This manual page briefly documents GNU nano's rcfile.
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 number".
The nanorc file contains the default settings for nano. It
should not be in DOS or Mac format. During startup, nano will
first read its system-wide settings from SYSCONFDIR/nanorc, and
then 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
the command line options. Additionally, the syntax, color,
and icolor keywords are used to define syntax highlighting rules
for different text patterns. nano will read one command per line.
Options in nanorc files take precedence over nano's defaults, and
command line options override nanorc 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 brackets option, ""')>]}" will
match ", ', ), >, ], and }.
The supported commands and arguments are:
set/unset autoindent
Use auto-indentation.
set/unset backup
Create backup files in filename~.
set backupdir directory
Set the directory where nano puts unique backup files if file
backups are enabled.
set/unset backwards
Do backwards searches by default.
set/unset boldtext
Use bold text instead of reverse video text.
set brackets string
Set the characters treated as closing brackets when justifying
paragraphs. They cannot contain blank characters. Only closing
punctuation, optionally followed by closing brackets, can end sentences.
The default value is ""')>]}".
set/unset casesensitive
Do case sensitive searches by default.
set/unset const
Constantly display the cursor position in the status bar.
set/unset cut
Use cut to end of line by default.
set fill n
Wrap lines at column number n. If n is 0 or less, the
maximum line length will be the screen width less n columns. The
default value is -8.
set/unset historylog
Enable ~/.nano_history for saving and reading search/replace
strings.
set matchbrackets string
Set the opening and closing brackets that can be found by bracket
searches. They cannot contain blank characters. The former set must
come before the latter set, and both must be in the same order. The
default value is "(<[{)>]}".
set/unset morespace
Allow use of the blank line below the titlebar as extra editing space.
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.
set/unset multibuffer
Allow inserting files into their own buffers.
set/unset noconvert
Don't convert files from DOS/Mac format.
set/unset nofollow
Don't follow symlinks when writing files.
set/unset nohelp
Don't display the help lists at the bottom of the screen.
set/unset nonewlines
Don't add newlines to the ends of files.
set/unset nowrap
Don't 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 diractory. By default, the operating
directory feature is turned off.
set/unset preserve
Preserve the XON and XOFF keys (^Q and ^S).
set punct string
Set the characters treated as closing punctuation when justifying
paragraphs. They cannot contain blank characters. Only closing
punctuation, optionally followed by closing brackets, can end sentences.
The default value is "!.?".
set/unset quickblank
Do quick statusbar blanking. Statusbar messages will disappear after 1
keystroke instead of 25.
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, or "> " otherwise. Note that '\t' stands for a literal
Tab character.
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.
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.
set/unset regexp
Do extended regular expression searches by default.
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.
set/unset smooth
Use smooth scrolling by default.
set speller spellprog
Use spelling checker spellprog instead of the built-in one, which
calls spell.
set/unset suspend
Allow nano to be suspended.
set tabsize n
Use a tab size of n columns. The value of n must be greater
than 0. The default value is 8.
set/unset tabstospaces
Convert typed tabs to spaces.
set/unset tempfile
Save automatically on exit, don't prompt.
set/unset view
Disallow file modification.
set whitespace string
Set the two characters used to display the first characters of tabs and
spaces. They must be single-column characters.
set/unset wordbounds
Detect word boundaries more accurately by treating punctuation
characters as part of a word.
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 following color and icolor statements
will apply to syntax until a new syntax is defined.
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 other syntax's fileregex.
color fgcolor,bgcolorregex ...
For the currently defined syntax, display all expressions matching
the extended regular expression regex with foreground color
fgcolor and background color bgcolor, 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
bgcolor tells nano to attempt to use a transparent
background.
icolor fgcolor,bgcolorregex ...
Same as above, except that the expression matching is case insensitive.
color fgcolor,bgcolor start=sr end=er
Display expressions which start with the extended regular expression
sr and end with the extended regular expression er with
foreground color fgcolor and background color bgcolor,
at least one of which must be specified. This allows syntax
highlighting to span multiple lines. Note that all subsequent instances
of sr after an initial sr is found will be highlighted until
the first instance of er.
icolor fgcolor,bgcolor start=sr end=er
Same as above, except that the expression matching is case insensitive.
include syntaxfile
Read in self-contained color syntaxes from syntaxfile. Note that
syntaxfile can only contain syntax, color, and
icolor commands.
