nanorc - GNU nano's configuration file
The
nanorc files contain the default settings for
nano, a small
and friendly editor. During startup, if
--rcfile is not given,
nano will read two files: first the system-wide settings, from
/etc/nanorc (the exact path might be different on your system), and
then the user-specific settings, either from
~/.nanorc or from
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nano/nanorc or from
~/.config/nano/nanorc,
whichever is encountered first. If
--rcfile is given,
nano will
read just the specified settings file.
The configuration file accepts a series of
set and
unset commands,
which can be used to configure nano on startup without using command-line
options. Additionally, there are some commands to define syntax highlighting
and to rebind keys -- see the two separate sections on those.
nano
reads one command per line. All commands and keywords should be written in
lowercase.
Options in
nanorc files take precedence over nano's defaults, and
command-line options override
nanorc settings. Also, options that do
not take an argument are unset by default. So using the
unset command
is only needed when wanting to override a setting of the system's
nanorc file in your own
nanorc. Options that take an argument
cannot be unset.
Quotes inside the
characters parameters below should not be escaped. The
last double quote on the line will be seen as the closing quote.
The supported commands and arguments are:
- set afterends
- Make Ctrl+Right and Ctrl+Delete stop at word ends instead
of beginnings.
- set allow_insecure_backup
- When backing up files, allow the backup to succeed even if
its permissions can't be (re)set due to special OS considerations. You
should NOT enable this option unless you are sure you need it.
- set atblanks
- When soft line wrapping is enabled, make it wrap lines at
blank characters (tabs and spaces) instead of always at the edge of the
screen.
- set 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).
- set backup
- When saving a file, create a backup file by adding a tilde
( ~) to the file's name.
- set backupdir directory
- 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 with set backup or --backup or -B. The
uniquely numbered files are stored in the specified directory.
- set boldtext
- Use bold instead of reverse video for the title bar, status
bar, key combos, function tags, line numbers, and selected text. This can
be overridden by setting the options titlecolor,
statuscolor, keycolor, functioncolor,
numbercolor, and selectedcolor.
- set bookstyle
- When justifying, treat any line that starts with whitespace
as the beginning of a paragraph (unless auto-indenting is on).
-
set brackets
"characters"
- Set the characters treated as closing brackets when
justifying paragraphs. This may not include blank characters. Only closing
punctuation (see set punct), optionally followed by the specified
closing brackets, can end sentences. The default value is "
"')>]}".
- set breaklonglines
- Automatically hard-wrap the current line when it becomes
overlong.
- set casesensitive
- Do case-sensitive searches by default.
- set constantshow
- Constantly display the cursor position in the status bar.
This overrides the option quickblank.
- set cutfromcursor
- Use cut-from-cursor-to-end-of-line by default, instead of
cutting the whole line.
- set emptyline
- Do not use the line below the title bar, leaving it
entirely blank.
- set errorcolor
[bold,][italic,]fgcolor ,bgcolor
- Use this color combination for the status bar when an error
message is displayed. The default value is bold,white,red. See
set titlecolor for valid color names.
- set fill number
- Set the target width for justifying and automatic
hard-wrapping at this number of columns. If the value is 0 or less,
wrapping will occur at the width of the screen minus number
columns, allowing the wrap point to vary along with the width of the
screen if the screen is resized. The default value is -8.
- set functioncolor
[bold,][italic,]fgcolor ,bgcolor
- Use this color combination for the concise function
descriptions in the two help lines at the bottom of the screen. See set
titlecolor for more details.
- set guidestripe number
- Draw a vertical stripe at the given column, to help judge
the width of the text. (The color of the stripe can be changed with set
stripecolor.)
- set historylog
- Save the last hundred search strings and replacement
strings and executed commands, so they can be easily reused in later
sessions.
- set indicator
- Display a "scrollbar" on the righthand side of
the edit window. It shows the position of the viewport in the buffer and
how much of the buffer is covered by the viewport.
- set jumpyscrolling
- Scroll the buffer contents per half-screen instead of per
line.
- set keycolor
[bold,][italic,]fgcolor ,bgcolor
- Use this color combination for the shortcut key combos in
the two help lines at the bottom of the screen. See set titlecolor
for more details.
- set linenumbers
- Display line numbers to the left of the text area. (Any
line with an anchor additionally gets a mark in the margin.)
- set locking
- Enable vim-style lock-files for when editing files.
- set magic
- When neither the file's name nor its first line give a
clue, try using libmagic to determine the applicable syntax. (Calling
libmagic can be relatively time consuming. It is therefore not done by
default.)
-
set matchbrackets
"characters"
- Specify the opening and closing brackets that can be found
by bracket searches. This may not include blank characters. The opening
set must come before the closing set, and the two sets must be in the same
order. The default value is " (<[{)>]}".
- set minibar
- Suppress the title bar and instead show information about
the current buffer at the bottom of the screen, in the space for the
status bar. In this "minibar" the filename is shown on the left,
followed by an asterisk if the buffer has been modified. On the right are
displayed the current line and column number, the code of the character
under the cursor (in Unicode format: U+xxxx), the same flags as are shown
by set stateflags, and a percentage that expresses how far the
cursor is into the file (linewise). When a file is loaded or saved, and
also when switching between buffers, the number of lines in the buffer is
displayed after the filename. This number is cleared upon the next
keystroke, or replaced with an [i/n] counter when multiple buffers are
open. The line plus column numbers and the character code are displayed
only when set constantshow is used, and can be toggled on and off
with M-C. The state flags are displayed only when set
stateflags is used.
- set minicolor
[bold,][italic,]fgcolor ,bgcolor
- Use this color combination for the minibar. (When this
option is not specified, the colors of the title bar are used.) See set
titlecolor for more details.
- set 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.
- set multibuffer
- When reading in a file with ^R, insert it into a new
buffer by default.
- set noconvert
- Don't convert files from DOS/Mac format.
- set nohelp
- Don't display the two help lines at the bottom of the
screen.
- set nonewlines
- Don't automatically add a newline when a text does not end
with one. (This can cause you to save non-POSIX text files.)
- set nowrap
- Deprecated option since it has become the default setting.
When needed, use unset breaklonglines instead.
- set numbercolor
[bold,][italic,]fgcolor ,bgcolor
- Use this color combination for line numbers. See set
titlecolor for more details.
- set operatingdir directory
-
nano will only read and write files inside
directory and its subdirectories. Also, the current directory is
changed to here, so files are inserted from this directory. By default,
the operating directory feature is turned off.
- set positionlog
- Save the cursor position of files between editing sessions.
The cursor position is remembered for the 200 most-recently edited
files.
- set preserve
- Preserve the XON and XOFF keys (^Q and
^S).
- set promptcolor
[bold,][italic,]fgcolor ,bgcolor
- Use this color combination for the prompt bar. (When this
option is not specified, the colors of the title bar are used.) See set
titlecolor for more details.
-
set punct "characters"
- Set the characters treated as closing punctuation when
justifying paragraphs. This may not include blank characters. Only the
specfified closing punctuation, optionally followed by closing brackets
(see brackets), can end sentences. The default value is
"!.?".
- set quickblank
- Make status-bar messages disappear after 1 keystroke
instead of after 20. Note that option constantshow overrides this.
When option minibar or zero is in effect, quickblank
makes a message disappear after 0.8 seconds instead of after the default
1.5 seconds.
-
set quotestr "regex"
- Set the regular expression for matching the quoting part of
a line. The default value is "
^([ \t]*([!#%:;>|}]|//))+". (Note that \t
stands for an actual Tab character.) This makes it possible to rejustify
blocks of quoted text when composing email, and to rewrap blocks of line
comments when writing source code.
- set rawsequences
- Interpret escape sequences directly, instead of asking
ncurses to translate them. (If you need this option to get some
keys to work properly, it means that the terminfo terminal description
that is used does not fully match the actual behavior of your terminal.
This can happen when you ssh into a BSD machine, for example.) Using this
option disables nano's mouse support.
- set rebinddelete
- Interpret the Delete and Backspace keys differently so that
both Backspace and Delete work properly. You should only use this option
when on your system either Backspace acts like Delete or Delete acts like
Backspace.
- set regexp
- Do regular-expression searches by default. Regular
expressions in nano are of the extended type (ERE).
- set saveonexit
- Save a changed buffer automatically on exit (^X);
don't prompt.
- set scrollercolor
fgcolor,bgcolor
- Use this color combination for the indicator alias
"scrollbar". (On terminal emulators that link to a libvte older
than version 0.55, using a background color here does not work correctly.)
See set titlecolor for more details.
- set selectedcolor
[bold,][italic,]fgcolor ,bgcolor
- Use this color combination for selected text. See set
titlecolor for more details.
- set showcursor
- Put the cursor on the highlighted item in the file browser,
and show the cursor in the help viewer, to aid braille users and people
with poor vision.
- set 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.
- set softwrap
- Display lines that exceed the screen's width over multiple
screen lines. (You can make this soft-wrapping occur at whitespace instead
of rudely at the screen's edge, by using also set atblanks.)
- set speller "program [argument
...]"
- Use the given program to do spell checking and
correcting, instead of using the built-in corrector that calls
hunspell(1) or spell(1).
- set spotlightcolor
[bold,][italic,]fgcolor ,bgcolor
- Use this color combination for highlighting a search match.
The default value is black,lightyellow. See set titlecolor
for valid color names.
- set stateflags
- Use the top-right corner of the screen for showing some
state flags: I when auto-indenting, M when the mark is on,
L when hard-wrapping (breaking long lines), R when recording
a macro, and S when soft-wrapping. When the buffer is modified, a
star ( *) is shown after the filename in the center of the title
bar.
- set statuscolor
[bold,][italic,]fgcolor ,bgcolor
- Use this color combination for the status bar. See set
titlecolor for more details.
- set stripecolor
[bold,][italic,]fgcolor ,bgcolor
- Use this color combination for the vertical guiding stripe.
See set titlecolor for more details.
- set tabsize number
- Use a tab size of number columns. The value of
number must be greater than 0. The default value is 8.
- set tabstospaces
- Convert each typed tab to spaces -- to the number of spaces
that a tab at that position would take up.
- set titlecolor
[bold,][italic,]fgcolor ,bgcolor
- Use this color combination for the title bar. Valid names
for the foreground and background colors are: red, green,
blue, magenta, yellow, cyan, white, and
black. Each of these eight names may be prefixed with the word
light to get a brighter version of that color. The word grey
or gray may be used as a synonym for lightblack. On terminal
emulators that can do at least 256 colors, other valid (but unprefixable)
color names are: pink, purple, mauve, lagoon,
mint, lime, peach, orange, latte,
rosy, beet, plum, sea, sky,
slate, teal, sage, brown, ocher,
sand, tawny, brick, crimson, and normal
-- where normal means the default foreground or background color.
On such emulators, the color may also be specified as a three-digit
hexadecimal number prefixed with #, with the digits representing
the amounts of red, green, and blue, respectively. This tells nano
to select from the available palette the color that approximates the given
values.
Either " fgcolor" or ",bgcolor" may
be left out, and the pair may be preceded by bold and/or
italic (separated by commas) to get a bold and/or slanting
typeface, if your terminal can do those.
- set trimblanks
- Remove trailing whitespace from wrapped lines when
automatic hard-wrapping occurs or when text is justified.
- set 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 set noconvert.)
-
set whitespace
"characters"
- Set the two characters used to indicate the presence of
tabs and spaces. They must be single-column characters. The default pair
for a UTF-8 locale is " »⋅", and for other
locales " >.".
- set wordbounds
- Detect word boundaries differently by treating punctuation
characters as parts of words.
-
set wordchars
"characters"
- Specify which other characters (besides the normal
alphanumeric ones) should be considered as parts of words. When using this
option, you probably want to unset wordbounds.
- set zap
- Let an unmodified Backspace or Delete erase the marked
region (instead of a single character, and without affecting the
cutbuffer).
- set zero
- Hide all elements of the interface (title bar, status bar,
and help lines) and use all rows of the terminal for showing the contents
of the buffer. The status bar appears only when there is a significant
message, and disappears after 1.5 seconds or upon the next keystroke. With
M-Z the title bar plus status bar can be toggled. With M-X
the help lines.
Option
set suspendable has been removed. Suspension is enabled by
default, reachable via
^T^Z. (If you want a plain
^Z to suspend
nano, add
bind ^Z suspend main to your nanorc.)
Coloring the different syntactic elements of a file is done via regular
expressions (see the
color command below). This is inherently
imperfect, because regular expressions are not powerful enough to fully parse
a file. Nevertheless, regular expressions can do a lot and are easy to make,
so they are a good fit for a small editor like
nano.
All regular expressions in
nano are POSIX extended regular expressions.
This means that
.,
?,
*,
+,
^,
$,
and several other characters are special. The period
. matches any
single character,
? means the preceding item is optional,
*
means the preceding item may be matched zero or more times,
+ means the
preceding item must be matched one or more times,
^ matches the
beginning of a line, and
$ the end,
\< matches the start of a
word, and
\> the end, and
\s matches a blank. It also means
that lookahead and lookbehind are not possible. A complete explanation can be
found in the manual page of GNU grep:
man grep.
Each regular expression in a
nanorc file should be wrapped in double
quotes (
""). Multiple regular expressions can follow each
other on a line by separating them with blanks. This means that a regular
expression cannot contain a double quote followed by a blank. When you need
this combination inside a regular expression, then either the double quote or
the blank should be put between square brackets (
[]).
For each kind of file a separate syntax can be defined via the following
commands:
-
syntax name
["fileregex" ...]
- Start the definition of a syntax with this name. All
subsequent color and other such commands will be added to this
syntax, until a new syntax command is encountered.
When nano is run, this syntax will be automatically activated if the
current filename matches the extended regular expression fileregex.
Or the syntax can be explicitly activated by using the -Y or
--syntax command-line option followed by the name.
The syntax default is special: it takes no fileregex, and
applies to files that don't match any syntax's regexes. The syntax
none is reserved; specifying it on the command line is the same as
not having a syntax at all.
-
header "regex" ...
- If from all defined syntaxes no fileregex matched,
then compare this regex (or regexes) against the first line of the
current file, to determine whether this syntax should be used for it.
-
magic "regex" ...
- If no fileregex matched and no header regex
matched either, then compare this regex (or regexes) against the
result of querying the magic database about the current file, to
determine whether this syntax should be used for it. (This functionality
only works when libmagic is installed on the system and will be
silently ignored otherwise.)
-
formatter program [argument
...]
- Run the given program on the full contents of the
current buffer.
-
linter program [argument
...]
- Use the given program to run a syntax check on the
current buffer.
-
comment "string"
- Use the given string for commenting and uncommenting
lines. If the string contains a vertical bar or pipe character (
|), this designates bracket-style comments; for example, "
/*|*/" for CSS files. The characters before the pipe are
prepended to the line and the characters after the pipe are appended at
the end of the line. If no pipe character is present, the full string is
prepended; for example, " #" for Python files. If empty
double quotes are specified, the comment/uncomment function is disabled;
for example, "" for JSON. The default value is "
#".
-
tabgives "string"
- Make the <Tab> key produce the given string.
Useful for languages like Python that want to see only spaces for
indentation. This overrides the setting of the tabstospaces
option.
-
color
[bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
"regex" ...
- Paint all pieces of text that match the extended regular
expression regex with the given foreground and background colors,
at least one of which must be specified. Valid color names are:
red, green, blue, magenta, yellow,
cyan, white, and black. Each of these eight names may
be prefixed with the word light to get a brighter version of that
color. The word grey or gray may be used as a synonym for
lightblack. On terminal emulators that can do at least 256 colors,
other valid (but unprefixable) color names are: pink,
purple, mauve, lagoon, mint, lime,
peach, orange, latte, rosy, beet,
plum, sea, sky, slate, teal,
sage, brown, ocher, sand, tawny,
brick, crimson, and normal -- where normal
means the default foreground or background color. On such emulators, the
color may also be specified as a three-digit hexadecimal number prefixed
with #, with the digits representing the amounts of red, green, and
blue, respectively. This tells nano to select from the available
palette the color that approximates the given values.
The color pair may be preceded by bold and/or italic
(separated by commas) to get a bold and/or slanting typeface, if your
terminal can do those.
All coloring commands are applied in the order in which they are specified,
which means that later commands can recolor stuff that was colored
earlier.
-
icolor
[bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
"regex" ...
- Same as above, except that the matching is case
insensitive.
-
color
[bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
start="fromrx"
end="torx"
- Paint all pieces of text whose start matches extended
regular expression fromrx and whose end matches extended regular
expression torx with the given foreground and background colors, at
least one of which must be specified. This means that, after an initial
instance of fromrx, all text until the first instance of
torx will be colored. This allows syntax highlighting to span
multiple lines.
-
icolor
[bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
start="fromrx"
end="torx"
- Same as above, except that the matching is case
insensitive.
-
include "syntaxfile"
- Read in self-contained color syntaxes from
syntaxfile. Note that syntaxfile may contain only the above
commands, from syntax to icolor.
-
extendsyntax name command argument
...
- Extend the syntax previously defined as name with
another command. This allows adding a new color,
icolor, header, magic, formatter,
linter, comment, or tabgives command to an already
defined syntax -- useful when you want to slightly improve a syntax
defined in one of the system-installed files (which normally are not
writable).
Key bindings can be changed via the following three commands:
-
bind key function menu
- Rebinds the given key to the given function
in the given menu (or in all menus where the function exists when
all is used).
-
bind key
"string" menu
- Makes the given key produce the given string
in the given menu (or in all menus where the key exists when
all is used). Besides literal text and/or control codes, the
string may contain function names between braces. These functions
will be invoked when the key is typed. To include a literal opening brace,
use {{}.
-
unbind key menu
- Unbinds the given key from the given menu (or
from all menus where the key exists when all is used).
Note that
bind key "{function}"
menu is equivalent to
bind key function
menu, except that for the latter form
nano will check the
availabilty of the
function in the given
menu at startup time
(and report an error if it does not exist there), whereas for the first form
nano will check at execution time that the
function exists but
not whether it makes any sense in the current menu. The user has to take care
that a function name between braces (or any sequence of them) is appropriate.
Strange behavior can result when it is not.
- The format of key should be one of:
-
^X
- where X is a Latin letter, or one of several ASCII
characters (@, ], \, ^, _), or the word "Space". Example:
^C.
-
M-X
- where X is any ASCII character except [, or the word
"Space". Example: M-8.
-
Sh-M-X
- where X is a Latin letter. Example: Sh-M-U. By
default, each Meta+letter keystroke does the same as the corresponding
Shift+Meta+letter. But when any Shift+Meta bind is made, that will no
longer be the case, for all letters.
-
FN
- where N is a numeric value from 1 to 24. Example:
F10. (Often, F13 to F24 can be typed as F1 to
F12 with Shift.)
-
Ins or Del.
Rebinding
^M (Enter) or
^I (Tab) is probably not a good idea.
Rebinding
^[ (Esc) is not possible, because its keycode is the starter
byte of Meta keystrokes and escape sequences. Rebinding any of the dedicated
cursor-moving keys (the arrows, Home, End, PageUp and PageDown) is not
possible. On some terminals it's not possible to rebind
^H (unless
--raw is used) because its keycode is identical to that of the
Backspace key.
- Valid function names to be bound are:
- help
- Invokes the help viewer.
- cancel
- Cancels the current command.
- exit
- Exits from the program (or from the help viewer or file
browser).
- writeout
- Writes the current buffer to disk, asking for a name.
- savefile
- Writes the current file to disk without prompting.
- insert
- Inserts a file into the current buffer (at the current
cursor position), or into a new buffer when option multibuffer is
set.
- whereis
- Starts a forward search for text in the current buffer --
or for filenames matching a string in the current list in the file
browser.
- wherewas
- Starts a backward search for text in the current buffer --
or for filenames matching a string in the current list in the file
browser.
- findprevious
- Searches the next occurrence in the backward
direction.
- findnext
- Searches the next occurrence in the forward direction.
- replace
- Interactively replaces text within the current buffer.
- cut
- Cuts and stores the current line (or the marked
region).
- copy
- Copies the current line (or the marked region) without
deleting it.
- paste
- Pastes the currently stored text into the current buffer at
the current cursor position.
- zap
- Throws away the current line (or the marked region). (This
function is bound by default to <Meta+Delete>.)
- chopwordleft
- Deletes from the cursor position to the beginning of the
preceding word. (This function is bound by default to
<Shift+Ctrl+Delete>. If your terminal produces ^H for
<Ctrl+Backspace>, you can make <Ctrl+Backspace> delete the
word to the left of the cursor by rebinding ^H to this
function.)
- chopwordright
- Deletes from the cursor position to the beginning of the
next word. (This function is bound by default to
<Ctrl+Delete>.)
- cutrestoffile
- Cuts all text from the cursor position till the end of the
buffer.
- mark
- Sets the mark at the current position, to start selecting
text. Or, when it is set, unsets the mark.
- location
- Reports the current position of the cursor in the buffer:
the line, column, and character positions.
- wordcount
- Counts and reports on the status bar the number of lines,
words, and characters in the current buffer (or in the marked
region).
- execute
- Prompts for a program to execute. The program's output will
be inserted into the current buffer (or into a new buffer when M-F
is toggled).
- speller
- Invokes a spell-checking program, either the default
hunspell(1) or GNU spell(1), or the one defined by
--speller or set speller.
- formatter
- Invokes a full-buffer-processing program (if the active
syntax defines one). (The current buffer is written out to a temporary
file, the program is run on it, and then the temporary file is read back
in, replacing the contents of the buffer.)
- linter
- Invokes a syntax-checking program (if the active syntax
defines one). If this program produces lines of the form
"filename:linenum:charnum: some message", then the cursor will
be put at the indicated position in the mentioned file while showing
"some message" on the status bar. You can move from message to
message with <PgUp> and <PgDn>, and leave linting mode with
^C or <Enter>.
- justify
- Justifies the current paragraph (or the marked region). A
paragraph is a group of contiguous lines that, apart from possibly the
first line, all have the same indentation. The beginning of a paragraph is
detected by either this lone line with a differing indentation or by a
preceding blank line.
- fulljustify
- Justifies the entire current buffer (or the marked
region).
- indent
- Indents (shifts to the right) the current line or the
marked lines.
- unindent
- Unindents (shifts to the left) the current line or the
marked lines.
- comment
- Comments or uncomments the current line or the marked
lines, using the comment style specified in the active syntax.
- complete
- Completes (when possible) the fragment before the cursor to
a full word found elsewhere in the current buffer.
- left
- Goes left one position (in the editor or browser).
- right
- Goes right one position (in the editor or browser).
- up
- Goes one line up (in the editor or browser).
- down
- Goes one line down (in the editor or browser).
- scrollup
- Scrolls the viewport up one row (meaning that the text
slides down) while keeping the cursor in the same text position, if
possible. (This function is bound by default to <Alt+Up>. If
<Alt+Up> does nothing on your Linux console, see the FAQ:
https://nano-editor.org/dist/latest/faq.html#4.1
- scrolldown
- Scrolls the viewport down one row (meaning that the text
slides up) while keeping the cursor in the same text position, if
possible. (This function is bound by default to <Alt+Down>.)
- center
- Scrolls the line with the cursor to the middle of the
screen.
- prevword
- Moves the cursor to the beginning of the previous
word.
- nextword
- Moves the cursor to the beginning of the next word.
- home
- Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current line.
- end
- Moves the cursor to the end of the current line.
- beginpara
- Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current
paragraph.
- endpara
- Moves the cursor to the end of the current paragraph.
- prevblock
- Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current or
preceding block of text. (Blocks are separated by one or more blank
lines.)
- nextblock
- Moves the cursor to the beginning of the next block of
text.
- pageup
- Goes up one screenful.
- pagedown
- Goes down one screenful.
- firstline
- Goes to the first line of the file.
- lastline
- Goes to the last line of the file.
- gotoline
- Goes to a specific line (and column if specified). Negative
numbers count from the end of the file (and end of the line).
- findbracket
- Moves the cursor to the bracket (or brace or parenthesis,
etc.) that matches (pairs) with the one under the cursor. See set
matchbrackets.
- anchor
- Places an anchor at the current line, or removes it when
already present. (An anchor is visible when line numbers are
activated.)
- prevanchor
- Goes to the first anchor before the current line.
- nextanchor
- Goes to the first anchor after the current line.
- prevbuf
- Switches to editing/viewing the previous buffer when
multiple buffers are open.
- nextbuf
- Switches to editing/viewing the next buffer when multiple
buffers are open.
- verbatim
- Inserts the next keystroke verbatim into the file, or
begins Unicode input when a hexadecimal digit is typed.
- tab
- Inserts a tab at the current cursor location.
- enter
- Inserts a new line below the current one.
- delete
- Deletes the character under the cursor.
- backspace
- Deletes the character before the cursor.
- recordmacro
- Starts the recording of keystrokes -- the keystrokes are
stored as a macro. When already recording, the recording is stopped.
- runmacro
- Replays the keystrokes of the last recorded macro.
- undo
- Undoes the last performed text action (add text, delete
text, etc).
- redo
- Redoes the last undone action (i.e., it undoes an
undo).
- refresh
- Refreshes the screen.
- suspend
- Suspends the editor and returns control to the shell (until
you tell the process to resume execution with fg).
- casesens
- Toggles whether searching/replacing ignores or respects the
case of the given characters.
- regexp
- Toggles whether searching/replacing uses literal strings or
regular expressions.
- backwards
- Toggles whether searching/replacing goes forward or
backward.
- older
- Retrieves the previous (earlier) entry at a prompt.
- newer
- Retrieves the next (later) entry at a prompt.
- flipreplace
- Toggles between searching for something and replacing
something.
- flipgoto
- Toggles between searching for text and targeting a line
number.
- flipexecute
- Toggles between inserting a file and executing a
command.
- flippipe
- When executing a command, toggles whether the current
buffer (or marked region) is piped to the command.
- flipnewbuffer
- Toggles between inserting into the current buffer and into
a new empty buffer.
- flipconvert
- When reading in a file, toggles between converting and not
converting it from DOS/Mac format. Converting is the default.
- dosformat
- When writing a file, switches to writing a DOS format
(CR/LF).
- macformat
- When writing a file, switches to writing a Mac format.
- append
- When writing a file, appends to the end instead of
overwriting.
- prepend
- When writing a file, 'prepends' (writes at the beginning)
instead of overwriting.
- backup
- When writing a file, creates a backup of the current
file.
- discardbuffer
- When about to write a file, discard the current buffer
without saving. (This function is bound by default only when option
--saveonexit is in effect.)
- browser
- Starts the file browser (in the Read File and Write Out
menus), allowing to select a file from a list.
- gotodir
- Goes to a directory to be specified, allowing to browse
anywhere in the filesystem.
- firstfile
- Goes to the first file in the list when using the file
browser.
- lastfile
- Goes to the last file in the list when using the file
browser.
- nohelp
- Toggles the presence of the two-line list of key bindings
at the bottom of the screen. (This toggle is special: it is available in
all menus except the help viewer and the linter. All further toggles are
available in the main menu only.)
- zero
- Toggles the presence of title bar and status bar.
- constantshow
- Toggles the constant display of the current line, column,
and character positions.
- softwrap
- Toggles the displaying of overlong lines on multiple screen
lines.
- linenumbers
- Toggles the display of line numbers in front of the
text.
- whitespacedisplay
- Toggles the showing of whitespace.
- nosyntax
- Toggles syntax highlighting.
- smarthome
- Toggles the smartness of the Home key.
- autoindent
- Toggles whether a newly created line will contain the same
amount of leading whitespace as the preceding line -- or as the next line
if the preceding line is the beginning of a paragraph.
- cutfromcursor
- Toggles whether cutting text will cut the whole line or
just from the current cursor position to the end of the line.
- breaklonglines
- Toggles whether long lines will be hard-wrapped to the next
line. (The old name of this function, 'nowrap', is deprecated.)
- tabstospaces
- Toggles whether typed tabs will be converted to
spaces.
- mouse
- Toggles mouse support.
- Valid menu sections are:
- main
- The main editor window where text is entered and
edited.
- help
- The help-viewer menu.
- search
- The search menu (AKA whereis).
- replace
- The 'search to replace' menu.
- replacewith
- The 'replace with' menu, which comes up after 'search to
replace'.
- yesno
- The 'yesno' menu, where the Yes/No/All/Cancel question is
asked.
- gotoline
- The 'goto line (and column)' menu.
- writeout
- The 'write file' menu.
- insert
- The 'insert file' menu.
- browser
- The 'file browser' menu, for selecting a file to be opened
or inserted or written to.
- whereisfile
- The 'search for a file' menu in the file browser.
- gotodir
- The 'go to directory' menu in the file browser.
- execute
- The menu for inserting the output from an external command,
or for filtering the buffer (or the marked region) through an external
command, or for executing one of several tools.
- spell
- The menu of the integrated spell checker where the user can
edit a misspelled word.
- linter
- The linter menu, which allows jumping through the linting
messages.
- all
- A special name that encompasses all menus. For bind
it means all menus where the specified function exists; for
unbind it means all menus where the specified key
exists.
- /etc/nanorc
- System-wide configuration file.
-
~/.nanorc or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nano/nanorc or
~/.config/nano/nanorc
- Per-user configuration file.
- /usr/share/nano/*
- Syntax definitions for the syntax coloring of common file
types (and for less common file types in the extra/ subdirectory).
nano(1)
- https://nano-editor.org/cheatsheet.html
- An overview of the default key bindings.