path: root/doc/man/nano.1

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.TH NANO 1 "version 2.4.0" "March 2015"
.\" Please adjust this date whenever revising the manpage.
.\"

.SH NAME
nano \- Nano's ANOther editor, an enhanced free Pico clone

.SH SYNOPSIS
.B nano
.RI [ options "] [[+" line , column "]\ " file "]..."

.SH DESCRIPTION
\fBnano\fP is a small, free and friendly editor which aims to replace
Pico, the default editor included in the non-free Pine package.  On
top of copying Pico's look and feel, \fBnano\fP also implements some
missing (or disabled by default) features in Pico, such as "search and
replace" and "go to line and column number".

.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.B +\fIline\fP,\fIcolumn\fP
Places the cursor on line number \fIline\fP and at column number \fIcolumn\fP
(at least one of which must be specified) on startup, instead of the
default line 1, column 1.
.TP
.BR \-A ", " \-\-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.
.TP
.BR \-B ", " \-\-backup
When saving a file, back up the previous version of it to the current
filename suffixed with a tilde (\fB~\fP).
.TP
.BR \-C\ \fIdirectory\fR ", " \-\-backupdir= \fIdirectory
Set the directory where \fBnano\fP puts unique backup files, if file
backups are enabled.
.TP
.BR \-D ", " \-\-boldtext
Use bold text instead of reverse video text.
.TP
.BR \-E ", " \-\-tabstospaces
Convert typed tabs to spaces.
.TP
.BR \-F ", " \-\-multibuffer
Enable multiple file buffers (if support for them has been compiled in).
.TP
.BR \-G ", " \-\-locking
Enable vim-style file locking when editing files.
.TP
.BR \-H ", " \-\-historylog
Log search and replace strings to \fI~/.nano/search_history\fP, so they can be
retrieved in later sessions.
.TP
.BR \-I ", " \-\-ignorercfiles
Don't look at the system's \fBnanorc\fP nor at \fB~/.nanorc\fP.
.TP
.BR \-K ", " \-\-rebindkeypad
Interpret the numeric keypad keys so that they all work properly.  You
should only need to use this option if they don't, as mouse support
won't work properly with this option enabled.
.TP
.BR \-L ", " \-\-nonewlines
Don't add newlines to the ends of files.
.TP
.BR \-N ", " \-\-noconvert
Disable automatic conversion of files from DOS/Mac format.
.TP
.BR \-O ", " \-\-morespace
Use the blank line below the titlebar as extra editing space.
.TP
.BR \-P ", " \-\-poslog
Log and later read back the location of the cursor and place it there
again.
.TP
.BR "\-Q ""\fIcharacters\fB""" ", " "\-\-quotestr=""" \fIcharacters\fR """
Set the quoting string for justifying.  The default is
\fB"^([\ \\t]*[#:>\\|}])+"\fP if extended regular expression support is
available, or \fB">\ "\fP otherwise.  Note that \fB\\t\fP stands for a
Tab.
.TP
.BR \-R ", " \-\-restricted
Restricted mode: don't read or write to any file not specified on the
command line; don't read any \fInanorc\fP files nor history files;
don't allow suspending nor spell checking;
don't allow a file to be appended to, prepended to, or saved under a
different name if it already has one; and don't use backup files.
This restricted mode is also accessible by invoking \fBnano\fP
with any name beginning with 'r' (e.g. "rnano").
.TP
.BR \-S ", " \-\-smooth
Enable smooth scrolling.  Text will scroll line-by-line, instead of the
usual chunk-by-chunk behavior.
.TP
.BR \-T\ \fInumber\fR ", " \-\-tabsize= \fInumber
Set the size (width) of a tab to \fInumber\fP columns.  The value of
\fInumber\fP must be greater than 0.  The default value is 8.
.TP
.BR \-U ", " \-\-quickblank
Do quick statusbar blanking.  Statusbar messages will disappear after 1
keystroke instead of 25.  Note that \fB\-c\fP overrides this.
.TP
.BR \-V ", " \-\-version
Show the current version number and exit.
.TP
.BR \-W ", " \-\-wordbounds
Detect word boundaries more accurately by treating punctuation
characters as part of a word.
.TP
.BR \-Y\ \fIname\fR ", " \-\-syntax= \fIname
Specify the name of the syntax highlighting to use from among the ones
defined in the \fInanorc\fP files.
.TP
.BR \-c ", " \-\-const
Constantly show the cursor position.  Note that this overrides \fB\-U\fP.
.TP
.BR \-d ", " \-\-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.
.TP
.BR \-h ", " \-\-help
Show a summary of the available command-line options and exit.
.TP
.BR \-i ", " \-\-autoindent
Indent new lines to the previous line's indentation.  Useful when
editing source code.
.TP
.BR \-k ", " \-\-cut
Make the 'Cut Text' command (normally ^K) cut from the current cursor
position to the end of the line, instead of cutting the entire line.
.TP
.BR \-l ", " \-\-nofollow
If the file being edited is a symbolic link, replace the link with
a new file instead of following it.  Good for editing files in
\fI/tmp\fP, perhaps?
.TP
.BR \-m ", " \-\-mouse
Enable mouse support, if available for your system.  When enabled, mouse
clicks can be used to place the cursor, set the mark (with a double
click), and execute shortcuts.  The mouse will work in the X Window
System, and on the console when gpm is running.  Text can still be
selected through dragging by holding down the Shift key.
.TP
.BR \-n ", " \-\-noread
Treat any name given on the command line as a new file.  This allows
\fBnano\fR to write to named pipes: it will start with a blank buffer,
and will write to the pipe when the user saves the "file".  This way
\fBnano\fR can be used as an editor in combination with for instance
\fBgpg\fR without having to write sensitive data to disk first.
.TP
.BR \-o\ \fIdirectory\fR ", " \-\-operatingdir= \fIdirectory
Set the operating directory.  This makes \fBnano\fP set up something
similar to a chroot.
.TP
.BR \-p ", " \-\-preserve
Preserve the XON and XOFF sequences (^Q and ^S) so they will be caught
by the terminal.
.TP
.BR \-q ", " \-\-quiet
Do not report errors in the \fInanorc\fP files nor ask them to be
acknowledged by pressing Enter at startup.
.TP
.BR \-r\ \fInumber\fR ", " \-\-fill= \fInumber
Hard-wrap lines at column \fInumber\fP.  If this value is 0 or less, wrapping
will occur at the width of the screen less \fInumber\fP columns, allowing
the wrap point to vary along with the width of the screen if the screen
is resized.  The default value is \-8.  This option conflicts with
.B \-w
-- the last one given takes effect.
.TP
.BR \-s\ \fIprogram\fR ", " \-\-speller= \fIprogram
Use this alternative spell checker command.
.TP
.BR \-t ", " \-\-tempfile
Always save a changed buffer without prompting.  Same as Pico's \fB\-t\fP
option.
.TP
.BR \-v ", " \-\-view
View-file (read-only) mode.
.TP
.BR \-w ", " \-\-nowrap
Disable the hard-wrapping of long lines.  This option conflicts with
.B \-r
-- the last one given takes effect.
.TP
.BR \-x ", " \-\-nohelp
Don't show the two help lines at the bottom of the screen.
.TP
.BR \-z ", " \-\-suspend
Enable the suspend ability.
.TP
.BR \-$ ", " \-\-softwrap
Enable 'soft wrapping'.  This will make \fBnano\fP attempt to display the
entire contents of any line, even if it is longer than the screen width, by
continuing it over multiple screen lines.  Since
\&'$' normally refers to a variable in the Unix shell, you should specify
this option last when using other options (e.g.\& 'nano \-wS$') or pass it
separately (e.g.\& 'nano \-wS \-$').
.TP
.BR \-a ", " \-b ", " \-e ", " \-f ", " \-g ", " \-j
Ignored, for compatibility with Pico.

.SH INITIALIZATION FILE
\fBnano\fP will read initialization files in the following order:
the system's \fBnanorc\fP (if it exists), and then the user's
\fB~/.nanorc\fP (if it exists).  Please see
.BR nanorc (5)
for more information on the possible contents of those files.

.SH NOTES
If no alternative spell checker command is specified on the command
line nor in one of the \fInanorc\fP files, \fBnano\fP will check the
\fBSPELL\fP environment variable for one.

In some cases \fBnano\fP will try to dump the buffer into an emergency
file.  This will happen mainly if \fBnano\fP receives a SIGHUP or
SIGTERM or runs out of memory.  It will write the buffer into a file
named \fInano.save\fP if the buffer didn't have a name already, or will
add a ".save" suffix to the current filename.  If an emergency file with
that name already exists in the current directory, it will add ".save"
plus a number (e.g.\& ".save.1") to the current filename in order to make
it unique.  In multibuffer mode, \fBnano\fP will write all the open
buffers to their respective emergency files.

.SH BUGS
Please send any comments or bug reports to \fBnano@nano-editor.org\fP.

The \fBnano\fP mailing list is available from \fBnano-devel@gnu.org\fP.

To subscribe, email to \fBnano-devel-request@gnu.org\fP with a subject
of "subscribe".

.SH HOMEPAGE
http://www.nano-editor.org/

.SH SEE ALSO
.PD 0
.TP
\fBnanorc\fP(5)
.PP
\fI/usr/share/doc/nano/\fP (or equivalent on your system)

.SH AUTHOR
Chris Allegretta <chrisa@asty.org>, et al (see the files \fIAUTHORS\fP and
\fITHANKS\fP for details).  This manual page was originally written by
Jordi Mallach <jordi@gnu.org>, for the Debian system (but may be used by
others).