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.TH NANO 1 "version 2.9.8" "June 2018"

.SH NAME

nano \- Nano's ANOther editor, an enhanced free Pico clone

.SH SYNOPSIS

.B nano

.RI [ options "] [[+" line [, column "]]\ " file "]..."

.SH DESCRIPTION

\fBnano\fP is a small and friendly editor.  It copies the look and feel

of Pico, but is free software, and implements several features that Pico

lacks, such as: opening multiple files, scrolling per line, undo/redo,

syntax coloring, line numbering, and soft-wrapping overlong lines.

When giving a filename on the command line, the cursor can be put on a

specific line by adding the line number with a plus sign (\fB+\fR) before

the filename, and even in a specific column by adding it with a comma.

As a special case: if instead of a filename a dash (\fB\-\fR) is given,

\fBnano\fR will read data from standard input.

.SH EDITING

Entering text and moving around in a file is straightforward: typing the

letters and using the normal cursor movement keys.  Commands are entered

by using the Control (^) and the Alt or Meta (M\-) keys.

Typing \fB^K\fR deletes the current line and puts it in the cutbuffer.

Consecutive \fB^K\fRs will put all deleted lines together in the cutbuffer.

Any cursor movement or executing any other command will cause the next

\fB^K\fR to overwrite the cutbuffer.  A \fB^U\fR will paste the current

contents of the cutbuffer at the current cursor position.

.PP

When a more precise piece of text needs to be cut or copied, one can mark

its start with \fB^6\fR, move the cursor to its end (the marked text will be

highlighted), and then use \fB^K\fR to cut it, or \fBM\-6\fR to copy it to the

cutbuffer.  One can also save the marked text to a file with \fB^O\fR, or

spell check it with \fB^T\fR.

.PP

On some terminals, text can be selected also by holding down Shift while

using the arrow keys.  Holding down the Alt key too will increase the stride.

Any cursor movement without Shift being held will cancel such a selection.

.PP

The two lines at the bottom of the screen show some important commands;

the built-in help (\fB^G\fR) lists all the available ones.

The default key bindings can be changed via a \fInanorc\fR file -- see

.BR nanorc (5).

.SH OPTIONS

.TP

.BR \-A ", " \-\-smarthome

Make the Home key smarter.  When Home is pressed anywhere but at the

very beginning of non-whitespace characters on a line, the cursor will

jump to that beginning (either forwards or backwards).  If the cursor is

already at that position, it will jump to the true beginning of the

line.

.TP

.BR \-B ", " \-\-backup

When saving a file, back up the previous version of it, using the current

filename suffixed with a tilde (\fB~\fP).

.TP

.BR \-C\ \fIdirectory ", " \-\-backupdir= \fIdirectory

Make and keep not just one backup file, but make and keep a uniquely

numbered one every time a file is saved -- when backups are enabled (\fB\-B\fR).

The uniquely numbered files are stored in the specified \fIdirectory\fR.

.TP

.BR \-D ", " \-\-boldtext

Use bold text instead of reverse video text.

.TP

.BR \-E ", " \-\-tabstospaces

Convert typed tabs to spaces.

.TP

.BR \-F ", " \-\-multibuffer

Read a file into a new buffer by default.

.TP

.BR \-G ", " \-\-locking

Use vim-style file locking when editing files.

.TP

.BR \-H ", " \-\-historylog

Save the last hundred search strings and replacement strings and

executed commands, so they can be easily reused in later sessions.

.TP

.BR \-I ", " \-\-ignorercfiles

Don't look at the system's \fInanorc\fR nor at the user's \fInanorc\fR.

.TP

.BR \-K ", " \-\-rebindkeypad

Interpret the numeric keypad keys so that they all work properly.  You

should only need to use this option if they don't, as mouse support

won't work properly with this option enabled.

.TP

.BR \-L ", " \-\-nonewlines

Don't automatically add a newline when a file does not end with one.

.TP

.BR \-M ", " \-\-trimblanks

Snip trailing whitespace from the wrapped line when automatic

hard-wrapping occurs or when text is justified.

.TP

.BR \-N ", " \-\-noconvert

Disable automatic conversion of files from DOS/Mac format.

.TP

.BR \-O ", " \-\-morespace

Use the blank line below the title bar as extra editing space.

.TP

.BR \-P ", " \-\-positionlog

For the 200 most recent files, log the last position of the cursor,

and place it at that position again upon reopening such a file.

.TP

.BR "\-Q ""\fIregex\fB""" ", " "\-\-quotestr=""" \fIregex """

Set the regular expression for matching the quoting part of a line.

This is used when justifying.

The default value is \fB"^([\ \\t]*([#:>|}]|//))+"\fP.

Note that \fB\\t\fP stands for an actual Tab.

.TP

.BR \-R ", " \-\-restricted

Restricted mode: don't read or write to any file not specified on the

command line; don't read any \fInanorc\fP files nor history files;

don't allow suspending nor spell checking;

don't allow a file to be appended to, prepended to, or saved under a

different name if it already has one; and don't use backup files.

This restricted mode is also accessible by invoking \fBnano\fP

with any name beginning with 'r' (e.g. "rnano").

.TP

.BR \-S ", " \-\-smooth

Use smooth scrolling: text will scroll line-by-line, instead of the

usual chunk-by-chunk behavior.

.TP

.BR \-T\ \fInumber ", " \-\-tabsize= \fInumber

Set the size (width) of a tab to \fInumber\fP columns.  The value of

\fInumber\fP must be greater than 0.  The default value is 8.

.TP

.BR \-U ", " \-\-quickblank

Do quick status-bar blanking: status-bar messages will disappear after 1

keystroke instead of 25.  Note that option \fB\-c\fR (\fB\-\-constantshow\fR)

overrides this.

.TP

.BR \-V ", " \-\-version

Show the current version number and exit.

.TP

.BR \-W ", " \-\-wordbounds

Detect word boundaries differently by treating punctuation

characters as part of a word.

.TP

.BR "\-X ""\fIcharacters\fB""" ", " "\-\-wordchars=""" \fIcharacters """

Specify which other characters (besides the normal alphanumeric ones)

should be considered as part of a word.  This overrides option

\fB\-W\fR (\fB\-\-wordbounds\fR).

.TP

.BR \-Y\ \fIname ", " \-\-syntax= \fIname

Specify the name of the syntax highlighting to use from among the ones

defined in the \fInanorc\fP files.

.TP

.BR \-a ", " \-\-atblanks

When doing soft line wrapping, wrap lines at whitespace

instead of always at the edge of the screen.

.TP

.BR \-c ", " \-\-constantshow

Constantly show the cursor position on the status bar.

Note that this overrides option \fB\-U\fR (\fB\-\-quickblank\fR).

.TP

.BR \-d ", " \-\-rebinddelete

Interpret the Delete key differently so that both Backspace and Delete

work properly.  You should only need to use this option if Backspace

acts like Delete on your system.

.TP

.BR \-g ", " \-\-showcursor

Make the cursor visible in the file browser, putting it on the

highlighted item.  Useful for braille users.

.TP

.BR \-h ", " \-\-help

Show a summary of the available command-line options and exit.

.TP

.BR \-i ", " \-\-autoindent

Automatically indent a newly created line to the same number of tabs

and/or spaces as the previous line (or as the next line if the previous

line is the beginning of a paragraph).

.TP

.BR \-k ", " \-\-cutfromcursor

Make the 'Cut Text' command (normally \fB^K\fR) cut from the current cursor

position to the end of the line, instead of cutting the entire line.

.TP

.BR \-l ", " \-\-linenumbers

Display line numbers to the left of the text area.

.TP

.BR \-m ", " \-\-mouse

Enable mouse support, if available for your system.  When enabled, mouse

clicks can be used to place the cursor, set the mark (with a double

click), and execute shortcuts.  The mouse will work in the X Window

System, and on the console when gpm is running.  Text can still be

selected through dragging by holding down the Shift key.

.TP

.BR \-n ", " \-\-noread

Treat any name given on the command line as a new file.  This allows

\fBnano\fR to write to named pipes: it will start with a blank buffer,

and will write to the pipe when the user saves the "file".  This way

\fBnano\fR can be used as an editor in combination with for instance

\fBgpg\fR without having to write sensitive data to disk first.

.TP

.BR \-o\ \fIdirectory ", " \-\-operatingdir= \fIdirectory

Set the operating directory.  This makes \fBnano\fP set up something

similar to a chroot.

.TP

.BR \-p ", " \-\-preserve

Preserve the XON and XOFF sequences (^Q and ^S) so they will be caught

by the terminal.

.TP

.BR \-q ", " \-\-quiet

Obsolete option.  Recognized but ignored.

.TP

.BR \-r\ \fInumber ", " \-\-fill= \fInumber

Hard-wrap lines at column \fInumber\fP.  If this value is 0 or less, wrapping

will occur at the width of the screen less \fInumber\fP columns, allowing

the wrap point to vary along with the width of the screen if the screen

is resized.  The default value is \-8.  This option conflicts with

\fB\-w\fR (\fB\-\-nowrap\fR) -- the last one given takes effect.

.TP

.BR \-s\ \fIprogram ", " \-\-speller= \fIprogram

Use this alternative spell checker command.

.TP

.BR \-t ", " \-\-tempfile

Save a changed buffer without prompting (when exiting with \fB^X\fR).

.TP

.BR \-u ", " \-\-unix

Save a file by default in Unix format.  This overrides nano's

default behavior of saving a file in the format that it had.

(This option has no effect when you also use \fB\-\-noconvert\fR.)

.TP

.BR \-v ", " \-\-view

Just view the file and disallow editing: read-only mode.

.TP

.BR \-w ", " \-\-nowrap

Disable the hard-wrapping of long lines.  This option conflicts with

\fB\-r\fR (\fB\-\-fill\fR) -- the last one given takes effect.

.TP

.BR \-x ", " \-\-nohelp

Don't show the two help lines at the bottom of the screen.

.TP

.BR \-y ", " \-\-afterends

Make Ctrl+Right stop at word ends instead of beginnings.

.TP

.BR \-z ", " \-\-suspend

Enable the suspend ability.

.TP

.BR \-$ ", " \-\-softwrap

Enable 'soft wrapping'.  This will make \fBnano\fP attempt to display the

entire contents of any line, even if it is longer than the screen width, by

continuing it over multiple screen lines.  Since

\&'$' normally refers to a variable in the Unix shell, you should specify

this option last when using other options (e.g.\& 'nano \-wS$') or pass it

separately (e.g.\& 'nano \-wS \-$').

.TP

.BR \-b ", " \-e ", " \-f ", " \-j

Ignored, for compatibility with Pico.

.SH TOGGLES

Several of the above options can be switched on and off also while

\fBnano\fR is running.  For example, \fBM\-L\fR toggles the

hard-wrapping of long lines, \fBM\-$\fR toggles soft-wrapping,

\fBM\-#\fR toggles line numbers, \fBM\-M\fR toggles the mouse,

\fBM\-I\fR auto-indentation, and \fBM\-X\fR the help lines.

See at the end of the \fB^G\fR help text for a complete list.

.SH INITIALIZATION FILE

\fBnano\fR will read two configuration files: first the system's

\fInanorc\fR (if it exists), and then the user's \fInanorc\fR (if it

exists), either \fB~/.nanorc\fR or \fI$XDG_CONFIG_HOME\fB/nano/nanorc\fR

or \fB~/.config/nano/nanorc\fR, whichever is encountered first.  See

.BR nanorc (5)

for more information on the possible contents of those files.

.SH NOTES

If no alternative spell checker command is specified on the command

line nor in one of the \fInanorc\fP files, \fBnano\fP will check the

\fBSPELL\fP environment variable for one.

.sp

In some cases \fBnano\fP will try to dump the buffer into an emergency

file.  This will happen mainly if \fBnano\fP receives a SIGHUP or

SIGTERM or runs out of memory.  It will write the buffer into a file

named \fInano.save\fP if the buffer didn't have a name already, or will

add a ".save" suffix to the current filename.  If an emergency file with

that name already exists in the current directory, it will add ".save"

plus a number (e.g.\& ".save.1") to the current filename in order to make

it unique.  In multibuffer mode, \fBnano\fP will write all the open

buffers to their respective emergency files.

.SH BUGS

Justifications (\fB^J\fR)

are not yet covered by the general undo system.  So after a justification

that is not immediately undone, earlier edits

cannot be undone any more.  The workaround is, of course, to exit without

saving.

.sp

The recording and playback of keyboard macros works correctly only on a

terminal emulator, not on a Linux console (VT), because the latter does

not by default distinguish modified from unmodified arrow keys.

.sp

Please report any other bugs that you encounter via:

.br

\fIhttps://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=nano\fR.

.sp

When nano crashes, it will save any modified buffers to emergency .save files.

If you are able to reproduce the crash and you want to get a backtrace, define

the environment variable \fBNANO_NOCATCH\fR.

.SH HOMEPAGE

\fIhttps://nano-editor.org/\fR

.SH SEE ALSO

.BR nanorc (5)

.PP

\fI/usr/share/doc/nano/\fP (or equivalent on your system)

.SH AUTHOR

Chris Allegretta and others (see the files \fIAUTHORS\fR and

\fITHANKS\fP for details).  This manual page was originally written by

Jordi Mallach for the Debian system (but may be used by others).