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 bold,white,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 filename 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 filename. This number is
182 cleared upon the next keystroke, or replaced with an [i/n] counter
183 when multiple buffers are open. The line plus column numbers and
184 the character code are displayed only when set constantshow is used,
185 and can be toggled on and off with M-C. The state flags are dis‐
186 played 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 option constantshow overrides this. When option
250 minibar or zero is in effect, quickblank makes a message disappear
251 after 0.8 seconds instead of after the default 1.5 seconds.
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 some keys to work
263 properly, it means that the terminfo terminal description that is
264 used does not fully match the actual behavior of your terminal.
265 This can happen when you ssh into a BSD machine, for example.) Us‐
266 ing this option disables nano's mouse support.
267 set rebinddelete
269 Interpret the Delete and Backspace keys differently so that both
270 Backspace and Delete work properly. You should only use this option
271 when on your system either Backspace acts like Delete or Delete acts
272 like Backspace.
273 set regexp
275 Do regular-expression searches by default. Regular expressions in
276 nano are of the extended type (ERE).
277 set saveonexit
279 Save a changed buffer automatically on exit (^X); don't prompt.
280 (The old form of this option, set tempfile, is deprecated.)
281 set scrollercolor fgcolor,bgcolor
283 Use this color combination for the indicator alias "scrollbar". (On
284 terminal emulators that link to a libvte older than version 0.55,
285 using a background color here does not work correctly.) See set ti‐
286 tlecolor for more details.
287 set selectedcolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
289 Use this color combination for selected text. See set titlecolor
290 for more details.
291 set showcursor
293 Put the cursor on the highlighted item in the file browser, and show
294 the cursor in the help viewer, to aid braille users and people with
295 poor vision.
296 set smarthome
298 Make the Home key smarter. When Home is pressed anywhere but at the
299 very beginning of non-whitespace characters on a line, the cursor
300 will jump to that beginning (either forwards or backwards). If the
301 cursor is already at that position, it will jump to the true begin‐
302 ning of the line.
303 set softwrap
305 Display lines that exceed the screen's width over multiple screen
306 lines. (You can make this soft-wrapping occur at whitespace instead
307 of rudely at the screen's edge, by using also set atblanks.)
308 set speller "program [argument ...]"
310 Use the given program to do spell checking and correcting, instead
311 of using the built-in corrector that calls hunspell(1) or spell(1).
312 set spotlightcolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
314 Use this color combination for highlighting a search match. The de‐
315 fault value is black,lightyellow. See set titlecolor for valid
316 color names.
317 set stateflags
319 Use the top-right corner of the screen for showing some state flags:
320 I when auto-indenting, M when the mark is on, L when hard-wrapping
321 (breaking long lines), R when recording a macro, and S when soft-
322 wrapping. When the buffer is modified, a star (*) is shown after
323 the filename in the center of the title bar.
324 set statuscolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
326 Use this color combination for the status bar. See set titlecolor
327 for more details.
328 set stripecolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
330 Use this color combination for the vertical guiding stripe. See set
331 titlecolor for more details.
332 set suspendable
334 Obsolete option; ignored. Suspension is enabled by default, reach‐
335 able via ^T^Z. (If you want a plain ^Z to suspend nano, add bind ^Z
336 suspend main to your nanorc.)
337 set tabsize number
339 Use a tab size of number columns. The value of number must be
340 greater than 0. The default value is 8.
341 set tabstospaces
343 Convert each typed tab to spaces -- to the number of spaces that a
344 tab at that position would take up.
345 set titlecolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
347 Use this color combination for the title bar. Valid names for the
348 foreground and background colors are: red, green, blue, magenta,
349 yellow, cyan, white, and black. Each of these eight names may be
350 prefixed with the word light to get a brighter version of that
351 color. The word grey or gray may be used as a synonym for light‐
352 black. On terminal emulators that can do at least 256 colors, other
353 valid (but unprefixable) color names are: pink, purple, mauve, la‐
354 goon, mint, lime, peach, orange, latte, rosy, beet, plum, sea, sky,
355 slate, teal, sage, brown, ocher, sand, tawny, brick, crimson, and
356 normal -- where normal means the default foreground or background
357 color. On such emulators, the color may also be specified as a
358 three-digit hexadecimal number prefixed with #, with the digits rep‐
359 resenting the amounts of red, green, and blue, respectively. This
360 tells nano to select from the available palette the color that ap‐
361 proximates the given values.
362 Either "fgcolor" or ",bgcolor" may be left out, and the pair may be
364 preceded by bold and/or italic (separated by commas) to get a bold
365 and/or slanting typeface, if your terminal can do those.
366 set trimblanks
368 Remove trailing whitespace from wrapped lines when automatic hard-
369 wrapping occurs or when text is justified.
370 set unix
372 Save a file by default in Unix format. This overrides nano's de‐
373 fault behavior of saving a file in the format that it had. (This
374 option has no effect when you also use set noconvert.)
375 set whitespace "characters"
377 Set the two characters used to indicate the presence of tabs and
378 spaces. They must be single-column characters. The default pair
379 for a UTF-8 locale is "»⋅", and for other locales ">.".
380 set wordbounds
382 Detect word boundaries differently by treating punctuation charac‐
383 ters as parts of words.
384 set wordchars "characters"
386 Specify which other characters (besides the normal alphanumeric
387 ones) should be considered as parts of words. When using this op‐
388 tion, you probably want to unset wordbounds.
389 set zap
391 Let an unmodified Backspace or Delete erase the marked region (in‐
392 stead of a single character, and without affecting the cutbuffer).
393 set zero
395 Hide all elements of the interface (title bar, status bar, and help
396 lines) and use all rows of the terminal for showing the contents of
397 the buffer. The status bar appears only when there is a significant
398 message, and disappears after 1.5 seconds or upon the next key‐
399 stroke. With M-Z the title bar plus status bar can be toggled.
400 With M-X the help lines.
401
404 Coloring the different syntactic elements of a file is done via regular
405 expressions (see the color command below). This is inherently imper‐
406 fect, because regular expressions are not powerful enough to fully
407 parse a file. Nevertheless, regular expressions can do a lot and are
408 easy to make, so they are a good fit for a small editor like nano.
409 All regular expressions in nano are POSIX extended regular expressions.
411 This means that ., ?, *, +, ^, $, and several other characters are spe‐
412 cial. The period . matches any single character, ? means the preceding
413 item is optional, * means the preceding item may be matched zero or
414 more times, + means the preceding item must be matched one or more
415 times, ^ matches the beginning of a line, and $ the end, \< matches the
416 start of a word, and \> the end, and \s matches a blank. It also means
417 that lookahead and lookbehind are not possible. A complete explanation
418 can be found in the manual page of GNU grep: man grep.
419 For each kind of file a separate syntax can be defined via the follow‐
421 ing commands:
422 syntax name ["fileregex" ...]
424 Start the definition of a syntax with this name. All subsequent
425 color and other such commands will be added to this syntax, un‐
426 til a new syntax command is encountered.
427 When nano is run, this syntax will be automatically activated if
429 the current filename matches the extended regular expression
430 fileregex. Or the syntax can be explicitly activated by using
431 the -Y or --syntax command-line option followed by the name.
432 The syntax default is special: it takes no fileregex, and ap‐
434 plies to files that don't match any syntax's regexes. The syn‐
435 tax none is reserved; specifying it on the command line is the
436 same as not having a syntax at all.
437 header "regex" ...
439 If from all defined syntaxes no fileregex matched, then compare
440 this regex (or regexes) against the first line of the current
441 file, to determine whether this syntax should be used for it.
442 magic "regex" ...
444 If no fileregex matched and no header regex matched either, then
445 compare this regex (or regexes) against the result of querying
446 the magic database about the current file, to determine whether
447 this syntax should be used for it. (This functionality only
448 works when libmagic is installed on the system and will be
449 silently ignored otherwise.)
450 formatter program [argument ...]
452 Run the given program on the full contents of the current buf‐
453 fer. (The current buffer is written out to a temporary file,
454 the program is run on it, and then the temporary file is read
455 back in, replacing the contents of the buffer.)
456 linter program [argument ...]
458 Use the given program to run a syntax check on the current buf‐
459 fer.
460 comment "string"
462 Use the given string for commenting and uncommenting lines. If
463 the string contains a vertical bar or pipe character (|), this
464 designates bracket-style comments; for example, "/*|*/" for CSS
465 files. The characters before the pipe are prepended to the line
466 and the characters after the pipe are appended at the end of the
467 line. If no pipe character is present, the full string is
468 prepended; for example, "#" for Python files. If empty double
469 quotes are specified, the comment/uncomment function is dis‐
470 abled; for example, "" for JSON. The default value is "#".
471 tabgives "string"
473 Make the <Tab> key produce the given string. Useful for lan‐
474 guages like Python that want to see only spaces for indentation.
475 This overrides the setting of the tabstospaces option.
476 color [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor "regex" ...
478 Paint all pieces of text that match the extended regular expres‐
479 sion regex with the given foreground and background colors, at
480 least one of which must be specified. Valid color names are:
481 red, green, blue, magenta, yellow, cyan, white, and black. Each
482 of these eight names may be prefixed with the word light to get
483 a brighter version of that color. The word grey or gray may be
484 used as a synonym for lightblack. On terminal emulators that
485 can do at least 256 colors, other valid (but unprefixable) color
486 names are: pink, purple, mauve, lagoon, mint, lime, peach, or‐
487 ange, latte, rosy, beet, plum, sea, sky, slate, teal, sage,
488 brown, ocher, sand, tawny, brick, crimson, and normal -- where
489 normal means the default foreground or background color. On
490 such emulators, the color may also be specified as a three-digit
491 hexadecimal number prefixed with #, with the digits representing
492 the amounts of red, green, and blue, respectively. This tells
493 nano to select from the available palette the color that approx‐
494 imates the given values.
495 The color pair may be preceded by bold and/or italic (separated
497 by commas) to get a bold and/or slanting typeface, if your ter‐
498 minal can do those.
499 All coloring commands are applied in the order in which they are
501 specified, which means that later commands can recolor stuff
502 that was colored earlier.
503 icolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor "regex" ...
505 Same as above, except that the matching is case insensitive.
506 color [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor start="fromrx" end="torx"
508 Paint all pieces of text whose start matches extended regular
509 expression fromrx and whose end matches extended regular expres‐
510 sion torx with the given foreground and background colors, at
511 least one of which must be specified. This means that, after an
512 initial instance of fromrx, all text until the first instance of
513 torx will be colored. This allows syntax highlighting to span
514 multiple lines.
515 icolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor start="fromrx" end="torx"
517 Same as above, except that the matching is case insensitive.
518 include "syntaxfile"
520 Read in self-contained color syntaxes from syntaxfile. Note
521 that syntaxfile may contain only the above commands, from syntax
522 to icolor.
523 extendsyntax name command argument ...
525 Extend the syntax previously defined as name with another com‐
526 mand. This allows adding a new color, icolor, header, magic,
527 formatter, linter, comment, or tabgives command to an already
528 defined syntax -- useful when you want to slightly improve a
529 syntax defined in one of the system-installed files (which nor‐
530 mally are not writable).
531
534 Key bindings can be changed via the following three commands:
535 bind key function menu
537 Rebinds the given key to the given function in the given menu
538 (or in all menus where the function exists when all is used).
539 bind key "string" menu
541 Makes the given key produce the given string in the given
542 menu (or in all menus where the key exists when all is used).
543 The string can consist of text or commands or a mix of them.
544 (To enter a command into the string, precede its keystroke
545 with M-V.)
546 unbind key menu
548 Unbinds the given key from the given menu (or from all menus
549 where the key exists when all is used).
550 The format of key should be one of:
553 ^X where X is a Latin letter, or one of several ASCII characters
555 (@, ], \, ^, _), or the word "Space". Example: ^C.
556 M-X where X is any ASCII character except [, or the word "Space".
558 Example: M-8.
559 Sh-M-X where X is a Latin letter. Example: Sh-M-U. By default,
561 each Meta+letter keystroke does the same as the corresponding
562 Shift+Meta+letter. But when any Shift+Meta bind is made,
563 that will no longer be the case, for all letters.
564 FN where N is a numeric value from 1 to 24. Example: F10. (Of‐
566 ten, F13 to F24 can be typed as F1 to F12 with Shift.)
567 Ins or Del.
569 Rebinding ^M (Enter) or ^I (Tab) is probably not a good idea. Rebind‐
571 ing ^[ (Esc) is not possible, because its keycode is the starter byte
572 of Meta keystrokes and escape sequences. Rebinding any of the dedi‐
573 cated cursor-moving keys (the arrows, Home, End, PageUp and PageDown)
574 is not possible. On some terminals it's not possible to rebind ^H (un‐
575 less --raw is used) because its keycode is identical to that of the
576 Backspace key.
577 Valid function names to be bound are:
580 help
582 Invokes the help viewer.
583 cancel
585 Cancels the current command.
586 exit
588 Exits from the program (or from the help viewer or file browser).
589 writeout
591 Writes the current buffer to disk, asking for a name.
592 savefile
594 Writes the current file to disk without prompting.
595 insert
597 Inserts a file into the current buffer (at the current cursor po‐
598 sition), or into a new buffer when option multibuffer is set.
599 whereis
601 Starts a forward search for text in the current buffer -- or for
602 filenames matching a string in the current list in the file
603 browser.
604 wherewas
606 Starts a backward search for text in the current buffer -- or for
607 filenames matching a string in the current list in the file
608 browser.
609 findprevious
611 Searches the next occurrence in the backward direction.
612 findnext
614 Searches the next occurrence in the forward direction.
615 replace
617 Interactively replaces text within the current buffer.
618 cut
620 Cuts and stores the current line (or the marked region).
621 copy
623 Copies the current line (or the marked region) without deleting
624 it.
625 paste
627 Pastes the currently stored text into the current buffer at the
628 current cursor position.
629 zap
631 Throws away the current line (or the marked region). (This func‐
632 tion is bound by default to <Meta+Delete>.)
633 chopwordleft
635 Deletes from the cursor position to the beginning of the preceding
636 word. (This function is bound by default to <Shift+Ctrl+Delete>.
637 If your terminal produces ^H for <Ctrl+Backspace>, you can make
638 <Ctrl+Backspace> delete the word to the left of the cursor by re‐
639 binding ^H to this function.)
640 chopwordright
642 Deletes from the cursor position to the beginning of the next
643 word. (This function is bound by default to <Ctrl+Delete>.)
644 cutrestoffile
646 Cuts all text from the cursor position till the end of the buffer.
647 mark
649 Sets the mark at the current position, to start selecting text.
650 Or, when it is set, unsets the mark.
651 location
653 Reports the current position of the cursor in the buffer: the
654 line, column, and character positions. (The old name of this
655 function, 'curpos', is deprecated.)
656 wordcount
658 Counts and reports on the status bar the number of lines, words,
659 and characters in the current buffer (or in the marked region).
660 execute
662 Prompts for a program to execute. The program's output will be
663 inserted into the current buffer (or into a new buffer when M-F is
664 toggled).
665 speller
667 Invokes a spell-checking program, either the default hunspell(1)
668 or GNU spell(1), or the one defined by --speller or set speller.
669 formatter
671 Invokes a full-buffer-processing program (if the active syntax de‐
672 fines one).
673 linter
675 Invokes a syntax-checking program (if the active syntax defines
676 one).
677 justify
679 Justifies the current paragraph (or the marked region). A para‐
680 graph is a group of contiguous lines that, apart from possibly the
681 first line, all have the same indentation. The beginning of a
682 paragraph is detected by either this lone line with a differing
683 indentation or by a preceding blank line.
684 fulljustify
686 Justifies the entire current buffer (or the marked region).
687 indent
689 Indents (shifts to the right) the current line or the marked
690 lines.
691 unindent
693 Unindents (shifts to the left) the current line or the marked
694 lines.
695 comment
697 Comments or uncomments the current line or the marked lines, using
698 the comment style specified in the active syntax.
699 complete
701 Completes (when possible) the fragment before the cursor to a full
702 word found elsewhere in the current buffer.
703 left
705 Goes left one position (in the editor or browser).
706 right
708 Goes right one position (in the editor or browser).
709 up
711 Goes one line up (in the editor or browser).
712 down
714 Goes one line down (in the editor or browser).
715 scrollup
717 Scrolls the viewport up one row (meaning that the text slides
718 down) while keeping the cursor in the same text position, if pos‐
719 sible. (This function is bound by default to <Alt+Up>. If
720 <Alt+Up> does nothing on your Linux console, see the FAQ:
721 ⟨https://nano-editor.org/dist/latest/faq.html#4.1⟩.)
722 scrolldown
724 Scrolls the viewport down one row (meaning that the text slides
725 up) while keeping the cursor in the same text position, if possi‐
726 ble. (This function is bound by default to <Alt+Down>.)
727 center
729 Scrolls the line with the cursor to the middle of the screen.
730 prevword
732 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the previous word.
733 nextword
735 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the next word.
736 home
738 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current line.
739 end
741 Moves the cursor to the end of the current line.
742 beginpara
744 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current paragraph.
745 endpara
747 Moves the cursor to the end of the current paragraph.
748 prevblock
750 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current or preceding
751 block of text. (Blocks are separated by one or more blank lines.)
752 nextblock
754 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the next block of text.
755 pageup
757 Goes up one screenful.
758 pagedown
760 Goes down one screenful.
761 firstline
763 Goes to the first line of the file.
764 lastline
766 Goes to the last line of the file.
767 gotoline
769 Goes to a specific line (and column if specified). Negative num‐
770 bers count from the end of the file (and end of the line).
771 findbracket
773 Moves the cursor to the bracket (or brace or parenthesis, etc.)
774 that matches (pairs) with the one under the cursor. See set
775 matchbrackets.
776 anchor
778 Places an anchor at the current line, or removes it when already
779 present. (An anchor is visible when line numbers are activated.)
780 prevanchor
782 Goes to the first anchor before the current line.
783 nextanchor
785 Goes to the first anchor after the current line.
786 prevbuf
788 Switches to editing/viewing the previous buffer when multiple buf‐
789 fers are open.
790 nextbuf
792 Switches to editing/viewing the next buffer when multiple buffers
793 are open.
794 verbatim
796 Inserts the next keystroke verbatim into the file.
797 tab
799 Inserts a tab at the current cursor location.
800 enter
802 Inserts a new line below the current one.
803 delete
805 Deletes the character under the cursor.
806 backspace
808 Deletes the character before the cursor.
809 recordmacro
811 Starts the recording of keystrokes -- the keystrokes are stored as
812 a macro. When already recording, the recording is stopped.
813 runmacro
815 Replays the keystrokes of the last recorded macro.
816 undo
818 Undoes the last performed text action (add text, delete text,
819 etc).
820 redo
822 Redoes the last undone action (i.e., it undoes an undo).
823 refresh
825 Refreshes the screen.
826 suspend
828 Suspends the editor and returns control to the shell (until you
829 tell the process to resume execution with fg).
830 casesens
832 Toggles whether searching/replacing ignores or respects the case
833 of the given characters.
834 regexp
836 Toggles whether searching/replacing uses literal strings or regu‐
837 lar expressions.
838 backwards
840 Toggles whether searching/replacing goes forward or backward.
841 older
843 Retrieves the previous (earlier) entry at a prompt.
844 newer
846 Retrieves the next (later) entry at a prompt.
847 flipreplace
849 Toggles between searching for something and replacing something.
850 flipgoto
852 Toggles between searching for text and targeting a line number.
853 flipexecute
855 Toggles between inserting a file and executing a command.
856 flippipe
858 When executing a command, toggles whether the current buffer (or
859 marked region) is piped to the command.
860 flipnewbuffer
862 Toggles between inserting into the current buffer and into a new
863 empty buffer.
864 flipconvert
866 When reading in a file, toggles between converting and not con‐
867 verting it from DOS/Mac format. Converting is the default.
868 dosformat
870 When writing a file, switches to writing a DOS format (CR/LF).
871 macformat
873 When writing a file, switches to writing a Mac format.
874 append
876 When writing a file, appends to the end instead of overwriting.
877 prepend
879 When writing a file, 'prepends' (writes at the beginning) instead
880 of overwriting.
881 backup
883 When writing a file, creates a backup of the current file.
884 discardbuffer
886 When about to write a file, discard the current buffer without
887 saving. (This function is bound by default only when option
888 --saveonexit is in effect.)
889 browser
891 Starts the file browser (in the Read File and Write Out menus),
892 allowing to select a file from a list.
893 gotodir
895 Goes to a directory to be specified, allowing to browse anywhere
896 in the filesystem.
897 firstfile
899 Goes to the first file in the list when using the file browser.
900 lastfile
902 Goes to the last file in the list when using the file browser.
903 nohelp
905 Toggles the presence of the two-line list of key bindings at the
906 bottom of the screen. (This toggle is special: it is available in
907 all menus except the help viewer and the linter. All further tog‐
908 gles are available in the main menu only.)
909 constantshow
911 Toggles the constant display of the current line, column, and
912 character positions.
913 softwrap
915 Toggles the displaying of overlong lines on multiple screen lines.
916 linenumbers
918 Toggles the display of line numbers in front of the text.
919 whitespacedisplay
921 Toggles the showing of whitespace.
922 nosyntax
924 Toggles syntax highlighting.
925 smarthome
927 Toggles the smartness of the Home key.
928 autoindent
930 Toggles whether a newly created line will contain the same amount
931 of leading whitespace as the preceding line -- or as the next line
932 if the preceding line is the beginning of a paragraph.
933 cutfromcursor
935 Toggles whether cutting text will cut the whole line or just from
936 the current cursor position to the end of the line.
937 breaklonglines
939 Toggles whether long lines will be hard-wrapped to the next line.
940 (The old name of this function, 'nowrap', is deprecated.)
941 tabstospaces
943 Toggles whether typed tabs will be converted to spaces.
944 mouse
946 Toggles mouse support.
947 Valid menu sections are:
950 main
952 The main editor window where text is entered and edited.
953 help
955 The help-viewer menu.
956 search
958 The search menu (AKA whereis).
959 replace
961 The 'search to replace' menu.
962 replacewith
964 The 'replace with' menu, which comes up after 'search to replace'.
965 yesno
967 The 'yesno' menu, where the Yes/No/All/Cancel question is asked.
968 gotoline
970 The 'goto line (and column)' menu.
971 writeout
973 The 'write file' menu.
974 insert
976 The 'insert file' menu.
977 browser
979 The 'file browser' menu, for selecting a file to be opened or in‐
980 serted or written to.
981 whereisfile
983 The 'search for a file' menu in the file browser.
984 gotodir
986 The 'go to directory' menu in the file browser.
987 execute
989 The menu for inserting the output from an external command, or for
990 filtering the buffer (or the marked region) through an external
991 command, or for executing one of several tools. (The old form of
992 this menu name, 'extcmd', is deprecated.)
993 spell
995 The menu of the integrated spell checker where the user can edit a
996 misspelled word.
997 linter
999 The linter menu, which allows jumping through the linting mes‐
1000 sages.
1001 all
1003 A special name that encompasses all menus. For bind it means all
1004 menus where the specified function exists; for unbind it means all
1005 menus where the specified key exists.
1006
1009 /etc/nanorc
1010 System-wide configuration file.
1011 ~/.nanorc or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nano/nanorc or ~/.config/nano/nanorc
1013 Per-user configuration file.
1014 /usr/share/nano/*
1016 Syntax definitions for the syntax coloring of common file types
1017 (and for less common file types in the extra/ subdirectory).
1018
1021 nano(1)
1022 https://nano-editor.org/cheatsheet.html
1024 An overview of the default key bindings.
1025December 2021 version 6.0 NANORC(5)