Provided by: nano_2.5.3-2ubuntu2_amd64 bug

NAME

       nanorc - GNU nano's rcfile

DESCRIPTION

       The  nanorc file contains the default settings for nano, a small and friendly editor.  The file should be
       in Unix format, not in DOS or Mac format.  During startup, nano will first read the system-wide settings,
       from  /etc/nanorc  (the  exact  path  might  be  different),  and  then  the user-specific settings, from
       ~/.nanorc.

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.

       Options  in  nanorc  files take precedence over nano's defaults, and command-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 unset.

       Below, the string parameters need to be enclosed in double quotes.  Quotes inside these string parameters
       don't  have  to  be escaped with backslashes.  The last double quote in the string will be treated as its
       end.  For example, for the brackets option, ""')>]}" will match ", ', ), >, ], and }.

       The supported commands and arguments are:

       set allow_insecure_backup
          When backing up files, allow the backup to succeed even if its permissions can't  be  (re)set  due  to
          special OS considerations.  You should NOT enable this option unless you are sure you need it.

       set autoindent
          Use auto-indentation.

       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 backwards
          Do backwards searches by default.

       set boldtext
          Use  bold  instead  of reverse video for the titlebar, statusbar, key combos, and selected text.  This
          can be overridden for the first three by setting the options titlecolor, statuscolor, and keycolor.

       set brackets string
          Set the characters treated as closing brackets when justifying paragraphs.  This may not include blank
          characters.   Only  closing  punctuation  (see  punct),  optionally  followed by the specified closing
          brackets, can end sentences.  The default value is ""')>]}".

       set casesensitive
          Do case-sensitive searches by default.

       set constantshow
          Constantly display the cursor position in the status bar.  (The old form of this option, 'set  const',
          is deprecated.)

       set cut
          Use cut-to-end-of-line by default, instead of cutting the whole line.

       set fill number
          Hard-wrap  lines at column number number.  If number is 0 or less, the maximum line length will be the
          screen width less number columns.  The default value is -8.

       set functioncolor fgcolor,bgcolor
          Specify the color combination to use for the function descriptions in the two help lines at the bottom
          of the screen.  See set titlecolor for more details.

       set historylog
          Enable the use of ~/.nano/search_history for saving and reading search/replace strings.

       set justifytrim
          When justifying text, trailing newlines will automatically be removed.

       set keycolor fgcolor,bgcolor
          Specify  the  color combination to use for the shortcut key combos in the two help lines at the bottom
          of the screen.  See set titlecolor for more details.

       set locking
          Enable vim-style lock-files for when editing files.

       set matchbrackets string
          Set the opening and closing brackets that can be found by bracket  searches.   This  may  not  include
          blank  characters.   The opening set must come before the closing set, and the two sets must be in the
          same order.  The default value is "(<[{)>]}".

       set morespace
          Use the blank line below the titlebar as extra editing space.

       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 default.

       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 to the ends of files.

       set nowrap
          Don't hard-wrap text at all.

       set operatingdir directory
          nano  will  only  read  and  write  files  inside directory and its subdirectories.  Also, the current
          directory is changed to here, so files are inserted from this directory.  By  default,  the  operating
          directory 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.  (The old form of this option, 'set poslog', is deprecated.)

       set preserve
          Preserve the XON and XOFF keys (^Q and ^S).

       set punct string
          Set the characters treated as closing punctuation when justifying paragraphs.  This  may  not  include
          blank  characters.   Only  the specfified closing punctuation, optionally followed by closing brackets
          (see brackets), can end sentences.  The default value is "!.?".

       set quickblank
          Do quick statusbar blanking.  Statusbar messages will disappear after 1 keystroke instead of 25.

       set quiet
          nano will not report errors in the nanorc file nor ask them to be acknowledged by  pressing  Enter  at
          startup.  If this is used, it should be placed at the top of the file to be fully effective.

       set quotestr string
          The  email-quote  string,  used  to  justify  email-quoted  paragraphs.   This  is an extended regular
          expression if  your  system  supports  them,  otherwise  a  literal  string.   The  default  value  is
          "^([ \t]*[#:>\|}])+"  if  you have extended regular expression support, and "> " otherwise.  Note that
          '\t' stands for a literal Tab character.

       set 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.

       set 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.

       set regexp
          Do extended regular expression searches by default.

       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 beginning of the line.

       set smooth
          Use smooth scrolling by default.

       set softwrap
          Enable soft line wrapping for easier viewing of very long lines.

       set speller spellprog
          Use spelling checker spellprog instead of the built-in one, which calls spell.

       set statuscolor fgcolor,bgcolor
          Specify the color combination to use for the statusbar.  See set titlecolor for more details.

       set suspend
          Allow nano to be suspended.

       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 typed tabs to spaces.

       set tempfile
          Save automatically on exit, don't prompt.

       set titlecolor fgcolor,bgcolor
          Specify  the  color  combination  to  use  for  the  titlebar.   Valid  color names for foreground and
          background are: white, black, red, blue, green, yellow, magenta, and cyan.  And  either  "fgcolor"  or
          ",bgcolor" may be left out.

       set unix
          Save a file by default in Unix format.  This overrides nano's default behavior of saving a file in the
          format that it had.  (This option has no effect when you also use set noconvert.)

       set view
          Disallow file modification.

       set whitespace string
          Set the two characters used to indicate the presence of tabs and spaces.  They must  be  single-column
          characters.

       set wordbounds
          Detect word boundaries more accurately by treating punctuation characters as parts of words.

SYNTAX HIGHLIGHTING

       Coloring  the  different  syntactic  elements  of  a  file is done via regular expressions (see the color
       command below).  This is inherently imperfect, 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.

       A separate syntax can be defined for each kind of file via the following commands:

       syntax "str" ["fileregex" ...]
              Defines a syntax named str which can be activated via the -Y/--syntax command-line option, or will
              be  automatically  activated  if  the  current  filename  matches  the extended regular expression
              fileregex.  All subsequent color, icolor, header and other such statements will apply to this  str
              syntax until a new syntax command is encountered.

              The  none syntax is reserved; specifying it on the command line is the same as not having a syntax
              at all.  The default syntax is special: it takes no fileregex, and applies  to  files  that  don't
              match any syntax's fileregex.

       linter program [arg ...]
              Use  the  given  program  to  run  a  syntax check on the current file (this overrides the speller
              function when defined).

       formatter program [arg ...]
              Use the given program to automatically reformat text.  Useful  in  certain  programming  languages
              (e.g. Go).

       header regex ...
              Add  one  or  more  regexes  which  will be compared against the very first line of the file to be
              edited, to determine whether this syntax should be used for that file.

       magic regex ...
              Add one or more regexes which will be compared against the result of querying the  magic  database
              about  the file to be edited, to determine whether this syntax should be used for that file.  This
              functionality only works when libmagic is installed on the system and  will  be  silently  ignored
              otherwise.

       color fgcolor,bgcolor "regex" ...
              Display  all pieces of text that match the extended regular expression regex with foreground color
              fgcolor and background color bgcolor, at least one of which must be specified.  Valid  colors  for
              foreground and background are: white, black, red, blue, green, yellow, magenta, and cyan.  You may
              use the prefix "bright" to get a stronger color highlight for the foreground.   If  your  terminal
              supports  transparency,  not  specifying  a  bgcolor  tells  nano  to attempt to use a transparent
              background.

       icolor fgcolor,bgcolor "regex" ...
              Same as above, except that the text matching is case insensitive.

       color fgcolor,bgcolor start="sr" end="er"
              Display all pieces of text whose start matches  extended  regular  expression  sr  and  whose  end
              matches extended regular expression er with foreground color fgcolor and background color bgcolor,
              at least one of which must be specified.  This means that, after an initial instance  of  sr,  all
              text  will be highlighted until the first instance of er.  This allows syntax highlighting to span
              multiple lines.

       icolor fgcolor,bgcolor start="sr" end="er"
              Same as above, except that the text 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 str directive [arg ...]
              Extend  the syntax previously defined as str to include new information.  This allows you to add a
              new color, icolor, header, magic, linter, or formatter directive to an already defined  syntax  --
              useful  when  you  want  to slightly improve a syntax defined in one of the system-installed files
              (which are normally not writable)

REBINDING KEYS

       Key bindings can be changed via the following two commands:

       bind key function menu
              Rebinds the key key to a new function named function in the context of menu menu (or in all  menus
              where the function exists by using all).

       unbind key menu
              Unbinds the key key from the menu named menu (or from all menus where it exists by using all).

       The format of key should be one of:

          ^  followed by an alpha character or the word "Space".  Example: ^C

          M- followed by a printable character or the word "Space".  Example: M-C

          F  followed by a numeric value from 1 to 16.  Example: F10

       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 the file browser).

          writeout
            Writes the current buffer to disk, asking for a name.

          savefile
            Writes the current file to disk without prompting or warning.

          insert
            Inserts  a  file into the current buffer (at the current cursor position), or into a new buffer when
            option multibuffer is set.

          whereis
            Searches for text in the current buffer -- or for filenames matching a string in the current list in
            the file browser.

          searchagain
            Repeats the last search command without prompting.

          findprevious
            As searchagain, but always in the backward direction.

          findnext
            As searchagain, but always in the forward direction.

          replace
            Interactively replaces text within the current buffer.

          cut
            Cuts and stores the current line (or the marked region).

          copytext
            Copies the current line (or the marked region) without deleting it.

          uncut
            Copies the currently stored text into the current buffer at the current cursor position.

          mark
            Sets the mark at the current position, to start selecting text.

          cutwordleft
            Cuts from the cursor position to the beginning of the preceding word.

          cutwordright
            Cuts from the cursor position to the beginning of the next word.

          cutrestoffile
            Cuts all text from the cursor position till the end of the buffer.

          curpos
            Shows the current cursor position: the line, column, and character positions.

          wordcount
            Counts the number of words, lines and characters in the current buffer.

          speller
            Invokes  a  spell-checking program (or a linting program, if the current syntax highlighting defines
            one).

          linter
            A synonym of speller (for when the speller has not been configured).

          justify
            Justifies the current paragraph.

          fulljustify
            Justifies the entire current buffer.

          indent
            Indents (shifts to the right) the currently marked text.

          unindent
            Unindents (shifts to the left) the currently marked text.

          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 up one line of text from the current position.

          scrolldown
            Scrolls down one line of text from the current position.

          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.

          prevpage
            Goes up one screenful.

          nextpage
            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).

          gototext
            Switches from targeting a line number to searching for text.

          findbracket
            Moves the cursor to the bracket (brace, parenthesis, etc.) that matches (pairs) with the  one  under
            the cursor.

          prevbuf
            Switches to editing/viewing the previous buffer when multiple buffers are open.

          nextbuf
            Switches to editing/viewing the next buffer when multiple buffers are open.

          verbatim
            Inserts the next character verbatim into the file.

          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.

          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 (if the suspending function is enabled, see the "suspendenable" entry below).

          casesens
            Toggles case sensitivity in searching (search/replace menus only).

          regexp
            Toggles whether searching/replacing is based on literal strings or regular expressions.

          backwards
            Toggles whether searching/replacing goes forward or backward.

          prevhistory
            Shows the previous history entry in the prompt menus (e.g. search).

          nexthistory
            Shows the next history entry in the prompt menus (e.g. search).

          flipreplace
            Toggles between searching for something and replacing something.

          flipexecute
            Toggles between inserting a file and executing a command.

          flipnewbuffer
            Toggles between inserting into the current buffer and into a new empty buffer.

          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 --tempfile is in effect.)

          tofiles
            Starts the file browser, 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 when using the file browser (reading or writing files).

          lastfile
            Goes to the last file when using the file browser (reading or writing files).

          nohelp
            Toggles the presence of the two-line list of key bindings at the bottom of the screen.

          constupdate
            Toggles the constant display of the current line, column, and character positions.

          morespace
            Toggles the presence of the blank line which 'separates' the titlebar from the file text.

          smoothscroll
            Toggles smooth scrolling (when moving around with the arrow keys).

          softwrap
            Toggles the displaying of overlong lines on multiple screen lines.

          whitespacedisplay
            Toggles the showing of whitespace.

          nosyntax
            Toggles syntax highlighting.

          smarthome
            Toggles the smartness of the Home key.

          autoindent
            Toggles whether new lines will contain the same amount of whitespace as the preceding line.

          cuttoend
            Toggles whether cutting text will cut the whole line or just from the current cursor position to the
            end of the line.

          nowrap
            Toggles whether long lines will be hard-wrapped to the next line.

          tabstospaces
            Toggles whether typed tabs will be converted to spaces.

          backupfile
            Toggles whether a backup will be made of the file being edited.

          multibuffer
            Toggles whether a file is inserted into the current buffer or read into a new buffer.

          mouse
            Toggles mouse support.

          noconvert
            Toggles automatic conversion of files from DOS/Mac format.

          suspendenable
            Toggles whether the suspend sequence (normally ^Z) will suspend the editor window.

       Valid menu sections are:

          main
            The main editor window where text is entered and edited.

          search
            The search menu (AKA whereis).

          replace
            The 'search to replace' menu.

          replacewith
            The 'replace with' menu, which comes up after 'search to replace'.

          gotoline
            The 'goto line (and column)' menu.

          writeout
            The 'write file' menu.

          insert
            The 'insert file' menu.

          extcmd
            The menu for inserting output from an external command, reached from the insert menu.

          help
            The help-viewer menu.

          spell
            The interactive spell checker Yes/no menu.

          linter
            The linter menu.

          browser
            The file browser for inserting or writing a file.

          whereisfile
            The 'search for a file' menu in the file browser.

          gotodir
            The 'go to directory' menu in the file browser.

          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
              Per-user configuration file.

SEE ALSO

       nano(1)

       /usr/share/doc/nano/examples/nanorc.sample (or equivalent on your system)

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).