1NANORC(5)                     File Formats Manual                    NANORC(5)
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NAME

6       nanorc - GNU nano's configuration file
7
8

DESCRIPTION

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.
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19

OPTIONS

21       The configuration file accepts a series  of  set  and  unset  commands,
22       which  can  be used to configure nano on startup without using command-
23       line options.  Additionally, there are some commands to  define  syntax
24       highlighting  and  to  rebind  keys -- see the two separate sections on
25       those.  nano reads one command per line.   All  commands  and  keywords
26       should be written in lowercase.
27
28       Options  in nanorc files take precedence over nano's defaults, and com‐
29       mand-line options override nanorc settings.  Also, options that do  not
30       take  an  argument are unset by default.  So using the unset command is
31       only needed when wanting to override a setting of the  system's  nanorc
32       file  in  your own nanorc.  Options that take an argument cannot be un‐
33       set.
34
35       Quotes inside the characters  parameters below should not  be  escaped.
36       The last double quote on the line will be seen as the closing quote.
37
38       The supported commands and arguments are:
39
40       set afterends
41          Make  Ctrl+Right and Ctrl+Delete stop at word ends instead of begin‐
42          nings.
43
44       set allow_insecure_backup
45          When backing up files, allow the backup to succeed even if its  per‐
46          missions  can't  be  (re)set  due to special OS considerations.  You
47          should NOT enable this option unless you are sure you need it.
48
49       set atblanks
50          When soft line wrapping is enabled, make  it  wrap  lines  at  blank
51          characters  (tabs  and  spaces) instead of always at the edge of the
52          screen.
53
54       set autoindent
55          Automatically indent a newly created line to the same number of tabs
56          and/or  spaces as the previous line (or as the next line if the pre‐
57          vious line is the beginning of a paragraph).
58
59       set backup
60          When saving a file, create a backup file by adding a  tilde  (~)  to
61          the file's name.
62
63       set backupdir directory
64          Make and keep not just one backup file, but make and keep a uniquely
65          numbered one every time a file is saved -- when backups are  enabled
66          with  set backup or --backup or -B.  The uniquely numbered files are
67          stored in the specified directory.
68
69       set boldtext
70          Use bold instead of reverse video for the title bar, status bar, key
71          combos, function tags, line numbers, and selected text.  This can be
72          overridden by setting the options titlecolor, statuscolor, keycolor,
73          functioncolor, numbercolor, and selectedcolor.
74
75       set bookstyle
76          When  justifying,  treat any line that starts with whitespace as the
77          beginning of a paragraph (unless auto-indenting is on).
78
79       set brackets "characters"
80          Set the characters treated as closing brackets when justifying para‐
81          graphs.   This may not include blank characters.  Only closing punc‐
82          tuation (see set punct), optionally followed by the specified  clos‐
83          ing brackets, can end sentences.  The default value is ""')>]}".
84
85       set breaklonglines
86          Automatically hard-wrap the current line when it becomes overlong.
87
88       set casesensitive
89          Do case-sensitive searches by default.
90
91       set constantshow
92          Constantly  display  the  cursor  position  in the status bar.  This
93          overrides the option quickblank.
94
95       set cutfromcursor
96          Use cut-from-cursor-to-end-of-line by default,  instead  of  cutting
97          the whole line.
98
99       set emptyline
100          Do not use the line below the title bar, leaving it entirely blank.
101
102       set errorcolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
103          Use  this color combination for the status bar when an error message
104          is displayed.  The default value is bold,white,red.  See set  title‐
105          color for valid color names.
106
107       set fill number
108          Set  the  target width for justifying and automatic hard-wrapping at
109          this number of columns.  If the value is 0 or  less,  wrapping  will
110          occur  at the width of the screen minus number columns, allowing the
111          wrap point to vary along with the width of the screen if the  screen
112          is resized.  The default value is -8.
113
114       set functioncolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
115          Use  this color combination for the concise function descriptions in
116          the two help lines at the bottom of the screen.  See set  titlecolor
117          for more details.
118
119       set guidestripe number
120          Draw  a vertical stripe at the given column, to help judge the width
121          of the text.  (The color of the  stripe  can  be  changed  with  set
122          stripecolor.)
123
124       set historylog
125          Save the last hundred search strings and replacement strings and ex‐
126          ecuted commands, so they can be easily reused in later sessions.
127
128       set indicator
129          Display a "scrollbar" on the righthand side of the edit window.   It
130          shows the position of the viewport in the buffer and how much of the
131          buffer is covered by the viewport.
132
133       set jumpyscrolling
134          Scroll the buffer contents per half-screen instead of per line.
135
136       set keycolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
137          Use this color combination for the shortcut key combos  in  the  two
138          help lines at the bottom of the screen.  See set titlecolor for more
139          details.
140
141       set linenumbers
142          Display line numbers to the left of the text area.  (Any  line  with
143          an anchor additionally gets a mark in the margin.)
144
145       set locking
146          Enable vim-style lock-files for when editing files.
147
148       set magic
149          When neither the file's name nor its first line give a clue, try us‐
150          ing libmagic to determine the applicable syntax.  (Calling  libmagic
151          can  be  relatively time consuming.  It is therefore not done by de‐
152          fault.)
153
154       set matchbrackets "characters"
155          Specify the opening and  closing  brackets  that  can  be  found  by
156          bracket searches.  This may not include blank characters.  The open‐
157          ing set must come before the closing set, and the two sets  must  be
158          in the same order.  The default value is "(<[{)>]}".
159
160       set minibar
161          Suppress  the  title bar and instead show information about the cur‐
162          rent buffer at the bottom of the screen, in the space for the status
163          bar.   In this "minibar" the filename is shown on the left, followed
164          by an asterisk if the buffer has been modified.  On  the  right  are
165          displayed  the current line and column number, the code of the char‐
166          acter under the cursor (in Unicode format: U+xxxx), the  same  flags
167          as  are shown by set stateflags, and a percentage that expresses how
168          far the cursor is into the file (linewise).  When a file  is  loaded
169          or  saved,  and  also  when switching between buffers, the number of
170          lines in the buffer is displayed after the filename.  This number is
171          cleared  upon  the next keystroke, or replaced with an [i/n] counter
172          when multiple buffers are open.  The line plus  column  numbers  and
173          the character code are displayed only when set constantshow is used,
174          and can be toggled on and off with M-C.  The state  flags  are  dis‐
175          played only when set stateflags is used.
176
177       set minicolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
178          Use  this  color  combination for the minibar.  (When this option is
179          not specified, the colors of the title bar are used.)  See  set  ti‐
180          tlecolor for more details.
181
182       set mouse
183          Enable  mouse  support, if available for your system.  When enabled,
184          mouse clicks can be used to place the cursor, set the mark  (with  a
185          double  click), and execute shortcuts.  The mouse will work in the X
186          Window System, and on the console when gpm  is  running.   Text  can
187          still be selected through dragging by holding down the Shift key.
188
189       set multibuffer
190          When  reading  in a file with ^R, insert it into a new buffer by de‐
191          fault.
192
193       set noconvert
194          Don't convert files from DOS/Mac format.
195
196       set nohelp
197          Don't display the two help lines at the bottom of the screen.
198
199       set nonewlines
200          Don't automatically add a newline when a text does not end with one.
201          (This can cause you to save non-POSIX text files.)
202
203       set nowrap
204          Deprecated  option  since  it  has become the default setting.  When
205          needed, use unset breaklonglines instead.
206
207       set numbercolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
208          Use this color combination for line numbers.  See set titlecolor for
209          more details.
210
211       set operatingdir directory
212          nano  will only read and write files inside directory and its subdi‐
213          rectories.  Also, the current directory is changed to here, so files
214          are  inserted from this directory.  By default, the operating direc‐
215          tory feature is turned off.
216
217       set positionlog
218          Save the cursor position of files  between  editing  sessions.   The
219          cursor  position  is  remembered  for  the  200 most-recently edited
220          files.
221
222       set preserve
223          Preserve the XON and XOFF keys (^Q and ^S).
224
225       set promptcolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
226          Use this color combination for the prompt bar.  (When this option is
227          not  specified,  the colors of the title bar are used.)  See set ti‐
228          tlecolor for more details.
229
230       set punct "characters"
231          Set the characters treated as closing  punctuation  when  justifying
232          paragraphs.   This may not include blank characters.  Only the spec‐
233          fified closing punctuation, optionally followed by closing  brackets
234          (see brackets), can end sentences.  The default value is "!.?".
235
236       set quickblank
237          Make  status-bar messages disappear after 1 keystroke instead of af‐
238          ter 20.  Note that option constantshow overrides this.  When  option
239          minibar  or  zero is in effect, quickblank makes a message disappear
240          after 0.8 seconds instead of after the default 1.5 seconds.
241
242       set quotestr "regex"
243          Set the regular expression for matching the quoting part of a  line.
244          The  default  value  is  "^([ \t]*([!#%:;>|}]|//))+".  (Note that \t
245          stands for an actual Tab character.)  This makes it possible to  re‐
246          justify  blocks  of  quoted text when composing email, and to rewrap
247          blocks of line comments when writing source code.
248
249       set rawsequences
250          Interpret escape sequences directly, instead of  asking  ncurses  to
251          translate  them.   (If you need this option to get some keys to work
252          properly, it means that the terminfo terminal  description  that  is
253          used  does  not  fully  match  the actual behavior of your terminal.
254          This can happen when you ssh into a BSD machine, for example.)   Us‐
255          ing this option disables nano's mouse support.
256
257       set rebinddelete
258          Interpret  the  Delete  and  Backspace keys differently so that both
259          Backspace and Delete work properly.  You should only use this option
260          when on your system either Backspace acts like Delete or Delete acts
261          like Backspace.
262
263       set regexp
264          Do regular-expression searches by default.  Regular  expressions  in
265          nano are of the extended type (ERE).
266
267       set saveonexit
268          Save a changed buffer automatically on exit (^X); don't prompt.
269
270       set scrollercolor fgcolor,bgcolor
271          Use this color combination for the indicator alias "scrollbar".  (On
272          terminal emulators that link to a libvte older  than  version  0.55,
273          using a background color here does not work correctly.)  See set ti‐
274          tlecolor for more details.
275
276       set selectedcolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
277          Use this color combination for selected text.   See  set  titlecolor
278          for more details.
279
280       set showcursor
281          Put the cursor on the highlighted item in the file browser, and show
282          the cursor in the help viewer, to aid braille users and people  with
283          poor vision.
284
285       set smarthome
286          Make the Home key smarter.  When Home is pressed anywhere but at the
287          very beginning of non-whitespace characters on a  line,  the  cursor
288          will  jump to that beginning (either forwards or backwards).  If the
289          cursor is already at that position, it will jump to the true  begin‐
290          ning of the line.
291
292       set softwrap
293          Display  lines  that  exceed the screen's width over multiple screen
294          lines.  (You can make this soft-wrapping occur at whitespace instead
295          of rudely at the screen's edge, by using also set atblanks.)
296
297       set speller "program [argument ...]"
298          Use  the  given program to do spell checking and correcting, instead
299          of using the built-in corrector that calls hunspell(1) or spell(1).
300
301       set spotlightcolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
302          Use this color combination for highlighting a search match.  The de‐
303          fault  value  is  black,lightyellow.   See  set titlecolor for valid
304          color names.
305
306       set stateflags
307          Use the top-right corner of the screen for showing some state flags:
308          I  when  auto-indenting, M when the mark is on, L when hard-wrapping
309          (breaking long lines), R when recording a macro, and  S  when  soft-
310          wrapping.   When  the  buffer is modified, a star (*) is shown after
311          the filename in the center of the title bar.
312
313       set statuscolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
314          Use this color combination for the status bar.  See  set  titlecolor
315          for more details.
316
317       set stripecolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
318          Use this color combination for the vertical guiding stripe.  See set
319          titlecolor for more details.
320
321       set tabsize number
322          Use a tab size of number columns.   The  value  of  number  must  be
323          greater than 0.  The default value is 8.
324
325       set tabstospaces
326          Convert  each  typed tab to spaces -- to the number of spaces that a
327          tab at that position would take up.
328
329       set titlecolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
330          Use this color combination for the title bar.  Valid names  for  the
331          foreground  and  background  colors  are: red, green, blue, magenta,
332          yellow, cyan, white, and black.  Each of these eight  names  may  be
333          prefixed  with  the  word  light  to  get a brighter version of that
334          color.  The word grey or gray may be used as a  synonym  for  light‐
335          black.  On terminal emulators that can do at least 256 colors, other
336          valid (but unprefixable) color names are: pink, purple,  mauve,  la‐
337          goon,  mint, lime, peach, orange, latte, rosy, beet, plum, sea, sky,
338          slate, teal, sage, brown, ocher, sand, tawny,  brick,  crimson,  and
339          normal  --  where  normal means the default foreground or background
340          color.  On such emulators, the color may  also  be  specified  as  a
341          three-digit hexadecimal number prefixed with #, with the digits rep‐
342          resenting the amounts of red, green, and blue,  respectively.   This
343          tells  nano  to select from the available palette the color that ap‐
344          proximates the given values.
345
346          Either "fgcolor" or ",bgcolor" may be left out, and the pair may  be
347          preceded  by  bold and/or italic (separated by commas) to get a bold
348          and/or slanting typeface, if your terminal can do those.
349
350       set trimblanks
351          Remove trailing whitespace from wrapped lines when  automatic  hard-
352          wrapping occurs or when text is justified.
353
354       set unix
355          Save  a  file  by default in Unix format.  This overrides nano's de‐
356          fault behavior of saving a file in the format that  it  had.   (This
357          option has no effect when you also use set noconvert.)
358
359       set whitespace "characters"
360          Set  the  two  characters  used to indicate the presence of tabs and
361          spaces.  They must be single-column characters.   The  default  pair
362          for a UTF-8 locale is "»⋅", and for other locales ">.".
363
364       set wordbounds
365          Detect  word  boundaries differently by treating punctuation charac‐
366          ters as parts of words.
367
368       set wordchars "characters"
369          Specify which other  characters  (besides  the  normal  alphanumeric
370          ones)  should  be considered as parts of words.  When using this op‐
371          tion, you probably want to unset wordbounds.
372
373       set zap
374          Let an unmodified Backspace or Delete erase the marked  region  (in‐
375          stead of a single character, and without affecting the cutbuffer).
376
377       set zero
378          Hide  all elements of the interface (title bar, status bar, and help
379          lines) and use all rows of the terminal for showing the contents  of
380          the buffer.  The status bar appears only when there is a significant
381          message, and disappears after 1.5 seconds  or  upon  the  next  key‐
382          stroke.   With  M-Z  the  title  bar plus status bar can be toggled.
383          With M-X the help lines.
384
385

NOTES

387       Option set suspendable has been removed.  Suspension is enabled by  de‐
388       fault,  reachable  via  ^T^Z.  (If you want a plain ^Z to suspend nano,
389       add bind ^Z suspend main to your nanorc.)
390
391

SYNTAX HIGHLIGHTING

393       Coloring the different syntactic elements of a file is done via regular
394       expressions  (see  the color command below).  This is inherently imper‐
395       fect, because regular expressions are  not  powerful  enough  to  fully
396       parse  a  file.  Nevertheless, regular expressions can do a lot and are
397       easy to make, so they are a good fit for a small editor like nano.
398
399       All regular expressions in nano are POSIX extended regular expressions.
400       This means that ., ?, *, +, ^, $, and several other characters are spe‐
401       cial.  The period . matches any single character, ? means the preceding
402       item  is  optional,  *  means the preceding item may be matched zero or
403       more times, + means the preceding item must  be  matched  one  or  more
404       times, ^ matches the beginning of a line, and $ the end, \< matches the
405       start of a word, and \> the end, and \s matches a blank.  It also means
406       that lookahead and lookbehind are not possible.  A complete explanation
407       can be found in the manual page of GNU grep: man grep.
408
409       For each kind of file a separate syntax can be defined via the  follow‐
410       ing commands:
411
412       syntax name ["fileregex" ...]
413              Start the definition of a syntax with this name.  All subsequent
414              color and other such commands will be added to this syntax,  un‐
415              til a new syntax command is encountered.
416
417              When nano is run, this syntax will be automatically activated if
418              the current filename matches  the  extended  regular  expression
419              fileregex.   Or  the syntax can be explicitly activated by using
420              the -Y or --syntax command-line option followed by the name.
421
422              The syntax default is special: it takes no  fileregex,  and  ap‐
423              plies  to files that don't match any syntax's regexes.  The syn‐
424              tax none is reserved; specifying it on the command line  is  the
425              same as not having a syntax at all.
426
427       header "regex" ...
428              If  from all defined syntaxes no fileregex matched, then compare
429              this regex (or regexes) against the first line  of  the  current
430              file, to determine whether this syntax should be used for it.
431
432       magic "regex" ...
433              If no fileregex matched and no header regex matched either, then
434              compare this regex (or regexes) against the result  of  querying
435              the  magic database about the current file, to determine whether
436              this syntax should be used for  it.   (This  functionality  only
437              works  when  libmagic  is  installed  on  the system and will be
438              silently ignored otherwise.)
439
440       formatter program [argument ...]
441              Run the given program on the full contents of the  current  buf‐
442              fer.
443
444       linter program [argument ...]
445              Use  the given program to run a syntax check on the current buf‐
446              fer.
447
448       comment "string"
449              Use the given string for commenting and uncommenting lines.   If
450              the  string  contains a vertical bar or pipe character (|), this
451              designates bracket-style comments; for example, "/*|*/" for  CSS
452              files.  The characters before the pipe are prepended to the line
453              and the characters after the pipe are appended at the end of the
454              line.   If  no  pipe  character  is  present, the full string is
455              prepended; for example, "#" for Python files.  If  empty  double
456              quotes  are  specified,  the  comment/uncomment function is dis‐
457              abled; for example, "" for JSON.  The default value is "#".
458
459       tabgives "string"
460              Make the <Tab> key produce the given string.   Useful  for  lan‐
461              guages like Python that want to see only spaces for indentation.
462              This overrides the setting of the tabstospaces option.
463
464       color [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor "regex" ...
465              Paint all pieces of text that match the extended regular expres‐
466              sion  regex  with the given foreground and background colors, at
467              least one of which must be specified.  Valid  color  names  are:
468              red, green, blue, magenta, yellow, cyan, white, and black.  Each
469              of these eight names may be prefixed with the word light to  get
470              a  brighter version of that color.  The word grey or gray may be
471              used as a synonym for lightblack.  On  terminal  emulators  that
472              can do at least 256 colors, other valid (but unprefixable) color
473              names are: pink, purple, mauve, lagoon, mint, lime,  peach,  or‐
474              ange,  latte,  rosy,  beet,  plum,  sea, sky, slate, teal, sage,
475              brown, ocher, sand, tawny, brick, crimson, and normal  --  where
476              normal  means  the  default  foreground or background color.  On
477              such emulators, the color may also be specified as a three-digit
478              hexadecimal number prefixed with #, with the digits representing
479              the amounts of red, green, and blue, respectively.   This  tells
480              nano to select from the available palette the color that approx‐
481              imates the given values.
482
483              The color pair may be preceded by bold and/or italic  (separated
484              by  commas) to get a bold and/or slanting typeface, if your ter‐
485              minal can do those.
486
487              All coloring commands are applied in the order in which they are
488              specified,  which  means  that  later commands can recolor stuff
489              that was colored earlier.
490
491       icolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor "regex" ...
492              Same as above, except that the matching is case insensitive.
493
494       color [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor start="fromrx" end="torx"
495              Paint all pieces of text whose start  matches  extended  regular
496              expression fromrx and whose end matches extended regular expres‐
497              sion torx with the given foreground and  background  colors,  at
498              least one of which must be specified.  This means that, after an
499              initial instance of fromrx, all text until the first instance of
500              torx  will  be colored.  This allows syntax highlighting to span
501              multiple lines.
502
503       icolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor start="fromrx" end="torx"
504              Same as above, except that the matching is case insensitive.
505
506       include "syntaxfile"
507              Read in self-contained color  syntaxes  from  syntaxfile.   Note
508              that syntaxfile may contain only the above commands, from syntax
509              to icolor.
510
511       extendsyntax name command argument ...
512              Extend the syntax previously defined as name with  another  com‐
513              mand.   This  allows  adding a new color, icolor, header, magic,
514              formatter, linter, comment, or tabgives command  to  an  already
515              defined  syntax  --  useful  when you want to slightly improve a
516              syntax defined in one of the system-installed files (which  nor‐
517              mally are not writable).
518
519

REBINDING KEYS

521       Key bindings can be changed via the following three commands:
522
523          bind key function menu
524                 Rebinds the given key to the given function in the given menu
525                 (or in all menus where the function exists when all is used).
526
527          bind key "string" menu
528                 Makes the given key produce the given  string  in  the  given
529                 menu (or in all menus where the key exists when all is used).
530                 The string can consist of text or commands or a mix of  them.
531                 (To  enter  a  command into the string, precede its keystroke
532                 with M-V.)
533
534          unbind key menu
535                 Unbinds the given key from the given menu (or from all  menus
536                 where the key exists when all is used).
537
538
539       The format of key should be one of:
540
541          ^X     where X is a Latin letter, or one of several ASCII characters
542                 (@, ], \, ^, _), or the word "Space".  Example: ^C.
543
544          M-X    where X is any ASCII character except [, or the word "Space".
545                 Example: M-8.
546
547          Sh-M-X where  X  is  a  Latin letter.  Example: Sh-M-U.  By default,
548                 each Meta+letter keystroke does the same as the corresponding
549                 Shift+Meta+letter.   But  when  any  Shift+Meta bind is made,
550                 that will no longer be the case, for all letters.
551
552          FN     where N is a numeric value from 1 to 24.  Example: F10.  (Of‐
553                 ten, F13 to F24 can be typed as F1 to F12 with Shift.)
554
555          Ins or Del.
556
557       Rebinding  ^M (Enter) or ^I (Tab) is probably not a good idea.  Rebind‐
558       ing ^[ (Esc) is not possible, because its keycode is the  starter  byte
559       of  Meta  keystrokes  and escape sequences.  Rebinding any of the dedi‐
560       cated cursor-moving keys (the arrows, Home, End, PageUp  and  PageDown)
561       is not possible.  On some terminals it's not possible to rebind ^H (un‐
562       less --raw is used) because its keycode is identical  to  that  of  the
563       Backspace key.
564
565
566       Valid function names to be bound are:
567
568          help
569            Invokes the help viewer.
570
571          cancel
572            Cancels the current command.
573
574          exit
575            Exits from the program (or from the help viewer or file browser).
576
577          writeout
578            Writes the current buffer to disk, asking for a name.
579
580          savefile
581            Writes the current file to disk without prompting.
582
583          insert
584            Inserts  a file into the current buffer (at the current cursor po‐
585            sition), or into a new buffer when option multibuffer is set.
586
587          whereis
588            Starts a forward search for text in the current buffer --  or  for
589            filenames  matching  a  string  in  the  current  list in the file
590            browser.
591
592          wherewas
593            Starts a backward search for text in the current buffer -- or  for
594            filenames  matching  a  string  in  the  current  list in the file
595            browser.
596
597          findprevious
598            Searches the next occurrence in the backward direction.
599
600          findnext
601            Searches the next occurrence in the forward direction.
602
603          replace
604            Interactively replaces text within the current buffer.
605
606          cut
607            Cuts and stores the current line (or the marked region).
608
609          copy
610            Copies the current line (or the marked  region)  without  deleting
611            it.
612
613          paste
614            Pastes  the  currently  stored text into the current buffer at the
615            current cursor position.
616
617          zap
618            Throws away the current line (or the marked region).  (This  func‐
619            tion is bound by default to <Meta+Delete>.)
620
621          chopwordleft
622            Deletes from the cursor position to the beginning of the preceding
623            word.  (This function is bound by default to  <Shift+Ctrl+Delete>.
624            If  your  terminal  produces ^H for <Ctrl+Backspace>, you can make
625            <Ctrl+Backspace> delete the word to the left of the cursor by  re‐
626            binding ^H to this function.)
627
628          chopwordright
629            Deletes  from  the  cursor  position  to the beginning of the next
630            word.  (This function is bound by default to <Ctrl+Delete>.)
631
632          cutrestoffile
633            Cuts all text from the cursor position till the end of the buffer.
634
635          mark
636            Sets the mark at the current position, to  start  selecting  text.
637            Or, when it is set, unsets the mark.
638
639          location
640            Reports  the  current  position  of  the cursor in the buffer: the
641            line, column, and character positions.
642
643          wordcount
644            Counts and reports on the status bar the number of  lines,  words,
645            and characters in the current buffer (or in the marked region).
646
647          execute
648            Prompts  for  a  program to execute.  The program's output will be
649            inserted into the current buffer (or into a new buffer when M-F is
650            toggled).
651
652          speller
653            Invokes  a  spell-checking program, either the default hunspell(1)
654            or GNU spell(1), or the one defined by --speller or set speller.
655
656          formatter
657            Invokes a full-buffer-processing program (if the active syntax de‐
658            fines  one).   (The  current  buffer is written out to a temporary
659            file, the program is run on it, and then  the  temporary  file  is
660            read back in, replacing the contents of the buffer.)
661
662          linter
663            Invokes  a  syntax-checking  program (if the active syntax defines
664            one).   If  this  program  produces  lines  of  the  form   "file‐
665            name:linenum:charnum:  some  message", then the cursor will be put
666            at the indicated position in  the  mentioned  file  while  showing
667            "some  message"  on  the status bar.  You can move from message to
668            message with <PgUp> and <PgDn>, and leave linting mode with ^C  or
669            <Enter>.
670
671          justify
672            Justifies  the  current paragraph (or the marked region).  A para‐
673            graph is a group of contiguous lines that, apart from possibly the
674            first  line,  all  have  the same indentation.  The beginning of a
675            paragraph is detected by either this lone line  with  a  differing
676            indentation or by a preceding blank line.
677
678          fulljustify
679            Justifies the entire current buffer (or the marked region).
680
681          indent
682            Indents  (shifts  to  the  right)  the  current line or the marked
683            lines.
684
685          unindent
686            Unindents (shifts to the left) the  current  line  or  the  marked
687            lines.
688
689          comment
690            Comments or uncomments the current line or the marked lines, using
691            the comment style specified in the active syntax.
692
693          complete
694            Completes (when possible) the fragment before the cursor to a full
695            word found elsewhere in the current buffer.
696
697          left
698            Goes left one position (in the editor or browser).
699
700          right
701            Goes right one position (in the editor or browser).
702
703          up
704            Goes one line up (in the editor or browser).
705
706          down
707            Goes one line down (in the editor or browser).
708
709          scrollup
710            Scrolls  the  viewport  up  one  row (meaning that the text slides
711            down) while keeping the cursor in the same text position, if  pos‐
712            sible.   (This  function  is  bound  by  default  to <Alt+Up>.  If
713            <Alt+Up>  does  nothing  on  your  Linux  console,  see  the  FAQ:
714https://nano-editor.org/dist/latest/faq.html#4.1⟩.)
715
716          scrolldown
717            Scrolls  the  viewport  down one row (meaning that the text slides
718            up) while keeping the cursor in the same text position, if  possi‐
719            ble.  (This function is bound by default to <Alt+Down>.)
720
721          center
722            Scrolls the line with the cursor to the middle of the screen.
723
724          prevword
725            Moves the cursor to the beginning of the previous word.
726
727          nextword
728            Moves the cursor to the beginning of the next word.
729
730          home
731            Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current line.
732
733          end
734            Moves the cursor to the end of the current line.
735
736          beginpara
737            Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current paragraph.
738
739          endpara
740            Moves the cursor to the end of the current paragraph.
741
742          prevblock
743            Moves  the  cursor  to  the  beginning of the current or preceding
744            block of text.  (Blocks are separated by one or more blank lines.)
745
746          nextblock
747            Moves the cursor to the beginning of the next block of text.
748
749          pageup
750            Goes up one screenful.
751
752          pagedown
753            Goes down one screenful.
754
755          firstline
756            Goes to the first line of the file.
757
758          lastline
759            Goes to the last line of the file.
760
761          gotoline
762            Goes to a specific line (and column if specified).  Negative  num‐
763            bers count from the end of the file (and end of the line).
764
765          findbracket
766            Moves  the  cursor  to the bracket (or brace or parenthesis, etc.)
767            that matches (pairs) with the  one  under  the  cursor.   See  set
768            matchbrackets.
769
770          anchor
771            Places  an  anchor at the current line, or removes it when already
772            present.  (An anchor is visible when line numbers are activated.)
773
774          prevanchor
775            Goes to the first anchor before the current line.
776
777          nextanchor
778            Goes to the first anchor after the current line.
779
780          prevbuf
781            Switches to editing/viewing the previous buffer when multiple buf‐
782            fers are open.
783
784          nextbuf
785            Switches  to editing/viewing the next buffer when multiple buffers
786            are open.
787
788          verbatim
789            Inserts the next keystroke verbatim into the file.
790
791          tab
792            Inserts a tab at the current cursor location.
793
794          enter
795            Inserts a new line below the current one.
796
797          delete
798            Deletes the character under the cursor.
799
800          backspace
801            Deletes the character before the cursor.
802
803          recordmacro
804            Starts the recording of keystrokes -- the keystrokes are stored as
805            a macro.  When already recording, the recording is stopped.
806
807          runmacro
808            Replays the keystrokes of the last recorded macro.
809
810          undo
811            Undoes  the  last  performed  text  action (add text, delete text,
812            etc).
813
814          redo
815            Redoes the last undone action (i.e., it undoes an undo).
816
817          refresh
818            Refreshes the screen.
819
820          suspend
821            Suspends the editor and returns control to the  shell  (until  you
822            tell the process to resume execution with fg).
823
824          casesens
825            Toggles  whether  searching/replacing ignores or respects the case
826            of the given characters.
827
828          regexp
829            Toggles whether searching/replacing uses literal strings or  regu‐
830            lar expressions.
831
832          backwards
833            Toggles whether searching/replacing goes forward or backward.
834
835          older
836            Retrieves the previous (earlier) entry at a prompt.
837
838          newer
839            Retrieves the next (later) entry at a prompt.
840
841          flipreplace
842            Toggles between searching for something and replacing something.
843
844          flipgoto
845            Toggles between searching for text and targeting a line number.
846
847          flipexecute
848            Toggles between inserting a file and executing a command.
849
850          flippipe
851            When  executing  a command, toggles whether the current buffer (or
852            marked region) is piped to the command.
853
854          flipnewbuffer
855            Toggles between inserting into the current buffer and into  a  new
856            empty buffer.
857
858          flipconvert
859            When  reading  in  a file, toggles between converting and not con‐
860            verting it from DOS/Mac format.  Converting is the default.
861
862          dosformat
863            When writing a file, switches to writing a DOS format (CR/LF).
864
865          macformat
866            When writing a file, switches to writing a Mac format.
867
868          append
869            When writing a file, appends to the end instead of overwriting.
870
871          prepend
872            When writing a file, 'prepends' (writes at the beginning)  instead
873            of overwriting.
874
875          backup
876            When writing a file, creates a backup of the current file.
877
878          discardbuffer
879            When  about  to  write  a file, discard the current buffer without
880            saving.  (This function is  bound  by  default  only  when  option
881            --saveonexit is in effect.)
882
883          browser
884            Starts  the  file  browser (in the Read File and Write Out menus),
885            allowing to select a file from a list.
886
887          gotodir
888            Goes to a directory to be specified, allowing to  browse  anywhere
889            in the filesystem.
890
891          firstfile
892            Goes to the first file in the list when using the file browser.
893
894          lastfile
895            Goes to the last file in the list when using the file browser.
896
897          nohelp
898            Toggles  the  presence of the two-line list of key bindings at the
899            bottom of the screen.  (This toggle is special: it is available in
900            all menus except the help viewer and the linter.  All further tog‐
901            gles are available in the main menu only.)
902
903          zero
904            Toggles the presence of title bar and status bar.
905
906          constantshow
907            Toggles the constant display of  the  current  line,  column,  and
908            character positions.
909
910          softwrap
911            Toggles the displaying of overlong lines on multiple screen lines.
912
913          linenumbers
914            Toggles the display of line numbers in front of the text.
915
916          whitespacedisplay
917            Toggles the showing of whitespace.
918
919          nosyntax
920            Toggles syntax highlighting.
921
922          smarthome
923            Toggles the smartness of the Home key.
924
925          autoindent
926            Toggles  whether a newly created line will contain the same amount
927            of leading whitespace as the preceding line -- or as the next line
928            if the preceding line is the beginning of a paragraph.
929
930          cutfromcursor
931            Toggles  whether cutting text will cut the whole line or just from
932            the current cursor position to the end of the line.
933
934          breaklonglines
935            Toggles whether long lines will be hard-wrapped to the next  line.
936            (The old name of this function, 'nowrap', is deprecated.)
937
938          tabstospaces
939            Toggles whether typed tabs will be converted to spaces.
940
941          mouse
942            Toggles mouse support.
943
944
945       Valid menu sections are:
946
947          main
948            The main editor window where text is entered and edited.
949
950          help
951            The help-viewer menu.
952
953          search
954            The search menu (AKA whereis).
955
956          replace
957            The 'search to replace' menu.
958
959          replacewith
960            The 'replace with' menu, which comes up after 'search to replace'.
961
962          yesno
963            The 'yesno' menu, where the Yes/No/All/Cancel question is asked.
964
965          gotoline
966            The 'goto line (and column)' menu.
967
968          writeout
969            The 'write file' menu.
970
971          insert
972            The 'insert file' menu.
973
974          browser
975            The  'file browser' menu, for selecting a file to be opened or in‐
976            serted or written to.
977
978          whereisfile
979            The 'search for a file' menu in the file browser.
980
981          gotodir
982            The 'go to directory' menu in the file browser.
983
984          execute
985            The menu for inserting the output from an external command, or for
986            filtering  the  buffer  (or the marked region) through an external
987            command, or for executing one of several tools.
988
989          spell
990            The menu of the integrated spell checker where the user can edit a
991            misspelled word.
992
993          linter
994            The  linter  menu,  which  allows jumping through the linting mes‐
995            sages.
996
997          all
998            A special name that encompasses all menus.  For bind it means  all
999            menus where the specified function exists; for unbind it means all
1000            menus where the specified key exists.
1001
1002

FILES

1004       /etc/nanorc
1005              System-wide configuration file.
1006
1007       ~/.nanorc or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nano/nanorc or ~/.config/nano/nanorc
1008              Per-user configuration file.
1009
1010       /usr/share/nano/*
1011              Syntax definitions for the syntax coloring of common file  types
1012              (and for less common file types in the extra/ subdirectory).
1013
1014

SEE ALSO

1016       nano(1)
1017
1018       https://nano-editor.org/cheatsheet.html
1019              An overview of the default key bindings.
1020
1021
1022
1023August 2022                       version 6.4                        NANORC(5)
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