nanorc.5 (42002B)
1 .\" Copyright (C) 2003-2011, 2013-2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 2 .\" 3 .\" This document is dual-licensed. You may distribute and/or modify it 4 .\" under the terms of either of the following licenses: 5 .\" 6 .\" * The GNU General Public License, as published by the Free Software 7 .\" Foundation, version 3 or (at your option) any later version. You 8 .\" should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License 9 .\" along with this program. If not, see 10 .\" <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>. 11 .\" 12 .\" * The GNU Free Documentation License, as published by the Free 13 .\" Software Foundation, version 1.2 or (at your option) any later 14 .\" version, with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no 15 .\" Back-Cover Texts. You should have received a copy of the GNU Free 16 .\" Documentation License along with this program. If not, see 17 .\" <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>. 18 .\" 19 .TH NANORC 5 "version 8.5" "June 2025" 20 21 .SH NAME 22 nanorc \- GNU nano's configuration file 23 24 .SH DESCRIPTION 25 The \fInanorc\fR files contain the default settings for \fBnano\fR, 26 a small and friendly text editor. During startup, if \fB\-\-rcfile\fR 27 is not given, \fBnano\fR reads two files: first the system-wide settings, 28 from \fI/etc/nanorc\fR (the exact path might be different on your system), 29 and then the user-specific settings, either from \fI~/.nanorc\fR or from 30 \fI$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nano/nanorc\fR or from \fI~/.config/nano/nanorc\fR, 31 whichever is encountered first. If \fB\-\-rcfile\fR is given, 32 \fBnano\fR reads just the specified settings file. 33 34 .SH NOTICE 35 Since version 8.0, to be newcomer friendly, \fB^F\fR starts a forward search, 36 \fB^B\fR starts a backward search, \fBM\-F\fR searches the next occurrence 37 forward, and \fBM\-B\fR searches the next occurrence backward. If you want 38 those keystrokes to do what they did before version 8.0, add the following 39 lines at the end of your \fInanorc\fR file: 40 .sp 41 .RS 4 42 .B bind ^F forward main 43 .br 44 .B bind ^B back main 45 .br 46 .B bind M\-F formatter main 47 .br 48 .B bind M\-B linter main 49 .RE 50 .sp 51 52 .\" Never hyphenate these: 53 .hw ncurses terminfo 54 55 .SH OPTIONS 56 The configuration file accepts a series of \fBset\fR and \fBunset\fR 57 commands, which can be used to configure nano on startup without using 58 command-line options. Additionally, there are some commands to define 59 syntax highlighting and to rebind keys \(em see the two separate sections 60 on those. \fBnano\fR reads one command per line. 61 All commands and keywords should be written in lowercase. 62 .sp 63 Options in \fInanorc\fR files take precedence over nano's defaults, and 64 command-line options override \fInanorc\fR settings. Also, options that 65 do not take an argument are unset by default. So using the \fBunset\fR 66 command is only needed when wanting to override a setting of the system's 67 \fInanorc\fR file in your own \fInanorc\fR. Options that take an 68 argument cannot be unset. 69 .sp 70 Quotes inside the \fIcharacters\fR parameters below should not be escaped. 71 The last double quote on the line will be seen as the closing quote. 72 .sp 73 The supported commands and arguments are: 74 .TP 3 75 .B set afterends 76 Make Ctrl+Right and Ctrl+Delete stop at word ends instead of beginnings. 77 .TP 78 .B set allow_insecure_backup 79 When backing up files, allow the backup to succeed even if its permissions 80 can't be (re)set due to special OS considerations. You should 81 NOT enable this option unless you are sure you need it. 82 .TP 83 .B set atblanks 84 When soft line wrapping is enabled, make it wrap lines at blank characters 85 (tabs and spaces) instead of always at the edge of the screen. 86 .TP 87 .B set autoindent 88 Automatically indent a newly created line to the same number of tabs 89 and/or spaces as the previous line (or as the next line if the previous 90 line is the beginning of a paragraph). 91 .TP 92 .B set backup 93 When saving a file, create a backup file by adding a tilde (\fB~\fR) to 94 the file's name. 95 .TP 96 .B set backupdir \fIdirectory\fR 97 Make and keep not just one backup file, but make and keep a uniquely 98 numbered one every time a file is saved \(em when backups are enabled 99 with \fBset backup\fR or \fB\-\-backup\fR or \fB\-B\fR. 100 The uniquely numbered files are stored in the specified \fIdirectory\fR. 101 .TP 102 .B set boldtext 103 Use bold instead of reverse video for the title bar, status bar, 104 prompt bar, mini bar, key combos, line numbers, and selected text. 105 This can be overridden by setting the options \fB\%titlecolor\fR, 106 \fB\%statuscolor\fR, \fB\%promptcolor\fR, \fB\%minicolor\fR, 107 \fB\%keycolor\fR, \fB\%numbercolor\fR, and/or \fB\%selectedcolor\fR. 108 .TP 109 .B set bookstyle 110 When justifying, treat any line that starts with whitespace as the 111 beginning of a paragraph (unless auto-indenting is on). 112 .TP 113 .BI "set brackets """ characters """" 114 Set the characters treated as closing brackets when justifying 115 paragraphs. This may not include blank characters. Only closing 116 punctuation (see \fBset punct\fR), optionally followed by the specified 117 closing brackets, can end sentences. The default value is "\fB\(dq')>]}\fR". 118 .TP 119 .B set breaklonglines 120 Automatically hard-wrap the current line when it becomes overlong. 121 .TP 122 .B set casesensitive 123 Do case-sensitive searches by default. 124 .TP 125 .B set colonparsing 126 When a filename given on the command line ends in a colon plus digits 127 and this filename does not exist, then snip the colon plus digits and 128 understand the digits as a line number. If the trimmed filename does 129 not exist either, then repeat the process and understand the obtained 130 two numbers as line and column number. But if the doubly trimmed 131 filename does not exist either, then forget the trimming and accept 132 the original filename as is. To disable this colon parsing for some 133 file, use \fB+1\fR or similar before the relevant filename. 134 .TP 135 .B set constantshow 136 Constantly report the cursor position on the status bar. 137 This overrides the option \fBquickblank\fR. 138 .TP 139 .B set cutfromcursor 140 Use cut-from-cursor-to-end-of-line by default, instead of cutting the whole line. 141 .TP 142 .B set emptyline 143 Do not use the line below the title bar, leaving it entirely blank. 144 .TP 145 .B set errorcolor \fR[\fBbold,\fR][\fBitalic,\fR]\fIfgcolor\fB,\fIbgcolor\fR 146 Use this color combination for the status bar when an error message is displayed. 147 The default value is \fBbold,white,red\fR. 148 See \fBset \%titlecolor\fR for valid color names. 149 .TP 150 .B set fill \fInumber\fR 151 Set the target width for justifying and automatic hard-wrapping at this 152 \fInumber\fR of columns. If the value is 0 or less, wrapping occurs 153 at the width of the screen minus \fInumber\fR columns, allowing the wrap 154 point to vary along with the width of the screen if the screen is resized. 155 The default value is \fB\-8\fR. 156 .TP 157 .B set functioncolor \fR[\fBbold,\fR][\fBitalic,\fR]\fIfgcolor\fB,\fIbgcolor\fR 158 Use this color combination for the concise function descriptions 159 in the two help lines at the bottom of the screen. 160 See \fBset \%titlecolor\fR for more details. 161 .TP 162 .B set guidestripe \fInumber 163 Draw a vertical stripe at the given column, to help judge the width of the 164 text. (The color of the stripe can be changed with \fBset stripecolor\fR.) 165 .TP 166 .B set historylog 167 Save the last hundred search strings and replacement strings and 168 executed commands, so they can be easily reused in later sessions. 169 .TP 170 .B set indicator 171 Display a "scrollbar" on the righthand side of the edit window. 172 It shows the position of the viewport in the buffer 173 and how much of the buffer is covered by the viewport. 174 .TP 175 .B set jumpyscrolling 176 Scroll the buffer contents per half-screen instead of per line. 177 .TP 178 .B set keycolor \fR[\fBbold,\fR][\fBitalic,\fR]\fIfgcolor\fB,\fIbgcolor\fR 179 Use this color combination for the shortcut key combos 180 in the two help lines at the bottom of the screen. 181 See \fBset \%titlecolor\fR for more details. 182 .TP 183 .B set linenumbers 184 Display line numbers to the left of the text area. 185 (Any line with an anchor additionally gets a mark in the margin.) 186 .TP 187 .B set locking 188 Enable vim-style lock-files for when editing files. 189 .TP 190 .B set magic 191 When neither the file's name nor its first line give a clue, 192 try using libmagic to determine the applicable syntax. 193 (Calling libmagic can be relatively time consuming. 194 It is therefore not done by default.) 195 .TP 196 .BI "set matchbrackets """ characters """" 197 Specify the opening and closing brackets that can be found by bracket 198 searches. This may not include blank characters. The opening set must 199 come before the closing set, and the two sets must be in the same order. 200 The default value is "\fB(<[{)>]}\fR". 201 .TP 202 .B set minibar 203 Suppress the title bar and instead show information about 204 the current buffer at the bottom of the screen, in the space 205 for the status bar. In this "mini bar" the filename is shown 206 on the left, followed by an asterisk if the buffer has been modified. 207 On the right are displayed the current line and column number, the 208 code of the character under the cursor (in Unicode format: U+xxxx), 209 the same flags as are shown by \fBset stateflags\fR, and a percentage 210 that expresses how far the cursor is into the file (linewise). 211 When a file is loaded or saved, and also when switching between buffers, 212 the number of lines in the buffer is displayed after the filename. 213 This number is cleared upon the next keystroke, or replaced with an 214 [i/n] counter when multiple buffers are open. 215 The line plus column numbers and the character code are displayed only when 216 \fBset constantshow\fR is used, and can be toggled on and off with \fBM\-C\fR. 217 The state flags are displayed only when \fBset stateflags\fR is used. 218 .TP 219 .B set minicolor \fR[\fBbold,\fR][\fBitalic,\fR]\fIfgcolor\fB,\fIbgcolor\fR 220 Use this color combination for the mini bar. 221 (When this option is not specified, the colors of the title bar are used.) 222 See \fBset \%titlecolor\fR for more details. 223 .TP 224 .B set mouse 225 Enable mouse support, if available for your system. When enabled, 226 mouse clicks can be used to place the cursor, set the mark (with two 227 clicks), and execute shortcuts. The mouse works in the X Window 228 System, and on the console when gpm is running. Text can still be 229 selected through dragging by holding down the Shift key. 230 .TP 231 .B set multibuffer 232 When reading in a file with \fB^R\fR, insert it into a new buffer by default. 233 .TP 234 .B set noconvert 235 Don't convert files from DOS/Mac format. 236 .TP 237 .B set nohelp 238 Don't display the two help lines at the bottom of the screen. 239 .TP 240 .B set nonewlines 241 Don't automatically add a newline when a text does not end with one. 242 (This can cause you to save non-POSIX text files.) 243 .TP 244 .B set nowrap 245 Deprecated option since it has become the default setting. 246 When needed, use \fBunset breaklonglines\fR instead. 247 .TP 248 .B set numbercolor \fR[\fBbold,\fR][\fBitalic,\fR]\fIfgcolor\fB,\fIbgcolor\fR 249 Use this color combination for line numbers. 250 See \fBset \%titlecolor\fR for more details. 251 .TP 252 .B set operatingdir \fIdirectory\fR 253 At startup, make \fBnano\fR change to the given \fIdirectory\fR, and allow 254 reading and writing files only in this directory and its subdirectories. 255 .TP 256 .B set positionlog 257 Save the positions of cursor and anchors between editing sessions. 258 These positions are remembered for the 200 most-recently edited files. 259 .TP 260 .B set preserve 261 Preserve the XOFF and XON sequences (\fB^S\fR and \fB^Q\fR) so that 262 they are caught by the terminal (stopping and resuming the output). 263 .TP 264 .B set promptcolor \fR[\fBbold,\fR][\fBitalic,\fR]\fIfgcolor\fB,\fIbgcolor\fR 265 Use this color combination for the prompt bar. 266 (When this option is not specified, the colors of the title bar are used.) 267 See \fBset \%titlecolor\fR for more details. 268 .TP 269 .BI "set punct """ characters """" 270 Set the characters treated as closing punctuation when justifying 271 paragraphs. This may not include blank characters. Only the 272 specified closing punctuation, optionally followed by closing brackets 273 (see \fBset brackets\fR), can end sentences. The default value is "\fB!.?\fR". 274 .TP 275 .B set quickblank 276 Make status-bar messages disappear after 1 keystroke instead of after 20. 277 Note that option \fBconstantshow\fR overrides this. 278 When option \fBminibar\fR or \fBzero\fR is in effect, 279 \fBquickblank\fR makes a message disappear after 280 0.8 seconds instead of after the default 1.5 seconds. 281 .TP 282 .BI "set quotestr """ regex """" 283 Set the regular expression for matching the quoting part of a line. 284 The default value is "\fB^([\ \et]*([!#%:;>|}]|//))+\fR". 285 (Note that \fB\et\fR stands for an actual Tab character.) 286 This makes it possible to rejustify blocks of quoted text when composing 287 email, and to rewrap blocks of line comments when writing source code. 288 .TP 289 .B set rawsequences 290 Interpret escape sequences directly, instead of asking \fBncurses\fR 291 to translate them. (If you need this option to get some keys to work 292 properly, it means that the \fBterminfo\fR terminal description that is used 293 does not fully match the actual behavior of your terminal. This can 294 happen when you ssh into a BSD machine, for example.) 295 Using this option disables \fBnano\fR's mouse support. 296 .TP 297 .B set rebinddelete 298 Interpret the Delete and Backspace keys differently so that both Backspace 299 and Delete work properly. You should only use this option when on your 300 system either Backspace acts like Delete or Delete acts like Backspace. 301 .TP 302 .B set regexp 303 Do regular-expression searches by default. 304 Regular expressions in \fBnano\fR are of the extended type (ERE). 305 .TP 306 .B set saveonexit 307 Save a changed buffer automatically on exit (\fB^X\fR); don't prompt. 308 .TP 309 .B set scrollercolor \fIfgcolor\fB,\fIbgcolor\fR 310 Use this color combination for the indicator alias "scrollbar". 311 See \fBset \%titlecolor\fR for more details. 312 .TP 313 .B set selectedcolor \fR[\fBbold,\fR][\fBitalic,\fR]\fIfgcolor\fB,\fIbgcolor\fR 314 Use this color combination for selected text. 315 See \fBset \%titlecolor\fR for more details. 316 .TP 317 .B set showcursor 318 Put the cursor on the highlighted item in the file browser, and show 319 the cursor in the help viewer, to aid braille users and people with 320 poor vision. 321 .TP 322 .B set smarthome 323 Make the Home key smarter. When Home is pressed anywhere but at the 324 very beginning of non-whitespace characters on a line, the cursor jumps 325 to that beginning (either forwards or backwards). If the cursor is 326 already at that position, it jumps to the true beginning of the line. 327 .TP 328 .B set softwrap 329 Display lines that exceed the screen's width over multiple screen lines. 330 (You can make this soft-wrapping occur at whitespace instead of rudely at 331 the screen's edge, by using also \fBset atblanks\fR.) 332 .TP 333 .B set speller """\fIprogram\fR [\fIargument \fR...]\fB""" 334 Use the given \fIprogram\fR to do spell checking and correcting, instead of 335 using the built-in corrector that calls \fBhunspell\fR(1) or \fBspell\fR(1). 336 .TP 337 .B set spotlightcolor \fR[\fBbold,\fR][\fBitalic,\fR]\fIfgcolor\fB,\fIbgcolor\fR 338 Use this color combination for highlighting a search match. 339 The default value is \fBblack,\%lightyellow\fR. 340 See \fBset \%titlecolor\fR for valid color names. 341 .TP 342 .B set stateflags 343 Use the top-right corner of the screen for showing some state flags: 344 \fBI\fR when auto-indenting, \fBM\fR when the mark is on, \fBL\fR when 345 hard-wrapping (breaking long lines), \fBR\fR when recording a macro, 346 and \fBS\fR when soft-wrapping. 347 When the buffer is modified, a star (\fB*\fR) is shown after the 348 filename in the center of the title bar. 349 .TP 350 .B set statuscolor \fR[\fBbold,\fR][\fBitalic,\fR]\fIfgcolor\fB,\fIbgcolor\fR 351 Use this color combination for the status bar. 352 See \fBset \%titlecolor\fR for more details. 353 .TP 354 .B set stripecolor \fR[\fBbold,\fR][\fBitalic,\fR]\fIfgcolor\fB,\fIbgcolor\fR 355 Use this color combination for the vertical guiding stripe. 356 See \fBset \%titlecolor\fR for more details. 357 .TP 358 .B set tabsize \fInumber\fR 359 Use a tab size of \fInumber\fR columns. The value of \fInumber\fR must be 360 greater than 0. The default value is \fB8\fR. 361 .TP 362 .B set tabstospaces 363 Convert each typed tab to spaces \(em to the number of spaces 364 that a tab at that position would take up. 365 (Note: pasted tabs are not converted.) 366 .TP 367 .B set titlecolor \fR[\fBbold,\fR][\fBitalic,\fR]\fIfgcolor\fB,\fIbgcolor\fR 368 Use this color combination for the title bar. 369 Valid names for the foreground and background colors are: 370 .BR red ", " green ", " blue ", " \%magenta ", " \%yellow ", " \%cyan , 371 .BR white ", and " black . 372 Each of these eight names may be prefixed with the word \fBlight\fR 373 to get a brighter version of that color. 374 The word \fBgrey\fR or \fBgray\fR may be used 375 as a synonym for \fB\%lightblack\fR. 376 On a Linux console, \fBlight\fR does not have 377 any effect for a background color. 378 On terminal emulators that can do at least 256 colors, 379 other valid (but unprefixable) color names are: 380 .BR pink ", " \%purple ", " mauve ", " \%lagoon ", " mint ", " lime ", " peach , 381 .BR \%orange ", " \%latte ", " \%rosy ", " beet ", " plum ", " sea ", " sky , 382 .BR slate ", " teal ", " sage ", " brown ", " \%ocher ", " sand ", " \%tawny , 383 .BR brick ", " \%crimson ", and " \%normal 384 \(em where \fB\%normal\fR means the default foreground or background color. 385 On such emulators, the color may also be specified as a three-digit hexadecimal 386 number prefixed with \fB#\fR, with the digits representing the amounts of red, 387 green, and blue, respectively. This tells \fBnano\fR to select from the 388 available palette the color that approximates the given values. 389 390 Either "\fIfgcolor\fR" or "\fB,\fIbgcolor\fR" may be left out, 391 and the pair may be preceded by \fBbold\fR and/or \fB\%italic\fR 392 (separated by commas) to get a bold and/or slanting typeface, 393 if your terminal can do those. 394 .TP 395 .B set trimblanks 396 Remove trailing whitespace from wrapped lines when automatic 397 hard-wrapping occurs or when text is justified. 398 .TP 399 .B set unix 400 Save a file by default in Unix format. This overrides nano's 401 default behavior of saving a file in the format that it had. 402 (This option has no effect when you also use \fBset noconvert\fR.) 403 .TP 404 .BI "set whitespace """ characters """" 405 Set the two characters used to indicate the presence of tabs and 406 spaces. They must be single-column characters. The default pair 407 for a UTF-8 locale is "\fB\[Fc]\[md]\fR", and for other locales "\fB>.\fR". 408 .TP 409 .B set wordbounds 410 Detect word boundaries differently by treating punctuation 411 characters as parts of words. 412 .TP 413 .BI "set wordchars """ characters """" 414 Specify which other characters (besides the normal alphanumeric ones) 415 should be considered as parts of words. When using this option, you 416 probably want to unset \fBwordbounds\fR. 417 .TP 418 .B set zap 419 Let an unmodified Backspace or Delete erase the marked region 420 (instead of a single character, and without affecting the cutbuffer). 421 .TP 422 .B set zero 423 Hide all elements of the interface (title bar, status bar, and help lines) 424 and use all rows of the terminal for showing the contents of the buffer. 425 The status bar appears only when there is a significant message, 426 and disappears after 1.5 seconds or upon the next keystroke. 427 With \fBM\-Z\fR the title bar plus status bar can be toggled. 428 With \fBM\-X\fR the help lines. 429 430 .SH SYNTAX HIGHLIGHTING 431 Coloring the different syntactic elements of a file 432 is done via regular expressions (see the \fBcolor\fR command below). 433 This is inherently imperfect, because regular expressions are not 434 powerful enough to fully parse a file. Nevertheless, regular 435 expressions can do a lot and are easy to make, so they are a 436 good fit for a small editor like \fBnano\fR. 437 .sp 438 All regular expressions in \fBnano\fR are POSIX extended regular expressions. 439 This means that \fB.\fR, \fB?\fR, \fB*\fR, \fB+\fR, \fB^\fR, \fB$\fR, and 440 several other characters are special. 441 The period \fB.\fR matches any single character, 442 \fB?\fR means the preceding item is optional, 443 \fB*\fR means the preceding item may be matched zero or more times, 444 \fB+\fR means the preceding item must be matched one or more times, 445 \fB^\fR matches the beginning of a line, and \fB$\fR the end, 446 \fB\e<\fR matches the start of a word, and \fB\e>\fR the end, 447 and \fB\es\fR matches a blank. 448 It also means that lookahead and lookbehind are not possible. 449 A complete explanation can be found in the manual page of GNU grep: 450 \fBman grep\fR. 451 .sp 452 Each regular expression in a \fBnanorc\fR file should be wrapped in 453 double quotes (\fB""\fR). Multiple regular expressions can follow 454 each other on a line by separating them with blanks. This means that 455 a regular expression cannot contain a double quote followed by a blank. 456 When you need this combination inside a regular expression, 457 then either the double quote or the blank should be put 458 between square brackets (\fB[]\fR). 459 .sp 460 For each kind of file a separate syntax can be defined 461 via the following commands: 462 .TP 463 .BI syntax " name \fR[" """" fileregex """ " \fR...] 464 Start the definition of a syntax with this \fIname\fR. 465 All subsequent \fBcolor\fR and other such commands 466 are added to this syntax, until a new \fBsyntax\fR 467 command is encountered. 468 .sp 469 When \fBnano\fR is run, this syntax is automatically 470 activated (for the relevant buffer) if the absolute filename 471 matches the extended regular expression \fIfileregex\fR. 472 Or the syntax can be explicitly activated (for all buffers) 473 by using the \fB\-Y\fR or \fB\-\-syntax\fR 474 command-line option followed by the \fIname\fR. 475 .sp 476 The syntax \fBdefault\fR is special: it takes no \fIfileregex\fR, 477 and applies to files that don't match any syntax's regexes. 478 The syntax \fBnone\fR is reserved; specifying it on the command line 479 is the same as not having a syntax at all. 480 .TP 481 .BI "header """ regex """ " \fR... 482 If from all defined syntaxes no \fIfileregex\fR matched, then compare 483 this \fIregex\fR (or regexes) against the first line of the current file, 484 to determine whether this syntax should be used for it. 485 .TP 486 .BI "magic """ regex """ " \fR... 487 If no \fIfileregex\fR matched and no \fBheader\fR regex matched 488 either, then compare this \fIregex\fR (or regexes) against the 489 result of querying the \fBmagic\fR database about the current 490 file, to determine whether this syntax should be used for it. 491 (This querying is done only when \fBlibmagic\fR is actually installed 492 on the system and \fB\-\-magic\fR or \fBset magic\fR was given.) 493 .TP 494 .BI formatter " program " \fR[ "argument " \fR...] 495 Run the given \fIprogram\fR on the full contents of the current buffer. 496 .TP 497 .BI linter " program " \fR[ "argument " \fR...] 498 Use the given \fIprogram\fR to run a syntax check on the current buffer. 499 .TP 500 .BI "comment """ string """" 501 Use the given \fIstring\fR for commenting and uncommenting lines. 502 If the string contains a vertical bar or pipe character (\fB|\fR), 503 this designates bracket-style comments; for example, "\fB/*|*/\fR" for 504 CSS files. The characters before the pipe are prepended to the line and the 505 characters after the pipe are appended at the end of the line. If no pipe 506 character is present, the full string is prepended; for example, "\fB#\fR" 507 for Python files. If empty double quotes are specified, the comment/uncomment 508 function is disabled; for example, "" for JSON. 509 The default value is "\fB#\fR". 510 .TP 511 .BI "tabgives """ string """" 512 Make the <Tab> key produce the given \fIstring\fR. Useful for languages like 513 Python that want to see only spaces for indentation. 514 This overrides the setting of the \fBtabstospaces\fR option. 515 .TP 516 .BI "color \fR[\fBbold,\fR][\fBitalic,\fR]" fgcolor , bgcolor " """ regex """ " \fR... 517 Paint all pieces of text that match the extended regular expression 518 \fIregex\fR with the given foreground and background colors, at least 519 one of which must be specified. Valid color names are: 520 .BR red ", " green ", " blue ", " \%magenta ", " \%yellow ", " \%cyan , 521 .BR white ", and " black . 522 Each of these eight names may be prefixed with the word \fBlight\fR 523 to get a brighter version of that color. 524 The word \fBgrey\fR or \fBgray\fR may be used 525 as a synonym for \fB\%lightblack\fR. 526 On a Linux console, \fBlight\fR does not have 527 any effect for a background color. 528 On terminal emulators that can do at least 256 colors, 529 other valid (but unprefixable) color names are: 530 .BR pink ", " \%purple ", " mauve ", " \%lagoon ", " mint ", " lime ", " peach , 531 .BR \%orange ", " \%latte ", " \%rosy ", " beet ", " plum ", " sea ", " sky , 532 .BR slate ", " teal ", " sage ", " brown ", " \%ocher ", " sand ", " \%tawny , 533 .BR brick ", " \%crimson ", and " \%normal 534 \(em where \fB\%normal\fR means the default foreground or background color. 535 On such emulators, the color may also be specified as a three-digit hexadecimal 536 number prefixed with \fB#\fR, with the digits representing the amounts of red, 537 green, and blue, respectively. This tells \fBnano\fR to select from the 538 available palette the color that approximates the given values. 539 540 The color pair may be preceded by \fBbold\fR and/or \fB\%italic\fR 541 (separated by commas) to get a bold and/or slanting typeface, 542 if your terminal can do those. 543 .sp 544 All coloring commands are applied in the order in which they are specified, 545 which means that later commands can recolor stuff that was colored earlier. 546 .TP 547 .BI "icolor \fR[\fBbold,\fR][\fBitalic,\fR]" fgcolor , bgcolor " """ regex """ " \fR... 548 Same as above, except that the matching is case insensitive. 549 .TP 550 .BI "color \fR[\fBbold,\fR][\fBitalic,\fR]" fgcolor , bgcolor " start=""" fromrx """ end=""" torx """" 551 Paint all pieces of text whose start matches extended regular expression 552 \fIfromrx\fR and whose end matches extended regular expression \fItorx\fR 553 with the given foreground and background colors, 554 at least one of which must be specified. This means that, after an 555 initial instance of \fIfromrx\fR, all text until the first instance of 556 \fItorx\fR is colored. This allows syntax highlighting to span 557 multiple lines. 558 .TP 559 .BI "icolor \fR[\fBbold,\fR][\fBitalic,\fR]" fgcolor , bgcolor " start=""" fromrx """ end=""" torx """" 560 Same as above, except that the matching is case insensitive. 561 .TP 562 .BI "include """ syntaxfile """" 563 Read in self-contained color syntaxes from \fIsyntaxfile\fR. Note that 564 \fIsyntaxfile\fR may contain only the above commands, from \fBsyntax\fR 565 to \fBicolor\fR. 566 .TP 567 .BI extendsyntax " name command argument " \fR... 568 Extend the syntax previously defined as \fIname\fR with another 569 \fI\%command\fR. This allows adding a new \fB\%color\fR, \fB\%icolor\fR, 570 \fB\%header\fR, \fB\%magic\fR, \fB\%formatter\fR, \fB\%linter\fR, 571 \fB\%comment\fR, or \fB\%tabgives\fR 572 command to an already defined syntax \(em useful when you want to 573 slightly improve a syntax defined in one of the system-installed 574 files (which normally are not writable). 575 576 .SH REBINDING KEYS 577 Key bindings can be changed via the following three commands: 578 .RS 3 579 .TP 580 .BI bind " key function menu" 581 Rebinds the given \fIkey\fR to the given \fIfunction\fR in the given \fImenu\fR 582 (or in all menus where the function exists when \fBall\fR is used). 583 .TP 584 .BI bind " key " """" string """" " menu" 585 Makes the given \fIkey\fR produce the given \fIstring\fR in the given 586 \fImenu\fR (or in all menus where the key exists when \fBall\fR is used). 587 Besides literal text and/or control codes, the \fIstring\fR may contain 588 function names between braces. These functions are invoked when 589 the key is typed. To include a literal opening brace, use \fB{{}\fR. 590 .TP 591 .BI unbind " key menu" 592 Unbinds the given \fIkey\fR from the given \fImenu\fR (or from all 593 menus where the key exists when \fBall\fR is used). 594 .RE 595 .sp 596 Note that \fBbind \fIkey\fR \fB"{\fIfunction\fB}"\fR \fImenu\fR is equivalent 597 to \fBbind \fIkey\fR \fIfunction\fR \fImenu\fR, except that for the latter form 598 \fBnano\fR checks the availability of the \fIfunction\fR in the given \fImenu\fR 599 at startup time (and reports an error if it does not exist there), whereas for the 600 first form \fBnano\fR checks at execution time that the \fIfunction\fR exists 601 but not whether it makes any sense in the current menu. The user has to take care 602 that a function name between braces (or any sequence of them) is appropriate. 603 Strange behavior or even a crash can result when the braced name is unfitting. 604 605 .TP 606 The format of \fIkey\fR should be one of: 607 .RS 3 608 .TP 7 609 .BI ^ X 610 where \fIX\fR is a Latin letter, or one of several ASCII characters 611 (@, ], \e, ^, _), or the word "Space". 612 Example: ^C. 613 .TP 614 .BI M\- X 615 where \fIX\fR is any ASCII character except [, or the word "Space". 616 Example: M\-8. 617 .TP 618 .BI Sh\-M\- X 619 where \fIX\fR is a Latin letter. 620 Example: Sh\-M\-U. 621 By default, each Meta+letter keystroke does the same as the corresponding 622 Shift+Meta+letter. But when any Shift+Meta bind is made, that will 623 no longer be the case, for all letters. 624 .TP 625 .BI F N 626 where \fIN\fR is a numeric value from 1 to 24. 627 Example: F10. 628 (Often, \fBF13\fR to \fBF24\fR can be typed as \fBF1\fR to \fBF12\fR with Shift.) 629 .TP 630 .BR Ins " or " Del . 631 .RE 632 .sp 633 Rebinding \fB^M\fR (Enter) or \fB^I\fR (Tab) is probably not a good idea. 634 Rebinding \fB^[\fR (Esc) is not possible, because its keycode 635 is the starter byte of Meta keystrokes and escape sequences. 636 Rebinding any of the dedicated cursor-moving keys (the arrows, 637 Home, End, PageUp and PageDown) is not possible. 638 On some terminals it's not possible to rebind \fB^H\fR (unless \fB\-\-raw\fR 639 is used) because its keycode is identical to that of the Backspace key. 640 641 .TP 642 Valid \fIfunction\fR names to be bound are: 643 .RS 3 644 .TP 2 645 .B help 646 Invokes the help viewer. 647 .TP 648 .B cancel 649 Cancels the current command. 650 .TP 651 .B exit 652 Exits from the program (or from the help viewer or file browser). 653 .TP 654 .B writeout 655 Writes the current buffer to disk, asking for a name. 656 .TP 657 .B savefile 658 Writes the current file to disk without prompting. 659 .TP 660 .B insert 661 Inserts a file into the current buffer (at the current cursor position), 662 or into a new buffer when option \fBmultibuffer\fR is set. 663 .TP 664 .B whereis 665 Starts a forward search for text in the current buffer \(em or for filenames 666 matching a string in the current list in the file browser. 667 .TP 668 .B wherewas 669 Starts a backward search for text in the current buffer \(em or for filenames 670 matching a string in the current list in the file browser. 671 .TP 672 .B findprevious 673 Searches the next occurrence in the backward direction. 674 .TP 675 .B findnext 676 Searches the next occurrence in the forward direction. 677 .TP 678 .B replace 679 Interactively replaces text within the current buffer. 680 .TP 681 .B cut 682 Cuts and stores the current line (or the marked region). 683 .TP 684 .B copy 685 Copies the current line (or the marked region) without deleting it. 686 .TP 687 .B paste 688 Pastes the currently stored text into the current buffer at the 689 current cursor position. 690 .TP 691 .B zap 692 Throws away the current line (or the marked region). 693 (This function is bound by default to <Meta+Delete>.) 694 .TP 695 .B chopwordleft 696 Deletes from the cursor position to the beginning of the preceding word. 697 (This function is bound by default to <Shift+Ctrl+Delete>. If your terminal 698 produces \fB^H\fR for <Ctrl+Backspace>, you can make <Ctrl+Backspace> delete 699 the word to the left of the cursor by rebinding \fB^H\fR to this function.) 700 .TP 701 .B chopwordright 702 Deletes from the cursor position to the beginning of the next word. 703 (This function is bound by default to <Ctrl+Delete>.) 704 .TP 705 .B cutrestoffile 706 Cuts all text from the cursor position till the end of the buffer. 707 .TP 708 .B mark 709 Sets the mark at the current position, to start selecting text. 710 Or, when it is set, unsets the mark. 711 .TP 712 .B location 713 Reports the current position of the cursor in the buffer: 714 the line, column, and character positions. 715 .TP 716 .B wordcount 717 Counts and reports on the status bar the number of lines, words, 718 and characters in the current buffer (or in the marked region). 719 .TP 720 .B execute 721 Prompts for a program to execute. The program's output is inserted 722 into the current buffer (or into a new buffer when \fBM\-F\fR is toggled). 723 .TP 724 .B speller 725 Invokes a spell-checking program, either the default \fBhunspell\fR(1) or GNU 726 \fBspell\fR(1), or the one defined by \fB\-\-speller\fR or \fBset speller\fR. 727 .TP 728 .B formatter 729 Invokes a full-buffer-processing program (if the active syntax defines one). 730 (The current buffer is written out to a temporary file, the program 731 is run on it, and then the temporary file is read back in, replacing 732 the contents of the buffer.) 733 .TP 734 .B linter 735 Invokes a syntax-checking program (if the active syntax defines one). 736 If this program produces lines of the form "filename:linenum:charnum: 737 some message", then the cursor is put at the indicated position 738 in the mentioned file while showing "some message" on the status bar. 739 You can move from message to message with <PgUp> and <PgDn>, 740 and leave linting mode with \fB^C\fR or <Enter>. 741 .TP 742 .B justify 743 Justifies the current paragraph (or the marked region). 744 A paragraph is a group of contiguous lines that, apart from possibly 745 the first line, all have the same indentation. The beginning of a 746 paragraph is detected by either this lone line with a differing 747 indentation or by a preceding blank line. 748 .TP 749 .B fulljustify 750 Justifies the entire current buffer (or the marked region). 751 .TP 752 .B indent 753 Indents (shifts to the right) the current line or the marked lines. 754 .TP 755 .B unindent 756 Unindents (shifts to the left) the current line or the marked lines. 757 .TP 758 .B comment 759 Comments or uncomments the current line or the marked lines, 760 using the comment style specified in the active syntax. 761 .TP 762 .B complete 763 Completes (when possible) the fragment before the cursor 764 to a full word found elsewhere in the current buffer. 765 .TP 766 .B left 767 Goes left one position (in the editor or browser). 768 .TP 769 .B right 770 Goes right one position (in the editor or browser). 771 .TP 772 .B up 773 Goes one line up (in the editor or browser). 774 .TP 775 .B down 776 Goes one line down (in the editor or browser). 777 .TP 778 .B scrollup 779 Scrolls the viewport up one row (meaning that the text slides down) 780 while keeping the cursor in the same text position, if possible. 781 (This function is bound by default to <Alt+Up>. 782 If <Alt+Up> does nothing on your Linux console, see the FAQ: 783 .UR https://nano\-editor.org/dist/latest/faq.html#4.1 784 .UE .) 785 .TP 786 .B scrolldown 787 Scrolls the viewport down one row (meaning that the text slides up) 788 while keeping the cursor in the same text position, if possible. 789 (This function is bound by default to <Alt+Down>.) 790 .TP 791 .B center 792 Scrolls the line with the cursor to the middle of the viewport. 793 .TP 794 .B cycle 795 Scrolls the line with the cursor first to the middle of the viewport, 796 then to the top, then to the bottom. 797 .TP 798 .B prevword 799 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the previous word. 800 .TP 801 .B nextword 802 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the next word. 803 .TP 804 .B home 805 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current line. 806 .TP 807 .B end 808 Moves the cursor to the end of the current line. 809 .TP 810 .B beginpara 811 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current paragraph. 812 .TP 813 .B endpara 814 Moves the cursor to the end of the current paragraph. 815 .TP 816 .B prevblock 817 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current or preceding block of text. 818 (Blocks are separated by one or more blank lines.) 819 .TP 820 .B nextblock 821 Moves the cursor to the beginning of the next block of text. 822 .TP 823 .B toprow 824 Moves the cursor to the first row in the viewport. 825 .TP 826 .B bottomrow 827 Moves the cursor to the last row in the viewport. 828 .TP 829 .B pageup 830 Goes up one screenful. 831 .TP 832 .B pagedown 833 Goes down one screenful. 834 .TP 835 .B firstline 836 Goes to the first line of the file. 837 .TP 838 .B lastline 839 Goes to the last line of the file. 840 .TP 841 .B gotoline 842 Goes to a specific line (and column if specified). Negative numbers count 843 from the end of the file (and end of the line). 844 .TP 845 .B findbracket 846 Moves the cursor to the bracket (or brace or parenthesis, etc.\&) that matches 847 (pairs) with the one under the cursor. See \fBset matchbrackets\fR. 848 .TP 849 .B anchor 850 Places an anchor at the current line, or removes it when already present. 851 (An anchor is visible when line numbers are activated.) 852 .TP 853 .B prevanchor 854 Goes to the first anchor before the current line. 855 .TP 856 .B nextanchor 857 Goes to the first anchor after the current line. 858 .TP 859 .B prevbuf 860 Switches to editing/viewing the previous buffer when multiple buffers are open. 861 .TP 862 .B nextbuf 863 Switches to editing/viewing the next buffer when multiple buffers are open. 864 .TP 865 .B verbatim 866 Inserts the next keystroke verbatim into the file, or begins Unicode input 867 when a hexadecimal digit is typed. 868 .TP 869 .B tab 870 Inserts a tab at the current cursor location. 871 .TP 872 .B enter 873 Inserts a new line below the current one. 874 .TP 875 .B delete 876 Deletes the character under the cursor. 877 .TP 878 .B backspace 879 Deletes the character before the cursor. 880 .TP 881 .B recordmacro 882 Starts the recording of keystrokes \(em the keystrokes are stored 883 as a macro. When already recording, the recording is stopped. 884 .TP 885 .B runmacro 886 Replays the keystrokes of the last recorded macro. 887 .TP 888 .B undo 889 Undoes the last performed text action (add text, delete text, etc). 890 .TP 891 .B redo 892 Redoes the last undone action (i.e., it undoes an undo). 893 .TP 894 .B refresh 895 Refreshes the screen. 896 .TP 897 .B suspend 898 Suspends the editor and returns control to the shell 899 (until you tell the process to resume execution with \fBfg\fR). 900 .TP 901 .B casesens 902 Toggles whether searching/replacing ignores or respects the case of 903 the given characters. 904 .TP 905 .B regexp 906 Toggles whether searching/replacing uses literal strings or regular expressions. 907 .TP 908 .B backwards 909 Toggles whether searching/replacing goes forward or backward. 910 .TP 911 .B older 912 Retrieves the previous (earlier) entry at a prompt. 913 .TP 914 .B newer 915 Retrieves the next (later) entry at a prompt. 916 .TP 917 .B flipreplace 918 Toggles between searching for something and replacing something. 919 .TP 920 .B flipgoto 921 Toggles between searching for text and targeting a line number. 922 .TP 923 .B flipexecute 924 Switches from inserting a file to executing a command. 925 .TP 926 .B flippipe 927 When executing a command, toggles whether the current buffer (or marked 928 region) is piped to the command. 929 .TP 930 .B flipnewbuffer 931 Toggles between inserting into the current buffer and into a new 932 empty buffer. 933 .TP 934 .B flipconvert 935 When reading in a file, toggles between converting and not converting 936 it from DOS/Mac format. Converting is the default. 937 .TP 938 .B dosformat 939 When writing a file, switches to writing a DOS format (CR/LF). 940 .TP 941 .B macformat 942 When writing a file, switches to writing a Mac format. 943 .TP 944 .B append 945 When writing a file, appends to the end instead of overwriting. 946 .TP 947 .B prepend 948 When writing a file, "prepends" (writes at the beginning) instead of overwriting. 949 .TP 950 .B backup 951 When writing a file, creates a backup of the current file. 952 .TP 953 .B discardbuffer 954 When about to write a file, discard the current buffer without saving. 955 (This function is bound by default only when option \fB\-\-saveonexit\fR 956 is in effect.) 957 .TP 958 .B browser 959 Starts the file browser (in the Read File and Write Out menus), 960 allowing to select a file from a list. 961 .TP 962 .B gotodir 963 Goes to a directory to be specified, allowing to browse anywhere 964 in the filesystem. 965 .TP 966 .B firstfile 967 Goes to the first file in the list when using the file browser. 968 .TP 969 .B lastfile 970 Goes to the last file in the list when using the file browser. 971 .TP 972 .B nohelp 973 Toggles the presence of the two-line list of key bindings at the bottom of the screen. 974 (This toggle is special: it is available in all menus except the help viewer 975 and the linter. All further toggles are available in the main menu only.) 976 .TP 977 .B zero 978 Toggles the presence of title bar and status bar. 979 .TP 980 .B constantshow 981 Toggles the constant reporting (on the status bar) 982 of the current line, column, and character positions. 983 .TP 984 .B softwrap 985 Toggles the displaying of overlong lines on multiple screen lines. 986 .TP 987 .B linenumbers 988 Toggles the display of line numbers in front of the text. 989 .TP 990 .B whitespacedisplay 991 Toggles the showing of whitespace. 992 .TP 993 .B nosyntax 994 Toggles syntax highlighting. 995 .TP 996 .B smarthome 997 Toggles the smartness of the Home key. 998 .TP 999 .B autoindent 1000 Toggles whether a newly created line will contain the same amount of leading 1001 whitespace as the preceding line \(em or as the next line if the preceding line 1002 is the beginning of a paragraph. 1003 .TP 1004 .B cutfromcursor 1005 Toggles whether cutting text cuts the whole line or just from the current cursor 1006 position to the end of the line. 1007 .TP 1008 .B breaklonglines 1009 Toggles whether the overlong part of a line is hard-wrapped to the next line. 1010 .TP 1011 .B tabstospaces 1012 Toggles whether typed tabs are converted to spaces. 1013 .TP 1014 .B mouse 1015 Toggles mouse support. 1016 .RE 1017 1018 .TP 1019 Valid \fImenu\fR sections are: 1020 .RS 3 1021 .TP 2 1022 .B main 1023 The main editor window where text is entered and edited. 1024 .TP 1025 .B help 1026 The help-viewer menu. 1027 .TP 1028 .B search 1029 The search menu (AKA whereis). 1030 .TP 1031 .B replace 1032 The \&'search to replace' menu. 1033 .TP 1034 .B replacewith 1035 The \&'replace with' menu, which comes up after \&'search to replace'. 1036 .TP 1037 .B yesno 1038 The \&'yesno' menu, where the Yes/No/All/Cancel question is asked. 1039 .TP 1040 .B gotoline 1041 The \&'goto line (and column)' menu. 1042 .TP 1043 .B writeout 1044 The \&'write file' menu. 1045 .TP 1046 .B insert 1047 The \&'insert file' menu. 1048 .TP 1049 .B browser 1050 The \&'file browser' menu, for selecting a file to be opened or 1051 inserted or written to. 1052 .TP 1053 .B whereisfile 1054 The \&'search for a file' menu in the file browser. 1055 .TP 1056 .B gotodir 1057 The \&'go to directory' menu in the file browser. 1058 .TP 1059 .B execute 1060 The menu for inserting the output from an external command, 1061 or for filtering the buffer (or the marked region) through 1062 an external command, or for executing one of several tools. 1063 .TP 1064 .B spell 1065 The menu of the integrated spell checker where the user can edit a misspelled word. 1066 .TP 1067 .B linter 1068 The linter menu, which allows jumping through the linting messages. 1069 .TP 1070 .B all 1071 A special name that encompasses all menus. 1072 For \fBbind\fR it means all menus where the specified \fIfunction\fR exists; 1073 for \fBunbind\fR it means all menus where the specified \fIkey\fR exists. 1074 .RE 1075 1076 .SH EXAMPLES 1077 To make \fBCtrl+Z\fR suspend nano: 1078 .sp 1079 .RS 1080 .B bind ^Z suspend main 1081 .RE 1082 .sp 1083 To make \fBShift+Alt+C\fR copy the marked region to the system's clipboard: 1084 .sp 1085 .RS 1086 .B bind Sh\-M\-C """{execute}| xsel \-ib {enter}{undo}""" main 1087 .RE 1088 .sp 1089 1090 .SH FILES 1091 .TP 1092 .I /etc/nanorc 1093 System-wide configuration file. 1094 .TP 1095 .IR ~/.nanorc " or " $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nano/nanorc " or " ~/.config/nano/nanorc 1096 Per-user configuration file. 1097 .TP 1098 .I /usr/share/nano/* 1099 Syntax definitions for the syntax coloring of common file types 1100 (and for less common file types in the \fIextra/\fR subdirectory). 1101 1102 .SH SEE ALSO 1103 .BR nano (1) 1104 .TP 1105 .I https://nano\-editor.org/cheatsheet.html 1106 An overview of the default key bindings.