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 number".
The nanorc file contains the default settings for nano.
During startup, nano will first read its system-wide settings from
SYSCONFDIR/nanorc , and then user-specific settings from
~/.nanorc .
OPTIONS
The configuration file accepts a series of "set" and "unset" commands,
which can be used to configure nano on startup without using the
command-line options. Additionally, the "syntax" and "color" keywords
are used to define syntax highlighting rules for different text
patterns. GNU nano will read one command per line.
Options in rcfiles take precedence over nano's defaults, and command
line options override rcfile settings.
Options are unset by default, except for options that take an argument.
The supported commands and arguments are:
set/unset autoindent
Use auto-indentation.
set/unset backup
Create backup files in
filename~ .
set backupdir "directory"
Set the directory where nano puts the backup files if file backups
are enabled.
set brackets "string"
Set the characters treated as closing brackets. They cannot contain
tabs or spaces. Only closing punctuation, optionally followed by
closing brackets, can end sentences.
set/unset const
Constantly display the cursor position in the status bar.
set/unset cut
Use cut to end of line by default.
set fill n
Wrap lines at column number n. If n is 0 or less, the line
length will be the screen width less n. The default value is -8.
set/unset historylog
Enable
~/.nano_history for saving and reading search/replace strings.
set/unset morespace
Allow use of the blank line below the titlebar as extra editing space.
set/unset mouse
Enable mouse support, so that mouse clicks can be used to set the mark
and run shortcuts.
set/unset multibuffer
Allow inserting files into their own buffers.
set/unset noconvert
Don't convert files from DOS/Mac format.
set/unset nofollow
Don't follow symlinks when writing files.
set/unset nohelp
Don't display the help lists at the bottom of the screen.
set/unset nowrap
Don't wrap text at all.
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 dir. By default the operating directory
feature is turned off.
set/unset preserve
Preserve the XON and XOFF keys (^Q and ^S).
set punct "string"
Set the characters treated as closing punctuation. They cannot contain
tabs or spaces. Only closing punctuation, optionally followed by
closing brackets, can end sentences.
set quotestr "string"
The email-quote string, used to justify email-quoted paragraphs. This
is an "extended regular expression" if your system supports them,
otherwise a literal string. The default value is
set quotestr "^([ \t]*[|>:}#])+"
if you have regexps, otherwise set quotestr "> ". Note that '\t'
above stands for a literal Tab character.
set/unset 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.
set/unset regexp
Do regular expression searches by default.
set/unset 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/unset smooth
Use smooth scrolling by default.
set speller spellprog
Use spelling checker spellprog instead of the built-in one, which
calls spell.
set/unset suspend
Allow nano to be suspended.
set tabsize n
Use a tab size of n columns instead of the default(8) ; must be
greater than 0.
set/unset tempfile
Save automatically on exit, don't prompt.
set/unset view
Disallow file modification.
set whitespace "string"
Set the two characters used to display the first characters of tabs and
spaces. They cannot be control characters.
syntax \fIstr\fP [\fIfileregex\fP ... ]
Defines a syntax named str which can be activated via the -Y
flag, or will be automatically activated if the current filename matches
fileregex. All following color statements will apply to
syntax until a new syntax is defined.
color fgcolor[,bgcolor] \fIregex\fP ...
For the currently defined syntax, display all expressions matching
regex with foreground color fgcolor and optional background
color bgcolor. Legal colors for foreground and background color
are: white, black, red, blue, green, yellow, magenta, and cyan. You may
use the prefix "bright" to force a stronger color highlight. If your
terminal supports transparency, not specifying a bgcolor tells
nano to attempt to use a transparent background.
color fgcolor[,bgcolor] start="sr end=\fIer\fP
Display expressions which start with sr and end with er
with foreground color fgcolor and optional background color
bgcolor. This allows syntax highlighting to span multiple lines.
Note that all subsequent instances of sr after an initial sr
is found will be highlighted until the first instance of er.
