nano: Building and Configure Options
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1 10 Building and Configure Options
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1
1 Building ‘nano’ from source is fairly straightforward if you are
1 familiar with compiling programs with autoconf support:
1
1 tar xvzf nano-x.y.z.tar.gz
1 cd nano-x.y.z
1 ./configure
1 make
1 make install
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1 The possible options to ‘./configure’ are:
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1 ‘--disable-browser’
1 Disable the mini file browser that can be called with ‘^T’ when
1 reading or writing files.
1
1 ‘--disable-color’
1 Disable support for the syntax coloring of files. This also
1 eliminates the ‘-Y’ command-line option, which chooses a specific
1 syntax.
1
1 ‘--disable-comment’
1 Disable the single-keystroke comment/uncomment function (‘M-3’).
1
1 ‘--disable-extra’
1 Disable the Easter egg: a crawl of major contributors.
1
1 ‘--disable-help’
1 Disable the help function. Doing this makes the binary much
1 smaller, but makes it difficult for new users to learn more than
1 very basic things about using the editor.
1
1 ‘--disable-histories’
1 Disable the code for the handling of the history files: the search
1 and replace strings that were used, and the cursor position at
1 which each file was closed. This also eliminates the ‘-H’ and ‘-P’
1 command-line options, which switch on the logging of search/replace
1 strings and cursor positions.
1
1 ‘--disable-justify’
1 Disable the justify and unjustify functions.
1
1 ‘--disable-libmagic’
1 Disable the use of the library of magic-number tests (for
1 determining the file type and thus which syntax to use for
1 colouring — often the tests on filename extension and header line
1 will be enough).
1
1 ‘--disable-linenumbers’
1 Disable the line-numbering function (‘M-#’). This also eliminates
1 the ‘-l’ command-line option, which turns line numbering on.
1
1 ‘--disable-mouse’
1 Disable all mouse functionality. This also eliminates the ‘-m’
1 command-line option, which enables the mouse functionality.
1
1 ‘--disable-multibuffer’
1 Disable support for opening multiple files at a time and switching
1 between them on the fly. This also eliminates the ‘-F’
1 command-line option, which causes a file to be read into a separate
1 buffer by default.
1
1 ‘--disable-nanorc’
1 Disable support for reading the nanorc files at startup. With such
1 support, you can store custom settings in a system-wide and a
1 per-user nanorc file rather than having to pass command-line
1 options to get the desired behavior. ⇒Nanorc Files for more
1 info. Disabling this also eliminates the ‘-I’ command-line option,
1 which inhibits the reading of nanorc files.
1
1 ‘--disable-operatingdir’
1 Disable setting the operating directory. This also eliminates the
1 ‘-o’ command-line option, which sets the operating directory.
1
1 ‘--disable-speller’
1 Disable use of the spell checker. This also eliminates the ‘-s’
1 command-line option, which allows specifying an alternate spell
1 checker.
1
1 ‘--disable-tabcomp’
1 Disable tab completion (when nano asks for a filename or a search
1 string).
1
1 ‘--disable-wordcomp’
1 Disable word completion (‘^]’).
1
1 ‘--disable-wrapping’
1 Disable all hard-wrapping of overlong lines. This also eliminates
1 the ‘-w’ command-line option, which switches long-line wrapping
1 off.
1
1 ‘--enable-tiny’
1 This option implies all of the above. It also disables some other
1 internals of the editor, like the marking code, the
1 cut-to-end-of-line code, and the function toggles. By using the
1 enabling counterpart of the above options together with
1 ‘--enable-tiny’, specific features can be switched back on — but a
1 few cannot.
1
1 ‘--enable-debug’
1 Enable support for runtime debug output. This can get pretty
1 messy, so chances are you only want this feature when you’re
1 working on the nano source.
1
1 ‘--disable-nls’
1 Disables Native Language support. This will disable the use of any
1 available GNU ‘nano’ translations.
1
1 ‘--disable-wrapping-as-root’
1 Disable hard-wrapping of overlong lines by default when ‘nano’ is
1 run as root.
1
1 ‘--enable-utf8’
1 Enable support for reading and writing Unicode files. This will
1 require either a wide version of curses, or a UTF-8-enabled version
1 of Slang.
1
1 ‘--disable-utf8’
1 Disable support for reading and writing Unicode files. Normally
1 the configure script auto-detects whether to enable UTF-8 support
1 or not. You can use this or the previous option to override that
1 detection.
1
1 ‘--enable-altrcname=NAME’
1 Use the file with the given NAME (in the user’s home directory) as
1 nano’s settings file, instead of the default ‘.nanorc’.
1
1 ‘--with-slang’
1 Compile ‘nano’ against Slang instead of against ncurses or other
1 curses libraries.
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