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 "June 27, 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
.RI [options]\ [+LINE] " file"
.br
.SH DESCRIPTION
This manual page documents briefly the
.B nano
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,
.B nano
also implements some missing (or disabled by default) features in Pico,
such as "search and replace" and "goto line number".
.SH OPTIONS
.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 \-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 [str] (\-\-quotestr=[str])
Set the quoting string for justifying.  The default is "> ".
.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 behaviour.
.TP
.B \-T [num] (\-\-tabsize=[num])
Set the size (width) of a tab.
.TP
.B \-V (\-\-version)
Show the current version number and author.
.TP
.B \-Y (\-\-syntax=[str])
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 [dir] (\-\-operatingdir=[dir])
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 [#cols] (\-\-fill=[#cols])
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 [prog] (\-\-speller=[prog])
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.
.TP
.B \+LINE
Places cursor at LINE on startup.
.SH NOTES
Nano will try to dump the buffer into an emergency file in some cases.
Mainly, this will happen if Nano receives a SIGHUP 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, nano 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 nano 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).