.\" Hey, EMACS: -*- nroff -*- .\" nanorc.5 is Copyright (C) 2003, 2004, 2005 Free Software .\" Foundation, Inc. .\" .\" This is free documentation, see the latest version of the GNU General .\" Public License for copying conditions. There is NO warranty. .\" .\" $Id$ .TH NANORC 5 "version 1.3.8" "June 17, 2005" .\" Please adjust this date whenever revising the manpage. .\" .SH NAME nanorc \- GNU nano's rcfile .SH DESCRIPTION This manual page documents GNU \fBnano\fP's rcfile. .PP \fBnano\fP 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, \fBnano\fP also implements some missing (or disabled by default) features in Pico, such as "search and replace" and "go to line number". .PP The \fInanorc\fP file contains the default settings for \fBnano\fP. During startup, \fBnano\fP will first read its system-wide settings from \fISYSCONFDIR/nanorc\fP, and then user-specific settings from \fI~/.nanorc\fP. .SH OPTIONS The configuration file accepts a series of "set" and "unset" commands, which can be used to configure nano on startup without using the command-line options. Additionally, the "syntax" and "color" keywords are used to define syntax highlighting rules for different text patterns. GNU nano will read one command per line. Options in rcfiles take precedence over nano's defaults, and command line options override rcfile settings. Options are unset by default, except for options that take an argument. The supported commands and arguments are: .TP 3 .B set/unset autoindent Use auto-indentation. .TP .B set/unset backup Create backup files in \fIfilename~\fP. .TP .B set backupdir "\fIdirectory\fP" Set the directory where \fBnano\fP puts unique backup files if file backups are enabled. .TP .B set/unset backwards Do backwards searches by default. .TP .B set brackets "\fIstring\fP" Set the characters treated as closing brackets. They cannot contain blank characters. Only closing punctuation, optionally followed by closing brackets, can end sentences. .TP .B set/unset casesensitive Do case sensitive searches by default. .TP .B set/unset const Constantly display the cursor position in the status bar. .TP .B set/unset cut Use cut to end of line by default. .TP .B set fill \fIn\fP Wrap lines at column number \fIn\fP. If \fIn\fP is 0 or less, the line length will be the screen width less \fIn\fP. The default value is -8. .TP .B set/unset historylog Enable \fI~/.nano_history\fP for saving and reading search/replace strings. .TP .B set/unset morespace Allow use of the blank line below the titlebar as extra editing space. .TP .B set/unset mouse Enable mouse support, so that mouse clicks can be used to set the mark and run shortcuts. .TP .B set/unset multibuffer Allow inserting files into their own buffers. .TP .B set/unset noconvert Don't convert files from DOS/Mac format. .TP .B set/unset nofollow Don't follow symlinks when writing files. .TP .B set/unset nohelp Don't display the help lists at the bottom of the screen. .TP .B set/unset nowrap Don't wrap text at all. .TP .B set operatingdir "\fIdirectory\fP" \fBnano\fP will only read and write files inside \fIdirectory\fP and its subdirectories. Also, the current directory is changed to here, so files are inserted from this dir. By default the operating directory feature is turned off. .TP .B set/unset preserve Preserve the XON and XOFF keys (^Q and ^S). .TP .B set punct "\fIstring\fP" Set the characters treated as closing punctuation. They cannot contain blank characters. Only closing punctuation, optionally followed by closing brackets, can end sentences. .TP .B set quickblank Do quick statusbar blanking. Statusbar messages will disappear after 1 keystroke instead of 25. .TP .B set quotestr "\fIstring\fP" 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 set quotestr "^([\ \\t]*[|>:}#])+" if you have regexps, otherwise set quotestr ">\ ". Note that '\\t' above stands for a literal Tab character. .TP .B set/unset 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 .B set/unset regexp Do regular expression searches by default. .TP .B set/unset 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 .B set/unset smooth Use smooth scrolling by default. .TP .B set speller \fIspellprog\fP Use spelling checker \fIspellprog\fP instead of the built-in one, which calls \fIspell\fP. .TP .B set/unset suspend Allow nano to be suspended. .TP .B set tabsize \fIn\fP Use a tab size of \fIn\fP columns instead of the default (8); must be greater than 0. .TP .B set/unset tabstospaces Convert typed tabs to spaces. .TP .B set/unset tempfile Save automatically on exit, don't prompt. .TP .B set/unset view Disallow file modification. .TP .B set whitespace "\fIstring\fP" Set the two characters used to display the first characters of tabs and spaces. They must be single-column characters. .TP .B syntax "\fIstr\fP" ["\fIfileregex\fP" ... ] Defines a syntax named \fIstr\fP which can be activated via the \fB-Y\fP flag, or will be automatically activated if the current filename matches \fIfileregex\fP. All following \fBcolor\fP statements will apply to \fIsyntax\fP until a new syntax is defined. .TP .B color \fIfgcolor\fP,\fIbgcolor\fP "\fIregex\fP" ... For the currently defined syntax, display all expressions matching \fIregex\fP with foreground color \fIfgcolor\fP and background color \fIbgcolor\fP, at least one of which must be specified. Legal colors for foreground and background color are: white, black, red, blue, green, yellow, magenta, and cyan. You may use the prefix "bright" to force a stronger color highlight for the foreground. If your terminal supports transparency, not specifying a \fIbgcolor\fP tells \fBnano\fP to attempt to use a transparent background. .TP .B color \fIfgcolor\fP,\fIbgcolor\fP start="\fIsr\fP" end="\fIer\fP" Display expressions which start with \fIsr\fP and end with \fIer\fP with foreground color \fIfgcolor\fP and background color \fIbgcolor\fP, at least one of which must be specified. This allows syntax highlighting to span multiple lines. Note that all subsequent instances of \fIsr\fP after an initial \fIsr\fP is found will be highlighted until the first instance of \fIer\fP. .SH FILES .TP .I SYSCONFDIR/nanorc System-wide configuration file .TP .I ~/.nanorc Per-user configuration file .SH SEE ALSO .PD 0 .TP \fBnano\fP(1) .PP \fI/usr/share/doc/nano/examples/nanorc.sample\fP (or equivalent on your system) .SH AUTHOR Chris Allegretta , et al (see \fIAUTHORS\fP and \fITHANKS\fP for details). This manual page was written by Jordi Mallach .