NANO(1)                    OpenBSD Reference 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
              backwards).  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 /etc/nanorc or ~/.nanorc, if nanorc support is
              available.

       -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.

       -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.

       -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,
              allowing 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:
       /etc/nanorc, then ~/.nanorc.  Please see nanorc(5) and the example 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
       environment 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@nano-editor.org.

       The nano mailing list is available from nano-devel@gnu.org.

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


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


SEE ALSO
       nanorc(5)

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



November 30, 2009                version 2.2.0                         NANO(1)
