# pi@raspberrypi:
$ man nano

$ man nano > ./man-docs/nano.md

# vim
# code .

pi@raspberrypi:~/Desktop $ cat ./man-docs/nano.md

NANO(1)                                        General Commands Manual                                       NANO(1)

NAME
       nano - Nano's ANOther editor, inspired by Pico

SYNOPSIS
       nano [options] [[+line[,column]] file]...

       nano [options] [[+[crCR](/|?)string] 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.

       If  you want the old, Pico behavior back, you can use --breaklonglines, --emptyline, and --jumpyscrolling (or
       -bej for short).

DESCRIPTION
       nano is a small and friendly editor.  It copies the look and feel of Pico, but is free software,  and  imple‐
       ments  several features that Pico lacks, such as: opening multiple files, scrolling per line, undo/redo, syn‐
       tax coloring, line numbering, and soft-wrapping overlong lines.

       When giving a filename on the command line, the cursor can be put on a specific line by adding the line  num‐
       ber with a plus sign (+) before the filename, and even in a specific column by adding it with a comma.  (Neg‐
       ative numbers count from the end of the file or line.)  The cursor can be put on the first or last occurrence
       of  a  specific  string by specifying that string after +/ or +? before the filename.  The string can be made
       case sensitive and/or caused to be interpreted as a regular expression by inserting c and/or r  after  the  +
       sign.   These  search  modes  can  be  explicitly disabled by using the uppercase variant of those letters: C
       and/or R.  When the string contains spaces, it needs to be enclosed in quotes.  To give an example: to open a
       file at the first occurrence of the word "Foo", one would do:

           nano +c/Foo file

       As a special case: if instead of a filename a dash (-) is given, nano will read data from standard input.

EDITING
       Entering  text and moving around in a file is straightforward: typing the letters and using the normal cursor
       movement keys.  Commands are entered by using the Control (^) and the Alt  or  Meta  (M-)  keys.   Typing  ^K
       deletes  the  current line and puts it in the cutbuffer.  Consecutive ^Ks will put all deleted lines together
       in the cutbuffer.  Any cursor movement or executing any other command will cause the next ^K to overwrite the
       cutbuffer.  A ^U will paste the current contents of the cutbuffer at the current cursor position.

       When  a more precise piece of text needs to be cut or copied, one can mark its start with ^6, move the cursor
       to its end (the marked text will be highlighted), and then use ^K to cut it, or M-6 to copy it  to  the  cut‐
       buffer.  One can also save the marked text to a file with ^O, or spell check it with ^T^T.

       On  some terminals, text can be selected also by holding down Shift while using the arrow keys.  Holding down
       the Ctrl or Alt key too will increase the stride.  Any cursor movement without Shift being held  will  cancel
       such a selection.

       The  two lines at the bottom of the screen show some important commands; the built-in help (^G) lists all the
       available ones.  The default key bindings can be changed via a nanorc file -- see nanorc(5).

OPTIONS
       -A, --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.

       -B, --backup
              When saving a file, back up the previous version of it, using the current  filename  suffixed  with  a
              tilde (~).

       -C directory, --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 (-B).  The uniquely numbered files are stored in the  specified  di‐
              rectory.

       -D, --boldtext
              For  the interface, use bold instead of reverse video.  This will be overridden by setting the options
              titlecolor, statuscolor, keycolor, functioncolor, numbercolor, and/or  selectedcolor  in  your  nanorc
              file.  See nanorc(5).

       -E, --tabstospaces
              Convert typed tabs to spaces.

       -F, --multibuffer
              Read a file into a new buffer by default.

       -G, --locking
              Use vim-style file locking when editing files.

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

       -I, --ignorercfiles
              Don't look at the system's nanorc nor at the user's nanorc.

       -J number, --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 in your nanorc file.)

       -K, --rawsequences
              Interpret  escape  sequences directly (instead of asking ncurses to translate them).  If you need this
              option to get your keyboard to work properly, please report a bug.  Using this option disables  nano's
              mouse support.

       -L, --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.)

       -M, --trimblanks
              Snip trailing whitespace from the wrapped line when automatic hard-wrapping occurs  or  when  text  is
              justified.

       -N, --noconvert
              Disable automatic conversion of files from DOS/Mac format.

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

       -P, --positionlog
              For the 200 most recent files, log the last position of the cursor, and  place  it  at  that  position
              again upon reopening such a file.

       -Q "regex", --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.)  This makes it possible to  re‐
              justify blocks of quoted text when composing email, and to rewrap blocks of line comments when writing
              source code.

       -R, --restricted
              Restricted mode: don't read or write to any file not specified on the command line.  This means: don't
              read or write history files; don't allow suspending; don't allow spell checking; don't allow a file to
              be appended to, prepended to, or saved under a different name if it already has one;  and  don't  make
              backup files.  Restricted mode can also be activated by invoking nano with any name beginning with 'r'
              (e.g. "rnano").

       -S, --softwrap
              Display over multiple screen rows lines that exceed the screen's width.  (You can make this soft-wrap‐
              ping  occur at whitespace instead of rudely at the screen's edge, by using also --atblanks.)  (The old
              short option, -$, is deprecated.)

       -T number, --tabsize=number
              Set the size (width) of a tab to number columns.  The value of number must be greater than 0.  The de‐
              fault value is 8.

       -U, --quickblank
              Do  quick  status-bar  blanking:  status-bar  messages will disappear after 1 keystroke instead of 25.
              Note that option -c (--constantshow) overrides this.

       -V, --version
              Show the current version number and exit.

       -W, --wordbounds
              Detect word boundaries differently by treating punctuation characters as part of a word.

       -X "characters", --wordchars="characters"
              Specify which other characters (besides the normal alphanumeric ones) should be considered as part  of
              a word.  When using this option, you probably want to omit -W (--wordbounds).

       -Y name, --syntax=name
              Specify the name of the syntax highlighting to use from among the ones defined in the nanorc files.

       -Z, --zap
              Let  an  unmodified  Backspace  or  Delete erase the marked region (instead of a single character, and
              without affecting the cutbuffer).

       -a, --atblanks
              When doing soft line wrapping, wrap lines at whitespace instead of always at the edge of the screen.

       -b, --breaklonglines
              Automatically hard-wrap the current line when it becomes overlong.  (This option is the opposite of -w
              (--nowrap) -- the last one given takes effect.)

       -c, --constantshow
              Constantly  show  the cursor position on the status bar.  Note that this overrides option -U (--quick‐
              blank).

       -d, --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.

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

       -f file, --rcfile=file
              Read only this file for setting nano's options, instead of reading both the system-wide and the user's
              nanorc files.

       -g, --showcursor
              Make  the  cursor  visible  in  the  file browser (putting it on the highlighted item) and in the help
              viewer.  Useful for braille users and people with poor vision.

       -h, --help
              Show a summary of the available command-line options and exit.

       -i, --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).

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

       -k, --cutfromcursor
              Make the 'Cut Text' command (normally ^K) cut from the current cursor position to the end of the line,
              instead of cutting the entire line.

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

       -m, --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.

       -n, --noread
              Treat any name given on the command line as a new file.  This allows nano to write to named pipes:  it
              will  start  with a blank buffer, and will write to the pipe when the user saves the "file".  This way
              nano can be used as an editor in combination with for instance gpg without having to  write  sensitive
              data to disk first.

       -o directory, --operatingdir=directory
              Set the operating directory.  This makes nano set up something similar to a chroot.

       -p, --preserve
              Preserve the XON and XOFF sequences (^Q and ^S) so they will be caught by the terminal.

       -q, --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.

       -r number, --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.

       -s "program [argument ...]", --speller="program [argument ...]"
              Use  this  command  to  perform spell checking and correcting, instead of using the built-in corrector
              that calls hunspell(1) or spell(1).

       -t, --saveonexit
              Save a changed buffer without prompting (when exiting with ^X).  (The old form  of  the  long  option,
              --tempfile, is deprecated.)

       -u, --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 --noconvert.)

       -v, --view
              Just view the file and disallow editing: read-only mode.  This mode allows the user to open also other
              files for viewing, unless --restricted is given too.

       -w, --nowrap
              Do not automatically hard-wrap the current line when it becomes overlong.  This is the default.  (This
              option is the opposite of -b (--breaklonglines) -- the last one given takes effect.)

       -x, --nohelp
              Don't show the two help lines at the bottom of the screen.

       -y, --afterends
              Make Ctrl+Right and Ctrl+Delete stop at word ends instead of beginnings.

       -z, --suspendable
              Allow the user to suspend the editor (with ^Z by default).

       -%, --stateflags
              Use the top-right corner of the screen for showing some state flags: I when auto-indenting, 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.

       -!, --magic
              When  neither  the file's name nor its first line give a clue, try using libmagic to determine the ap‐
              plicable syntax.

TOGGLES
       Several of the above options can be switched on and off also while nano is running.  For example, M-L toggles
       the  hard-wrapping of long lines, M-S toggles soft-wrapping, M-N toggles line numbers, M-M toggles the mouse,
       M-I auto-indentation, and M-X the help lines.  See at the end of the ^G help text for a complete list.

       The M-X toggle is special: it works in all menus except the help viewer and the linter.   All  other  toggles
       work in the main menu only.

FILES
       When  --rcfile  is given, nano will read just the specified file for setting its options and syntaxes and key
       bindings.  Without that option, nano will read two configuration files: first the system's nanorc (if it  ex‐
       ists), and then the user's nanorc (if it exists), either ~/.nanorc or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nano/nanorc or ~/.con‐
       fig/nano/nanorc, whichever is encountered first.  See nanorc(5) for more information on the possible contents
       of those files.

       See /usr/share/nano/ and /usr/share/nano/extra/ for available syntax-coloring definitions.

NOTES
       If no alternative spell checker command is specified on the command line nor in one of the nanorc files, nano
       will check the SPELL environment variable for one.

       In some cases nano will try to dump the buffer into an emergency file.  This will happen mainly if  nano  re‐
       ceives  a  SIGHUP  or SIGTERM or runs out of memory.  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, it will add ".save" plus a number (e.g.
       ".save.1") to the current filename in order to make it unique.  In multibuffer mode, nano will write all  the
       open buffers to their respective emergency files.

BUGS
       The  recording  and  playback  of keyboard macros works correctly only on a terminal emulator, not on a Linux
       console (VT), because the latter does not by default distinguish modified from unmodified arrow keys.

       Please report any other bugs that you encounter via:
       https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=nano.

       When nano crashes, it will save any modified buffers to emergency .save files.  If you are able to  reproduce
       the crash and you want to get a backtrace, define the environment variable NANO_NOCATCH.

HOMEPAGE
       https://nano-editor.org/

SEE ALSO
       nanorc(5)

       /usr/share/doc/nano/ (or equivalent on your system)

December 2020                                        version 5.4                                             NANO(1)