecated.)
962 spell
964 The menu of the integrated spell checker where the user can edit a
965 misspelled word.
966 linter
968 The linter menu, which allows jumping through the linting mes‐
969 sages.
970 all
972 A special name that encompasses all menus. For bind it means all
973 menus where the specified function exists; for unbind it means all
974 menus where the specified key exists.
975
978 /etc/nanorc
979 System-wide configuration file.
980 ~/.nanorc or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nano/nanorc or ~/.config/nano/nanorc
982 Per-user configuration file.
983 /usr/share/nano/*
985 Syntax definitions for the syntax coloring of common file types
986 (and for less common file types in the extra/ subdirectory).
987
990 nano(1)
991 https://nano-editor.org/cheatsheet.html
993 An overview of the default key bindings.
994June version 5.8 NANORC(5)