nano/nano.1

.\" Hey, EMACS: -*- nroff -*-
.\" nano.1 is copyright 1999-2002 by
.\" Chris Allegretta <chrisa@asty.org>
.\"
.\" This is free documentation, see the latest version of the GNU General
.\" Public License for copying conditions. There is NO warranty.
.\"
.\" $Id$
.TH NANO 1 "November 1, 2002"
.\" Please adjust this date whenever revising the manpage.
.\"
.SH NAME
nano \- Nano's ANOther editor, an enhanced free Pico Clone
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B nano
.I [\+LINE]\ [options]\ [file]
.br
.SH DESCRIPTION
This manual page documents briefly the \fBnano\fP command.
.PP
.\" TeX users may be more comfortable with the \fB<whatever>\fP and
.\" \fI<whatever>\fP escape sequences to invoke bold face and italics, 
.\" respectively.
\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".
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.B \+\fILINE\fP
Places cursor at \fILINE\fP on startup.
.TP
.B \-B (\-\-backup)
When saving a file, back up the previous version of it to the current
filename suffixed with a ~.
.TP
.B \-D (\-\-dos)
Write file in DOS format.
.TP
.B \-F (\-\-multibuffer)
Enable multiple file buffers, if available.
.TP
.B \-I (\-\-ignorercfiles)
Don't look at $SYSCONFDIR/nanorc or ~/.nanorc, if nanorc support is
available.
.TP
.B \-K (\-\-keypad)
Do not use the ncurses keypad() call unless necessary.  Try this flag if
you find that the arrow keys on the numeric keypad do not work for you
under nano.
.TP
.B \-M (\-\-mac)
Write file in Mac format.
.TP
.B \-N (\-\-noconvert)
Disable automatic conversion of files from DOS/Mac format.
.TP
.B \-Q \fI[str]\fP (\-\-quotestr=\fI[str]\fP)
Set the quoting string for justifying.  The default is
"^([ \\t]*[|>:}#])+" if regular expression support is available, or
"> " otherwise.
.TP
.B \-R (\-\-regexp)
Enable regular expression matching for search strings, as well as
\\n subexpression replacement for replace strings, if available.
.TP
.B \-S (\-\-smooth)
Enable smooth scrolling. Text will scroll line-by-line, instead of the
usual chunk-by-chunk behavior.
.TP
.B \-T \fI[num]\fP (\-\-tabsize=\fI[num]\fP)
Set the size (width) of a tab.
.TP
.B \-V (\-\-version)
Show the current version number and author.
.TP
.B \-Y \fI[str]\fP (\-\-syntax=\fI[str]\fP)
Specify a specific syntax highlighting from the .nanorc to use, if
available.
.TP
.B \-c (\-\-const)
Constantly show the cursor position.
.TP
.B \-h (\-\-help)
Display a summary of command line options.
.TP
.B \-i (\-\-autoindent)
Indent new lines to the previous line's indentation. Useful when editing
source code.
.TP
.B \-k (\-\-cut)
Enable cut from cursor to end of line with ^K.
.TP
.B \-l (\-\-nofollow)
If the file being edited is a symbolic link, replace the link with
a new file, do not follow it.  Good for editing files in /tmp, perhaps?
.TP
.B \-m (\-\-mouse)
Enable mouse support (if available for your system).
.TP
.B \-o \fI[dir]\fP (\-\-operatingdir=\fI[dir]\fP)
Set operating directory. Makes nano set up something similar to a
chroot.
.TP
.B \-p (\-\-pico)
Emulate Pico as closely as possible.  This affects both the "shortcut
list" at the bottom of the screen, as well as the display and entry of
previous search and replace strings.
.TP
.B \-r \fI[#cols]\fP (\-\-fill=\fI[#cols]\fP)
Wrap lines at column #cols.  By default, this is the width of the
screen, less eight.  If this value is negative, wrapping will occur at
#cols from the right of the screen, allowing it to vary along with the
screen width if the screen is resized.
.TP
.B \-s \fI[prog]\fP (\-\-speller=\fI[prog]\fP)
Enable alternative spell checker command.
.TP
.B \-t (\-\-tempfile)
Always save changed buffer without prompting.  Same as Pico -t option.
.TP
.B \-v (\-\-view)
View file (read only) mode.
.TP
.B \-w (\-\-nowrap)
Disable wrapping of long lines.
.TP
.B \-x (\-\-nohelp)
Disable help screen at bottom of editor.
.TP
.B \-z (\-\-suspend)
Enable suspend ability.
.TP
.B \-a, \-b, \-e, \-f, \-g, \-j
Ignored, for compatibility with Pico.
.SH NOTES
\fBnano\fP will try to dump the buffer into an emergency file in some
cases.  Mainly, this will happen if \fBnano\fP receives a SIGHUP or
SIGTERM or runs out of memory, when it will write the buffer into a file
named "nano.save" if the buffer didn't have a name already, or will add
a ".save" suffix to the current filename. If an emergency file with that
name already exists in the current directory, ".save" and a number (e.g.
".save.1") will be suffixed to the current filename in order to make it
unique. In multibuffer mode, \fBnano\fP will write all the open buffers
to the respective emergency files.
.SH BUGS
Please send any comments or bug reports to
.br
.B nano@nano-editor.org.
.br
The \fBnano\fP mailing list is available from
.br
.B nano-devel@gnu.org.
To subscribe, email to nano-devel-request@gnu.org with a
subject of "subscribe".
.SH HOMEPAGE
http://www.nano-editor.org
.SH AUTHOR
Chris Allegretta <chrisa@asty.org>, et al (see AUTHORS and THANKS for
details).
This manual page was originally written by Jordi Mallach
<jordi@sindominio.net>, for the Debian GNU system (but may be
used by others).