dwww Home | Manual pages | Find package

NANORC(5)                     File Formats Manual                    NANORC(5)

NAME
       nanorc - GNU nano's configuration file

DESCRIPTION
       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-spe-
       cific    settings,    either   from   ~/.nanorc   or   from   $XDG_CON-
       FIG_HOME/nano/nanorc or from ~/.config/nano/nanorc,  whichever  is  en-
       countered  first.  If --rcfile is given, nano will read just the speci-
       fied settings file.

OPTIONS
       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 com-
       mand-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 un-
       set.

       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 begin-
          nings.

       set allow_insecure_backup
          When backing up files, allow the backup to succeed even if its  per-
          missions  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 pre-
          vious 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 para-
          graphs.   This may not include blank characters.  Only closing punc-
          tuation (see set punct), optionally followed by the specified  clos-
          ing 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  title-
          color 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 ex-
          ecuted 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 us-
          ing libmagic to determine the applicable syntax.  (Calling  libmagic
          can  be  relatively time consuming.  It is therefore not done by de-
          fault.)

       set matchbrackets "characters"
          Specify the opening and  closing  brackets  that  can  be  found  by
          bracket searches.  This may not include blank characters.  The open-
          ing 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 cur-
          rent 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 char-
          acter 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  dis-
          played 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  ti-
          tlecolor 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 de-
          fault.

       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 subdi-
          rectories.  Also, the current directory is changed to here, so files
          are  inserted from this directory.  By default, the operating direc-
          tory 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 ti-
          tlecolor for more details.

       set punct "characters"
          Set the characters treated as closing  punctuation  when  justifying
          paragraphs.   This may not include blank characters.  Only the spec-
          fified 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 af-
          ter 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  re-
          justify  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.)   Us-
          ing 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 ti-
          tlecolor 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  begin-
          ning 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 de-
          fault  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  light-
          black.  On terminal emulators that can do at least 256 colors, other
          valid (but unprefixable) color names are: pink, purple,  mauve,  la-
          goon,  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 rep-
          resenting the amounts of red, green, and blue,  respectively.   This
          tells  nano  to select from the available palette the color that ap-
          proximates 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 de-
          fault 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 charac-
          ters 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 op-
          tion, you probably want to unset wordbounds.

       set zap
          Let an unmodified Backspace or Delete erase the marked  region  (in-
          stead 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  key-
          stroke.   With  M-Z  the  title  bar plus status bar can be toggled.
          With M-X the help lines.

NOTES
       Option set suspendable has been removed.  Suspension is enabled by  de-
       fault,  reachable  via  ^T^Z.  (If you want a plain ^Z to suspend nano,
       add bind ^Z suspend main to your nanorc.)

SYNTAX HIGHLIGHTING
       Coloring the different syntactic elements of a file is done via regular
       expressions  (see  the color command below).  This is inherently imper-
       fect, 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 spe-
       cial.  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 expres-
       sion  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 follow-
       ing 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, un-
              til 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 ap-
              plies to files that don't match any syntax's regexes.  The  syn-
              tax  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 buf-
              fer.

       linter program [argument ...]
              Use the given program to run a syntax check on the current  buf-
              fer.

       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  dis-
              abled; for example, "" for JSON.  The default value is "#".

       tabgives "string"
              Make  the  <Tab>  key produce the given string.  Useful for lan-
              guages 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 expres-
              sion 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, or-
              ange, 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 approx-
              imates 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  ter-
              minal 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 expres-
              sion  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 com-
              mand.  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 nor-
              mally are not writable).

REBINDING KEYS
       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 open-
                 ing 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.  (Of-
                 ten, 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.   Rebind-
       ing  ^[  (Esc) is not possible, because its keycode is the starter byte
       of Meta keystrokes and escape sequences.  Rebinding any  of  the  dedi-
       cated  cursor-moving  keys (the arrows, Home, End, PageUp and PageDown)
       is not possible.  On some terminals it's not possible to rebind ^H (un-
       less  --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  po-
            sition), 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 func-
            tion 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 re-
            binding ^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 de-
            fines 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  "file-
            name: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  para-
            graph 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 pos-
            sible.  (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 possi-
            ble.  (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 num-
            bers 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 buf-
            fers 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 Uni-
            code 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  regu-
            lar 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 con-
            verting 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 tog-
            gles 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 in-
            serted 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 mes-
            sages.

          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.

FILES
       /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).

SEE ALSO
       nano(1)

       https://nano-editor.org/cheatsheet.html
              An overview of the default key bindings.

January 2023                      version 7.2                        NANORC(5)

Generated by dwww version 1.15 on Tue Jun 18 02:30:24 CEST 2024.