NANORC(5)                                                                                                              NANORC(5)



NAME
       nanorc - GNU nano's rcfile

DESCRIPTION
       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)  fea-
       tures in Pico, such as "search and replace" and "go to line and column 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 high-
       lighting 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
          Use 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 sys-
          tem 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  posi-
          tion, 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 charac-
          ters.

       set/unset wordbounds
          Detect word boundaries more accurately by treating punctuation characters as parts of words.

       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,bgcolor regex ...
          For  the  currently  defined syntax, display all expressions matching the extended regular expression regex with fore-
          ground color fgcolor and background color bgcolor, at least one of which must be specified.  Legal  colors  for  fore-
          ground  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 specify-
          ing a bgcolor tells nano to attempt to use a transparent background.

       icolor fgcolor,bgcolor regex ...
          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.

FILES
       SYSCONFDIR/nanorc
              System-wide configuration file

       ~/.nanorc
              Per-user configuration file

SEE ALSO
       nano(1)
       /usr/share/doc/nano/examples/nanorc.sample (or equivalent on your system)
AUTHOR
       Chris  Allegretta <chrisaATasty.org>, et al (see AUTHORS and THANKS for details).  This manual page was originally written
       by Jordi Mallach <jordiATgnu.org>, for the Debian system (but may be used by others).



October 28, 2006                                          version 2.0.0                                                NANORC(5)