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.\" $Id$
.TH NANORC 5 "version 2.3.3" "May 2014"
.\" Please adjust this date whenever revising the manpage.
.\"
.SH NAME
nanorc \- GNU nano's rcfile
.SH DESCRIPTION
The \fInanorc\fP file contains the default settings for \fBnano\fP, a
small and friendly editor. The file should be in Unix format, not in
DOS or Mac format. During startup, \fBnano\fP will first read the
system-wide settings, from \fBSYSCONFDIR/nanorc\fP, and then the
user-specific settings, from \fB~/.nanorc\fP.
.SH OPTIONS
The configuration file accepts a series of \fBset\fP and \fBunset\fP
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. \fBnano\fP reads one command per line.
Options in \fInanorc\fP files take precedence over nano's defaults, and
command-line options override \fInanorc\fP settings. Also, options are
unset by default, except for those that take arguments.
Quotes inside 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 \fBbrackets\fP option, "\fB"')>]}\fP" will
match \fB"\fP, \fB'\fP, \fB)\fP, \fB>\fP, \fB]\fP, and \fB}\fP.
The supported commands and arguments are:
.TP 3
.B set/unset 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.
.TP
.B set/unset autoindent
Use auto-indentation.
.TP
.B set/unset backup
Create backup files by adding a tilde (\fB~\fP) to each file's name.
.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/unset 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 \fBtitlecolor\fP, \fBstatuscolor\fP, and \fBkeycolor\fP.
.TP
.B set brackets "\fIstring\fP"
Set the characters treated as closing brackets when justifying
paragraphs. This may not include blank characters. Only closing
punctuation (see \fBpunct\fP), optionally followed by the specified
closing brackets, can end sentences. The default value is "\fB"')>]}\fP".
.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, instead of cutting the whole line.
.TP
.B set fill \fIn\fP
Hard-wrap lines at column number \fIn\fP. If \fIn\fP is 0 or less, the
maximum line length will be the screen width less \fIn\fP columns. The
default value is \-8.
.TP
.B set functioncolor \fIfgcolor\fR,\fIbgcolor\fR
Specify the color combination to use for the function descriptions
in the two help lines at the bottom of the screen.
See \fBset titlecolor\fR for more details.
.TP
.B set/unset historylog
Enable the use of \fB~/.nano_history\fP for saving and reading
search/replace strings.
.TP
.B set keycolor \fIfgcolor\fR,\fIbgcolor\fR
Specify the color combination to use for the shortcut key combos
in the two help lines at the bottom of the screen.
See \fBset titlecolor\fR for more details.
.TP
.B set/unset locking
Enable vim-style lock-files for when editing files.
.TP
.B set matchbrackets "\fIstring\fP"
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 "\fB(<[{)>]}\fP".
.TP
.B set/unset morespace
Use the blank line below the titlebar as extra editing space.
.TP
.B set/unset 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
.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 two help lines at the bottom of the screen.
.TP
.B set/unset nonewlines
Don't automatically add a newline to the ends of files.
.TP
.B set/unset nowrap
Don't hard-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 directory. By default, the operating
directory feature is turned off.
.TP
.B set/unset poslog
Save the cursor position of files between editing sessions.
.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 when justifying
paragraphs. This may not include blank characters. Only the
specfified closing punctuation, optionally followed by closing brackets
(see \fBbrackets\fP), can end sentences. The default value is "\fB!.?\fP".
.TP
.B set/unset quickblank
Do quick statusbar blanking. Statusbar messages will disappear after 1
keystroke instead of 25.
.TP
.B set/unset quiet
\fBnano\fP will not report errors in the \fInanorc\fP 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.
.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
"\fB^([\ \\t]*[#:>\\|}])+\fP" if you have extended regular expression
support, and "\fB>\ \fP" otherwise. Note that '\\t' 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 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
.B set/unset regexp
Do extended 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/unset softwrap
Enable soft line wrapping for easier viewing of very long lines.
.TP
.B set speller "\fIspellprog\fP"
Use spelling checker \fIspellprog\fP instead of the built-in one, which
calls \fIspell\fP.
.TP
.B set statuscolor \fIfgcolor\fR,\fIbgcolor\fR
Specify the color combination to use for the statusbar.
See \fBset titlecolor\fR for more details.
.TP
.B set/unset suspend
Allow \fBnano\fP to be suspended.
.TP
.B set tabsize \fIn\fP
Use a tab size of \fIn\fP columns. The value of \fIn\fP must be greater
than 0. The default value is 8.
.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 titlecolor \fIfgcolor\fR,\fIbgcolor\fR
Specify the color combination to use for the titlebar.
Valid color names for foreground and background are:
.BR white , \ black , \ red , \ blue , \ green , \ yellow , \ magenta ", and " cyan .
And either "\fIfgcolor\fR" or ",\fIbgcolor\fR" may be left out.
.TP
.B set/unset undo
Enable the experimental generic-purpose undo/redo code.
.TP
.B set/unset view
Disallow file modification.
.TP
.B set whitespace "\fIstring\fP"
Set the two characters used to indicate the presence of tabs and
spaces. They must be single-column characters.
.TP
.B set/unset wordbounds
Detect word boundaries more accurately by treating punctuation
characters as parts of words.
.SH SYNTAX HIGHLIGHTING
Coloring the different syntactic elements of a file
can be defined via the following commands:
.TP
.BR syntax " ""\fIstr\fR"" [""\fIfileregex\fR"" ...]"
Defines a syntax named \fIstr\fP which can be activated via the
.BR \-Y / \-\-syntax
command-line option, or will be automatically activated if
the current filename matches the extended regular expression
\fIfileregex\fP. All following \fBcolor\fP and \fBicolor\fP statements
will apply to this \fIstr\fP syntax until a new syntax is defined.
The \fBnone\fP syntax is reserved; specifying it on the command line is
the same as not having a syntax at all. The \fBdefault\fP syntax is
special: it takes no \fIfileregex\fP, and applies to files that don't
match any other syntax's \fIfileregex\fP.
.TP
.BI linter " program " \fR[ "arg " \fR...]
For the currently defined syntax, use the given \fIprogram\fR
to invoke the linter (this overrides the speller function when
defined).
.TP
.BR header " [""\fIregex\fR"" ...]
For the currently defined syntax, 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.
.TP
.BR magic " [""\fIregex\fR"" ...]
For the currently defined syntax, add one or more regexes which
will be compared against the result of querying the \fBmagic\fP
database about the file to be edited, to determine whether this
syntax should be used for that file. This
functionality only works when \fBlibmagic\fP is installed on the
system and will be silently ignored otherwise.
.TP
.B color \fIfgcolor\fR,\fIbgcolor\fR """\fIregex\fR""" ...
For the currently defined syntax, display all expressions matching
the extended regular expression \fIregex\fP with foreground color
\fIfgcolor\fP and background color \fIbgcolor\fP, 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
\fIbgcolor\fP tells \fBnano\fP to attempt to use a transparent
background.
.TP
.B icolor \fIfgcolor\fR,\fIbgcolor\fR """\fIregex\fR""" ...
Same as above, except that the expression matching is case insensitive.
.TP
.BR color " \fIfgcolor\fR,\fIbgcolor\fR " start= """\fIsr\fR"" " end= """\fIer\fR""
Display expressions which start with the extended regular expression
\fIsr\fP and end with the extended regular expression \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.
.TP
.BR icolor " \fIfgcolor\fR,\fIbgcolor\fR " start= """\fIsr\fR"" " end= """\fIer\fR""
Same as above, except that the expression matching is case insensitive.
.TP
.BR include " ""\fIsyntaxfile\fR"""
Read in self-contained color syntaxes from \fIsyntaxfile\fP. Note that
\fIsyntaxfile\fP can only contain the above commands, from \fBsyntax\fP
to \fBicolor\fP.
.TP
.BI extendsyntax " str directive " \fR[ "arg " \fR...]
Extend the syntax previously defined as \fIstr\fP to include
new information. This allows you to add a new \fIcolor\fP, \fIicolor\fP,
\fImagic\fP, \fIheader\fP, or \fIlinter\fP directive to an already
defined syntax -- useful when you want to add to definitions from the
system-installed syntax definitions (which are normally not writable).
.SH REBINDING KEYS
Key bindings may be reassigned via the following commands:
.TP
.BI bind " key function menu"
Rebinds the key \fIkey\fP to a new function named \fIfunction\fP in the
context of menu \fImenu\fP (or in all menus where the function exists
by using \fBall\fP).
.TP
.BI unbind " key menu"
Unbinds the key \fIkey\fP from the menu named \fImenu\fP (or from all
menus where it exists by using \fBall\fP).
.TP
The format of \fIkey\fP should be one of:
.TP
.B ^
followed by an alpha character or the word "Space".
Example: ^C
.TP
.B M-
followed by a printable character or the word "Space".
Example: M-C
.TP
.B F
followed by a numeric value from 1 to 16.
Example: F10
.TP
Valid \fIfunction\fP names to be bound include:
.TP 2
.B help
Invoke the help viewer.
.TP
.B cancel
Cancel the current command.
.TP
.B exit
Exit from the program (or from the help viewer or the file browser).
.TP
.B writeout
Write the current buffer to disk.
.TP
.B insert
Insert a file into the current buffer (or into a new buffer when multibuffer
is enabled).
.TP
.B whereis
Search for text in the current buffer.
.TP
.B searchagain
Repeat the last search command.
.TP
.B replace
Interactively replace text within the current buffer.
.TP
.B cut
Cut the current line of text and store it.
.TP
.B copytext
Copy the currently marked text without deleting it.
.TP
.B uncut
Copy the currently stored text into the current buffer position.
.TP
.B mark
Begin selecting text for cutting at the current position.
.TP
.B cutrestoffile
Cut all text from the cursor position till the end of the buffer.
.TP
.B curpos
Show the current cursor position: the line, column, and character positions.
.TP
.B wordcount
Count the number of words in the current buffer.
.TP
.B speller
Invoke a spell checking program (or a linting program, if the current
syntax highlighting defines one).
.TP
.B justify
Justify the current paragraph.
.TP
.B fulljustify
Justify the entire current file.
.TP
.B indent
Indent the currently marked text (shift to the right).
.TP
.B unindent
Un-indent the currently marked text (shift to the left).
.TP
.B left
Go left one position (in the editor or browser).
.TP
.B right
Go right one position (in the editor or browser).
.TP
.B up
Go one line up (in the editor or browser).
.TP
.B down
Go one line down (in the editor or browser).
.TP
.B scrollup
Scroll up one line of text from the current position.
.TP
.B scrolldown
Scroll down one line of text from the current position.
.TP
.B nextword
Move the cursor to the beginning of the next word.
.TP
.B prevword
Move the cursor to the beginning of the previous word.
.TP
.B home
Move the cursor to the beginning of the current line.
.TP
.B end
Move the cursor to the end of the current line.
.TP
.B beginpara
Move the cursor to the beginning of the current paragraph.
.TP
.B endpara
Move the cursor to the end of the current paragraph.
.TP
.B prevpage
Go one screenful up.
.TP
.B nextpage
Go one screenful down.
.TP
.B firstline
Go to the first line of the file.
.TP
.B lastline
Go to the last line of the file.
.TP
.B gotoline
Move to a specific line (and column if specified).
.TP
.B findbracket
Move the cursor to the bracket (brace, parenthesis, etc.) that matches
(pairs) with the one under the cursor.
.TP
.B prevbuf
Switch to editing/viewing the previous buffer when using multibuffer mode.
.TP
.B nextbuf
Switch to editing/viewing the next buffer when using multibuffer mode.
.TP
.B verbatim
Insert the next character verbatim into the file.
.TP
.B tab
Insert a tab at the current cursor location.
.TP
.B enter
Insert a new line below the current one.
.TP
.B delete
Delete the character under the cursor.
.TP
.B backspace
Delete the character before the cursor.
.TP
.B undo
Undo the last text action performed (add text, delete text, etc).
.TP
.B redo
Redo the last undone action (i.e., undo an undo).
.TP
.B refresh
Refresh the screen.
.TP
.B suspend
Suspend the editor (if the suspend function is enabled, see the
"suspendenable" entry below).
.TP
.B casesens
Toggle case sensitivity in searching (search/replace menus only).
.TP
.B regexp
Toggle whether searching/replacing is based on literal strings or regular expressions.
.TP
.B backwards
Toggle whether searching/replacing goes forward or backward.
.TP
.B prevhistory
Show the previous history entry in the prompt menus (e.g. search).
.TP
.B nexthistory
Show the next history entry in the prompt menus (e.g. search).
.TP
.B dontreplace
Switch back to searching instead of replacing.
.TP
.B gototext
Search for files matching a string in the file browser (reading or writing files).
.TP
.B dosformat
When writing a file, switch to writing a DOS format (CR/LF).
.TP
.B macformat
When writing a file, switch to writing a Mac format.
.TP
.B append
When writing a file, append to the end instead of overwriting.
.TP
.B prepend
When writing a file, 'prepend' (write at the beginning) instead of overwriting.
.TP
.B backup
When writing a file, create a backup of the current file.
.TP
.B firstfile
Move to the first file when using the file browser (reading or writing files).
.TP
.B lastfile
Move to the last file when using the file browser (reading or writing files).
.TP
.B nohelp
Toggle showing/hiding the two-line list of key bindings at the bottom of the screen.
.TP
.B constupdate
Toggle the constant display of the current line, column, and word positions.
.TP
.B morespace
Toggle showing/hiding the blank line which 'separates' the 'title' from the file text.
.TP
.B smoothscroll
Toggle smooth scrolling when moving via the arrow keys.
.TP
.B whitespacedisplay
Toggle the showing of whitespace.
.TP
.B nosyntax
Toggle syntax highlighting.
.TP
.B smarthome
Toggle whether the smart home key function is enabled.
.TP
.B autoindent
Toggle whether new lines will contain the same amount of whitespace as the line above.
.TP
.B cuttoend
Toggle whether cutting text will cut the whole line or just from the current cursor
position to the end of the line.
.TP
.B nowrap
Toggle whether long lines will be hard-wrapped to the next line.
.TP
.B softwrap
Toggle the displaying of overlong lines on multiple screen lines.
.TP
.B tabstospaces
Toggle whether typed tabs will be converted to spaces.
.TP
.B backupfile
Toggle whether a backup will be made of the file to be edited.
.TP
.B multibuffer
Toggle the use of multiple file buffers (if available).
.TP
.B mouse
Toggle mouse support.
.TP
.B noconvert
Toggle automatic conversion of files from DOS/Mac format.
.TP
.B suspendenable
Toggle whether the suspend sequence (normally ^Z) will suspend the editor window.
.TP
Valid \fImenu\fP sections are:
.TP 2
.B main
The main editor window where text is entered.
.TP
.B search
The search menu (AKA whereis).
.TP
.B replace
The 'search to replace' menu.
.TP
.B replacewith
The 'replace with' menu, which comes up after 'search to replace'.
.TP
.B gotoline
The 'goto line (and column)' menu.
.TP
.B writeout
The 'write file' menu.
.TP
.B insert
The 'insert file' menu.
.TP
.B extcmd
The menu for inserting output from an external command, reached from the insert menu.
.TP
.B help
The help-viewer menu.
.TP
.B spell
The interactive spell checker Yes/no menu.
.TP
.B browser
The file browser for inserting or writing a file.
.TP
.B whereisfile
The 'search for a file' menu in the file browser.
.TP
.B gotodir
The 'go to directory' menu in the file browser.
.TP
.B all
A special name meaning: apply to all menus where this function exists.
.SH FILES
.TP
.B SYSCONFDIR/nanorc
System-wide configuration file
.TP
.B ~/.nanorc
Per-user configuration file
.SH SEE ALSO
.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 originally written by
Jordi Mallach , for the Debian system (but may be used by
others).