1NANO(1) General Commands Manual NANO(1)
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6 nano - Nano's ANOther editor, inspired by Pico
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10 nano [options] [[+line[,column]] file]...
11 nano [options] [[+[crCR](/|?)string] file]...
13
16 nano is a small and friendly editor. It copies the look and feel of
17 Pico, but is free software, and implements several features that Pico
18 lacks, such as: opening multiple files, scrolling per line, undo/redo,
19 syntax coloring, line numbering, and soft-wrapping overlong lines.
20 When giving a filename on the command line, the cursor can be put on a
22 specific line by adding the line number with a plus sign (+) before the
23 filename, and even in a specific column by adding it with a comma.
24 (Negative numbers count from the end of the file or line.) The cursor
25 can be put on the first or last occurrence of a specific string by
26 specifying that string after +/ or +? before the filename. The string
27 can be made case sensitive and/or caused to be interpreted as a regular
28 expression by inserting c and/or r after the + sign. These search
29 modes can be explicitly disabled by using the uppercase variant of
30 those letters: C and/or R. When the string contains spaces, it needs
31 to be enclosed in quotes. To give an example: to open a file at the
32 first occurrence of the word "Foo", you would do:
33 nano +c/Foo file
35 As a special case: if instead of a filename a dash (-) is given, nano
37 will read data from standard input.
38
41 Entering text and moving around in a file is straightforward: typing
42 the letters and using the normal cursor movement keys. Commands are
43 entered by using the Control (^) and the Alt or Meta (M-) keys. Typing
44 ^K deletes the current line and puts it in the cutbuffer. Consecutive
45 ^Ks will put all deleted lines together in the cutbuffer. Any cursor
46 movement or executing any other command will cause the next ^K to over‐
47 write the cutbuffer. A ^U will paste the current contents of the cut‐
48 buffer at the current cursor position.
49 When a more precise piece of text needs to be cut or copied, you can
51 mark its start with ^6, move the cursor to its end (the marked text
52 will be highlighted), and then use ^K to cut it, or M-6 to copy it to
53 the cutbuffer. You can also save the marked text to a file with ^O, or
54 spell check it with ^T^T.
55 On some terminals, text can be selected also by holding down Shift
57 while using the arrow keys. Holding down the Ctrl or Alt key too will
58 increase the stride. Any cursor movement without Shift being held will
59 cancel such a selection.
60 The two lines at the bottom of the screen show some important commands;
62 the built-in help (^G) lists all the available ones. The default key
63 bindings can be changed via a nanorc file -- see nanorc(5).
64
67 -A, --smarthome
68 Make the Home key smarter. When Home is pressed anywhere but at
69 the very beginning of non-whitespace characters on a line, the
70 cursor will jump to that beginning (either forwards or back‐
71 wards). If the cursor is already at that position, it will jump
72 to the true beginning of the line.
73 -B, --backup
75 When saving a file, back up the previous version of it, using
76 the current filename suffixed with a tilde (~).
77 -C directory, --backupdir=directory
79 Make and keep not just one backup file, but make and keep a
80 uniquely numbered one every time a file is saved -- when backups
81 are enabled (-B). The uniquely numbered files are stored in the
82 specified directory.
83 -D, --boldtext
85 For the interface, use bold instead of reverse video. This will
86 be overridden by setting the options titlecolor, statuscolor,
87 keycolor, functioncolor, numbercolor, and/or selectedcolor in
88 your nanorc file. See nanorc(5).
89 -E, --tabstospaces
91 Convert each typed tab to spaces -- to the number of spaces that
92 a tab at that position would take up.
93 -F, --multibuffer
95 Read a file into a new buffer by default.
96 -G, --locking
98 Use vim-style file locking when editing files.
99 -H, --historylog
101 Save the last hundred search strings and replacement strings and
102 executed commands, so they can be easily reused in later ses‐
103 sions.
104 -I, --ignorercfiles
106 Don't look at the system's nanorc nor at the user's nanorc.
107 -J number, --guidestripe=number
109 Draw a vertical stripe at the given column, to help judge the
110 width of the text. (The color of the stripe can be changed with
111 set stripecolor in your nanorc file.)
112 -K, --rawsequences
114 Interpret escape sequences directly, instead of asking ncurses
115 to translate them. (If you need this option to get some keys to
116 work properly, it means that the terminfo terminal description
117 that is used does not fully match the actual behavior of your
118 terminal. This can happen when you ssh into a BSD machine, for
119 example.) Using this option disables nano's mouse support.
120 -L, --nonewlines
122 Don't automatically add a newline when a text does not end with
123 one. (This can cause you to save non-POSIX text files.)
124 -M, --trimblanks
126 Snip trailing whitespace from the wrapped line when automatic
127 hard-wrapping occurs or when text is justified.
128 -N, --noconvert
130 Disable automatic conversion of files from DOS/Mac format.
131 -O, --bookstyle
133 When justifying, treat any line that starts with whitespace as
134 the beginning of a paragraph (unless auto-indenting is on).
135 -P, --positionlog
137 For the 200 most recent files, log the last position of the cur‐
138 sor, and place it at that position again upon reopening such a
139 file.
140 -Q "regex", --quotestr="regex"
142 Set the regular expression for matching the quoting part of a
143 line. The default value is "^([ \t]*([!#%:;>|}]|//))+". (Note
144 that \t stands for an actual Tab.) This makes it possible to
145 rejustify blocks of quoted text when composing email, and to re‐
146 wrap blocks of line comments when writing source code.
147 -R, --restricted
149 Restricted mode: don't read or write to any file not specified
150 on the command line. This means: don't read or write history
151 files; don't allow suspending; don't allow spell checking; don't
152 allow a file to be appended to, prepended to, or saved under a
153 different name if it already has one; and don't make backup
154 files. Restricted mode can also be activated by invoking nano
155 with any name beginning with 'r' (e.g. "rnano").
156 -S, --softwrap
158 Display over multiple screen rows lines that exceed the screen's
159 width. (You can make this soft-wrapping occur at whitespace in‐
160 stead of rudely at the screen's edge, by using also --atblanks.)
161 (The old short option, -$, is deprecated.)
162 -T number, --tabsize=number
164 Set the size (width) of a tab to number columns. The value of
165 number must be greater than 0. The default value is 8.
166 -U, --quickblank
168 Make status-bar messages disappear after 1 keystroke instead of
169 after 20. Note that option -c (--constantshow) overrides this.
170 When option --minibar or --zero is in effect, --quickblank makes
171 a message disappear after 0.8 seconds instead of after the de‐
172 fault 1.5 seconds.
173 -V, --version
175 Show the current version number and exit.
176 -W, --wordbounds
178 Detect word boundaries differently by treating punctuation char‐
179 acters as part of a word.
180 -X "characters", --wordchars="characters"
182 Specify which other characters (besides the normal alphanumeric
183 ones) should be considered as part of a word. When using this
184 option, you probably want to omit -W (--wordbounds).
185 -Y name, --syntax=name
187 Specify the name of the syntax highlighting to use from among
188 the ones defined in the nanorc files.
189 -Z, --zap
191 Let an unmodified Backspace or Delete erase the marked region
192 (instead of a single character, and without affecting the cut‐
193 buffer).
194 -a, --atblanks
196 When doing soft line wrapping, wrap lines at whitespace instead
197 of always at the edge of the screen.
198 -b, --breaklonglines
200 Automatically hard-wrap the current line when it becomes over‐
201 long. (This option is the opposite of -w (--nowrap) -- the last
202 one given takes effect.)
203 -c, --constantshow
205 Constantly show the cursor position on the status bar. Note
206 that this overrides option -U (--quickblank).
207 -d, --rebinddelete
209 Interpret the Delete and Backspace keys differently so that both
210 Backspace and Delete work properly. You should only use this
211 option when on your system either Backspace acts like Delete or
212 Delete acts like Backspace.
213 -e, --emptyline
215 Do not use the line below the title bar, leaving it entirely
216 blank.
217 -f file, --rcfile=file
219 Read only this file for setting nano's options, instead of read‐
220 ing both the system-wide and the user's nanorc files.
221 -g, --showcursor
223 Make the cursor visible in the file browser (putting it on the
224 highlighted item) and in the help viewer. Useful for braille
225 users and people with poor vision.
226 -h, --help
228 Show a summary of the available command-line options and exit.
229 -i, --autoindent
231 Automatically indent a newly created line to the same number of
232 tabs and/or spaces as the previous line (or as the next line if
233 the previous line is the beginning of a paragraph).
234 -j, --jumpyscrolling
236 Scroll the buffer contents per half-screen instead of per line.
237 -k, --cutfromcursor
239 Make the 'Cut Text' command (normally ^K) cut from the current
240 cursor position to the end of the line, instead of cutting the
241 entire line.
242 -l, --linenumbers
244 Display line numbers to the left of the text area. (Any line
245 with an anchor additionally gets a mark in the margin.)
246 -m, --mouse
248 Enable mouse support, if available for your system. When en‐
249 abled, mouse clicks can be used to place the cursor, set the
250 mark (with a double click), and execute shortcuts. The mouse
251 will work in the X Window System, and on the console when gpm is
252 running. Text can still be selected through dragging by holding
253 down the Shift key.
254 -n, --noread
256 Treat any name given on the command line as a new file. This
257 allows nano to write to named pipes: it will start with a blank
258 buffer, and will write to the pipe when the user saves the
259 "file". This way nano can be used as an editor in combination
260 with for instance gpg without having to write sensitive data to
261 disk first.
262 -o directory, --operatingdir=directory
264 Set the operating directory. This makes nano set up something
265 similar to a chroot.
266 -p, --preserve
268 Preserve the XON and XOFF sequences (^Q and ^S) so they will be
269 caught by the terminal.
270 -q, --indicator
272 Display a "scrollbar" on the righthand side of the edit window.
273 It shows the position of the viewport in the buffer and how much
274 of the buffer is covered by the viewport.
275 -r number, --fill=number
277 Set the target width for justifying and automatic hard-wrapping
278 at this number of columns. If the value is 0 or less, wrapping
279 will occur at the width of the screen minus number columns, al‐
280 lowing the wrap point to vary along with the width of the screen
281 if the screen is resized. The default value is -8.
282 -s "program [argument ...]", --speller="program [argument ...]"
284 Use this command to perform spell checking and correcting, in‐
285 stead of using the built-in corrector that calls hunspell(1) or
286 spell(1).
287 -t, --saveonexit
289 Save a changed buffer without prompting (when exiting with ^X).
290 -u, --unix
292 Save a file by default in Unix format. This overrides nano's
293 default behavior of saving a file in the format that it had.
294 (This option has no effect when you also use --noconvert.)
295 -v, --view
297 Just view the file and disallow editing: read-only mode. This
298 mode allows the user to open also other files for viewing, un‐
299 less --restricted is given too.
300 -w, --nowrap
302 Do not automatically hard-wrap the current line when it becomes
303 overlong. This is the default. (This option is the opposite of
304 -b (--breaklonglines) -- the last one given takes effect.)
305 -x, --nohelp
307 Don't show the two help lines at the bottom of the screen.
308 -y, --afterends
310 Make Ctrl+Right and Ctrl+Delete stop at word ends instead of be‐
311 ginnings.
312 -%, --stateflags
314 Use the top-right corner of the screen for showing some state
315 flags: I when auto-indenting, M when the mark is on, L when
316 hard-wrapping (breaking long lines), R when recording a macro,
317 and S when soft-wrapping. When the buffer is modified, a star
318 (*) is shown after the filename in the center of the title bar.
319 -_, --minibar
321 Suppress the title bar and instead show information about the
322 current buffer at the bottom of the screen, in the space for the
323 status bar. In this "minibar" the filename is shown on the
324 left, followed by an asterisk if the buffer has been modified.
325 On the right are displayed the current line and column number,
326 the code of the character under the cursor (in Unicode format:
327 U+xxxx), the same flags as are shown by --stateflags, and a per‐
328 centage that expresses how far the cursor is into the file
329 (linewise). When a file is loaded or saved, and also when
330 switching between buffers, the number of lines in the buffer is
331 displayed after the filename. This number is cleared upon the
332 next keystroke, or replaced with an [i/n] counter when multiple
333 buffers are open. The line plus column numbers and the charac‐
334 ter code are displayed only when --constantshow is used, and can
335 be toggled on and off with M-C. The state flags are displayed
336 only when --stateflags is used.
337 -0, --zero
339 Hide all elements of the interface (title bar, status bar, and
340 help lines) and use all rows of the terminal for showing the
341 contents of the buffer. The status bar appears only when there
342 is a significant message, and disappears after 1.5 seconds or
343 upon the next keystroke. With M-Z the title bar plus status bar
344 can be toggled. With M-X the help lines.
345 -!, --magic
347 When neither the file's name nor its first line give a clue, try
348 using libmagic to determine the applicable syntax.
349
352 Several of the above options can be switched on and off also while nano
353 is running. For example, M-L toggles the hard-wrapping of long lines,
354 M-S toggles soft-wrapping, M-N toggles line numbers, M-M toggles the
355 mouse, M-I auto-indentation, and M-X the help lines. See at the end of
356 the ^G help text for a complete list.
357 The M-X toggle is special: it works in all menus except the help viewer
359 and the linter. All other toggles work in the main menu only.
360
363 When --rcfile is given, nano will read just the specified file for set‐
364 ting its options and syntaxes and key bindings. Without that option,
365 nano will read two configuration files: first the system's nanorc (if
366 it exists), and then the user's nanorc (if it exists), either ~/.nanorc
367 or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nano/nanorc or ~/.config/nano/nanorc, whichever is
368 encountered first. See nanorc(5) for more information on the possible
369 contents of those files.
370 See /usr/share/nano/ and /usr/share/nano/extra/ for available syntax-
372 coloring definitions.
373
376 Option -z (--suspendable) has been removed. Suspension is enabled by
377 default, reachable via ^T^Z. (If you want a plain ^Z to suspend nano,
378 add bind ^Z suspend main to your nanorc.)
379 If no alternative spell checker command is specified on the command
381 line nor in one of the nanorc files, nano will check the SPELL environ‐
382 ment variable for one.
383 In some cases nano will try to dump the buffer into an emergency file.
385 This will happen mainly if nano receives a SIGHUP or SIGTERM or runs
386 out of memory. It will write the buffer into a file named nano.save if
387 the buffer didn't have a name already, or will add a ".save" suffix to
388 the current filename. If an emergency file with that name already ex‐
389 ists in the current directory, it will add ".save" plus a number (e.g.
390 ".save.1") to the current filename in order to make it unique. In
391 multibuffer mode, nano will write all the open buffers to their respec‐
392 tive emergency files.
393
396 The recording and playback of keyboard macros works correctly only on a
397 terminal emulator, not on a Linux console (VT), because the latter does
398 not by default distinguish modified from unmodified arrow keys.
399 Please report any other bugs that you encounter via:
401 https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=nano.
402 When nano crashes, it will save any modified buffers to emergency .save
404 files. If you are able to reproduce the crash and you want to get a
405 backtrace, define the environment variable NANO_NOCATCH.
406
409 https://nano-editor.org/
410
413 nanorc(5)
414 /usr/share/doc/nano/ (or equivalent on your system)
416August 2022 version 6.4 NANO(1)