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NANO(1)                     General Commands Manual                    NANO(1)

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

SYNOPSIS
       nano [OPTIONS] [[+LINE,COLUMN] FILE]...

DESCRIPTION
       This manual page briefly documents the nano command.
       nano  is  a small, free and friendly editor which aims to replace Pico,
       the default editor included in the non-free Pine package.  Rather  than
       just  copying  Pico's  look and feel, nano also implements some missing
       (or disabled by default) features in Pico, such as "search and replace"
       and "go to line and column number".

OPTIONS
       +LINE,COLUMN
              Places  cursor  at line number LINE and column number COLUMN (at
              least one of which must be specified) on startup, instead of the
              default of line 1, column 1.
       -?     Same as -h (--help).
       -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 back-
              wards).  If the cursor is already at that position, it will jump
              to the true beginning of the line.
       -B (--backup)
              When  saving  a  file, back up the previous version of it to the
              current filename suffixed with a ~.
       -C dir (--backupdir=dir)
              Set the directory where nano puts unique backup  files  if  file
              backups are enabled.
       -D (--boldtext)
              Use bold text instead of reverse video text.
       -E (--tabstospaces)
              Convert typed tabs to spaces.
       -F (--multibuffer)
              Enable multiple file buffers, if available.
       -H (--historylog)
              Log  search  and replace strings to ~/.nano_history, so they can
              be retrieved in later sessions, if nanorc support is available.
       -I (--ignorercfiles)
              Don't look at SYSCONFDIR/nanorc or ~/.nanorc, if nanorc  support
              is available.
       -K (--rebindkeypad)
              Interpret  the  numeric  keypad keys so that they all work prop-
              erly.  You should only need to use this option if they don't, as
              mouse support won't work properly with this option enabled.
       -L (--nonewlines)
              Don't add newlines to the ends of files.
       -N (--noconvert)
              Disable automatic conversion of files from DOS/Mac format.
       -O (--morespace)
              Use the blank line below the titlebar as extra editing space.
       -P (--poslog)
              Log & read location of cursor position.
       -Q str (--quotestr=str)
              Set   the   quoting  string  for  justifying.   The  default  is
              "^([ \t]*[#:>\|}])+" if extended regular expression  support  is
              available, or "> " otherwise.  Note that \t stands for a Tab.
       -R (--restricted)
              Restricted  mode:  don't read or write to any file not specified
              on the command line; read any nanorc  files;  allow  suspending;
              allow  a  file to be appended to, prepended to, or saved under a
              different name if it already has one; or  use  backup  files  or
              spell  checking.  Also accessible by invoking nano with any name
              beginning with 'r' (e.g.  "rnano").
       -S (--smooth)
              Enable smooth scrolling.  Text will scroll line-by-line, instead
              of the usual chunk-by-chunk behavior.
       -T cols (--tabsize=cols)
              Set  the  size  (width)  of a tab to cols columns.  The value of
              cols must be greater than 0.  The default value is 8.
       -U (--quickblank)
              Do quick statusbar blanking.  Statusbar messages will  disappear
              after 1 keystroke instead of 25.  Note that -c overrides this.
       -V (--version)
              Show the current version number and exit.
       -W (--wordbounds)
              Detect  word  boundaries more accurately by treating punctuation
              characters as part of a word.
       -Y str (--syntax=str)
              Specify a specific syntax highlighting from the nanorc  to  use,
              if available.
       -c (--const)
              Constantly  show  the cursor position.  Note that this overrides
              -U.
       -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.
       -h (--help)
              Show a summary of command line options and exit.
       -i (--autoindent)
              Indent new lines to the  previous  line's  indentation.   Useful
              when editing source code.
       -k (--cut)
              Enable cut from cursor to end of line.
       -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 /tmp, perhaps?
       -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.
       -o dir (--operatingdir=dir)
              Set operating directory.  Makes nano set up something similar to
              a chroot.
       -p (--preserve)
              Preserve the XON and XOFF sequences (^Q and ^S) so they will  be
              caught by the terminal.
       -q (--quiet)
              Do  not  report  errors  in  the  nanorc file and ask them to be
              acknowledged by pressing Enter at startup.
       -r cols (--fill=cols)
              Wrap lines at column cols.  If this value is 0 or less, wrapping
              will  occur at the width of the screen less cols columns, allow-
              ing the wrap point to vary along with the width of the screen if
              the screen is resized.  The default value is -8.
       -s prog (--speller=prog)
              Enable alternative spell checker command.
       -t (--tempfile)
              Always save changed buffer without prompting.  Same as Pico's -t
              option.
       -u (--undo)
              Enable experimental generic-purpose undo code.  By default,  the
              undo and redo shortcuts are Meta-U and Meta-E, respectively.
       -v (--view)
              View file (read only) mode.
       -w (--nowrap)
              Disable wrapping of long lines.
       -x (--nohelp)
              Disable help screen at bottom of editor.
       -z (--suspend)
              Enable suspend ability.
       -$ (--softwrap)
              Enable 'soft wrapping'.  nano will attempt to display the entire
              contents of a line, even if it is longer than the screen  width.
              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 -$').
       -a, -b, -e, -f, -g, -j
              Ignored, for compatibility with Pico.

INITIALIZATION FILE
       nano   will   read   initialization   files  in  the  following  order:
       SYSCONFDIR/nanorc, then ~/.nanorc.  Please see nanorc(5) and the  exam-
       ple file nanorc.sample, both of which should be provided with nano.

NOTES
       If  no  alternative  spell  checker command is specified on the command
       line or in one of the nanorc files, nano will check the SPELL  environ-
       ment variable for one.
       In  some cases nano will try to dump the buffer into an emergency file.
       This will happen mainly if nano receives a SIGHUP or  SIGTERM  or  runs
       out of memory.  It will write the buffer into a file named nano.save 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, nano will write all  the  open  buffers  to  their
       respective emergency files.

BUGS
       Please send any comments or bug reports to nano AT nano-editor.org.
       The nano mailing list is available from nano-devel AT gnu.org.
       To  subscribe,  email  to  nano-devel-request AT gnu.org with a subject of
       "subscribe".

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

SEE ALSO
       nanorc(5)
       /usr/share/doc/nano/ (or equivalent on your system)
AUTHOR
       Chris Allegretta <chrisa AT asty.org>, et al (see AUTHORS and  THANKS  for
       details).   This  manual  page  was originally written by Jordi Mallach
       <jordi AT gnu.org>, for the Debian system (but may be used by others).

November 30, 2009                version 2.2.0                         NANO(1)