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NANORC(5) File Formats Manual NANORC(5)

NAME
nanorc - GNU nano's configuration file

DESCRIPTION
The nanorc files contain the default settings for nano, a small and friendly editor. During
startup, if --rcfile is not given, nano will read two files: first the system-wide settings,
from /etc/nanorc (the exact path might be different on your system), and then the user-spe‐
cific settings, either from ~/.nanorc or from $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nano/nanorc or from ~/.con‐
fig/nano/nanorc, whichever is encountered first. If --rcfile is given, nano will read just
the specified settings file.

NOTICE
Since version 4.0, nano by default:

• does not automatically hard-wrap lines that become overlong,
• includes the line below the title bar in the editing area,
• does linewise (smooth) scrolling.

To get the old, Pico behavior back, you can use set breaklonglines, set emptyline, and set
jumpyscrolling.

OPTIONS
The configuration file accepts a series of set and unset commands, which can be used to con‐
figure nano on startup without using command-line options. Additionally, there are some com‐
mands to define syntax highlighting and to rebind keys -- see the two separate sections on
those. nano reads one command per line. All commands and keywords should be written in low‐
ercase.

Options in nanorc files take precedence over nano's defaults, and command-line options over‐
ride 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.

Quotes inside the characters parameters below should not be escaped. The last double quote
on the line will be seen as the closing quote.

The supported commands and arguments are:

set afterends
Make Ctrl+Right and Ctrl+Delete stop at word ends instead of beginnings.

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 atblanks
When soft line wrapping is enabled, make it wrap lines at blank characters (tabs and spa‐
ces) instead of always at the edge of the screen.

set autoindent
Automatically indent a newly created line to the same number of tabs and/or spaces as the
previous line (or as the next line if the previous line is the beginning of a paragraph).

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 boldtext
Use bold instead of reverse video for the title bar, status bar, key combos, function
tags, line numbers, and selected text. This can be overridden by setting the options ti‐‐
tlecolor, statuscolor, keycolor, functioncolor, numbercolor, and selectedcolor.

set bookstyle
When justifying, treat any line that starts with whitespace as the beginning of a para‐
graph (unless auto-indenting is on).

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

set breaklonglines
Automatically hard-wrap the current line when it becomes overlong.

set casesensitive
Do case-sensitive searches by default.

set constantshow
Constantly display the cursor position in the status bar. This overrides the option
quickblank.

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

set emptyline
Do not use the line below the title bar, leaving it entirely blank.

set errorcolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
Use this color combination for the status bar when an error message is displayed. The de‐
fault value is bold,white,red. See set titlecolor for valid color names.

set fill number
Set the target width for justifying and automatic hard-wrapping at this number of columns.
If the value is 0 or less, wrapping will occur at the width of the screen minus number
columns, allowing the wrap point to vary along with the width of the screen if the screen
is resized. The default value is -8.

set functioncolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
Use this color combination for the concise function descriptions in the two help lines at
the bottom of the screen. See set titlecolor for more details.

set guidestripe number
Draw a vertical stripe at the given column, to help judge the width of the text. (The
color of the stripe can be changed with set stripecolor.)

set historylog
Save the last hundred search strings and replacement strings and executed commands, so
they can be easily reused in later sessions.

set indicator
Display a "scrollbar" on the righthand side of the edit window. It shows the position of
the viewport in the buffer and how much of the buffer is covered by the viewport.

set jumpyscrolling
Scroll the buffer contents per half-screen instead of per line.

set keycolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
Use this color combination for the shortcut key combos in the two help lines at the bottom
of the screen. See set titlecolor for more details.

set linenumbers
Display line numbers to the left of the text area. (Any line with an anchor additionally
gets a mark in the margin.)

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

set magic
When neither the file's name nor its first line give a clue, try using libmagic to deter‐
mine the applicable syntax. (Calling libmagic can be relatively time consuming. It is
therefore not done by default.)

set matchbrackets "characters"
Specify 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 minibar
Suppress the title bar and instead show information about the current buffer at the bottom
of the screen, in the space for the status bar. In this "minibar" the filename is shown
on the left, followed by an asterisk if the buffer has been modified. On the right are
displayed the current line and column number, the code of the character under the cursor
(in Unicode format: U+xxxx), the same flags as are shown by set stateflags, and a percent‐
age that expresses how far the cursor is into the file (linewise). When a file is loaded
or saved, and also when switching between buffers, the number of lines in the buffer is
displayed after the filename. This number is cleared upon the next keystroke, or replaced
with an [i/n] counter when multiple buffers are open. The line plus column numbers and
the character code are displayed only when set constantshow is used, and can be toggled on
and off with M-C. The state flags are displayed only when set stateflags is used.

set minicolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
Use this color combination for the minibar. (When this option is not specified, the col‐
ors of the title bar are used.) See set titlecolor for more details.

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 when a text does not end with one. (This can cause you
to save non-POSIX text files.)

set nowrap
Deprecated option since it has become the default setting. When needed, use unset break‐‐
longlines instead.

set numbercolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
Use this color combination for line numbers. See set titlecolor for more details.

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 de‐
fault, the operating directory feature is turned off.

set positionlog
Save the cursor position of files between editing sessions. The cursor position is remem‐
bered for the 200 most-recently edited files.

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

set promptcolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
Use this color combination for the prompt bar. (When this option is not specified, the
colors of the title bar are used.) See set titlecolor for more details.

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

set quickblank
Make status-bar messages disappear after 1 keystroke instead of after 20. Note that op‐
tion constantshow overrides this. When option minibar or zero is in effect, quickblank
makes a message disappear after 0.8 seconds instead of after the default 1.5 seconds.

set quotestr "regex"
Set the regular expression for matching the quoting part of a line. The default value is
"^([ \t]*([!#%:;>|}]|//))+". (Note that \t stands for an actual Tab character.) This
makes it possible to rejustify blocks of quoted text when composing email, and to rewrap
blocks of line comments when writing source code.

set rawsequences
Interpret escape sequences directly, instead of asking ncurses to translate them. (If you
need this option to get some keys to work properly, it means that the terminfo terminal
description that is used does not fully match the actual behavior of your terminal. This
can happen when you ssh into a BSD machine, for example.) Using this option disables
nano's mouse support.

set rebinddelete
Interpret the Delete and Backspace keys differently so that both Backspace and Delete work
properly. You should only use this option when on your system either Backspace acts like
Delete or Delete acts like Backspace.

set regexp
Do regular-expression searches by default. Regular expressions in nano are of the ex‐
tended type (ERE).

set saveonexit
Save a changed buffer automatically on exit (^X); don't prompt. (The old form of this op‐
tion, set tempfile, is deprecated.)

set scrollercolor fgcolor,bgcolor
Use this color combination for the indicator alias "scrollbar". (On terminal emulators
that link to a libvte older than version 0.55, using a background color here does not work
correctly.) See set titlecolor for more details.

set selectedcolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
Use this color combination for selected text. See set titlecolor for more details.

set showcursor
Put the cursor on the highlighted item in the file browser, and show the cursor in the
help viewer, to aid braille users and people with poor vision.

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 for‐
wards or backwards). If the cursor is already at that position, it will jump to the true
beginning of the line.

set softwrap
Display lines that exceed the screen's width over multiple screen lines. (You can make
this soft-wrapping occur at whitespace instead of rudely at the screen's edge, by using
also set atblanks.)

set speller "program [argument ...]"
Use the given program to do spell checking and correcting, instead of using the built-in
corrector that calls hunspell(1) or spell(1).

set spotlightcolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
Use this color combination for highlighting a search match. The default value is
black,lightyellow. See set titlecolor for valid color names.

set stateflags
Use the top-right corner of the screen for showing some state flags: I when auto-indent‐
ing, M when the mark is on, L when hard-wrapping (breaking long lines), R when recording a
macro, and S when soft-wrapping. When the buffer is modified, a star (*) is shown after
the filename in the center of the title bar.

set statuscolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
Use this color combination for the status bar. See set titlecolor for more details.

set stripecolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
Use this color combination for the vertical guiding stripe. See set titlecolor for more
details.

set suspendable
Obsolete option; ignored. Suspension is enabled by default, reachable via ^T^Z. (If you
want a plain ^Z to suspend nano, add bind ^Z suspend main to your nanorc.)

set tabsize number
Use a tab size of number columns. The value of number must be greater than 0. The de‐
fault value is 8.

set tabstospaces
Convert each typed tab to spaces -- to the number of spaces that a tab at that position
would take up.

set titlecolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor
Use this color combination for the title bar. Valid names for the foreground and back‐
ground colors are: red, green, blue, magenta, yellow, cyan, white, and black. Each of
these eight names may be prefixed with the word light to get a brighter version of that
color. The word grey or gray may be used as a synonym for lightblack. On terminal emula‐
tors that can do at least 256 colors, other valid (but unprefixable) color names are:
pink, purple, mauve, lagoon, mint, lime, peach, orange, latte, rosy, beet, plum, sea, sky,
slate, teal, sage, brown, ocher, sand, tawny, brick, crimson, and normal -- where normal
means the default foreground or background color. On such emulators, the color may also
be specified as a three-digit hexadecimal number prefixed with #, with the digits repre‐
senting the amounts of red, green, and blue, respectively. This tells nano to select from
the available palette the color that approximates the given values.

Either "fgcolor" or ",bgcolor" may be left out, and the pair may be preceded by bold
and/or italic (separated by commas) to get a bold and/or slanting typeface, if your termi‐
nal can do those.

set trimblanks
Remove trailing whitespace from wrapped lines when automatic hard-wrapping occurs or when
text is justified.

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 nocon‐‐
vert.)

set whitespace "characters"
Set the two characters used to indicate the presence of tabs and spaces. They must be
single-column characters. The default pair for a UTF-8 locale is "»»⋅⋅", and for other lo‐
cales ">.".

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

set wordchars "characters"
Specify which other characters (besides the normal alphanumeric ones) should be considered
as parts of words. When using this option, you probably want to unset wordbounds.

set zap
Let an unmodified Backspace or Delete erase the marked region (instead of a single charac‐
ter, and without affecting the cutbuffer).

set zero
Hide all elements of the interface (title bar, status bar, and help lines) and use all
rows of the terminal for showing the contents of the buffer. The status bar appears only
when there is a significant message, and disappears after 1.5 seconds or upon the next
keystroke. With M-Z the title bar plus status bar can be toggled. With M-X the help
lines.

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 pow‐
erful 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.

All regular expressions in nano are POSIX extended regular expressions. This means that .,
?, *, +, ^, $, and several other characters are special. The period . matches any single
character, ? means the preceding item is optional, * means the preceding item may be matched
zero or more times, + means the preceding item must be matched one or more times, ^ matches
the beginning of a line, and $ the end, \< matches the start of a word, and \> the end, and
\s matches a blank. It also means that lookahead and lookbehind are not possible. A com‐
plete explanation can be found in the manual page of GNU grep: man grep.

For each kind of file a separate syntax can be defined via the following commands:

syntax name ["fileregex" ...]
Start the definition of a syntax with this name. All subsequent color and other such
commands will be added to this syntax, until a new syntax command is encountered.

When nano is run, this syntax will be automatically activated if the current filename
matches the extended regular expression fileregex. Or the syntax can be explicitly
activated by using the -Y or --syntax command-line option followed by the name.

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

header "regex" ...
If from all defined syntaxes no fileregex matched, then compare this regex (or
regexes) against the first line of the current file, to determine whether this syntax
should be used for it.

magic "regex" ...
If no fileregex matched and no header regex matched either, then compare this regex
(or regexes) against the result of querying the magic database about the current file,
to determine whether this syntax should be used for it. (This functionality only
works when libmagic is installed on the system and will be silently ignored other‐
wise.)

formatter program [argument ...]
Run the given program on the full contents of the current buffer. (The current buffer
is written out to a temporary file, the program is run on it, and then the temporary
file is read back in, replacing the contents of the buffer.)

linter program [argument ...]
Use the given program to run a syntax check on the current buffer.

comment "string"
Use the given string for commenting and uncommenting lines. If the string contains a
vertical bar or pipe character (|), this designates bracket-style comments; for exam‐
ple, "/*|*/" for CSS files. The characters before the pipe are prepended to the line
and the characters after the pipe are appended at the end of the line. If no pipe
character is present, the full string is prepended; for example, "#" for Python files.
If empty double quotes are specified, the comment/uncomment function is disabled; for
example, "" for JSON. The default value is "#".

tabgives "string"
Make the <Tab> key produce the given string. Useful for languages like Python that
want to see only spaces for indentation. This overrides the setting of the tab‐‐
stospaces option.

color [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor "regex" ...
Paint all pieces of text that match the extended regular expression regex with the
given foreground and background colors, at least one of which must be specified.
Valid color names are: red, green, blue, magenta, yellow, cyan, white, and black.
Each of these eight names may be prefixed with the word light to get a brighter ver‐
sion of that color. The word grey or gray may be used as a synonym for lightblack.
On terminal emulators that can do at least 256 colors, other valid (but unprefixable)
color names are: pink, purple, mauve, lagoon, mint, lime, peach, orange, latte, rosy,
beet, plum, sea, sky, slate, teal, sage, brown, ocher, sand, tawny, brick, crimson,
and normal -- where normal means the default foreground or background color. On such
emulators, the color may also be specified as a three-digit hexadecimal number pre‐
fixed with #, with the digits representing the amounts of red, green, and blue, re‐
spectively. This tells nano to select from the available palette the color that ap‐
proximates the given values.

The color pair may be preceded by bold and/or italic (separated by commas) to get a
bold and/or slanting typeface, if your terminal can do those.

All coloring commands are applied in the order in which they are specified, which
means that later commands can recolor stuff that was colored earlier.

icolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor "regex" ...
Same as above, except that the matching is case insensitive.

color [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor start="fromrx" end="torx"
Paint all pieces of text whose start matches extended regular expression fromrx and
whose end matches extended regular expression torx with the given foreground and back‐
ground colors, at least one of which must be specified. This means that, after an
initial instance of fromrx, all text until the first instance of torx will be colored.
This allows syntax highlighting to span multiple lines.

icolor [bold,][italic,]fgcolor,bgcolor start="fromrx" end="torx"
Same as above, except that the matching is case insensitive.

include "syntaxfile"
Read in self-contained color syntaxes from syntaxfile. Note that syntaxfile may con‐
tain only the above commands, from syntax to icolor.

extendsyntax name command argument ...
Extend the syntax previously defined as name with another command. This allows adding
a new color, icolor, header, magic, formatter, linter, comment, or tabgives command to
an already defined syntax -- useful when you want to slightly improve a syntax defined
in one of the system-installed files (which normally are not writable).

REBINDING KEYS
Key bindings can be changed via the following three commands:

bind key function menu
Rebinds the given key to the given function in the given menu (or in all menus
where the function exists when all is used).

bind key "string" menu
Makes the given key produce the given string in the given menu (or in all menus
where the key exists when all is used). The string can consist of text or commands
or a mix of them. (To enter a command into the string, precede its keystroke with
M-V.)

unbind key menu
Unbinds the given key from the given menu (or from all menus where the key exists
when all is used).

The format of key should be one of:

^X where X is a Latin letter, or one of several ASCII characters (@, ], \, ^, _), or
the word "Space". Example: ^C.

M-X where X is any ASCII character except [, or the word "Space". Example: M-8.

Sh-M-X where X is a Latin letter. Example: Sh-M-U. By default, each Meta+letter key‐
stroke does the same as the corresponding Shift+Meta+letter. But when any
Shift+Meta bind is made, that will no longer be the case, for all letters.

FN where N is a numeric value from 1 to 24. Example: F10. (Often, F13 to F24 can be
typed as F1 to F12 with Shift.)

Ins or Del.

Rebinding ^M (Enter) or ^I (Tab) is probably not a good idea. Rebinding ^[ (Esc) is not pos‐
sible, because its keycode is the starter byte of Meta keystrokes and escape sequences. Re‐
binding any of the dedicated cursor-moving keys (the arrows, Home, End, PageUp and PageDown)
is not possible. On some terminals it's not possible to rebind ^H (unless --raw is used) be‐
cause its keycode is identical to that of the Backspace key.

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 file browser).

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

savefile
Writes the current file to disk without prompting.

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

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

wherewas
Starts a backward search for text in the current buffer -- or for filenames matching a
string in the current list in the file browser.

findprevious
Searches the next occurrence in the backward direction.

findnext
Searches the next occurrence in the forward direction.

replace
Interactively replaces text within the current buffer.

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

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

paste
Pastes the currently stored text into the current buffer at the current cursor position.

zap
Throws away the current line (or the marked region). (This function is bound by default
to <Meta+Delete>.)

chopwordleft
Deletes from the cursor position to the beginning of the preceding word. (This function
is bound by default to <Shift+Ctrl+Delete>. If your terminal produces ^H for
<Ctrl+Backspace>, you can make <Ctrl+Backspace> delete the word to the left of the cur‐
sor by rebinding ^H to this function.)

chopwordright
Deletes from the cursor position to the beginning of the next word. (This function is
bound by default to <Ctrl+Delete>.)

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

mark
Sets the mark at the current position, to start selecting text. Or, when it is set, un‐
sets the mark.

location
Reports the current position of the cursor in the buffer: the line, column, and charac‐
ter positions. (The old name of this function, 'curpos', is deprecated.)

wordcount
Counts and reports on the status bar the number of lines, words, and characters in the
current buffer (or in the marked region).

execute
Prompts for a program to execute. The program's output will be inserted into the cur‐
rent buffer (or into a new buffer when M-F is toggled).

speller
Invokes a spell-checking program, either the default hunspell(1) or GNU spell(1), or the
one defined by --speller or set speller.

formatter
Invokes a full-buffer-processing program (if the active syntax defines one).

linter
Invokes a syntax-checking program (if the active syntax defines one).

justify
Justifies the current paragraph (or the marked region). A paragraph is a group of con‐
tiguous lines that, apart from possibly the first line, all have the same indentation.
The beginning of a paragraph is detected by either this lone line with a differing in‐
dentation or by a preceding blank line.

fulljustify
Justifies the entire current buffer (or the marked region).

indent
Indents (shifts to the right) the current line or the marked lines.

unindent
Unindents (shifts to the left) the current line or the marked lines.

comment
Comments or uncomments the current line or the marked lines, using the comment style
specified in the active syntax.

complete
Completes (when possible) the fragment before the cursor to a full word found elsewhere
in the current buffer.

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 the viewport up one row (meaning that the text slides down) while keeping the
cursor in the same text position, if possible. (This function is bound by default to
<Alt+Up>. If <Alt+Up> does nothing on your Linux console, see the FAQ:
⟨https://nano-editor.org/dist/latest/faq.html#4.1⟩.)

scrolldown
Scrolls the viewport down one row (meaning that the text slides up) while keeping the
cursor in the same text position, if possible. (This function is bound by default to
<Alt+Down>.)

center
Scrolls the line with the cursor to the middle of the screen.

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.

prevblock
Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current or preceding block of text. (Blocks
are separated by one or more blank lines.)

nextblock
Moves the cursor to the beginning of the next block of text.

pageup
Goes up one screenful.

pagedown
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). Negative numbers count from the end
of the file (and end of the line).

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

anchor
Places an anchor at the current line, or removes it when already present. (An anchor is
visible when line numbers are activated.)

prevanchor
Goes to the first anchor before the current line.

nextanchor
Goes to the first anchor after the current line.

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 keystroke 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.

recordmacro
Starts the recording of keystrokes -- the keystrokes are stored as a macro. When al‐
ready recording, the recording is stopped.

runmacro
Replays the keystrokes of the last recorded macro.

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 and returns control to the shell (until you tell the process to re‐
sume execution with fg).

casesens
Toggles whether searching/replacing ignores or respects the case of the given charac‐
ters.

regexp
Toggles whether searching/replacing uses literal strings or regular expressions.

backwards
Toggles whether searching/replacing goes forward or backward.

older
Retrieves the previous (earlier) entry at a prompt.

newer
Retrieves the next (later) entry at a prompt.

flipreplace
Toggles between searching for something and replacing something.

flipgoto
Toggles between searching for text and targeting a line number.

flipexecute
Toggles between inserting a file and executing a command.

flippipe
When executing a command, toggles whether the current buffer (or marked region) is piped
to the command.

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

flipconvert
When reading in a file, toggles between converting and not converting it from DOS/Mac
format. Converting is the default.

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 --saveonexit is in effect.)

browser
Starts the file browser (in the Read File and Write Out menus), 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 in the list when using the file browser.

lastfile
Goes to the last file in the list when using the file browser.

nohelp
Toggles the presence of the two-line list of key bindings at the bottom of the screen.
(This toggle is special: it is available in all menus except the help viewer and the
linter. All further toggles are available in the main menu only.)

zero
Toggles the presence of title bar and status bar.

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

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

linenumbers
Toggles the display of line numbers in front of the text.

whitespacedisplay
Toggles the showing of whitespace.

nosyntax
Toggles syntax highlighting.

smarthome
Toggles the smartness of the Home key.

autoindent
Toggles whether a newly created line will contain the same amount of leading whitespace
as the preceding line -- or as the next line if the preceding line is the beginning of a
paragraph.

cutfromcursor
Toggles whether cutting text will cut the whole line or just from the current cursor po‐
sition to the end of the line.

breaklonglines
Toggles whether long lines will be hard-wrapped to the next line. (The old name of this
function, 'nowrap', is deprecated.)

tabstospaces
Toggles whether typed tabs will be converted to spaces.

mouse
Toggles mouse support.

Valid menu sections are:

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

help
The help-viewer menu.

search
The search menu (AKA whereis).

replace
The 'search to replace' menu.

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

yesno
The 'yesno' menu, where the Yes/No/All/Cancel question is asked.

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

writeout
The 'write file' menu.

insert
The 'insert file' menu.

browser
The 'file browser' menu, for selecting a file to be opened or inserted or written to.

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

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

execute
The menu for inserting the output from an external command, or for filtering the buffer
(or the marked region) through an external command, or for executing one of several
tools. (The old form of this menu name, 'extcmd', is deprecated.)

spell
The menu of the integrated spell checker where the user can edit a misspelled word.

linter
The linter menu, which allows jumping through the linting messages.

all
A special name that encompasses all menus. For bind it means all menus where the speci‐
fied function exists; for unbind it means all menus where the specified key exists.

FILES
/etc/nanorc
System-wide configuration file.

~/.nanorc or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nano/nanorc or ~/.config/nano/nanorc
Per-user configuration file.

/usr/share/nano/*
Syntax definitions for the syntax coloring of common file types (and for less common
file types in the extra/ subdirectory).