User Commands NANO(1)
NAME
nano - Nano's ANOther editor, an enhanced free Pico clone
SYNOPSIS
nano [OPTIONS] []LINE,COLUMN] FILE]...
DESCRIPTION
This manual page briefly documents the nano command.
nano is a small, free and friendly editor which aims to
replace Pico, the default editor included in the non-free
Pine package. Rather than just copying Pico's look and
feel, nano also implements some missing (or disabled by
default) features in Pico, such as "search and replace" and
"go to line and column number".
OPTIONS
]LINE,COLUMN
Places cursor at line number LINE and column number
COLUMN (at least one of which must be specified) on
startup, instead of the default of line 1, column 1.
-? Same as -h (--help).
-A (--smarthome)
Make the Home key smarter. When Home is pressed any-
where but at the very beginning of non-whitespace char-
acters on a line, the cursor will jump to that begin-
ning (either forwards or backwards). If the cursor is
already at that position, it will jump to the true
beginning of the line.
-B (--backup)
When saving a file, back up the previous version of it
to the current filename suffixed with a ~.
-C dir (--backupdir=dir)
Set the directory where nano puts unique backup files
if file backups are enabled.
-D (--boldtext)
Use bold text instead of reverse video text.
-E (--tabstospaces)
Convert typed tabs to spaces.
-F (--multibuffer)
Enable multiple file buffers, if available.
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User Commands NANO(1)
-H (--historylog)
Log search and replace strings to ~/.nanohistory, so
they can be retrieved in later sessions, if nanorc sup-
port is available.
-I (--ignorercfiles)
Don't look at SYSCONFDIR/nanorc or ~/.nanorc, if nanorc
support is available.
-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.
-L (--nonewlines)
Don't add newlines to the ends of files.
-N (--noconvert)
Disable automatic conversion of files from DOS/Mac for-
mat.
-O (--morespace)
Use the blank line below the titlebar as extra editing
space.
-Q str (--quotestr=str)
Set the quoting string for justifying. The default is
"^([ \t]*[#:>\}])]" if extended regular expression
support is available, or "> " otherwise. Note that \t
stands for a Tab.
-R (--restricted)
Restricted mode: don't read or write to any file not
specified on the command line; read any nanorc files;
allow suspending; allow a file to be appended to,
prepended to, or saved under a different name if it
already has one; or use backup files or spell checking.
Also accessible by invoking nano with any name begin-
ning with 'r' (e.g. "rnano").
-S (--smooth)
Enable smooth scrolling. Text will scroll line-by-
line, instead of the usual chunk-by-chunk behavior.
-T cols (--tabsize=cols)
Set the size (width) of a tab to cols columns. The
value of cols must be greater than 0. The default
value is 8.
-U (--quickblank)
Do quick statusbar blanking. Statusbar messages will
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User Commands NANO(1)
disappear after 1 keystroke instead of 25. Note that
-c overrides this.
-V (--version)
Show the current version number and exit.
-W (--wordbounds)
Detect word boundaries more accurately by treating
punctuation characters as part of a word.
-Y str (--syntax=str)
Specify a specific syntax highlighting from the nanorc
to use, if available.
-c (--const)
Constantly show the cursor position. Note that this
overrides -U.
-d (--rebinddelete)
Interpret the Delete key differently so that both Back-
space and Delete work properly. You should only need
to use this option if Backspace acts like Delete on
your system.
-h (--help)
Show a summary of command line options and exit.
-i (--autoindent)
Indent new lines to the previous line's indentation.
Useful when editing source code.
-k (--cut)
Enable cut from cursor to end of line.
-l (--nofollow)
If the file being edited is a symbolic link, replace
the link with a new file instead of following it. Good
for editing files in /tmp, perhaps?
-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.
-o dir (--operatingdir=dir)
Set operating directory. Makes nano set up something
similar to a chroot.
-p (--preserve)
Preserve the XON and XOF sequences (^Q and ^S) so they
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User Commands NANO(1)
will be caught by the terminal.
-r cols (--fill=cols)
Wrap lines at column cols. If this value is 0 or less,
wrapping will occur at the width of the screen less
cols columns, allowing the wrap point to vary along
with the width of the screen if the screen is resized.
The default value is -8.
-s prog (--speller=prog)
Enable alternative spell checker command.
-t (--tempfile)
Always save changed buffer without prompting. Same as
Pico's -t option.
-v (--view)
View file (read only) mode.
-w (--nowrap)
Disable wrapping of long lines.
-x (--nohelp)
Disable help screen at bottom of editor.
-z (--suspend)
Enable suspend ability.
-a, -b, -e, -f, -g, -j
Ignored, for compatibility with Pico.
INITIALIZATION FILE
nano will read initialization files in the following order:
SYSCONFDIR/nanorc, then ~/.nanorc. Please see nanorc(5) and
the example file nanorc.sample, both of which should be pro-
vided with nano.
NOTES
If no alternative spell checker command is specified on the
command line or in one of the nanorc files, nano will check
the SPEL environment variable for one.
In some cases nano will try to dump the buffer into an emer-
gency file. This will happen mainly if nano receives a
SIGHUP or SIGTERM or runs out of memory. It will write the
buffer into a file named nano.save 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
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User Commands NANO(1)
make it unique. In multibuffer mode, nano will write all
the open buffers to their respective emergency files.
BUGS
Please send any comments or bug reports to nano@nano-
editor.org.
The nano mailing list is available from nano-devel@gnu.org.
To subscribe, email to nano-devel-request@gnu.org with a
subject of "subscribe".
HOMEPAGE
http:/www.nano-editor.org/
SEE ALSO
nanorc(5)
/usr/share/doc/nano/ (or equivalent on your system)
AUTHOR
Chris Allegretta , et al (see AUTHORS and
THANKS for details). This manual page was originally writ-
ten by Jordi Mallach , for the Debian system
(but may be used by others).
ATRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes:
ATRIBUTE TYPE ATRIBUTE VALUE
Availability SUNWgnu-nano
Interface Stability Uncommitted
NOTES
Source for GNU nano is available on http:/opensolaris.org.
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