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 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 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 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 The supported commands and arguments are:
39 set afterends
41 Make Ctrl+Right and Ctrl+Delete stop at word ends instead of begin‐
42 nings.
43 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 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 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 set backup
60 When saving a file, create a backup file by adding a tilde (~) to
61 the file's name.
62 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 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 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 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 set breaklonglines
86 Automatically hard-wrap the current line when it becomes overlong.
87 set casesensitive
89 Do case-sensitive searches by default.
90 set constantshow
92 Constantly display the cursor position in the status bar. This
93 overrides the option quickblank.
94 set cutfromcursor
96 Use cut-from-cursor-to-end-of-line by default, instead of cutting
97 the whole line.
98 set emptyline
100 Do not use the line below the title bar, leaving it entirely blank.
101 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 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 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 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 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 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 set jumpyscrolling
134 Scroll the buffer contents per half-screen instead of per line.
135 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 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 set locking
146 Enable vim-style lock-files for when editing files.
147 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 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 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 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 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 set multibuffer
190 When reading in a file with ^R, insert it into a new buffer by de‐
191 fault.
192 set noconvert
194 Don't convert files from DOS/Mac format.
195 set nohelp
197 Don't display the two help lines at the bottom of the screen.
198 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 set nowrap
204 Deprecated option since it has become the default setting. When
205 needed, use unset breaklonglines instead.
206 set numbercolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
208 Use this color combination for line numbers. See set titlecolor for
209 more details.
210 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 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 set preserve
223 Preserve the XON and XOFF keys (^Q and ^S).
224 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 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 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 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 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 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 set regexp
264 Do regular-expression searches by default. Regular expressions in
265 nano are of the extended type (ERE).
266 set saveonexit
268 Save a changed buffer automatically on exit (^X); don't prompt.
269 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 set selectedcolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
277 Use this color combination for selected text. See set titlecolor
278 for more details.
279 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 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 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 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 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 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 set statuscolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
314 Use this color combination for the status bar. See set titlecolor
315 for more details.
316 set stripecolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
318 Use this color combination for the vertical guiding stripe. See set
319 titlecolor for more details.
320 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 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 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 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 set trimblanks
351 Remove trailing whitespace from wrapped lines when automatic hard-
352 wrapping occurs or when text is justified.
353 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 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 set wordbounds
365 Detect word boundaries differently by treating punctuation charac‐
366 ters as parts of words.
367 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 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 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
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
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 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 Each regular expression in a nanorc file should be wrapped in double
410 quotes (""). Multiple regular expressions can follow each other on a
411 line by separating them with blanks. This means that a regular expres‐
412 sion cannot contain a double quote followed by a blank. When you need
413 this combination inside a regular expression, then either the double
414 quote or the blank should be put between square brackets ([]).
415 For each kind of file a separate syntax can be defined via the follow‐
417 ing commands:
418 syntax name ["fileregex" ...]
420 Start the definition of a syntax with this name. All subsequent
421 color and other such commands will be added to this syntax, un‐
422 til a new syntax command is encountered.
423 When nano is run, this syntax will be automatically activated if
425 the current filename matches the extended regular expression
426 fileregex. Or the syntax can be explicitly activated by using
427 the -Y or --syntax command-line option followed by the name.
428 The syntax default is special: it takes no fileregex, and ap‐
430 plies to files that don't match any syntax's regexes. The syn‐
431 tax none is reserved; specifying it on the command line is the
432 same as not having a syntax at all.
433 header "regex" ...
435 If from all defined syntaxes no fileregex matched, then compare
436 this regex (or regexes) against the first line of the current
437 file, to determine whether this syntax should be used for it.
438 magic "regex" ...
440 If no fileregex matched and no header regex matched either, then
441 compare this regex (or regexes) against the result of querying
442 the magic database about the current file, to determine whether
443 this syntax should be used for it. (This functionality only
444 works when libmagic is installed on the system and will be
445 silently ignored otherwise.)
446 formatter program [argument ...]
448 Run the given program on the full contents of the current buf‐
449 fer.
450 linter program [argument ...]
452 Use the given program to run a syntax check on the current buf‐
453 fer.
454 comment "string"
456 Use the given string for commenting and uncommenting lines. If
457 the string contains a vertical bar or pipe character (|), this
458 designates bracket-style comments; for example, "/*|*/" for CSS
459 files. The characters before the pipe are prepended to the line
460 and the characters after the pipe are appended at the end of the
461 line. If no pipe character is present, the full string is
462 prepended; for example, "#" for Python files. If empty double
463 quotes are specified, the comment/uncomment function is dis‐
464 abled; for example, "" for JSON. The default value is "#".
465 tabgives "string"
467 Make the <Tab> key produce the given string. Useful for lan‐
468 guages like Python that want to see only spaces for indentation.
469 This overrides the setting of the tabstospaces option.
470 color [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor "regex" ...
472 Paint all pieces of text that match the extended regular expres‐
473 sion regex with the given foreground and background colors, at
474 least one of which must be specified. Valid color names are:
475 red, green, blue, magenta, yellow, cyan, white, and black. Each
476 of these eight names may be prefixed with the word light to get
477 a brighter version of that color. The word grey or gray may be
478 used as a synonym for lightblack. On terminal emulators that
479 can do at least 256 colors, other valid (but unprefixable) color
480 names are: pink, purple, mauve, lagoon, mint, lime, peach, or‐
481 ange, latte, rosy, beet, plum, sea, sky, slate, teal, sage,
482 brown, ocher, sand, tawny, brick, crimson, and normal -- where
483 normal means the default foreground or background color. On
484 such emulators, the color may also be specified as a three-digit
485 hexadecimal number prefixed with #, with the digits representing
486 the amounts of red, green, and blue, respectively. This tells
487 nano to select from the available palette the color that approx‐
488 imates the given values.
489 The color pair may be preceded by bold and/or italic (separated
491 by commas) to get a bold and/or slanting typeface, if your ter‐
492 minal can do those.
493 All coloring commands are applied in the order in which they are
495 specified, which means that later commands can recolor stuff
496 that was colored earlier.
497 icolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor "regex" ...
499 Same as above, except that the matching is case insensitive.
500 color [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor start="fromrx" end="torx"
502 Paint all pieces of text whose start matches extended regular
503 expression fromrx and whose end matches extended regular expres‐
504 sion torx with the given foreground and background colors, at
505 least one of which must be specified. This means that, after an
506 initial instance of fromrx, all text until the first instance of
507 torx will be colored. This allows syntax highlighting to span
508 multiple lines.
509 icolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor start="fromrx" end="torx"
511 Same as above, except that the matching is case insensitive.
512 include "syntaxfile"
514 Read in self-contained color syntaxes from syntaxfile. Note
515 that syntaxfile may contain only the above commands, from syntax
516 to icolor.
517 extendsyntax name command argument ...
519 Extend the syntax previously defined as name with another com‐
520 mand. This allows adding a new color, icolor, header, magic,
521 formatter, linter, comment, or tabgives command to an already
522 defined syntax -- useful when you want to slightly improve a
523 syntax defined in one of the system-installed files (which nor‐
524 mally are not writable).
525
528 Key bindings can be changed via the following three commands:
529 bind key function menu
531 Rebinds the given key to the given function in the given menu
532 (or in all menus where the function exists when all is used).
533 bind key "string" menu
535 Makes the given key produce the given string in the given
536 menu (or in all menus where the key exists when all is used).
537 Besides literal text and/or control codes, the string may
538 contain function names between braces. These functions will
539 be invoked when the key is typed. To include a literal open‐
540 ing brace, use {{}.
541 unbind key menu
543 Unbinds the given key from the given menu (or from all menus
544 where the key exists when all is used).
545 Note that bind key "{function}" menu is equivalent to bind key function
547 menu, except that for the latter form nano will check the availabilty
548 of the function in the given menu at startup time (and report an error
549 if it does not exist there), whereas for the first form nano will check
550 at execution time that the function exists but not whether it makes any
551 sense in the current menu. The user has to take care that a function
552 name between braces (or any sequence of them) is appropriate. Strange
553 behavior can result when it is not.
554 The format of key should be one of:
557 ^X where X is a Latin letter, or one of several ASCII characters
559 (@, ], \, ^, _), or the word "Space". Example: ^C.
560 M-X where X is any ASCII character except [, or the word "Space".
562 Example: M-8.
563 Sh-M-X where X is a Latin letter. Example: Sh-M-U. By default,
565 each Meta+letter keystroke does the same as the corresponding
566 Shift+Meta+letter. But when any Shift+Meta bind is made,
567 that will no longer be the case, for all letters.
568 FN where N is a numeric value from 1 to 24. Example: F10. (Of‐
570 ten, F13 to F24 can be typed as F1 to F12 with Shift.)
571 Ins or Del.
573 Rebinding ^M (Enter) or ^I (Tab) is probably not a good idea. Rebind‐
575 ing ^[ (Esc) is not possible, because its keycode is the starter byte
576 of Meta keystrokes and escape sequences. Rebinding any of the dedi‐
577 cated cursor-moving keys (the arrows, Home, End, PageUp and PageDown)
578 is not possible. On some terminals it's not possible to rebind ^H (un‐
579 less --raw is used) because its keycode is identical to that of the
580 Backspace key.
581 Valid function names to be bound are:
584 help
586 Invokes the help viewer.
587 cancel
589 Cancels the current command.
590 exit
592 Exits from the program (or from the help viewer or file browser).
593 writeout
595 Writes the current buffer to disk, asking for a name.
596 savefile
598 Writes the current file to disk without prompting.
599 insert
601 Inserts a file into the current buffer (at the current cursor po‐
602 sition), or into a new buffer when option multibuffer is set.
603 whereis
605 Starts a forward search for text in the current buffer -- or for
606 filenames matching a string in the current list in the file
607 browser.
608 wherewas
610 Starts a backward search for text in the current buffer -- or for
611 filenames matching a string in the current list in the file
612 browser.
613 findprevious
615 Searches the next occurrence in the backward direction.
616 findnext
618 Searches the next occurrence in the forward direction.
619 replace
621 Interactively replaces text within the current buffer.
622 cut
624 Cuts and stores the current line (or the marked region).
625 copy
627 Copies the current line (or the marked region) without deleting
628 it.
629 paste
631 Pastes the currently stored text into the current buffer at the
632 current cursor position.
633 zap
635 Throws away the current line (or the marked region). (This func‐
636 tion is bound by default to <Meta+Delete>.)
637 chopwordleft
639 Deletes from the cursor position to the beginning of the preceding
640 word. (This function is bound by default to <Shift+Ctrl+Delete>.
641 If your terminal produces ^H for <Ctrl+Backspace>, you can make
642 <Ctrl+Backspace> delete the word to the left of the cursor by re‐
643 binding ^H to this function.)
644 chopwordright
646 Deletes from the cursor position to the beginning of the next
647 word. (This function is bound by default to <Ctrl+Delete>.)
648 cutrestoffile
650 Cuts all text from the cursor position till the end of the buffer.
651 mark
653 Sets the mark at the current position, to start selecting text.
654 Or, when it is set, unsets the mark.
655 location
657 Reports the current position of the cursor in the buffer: the
658 line, column, and character positions.
659 wordcount
661 Counts and reports on the status bar the number of lines, words,
662 and characters in the current buffer (or in the marked region).
663 execute
665 Prompts for a program to execute. The program's output will be
666 inserted into the current buffer (or into a new buffer when M-F is
667 toggled).
668 speller
670 Invokes a spell-checking program, either the default hunspell(1)
671 or GNU spell(1), or the one defined by --speller or set speller.
672 formatter
674 Invokes a full-buffer-processing program (if the active syntax de‐
675 fines one). (The current buffer is written out to a temporary
676 file, the program is run on it, and then the temporary file is
677 read back in, replacing the contents of the buffer.)
678 linter
680 Invokes a syntax-checking program (if the active syntax defines
681 one). If this program produces lines of the form "file‐
682 name:linenum:charnum: some message", then the cursor will be put
683 at the indicated position in the mentioned file while showing
684 "some message" on the status bar. You can move from message to
685 message with <PgUp> and <PgDn>, and leave linting mode with ^C or
686 <Enter>.
687 justify
689 Justifies the current paragraph (or the marked region). A para‐
690 graph is a group of contiguous lines that, apart from possibly the
691 first line, all have the same indentation. The beginning of a
692 paragraph is detected by either this lone line with a differing
693 indentation or by a preceding blank line.
694 fulljustify
696 Justifies the entire current buffer (or the marked region).
697 indent
699 Indents (shifts to the right) the current line or the marked
700 lines.
701 unindent
703 Unindents (shifts to the left) the current line or the marked
704 lines.
705 comment
707 Comments or uncomments the current line or the marked lines, using
708 the comment style specified in the active syntax.
709 complete
711 Completes (when possible) the fragment before the cursor to a full
712 word found elsewhere in the current buffer.
713 left
715 Goes left one position (in the editor or browser).
716 right
718 Goes right one position (in the editor or browser).
719 up
721 Goes one line up (in the editor or browser).
722 down
724 Goes one line down (in the editor or browser).
725 scrollup
727 Scrolls the viewport up one row (meaning that the text slides
728 down) while keeping the cursor in the same text position, if pos‐
729 sible. (This function is bound by default to <Alt+Up>. If
730 <Alt+Up> does nothing on your Linux console, see the FAQ:
731 ⟨https://nano-editor.org/dist/latest/faq.html#4.1⟩.)
732 scrolldown
734 Scrolls the viewport down one row (meaning that the text slides
735 up) while keeping the cursor in the same text position, if possi‐
736 ble. (This function is bound by default to <Alt+Down>.)
737 center
739 Scrolls the line with the cursor to the middle of the screen.
740 prevword
742 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the previous word.
743 nextword
745 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the next word.
746 home
748 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current line.
749 end
751 Moves the cursor to the end of the current line.
752 beginpara
754 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current paragraph.
755 endpara
757 Moves the cursor to the end of the current paragraph.
758 prevblock
760 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current or preceding
761 block of text. (Blocks are separated by one or more blank lines.)
762 nextblock
764 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the next block of text.
765 pageup
767 Goes up one screenful.
768 pagedown
770 Goes down one screenful.
771 firstline
773 Goes to the first line of the file.
774 lastline
776 Goes to the last line of the file.
777 gotoline
779 Goes to a specific line (and column if specified). Negative num‐
780 bers count from the end of the file (and end of the line).
781 findbracket
783 Moves the cursor to the bracket (or brace or parenthesis, etc.)
784 that matches (pairs) with the one under the cursor. See set
785 matchbrackets.
786 anchor
788 Places an anchor at the current line, or removes it when already
789 present. (An anchor is visible when line numbers are activated.)
790 prevanchor
792 Goes to the first anchor before the current line.
793 nextanchor
795 Goes to the first anchor after the current line.
796 prevbuf
798 Switches to editing/viewing the previous buffer when multiple buf‐
799 fers are open.
800 nextbuf
802 Switches to editing/viewing the next buffer when multiple buffers
803 are open.
804 verbatim
806 Inserts the next keystroke verbatim into the file, or begins Uni‐
807 code input when a hexadecimal digit is typed.
808 tab
810 Inserts a tab at the current cursor location.
811 enter
813 Inserts a new line below the current one.
814 delete
816 Deletes the character under the cursor.
817 backspace
819 Deletes the character before the cursor.
820 recordmacro
822 Starts the recording of keystrokes -- the keystrokes are stored as
823 a macro. When already recording, the recording is stopped.
824 runmacro
826 Replays the keystrokes of the last recorded macro.
827 undo
829 Undoes the last performed text action (add text, delete text,
830 etc).
831 redo
833 Redoes the last undone action (i.e., it undoes an undo).
834 refresh
836 Refreshes the screen.
837 suspend
839 Suspends the editor and returns control to the shell (until you
840 tell the process to resume execution with fg).
841 casesens
843 Toggles whether searching/replacing ignores or respects the case
844 of the given characters.
845 regexp
847 Toggles whether searching/replacing uses literal strings or regu‐
848 lar expressions.
849 backwards
851 Toggles whether searching/replacing goes forward or backward.
852 older
854 Retrieves the previous (earlier) entry at a prompt.
855 newer
857 Retrieves the next (later) entry at a prompt.
858 flipreplace
860 Toggles between searching for something and replacing something.
861 flipgoto
863 Toggles between searching for text and targeting a line number.
864 flipexecute
866 Toggles between inserting a file and executing a command.
867 flippipe
869 When executing a command, toggles whether the current buffer (or
870 marked region) is piped to the command.
871 flipnewbuffer
873 Toggles between inserting into the current buffer and into a new
874 empty buffer.
875 flipconvert
877 When reading in a file, toggles between converting and not con‐
878 verting it from DOS/Mac format. Converting is the default.
879 dosformat
881 When writing a file, switches to writing a DOS format (CR/LF).
882 macformat
884 When writing a file, switches to writing a Mac format.
885 append
887 When writing a file, appends to the end instead of overwriting.
888 prepend
890 When writing a file, 'prepends' (writes at the beginning) instead
891 of overwriting.
892 backup
894 When writing a file, creates a backup of the current file.
895 discardbuffer
897 When about to write a file, discard the current buffer without
898 saving. (This function is bound by default only when option
899 --saveonexit is in effect.)
900 browser
902 Starts the file browser (in the Read File and Write Out menus),
903 allowing to select a file from a list.
904 gotodir
906 Goes to a directory to be specified, allowing to browse anywhere
907 in the filesystem.
908 firstfile
910 Goes to the first file in the list when using the file browser.
911 lastfile
913 Goes to the last file in the list when using the file browser.
914 nohelp
916 Toggles the presence of the two-line list of key bindings at the
917 bottom of the screen. (This toggle is special: it is available in
918 all menus except the help viewer and the linter. All further tog‐
919 gles are available in the main menu only.)
920 zero
922 Toggles the presence of title bar and status bar.
923 constantshow
925 Toggles the constant display of the current line, column, and
926 character positions.
927 softwrap
929 Toggles the displaying of overlong lines on multiple screen lines.
930 linenumbers
932 Toggles the display of line numbers in front of the text.
933 whitespacedisplay
935 Toggles the showing of whitespace.
936 nosyntax
938 Toggles syntax highlighting.
939 smarthome
941 Toggles the smartness of the Home key.
942 autoindent
944 Toggles whether a newly created line will contain the same amount
945 of leading whitespace as the preceding line -- or as the next line
946 if the preceding line is the beginning of a paragraph.
947 cutfromcursor
949 Toggles whether cutting text will cut the whole line or just from
950 the current cursor position to the end of the line.
951 breaklonglines
953 Toggles whether long lines will be hard-wrapped to the next line.
954 (The old name of this function, 'nowrap', is deprecated.)
955 tabstospaces
957 Toggles whether typed tabs will be converted to spaces.
958 mouse
960 Toggles mouse support.
961 Valid menu sections are:
964 main
966 The main editor window where text is entered and edited.
967 help
969 The help-viewer menu.
970 search
972 The search menu (AKA whereis).
973 replace
975 The 'search to replace' menu.
976 replacewith
978 The 'replace with' menu, which comes up after 'search to replace'.
979 yesno
981 The 'yesno' menu, where the Yes/No/All/Cancel question is asked.
982 gotoline
984 The 'goto line (and column)' menu.
985 writeout
987 The 'write file' menu.
988 insert
990 The 'insert file' menu.
991 browser
993 The 'file browser' menu, for selecting a file to be opened or in‐
994 serted or written to.
995 whereisfile
997 The 'search for a file' menu in the file browser.
998 gotodir
1000 The 'go to directory' menu in the file browser.
1001 execute
1003 The menu for inserting the output from an external command, or for
1004 filtering the buffer (or the marked region) through an external
1005 command, or for executing one of several tools.
1006 spell
1008 The menu of the integrated spell checker where the user can edit a
1009 misspelled word.
1010 linter
1012 The linter menu, which allows jumping through the linting mes‐
1013 sages.
1014 all
1016 A special name that encompasses all menus. For bind it means all
1017 menus where the specified function exists; for unbind it means all
1018 menus where the specified key exists.
1019
1022 /etc/nanorc
1023 System-wide configuration file.
1024 ~/.nanorc or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nano/nanorc or ~/.config/nano/nanorc
1026 Per-user configuration file.
1027 /usr/share/nano/*
1029 Syntax definitions for the syntax coloring of common file types
1030 (and for less common file types in the extra/ subdirectory).
1031
1034 nano(1)
1035 https://nano-editor.org/cheatsheet.html
1037 An overview of the default key bindings.
1038January 2023 version 7.2 NANORC(5)