nano: Command-line Options
1
1 3 Command-line Options
1 **********************
1
1 ‘nano’ takes the following options from the command line:
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1 ‘-A’
1 ‘--smarthome’
1 Make the Home key smarter. When Home is pressed anywhere but at
1 the very beginning of non-whitespace characters on a line, the
1 cursor will jump to that beginning (either forwards or backwards).
1 If the cursor is already at that position, it will jump to the true
1 beginning of the line.
1
1 ‘-B’
1 ‘--backup’
1 When saving a file, back up the previous version of it, using the
1 current filename suffixed with a tilde (‘~’).
1
1 ‘-C DIRECTORY’
1 ‘--backupdir=DIRECTORY’
1 Make and keep not just one backup file, but make and keep a
1 uniquely numbered one every time a file is saved — when backups are
1 enabled. The uniquely numbered files are stored in the specified
1 directory.
1
1 ‘-D’
1 ‘--boldtext’
1 Use bold text instead of reverse video text.
1
1 ‘-E’
1 ‘--tabstospaces’
1 Convert typed tabs to spaces.
1
1 ‘-F’
1 ‘--multibuffer’
1 Read a file into a new buffer by default.
1
1 ‘-G’
1 ‘--locking’
1 Enable vim-style file locking when editing files.
1
1 ‘-H’
1 ‘--historylog’
1 Save the last hundred search strings and replacement strings and
1 executed commands, so they can be easily reused in later sessions.
1
1 ‘-I’
1 ‘--ignorercfiles’
1 Don’t look at the system’s nanorc file nor at the user’s nanorc.
1
1 ‘-K’
1 ‘--rebindkeypad’
1 Interpret the numeric keypad keys so that they all work properly.
1 You should only need to use this option if they don’t, as mouse
1 support won’t work properly with this option enabled.
1
1 ‘-L’
1 ‘--nonewlines’
1 Don’t automatically add a newline when a file does not end with
1 one.
1
1 ‘-M’
1 ‘--trimblanks’
1 Snip trailing whitespace from the wrapped line when automatic
1 hard-wrapping occurs or when text is justified.
1
1 ‘-N’
1 ‘--noconvert’
1 Disable automatic conversion of files from DOS/Mac format.
1
1 ‘-O’
1 ‘--morespace’
1 Use the blank line below the title bar as extra editing space.
1
1 ‘-P’
1 ‘--positionlog’
1 For the 200 most recent files, log the last position of the cursor,
1 and place it at that position again upon reopening such a file.
1
1 ‘-Q "REGEX"’
1 ‘--quotestr="REGEX"’
1 Set the regular expression for matching the quoting part of a line,
1 used when justifying. The default value is
1 "^([ \t]*([#:>|}]|//))+". Note that ‘\t’ stands for a literal Tab
1 character.
1
1 ‘-R’
1 ‘--restricted’
1 Restricted mode: don’t read or write to any file not specified on
1 the command line; don’t read any nanorc files nor history files;
1 don’t allow suspending nor spell checking; don’t allow a file to be
1 appended to, prepended to, or saved under a different name if it
1 already has one; and don’t use backup files. This restricted mode
1 is also accessible by invoking ‘nano’ with any name beginning with
1 ‘r’ (e.g. ‘rnano’).
1
1 ‘-S’
1 ‘--smooth’
1 Enable smooth scrolling. Text will scroll line-by-line, instead of
1 the usual chunk-by-chunk behavior.
1
1 ‘-T NUMBER’
1 ‘--tabsize=NUMBER’
1 Set the displayed tab length to NUMBER columns. The value of
1 NUMBER must be greater than 0. The default value is 8.
1
1 ‘-U’
1 ‘--quickblank’
1 Do quick status-bar blanking: status-bar messages will disappear
1 after 1 keystroke instead of 25. Note that option ‘-c’
1 (‘--constantshow’) overrides this.
1
1 ‘-V’
1 ‘--version’
1 Show the current version number and exit.
1
1 ‘-W’
1 ‘--wordbounds’
1 Detect word boundaries differently by treating punctuation
1 characters as parts of words.
1
1 ‘-X "CHARACTERS"’
1 ‘--wordchars="CHARACTERS"’
1 Specify which other characters (besides the normal alphanumeric
1 ones) should be considered as parts of words. This overrides
1 option ‘-W’ (‘--wordbounds’).
1
1 ‘-Y NAME’
1 ‘--syntax=NAME’
11 Specify the syntax to be used for highlighting. ⇒Syntax
Highlighting for more info.
1
1 ‘-a’
1 ‘--atblanks’
1 When doing soft line wrapping, wrap lines at whitespace instead of
1 always at the edge of the screen.
1
1 ‘-c’
1 ‘--constantshow’
1 Constantly display the cursor position (line number, column number,
1 and character number) on the status bar. Note that this overrides
1 option ‘-U’ (‘--quickblank’).
1
1 ‘-d’
1 ‘--rebinddelete’
1 Interpret the Delete key differently so that both Backspace and
1 Delete work properly. You should only need to use this option if
1 Backspace acts like Delete on your system.
1
1 ‘-g’
1 ‘--showcursor’
1 Make the cursor visible in the file browser, putting it on the
1 highlighted item. Useful for braille users.
1
1 ‘-h’
1 ‘--help’
1 Show a summary of command-line options and exit.
1
1 ‘-i’
1 ‘--autoindent’
1 Automatically indent a newly created line to the same number of
1 tabs and/or spaces as the previous line (or as the next line if the
1 previous line is the beginning of a paragraph).
1
1 ‘-k’
1 ‘--cutfromcursor’
1 Make the ’Cut Text’ command (normally ‘^K’) cut from the current
1 cursor position to the end of the line, instead of cutting the
1 entire line.
1
1 ‘-l’
1 ‘--linenumbers’
1 Display line numbers to the left of the text area.
1
1 ‘-m’
1 ‘--mouse’
1 Enable mouse support, if available for your system. When enabled,
1 mouse clicks can be used to place the cursor, set the mark (with a
1 double click), and execute shortcuts. The mouse will work in the X
1 Window System, and on the console when gpm is running. Text can
1 still be selected through dragging by holding down the Shift key.
1
1 ‘-n’
1 ‘--noread’
1 Treat any name given on the command line as a new file. This
1 allows ‘nano’ to write to named pipes: it will start with a blank
1 buffer, and will write to the pipe when the user saves the "file".
1 This way ‘nano’ can be used as an editor in combination with for
1 instance ‘gpg’ without having to write sensitive data to disk
1 first.
1
1 ‘-o DIRECTORY’
1 ‘--operatingdir=DIRECTORY’
1 Set the operating directory. This makes ‘nano’ set up something
1 similar to a chroot.
1
1 ‘-p’
1 ‘--preserve’
1 Preserve the ‘^Q’ (XON) and ‘^S’ (XOFF) sequences so data being
1 sent to the editor can be stopped and started.
1
1 ‘-q’
1 ‘--quiet’
1 Obsolete option. Recognized but ignored.
1
1 ‘-r NUMBER’
1 ‘--fill=NUMBER’
1 Hard-wrap lines at column NUMBER (by inserting a newline
1 character). If the given value is 0 or less, wrapping will occur
1 at the width of the screen minus the given amount, allowing the
1 wrapping width to vary along with the width of the screen if and
1 when it is resized. The default value is -8. This option
1 conflicts with ‘-w’ (‘--nowrap’); the last one given takes effect.
1
1 ‘-s PROGRAM’
1 ‘--speller=PROGRAM’
1 Use the given program to do spell checking and correcting. By
1 default, ‘nano’ uses the command specified in the ‘SPELL’
1 environment variable. If ‘SPELL’ is not set, and ‘--speller’ is
1 not specified either, then ‘nano’ uses its own interactive spell
1 corrector, which requires the GNU ‘spell’ program to be installed.
1
1 ‘-t’
1 ‘--tempfile’
1 Don’t ask whether to save a modified buffer when exiting with ‘^X’,
1 but assume yes. This option is useful when ‘nano’ is used as the
1 composer of a mailer program.
1
1 ‘-u’
1 ‘--unix’
1 Save a file by default in Unix format. This overrides nano’s
1 default behavior of saving a file in the format that it had. (This
1 option has no effect when you also use ‘--noconvert’.)
1
1 ‘-v’
1 ‘--view’
1 Don’t allow the contents of the file to be altered. Note that this
1 option should NOT be used in place of correct file permissions to
1 implement a read-only file.
1
1 ‘-w’
1 ‘--nowrap’
1 Don’t hard-wrap long lines at any length. This option conflicts
1 with ‘-r’ (‘--fill’); the last one given takes effect.
1
1 ‘-x’
1 ‘--nohelp’
1 Expert Mode: don’t show the Shortcut List at the bottom of the
1 screen. This affects the location of the status bar as well, as in
1 Expert Mode it is located at the very bottom of the editor.
1
1 Note: When accessing the help system, Expert Mode is temporarily
1 disabled to display the help-system navigation keys.
1
1 ‘-y’
1 ‘--afterends’
1 Make Ctrl+Right stop at word ends instead of beginnings.
1
1 ‘-z’
1 ‘--suspend’
1 Enable the ability to suspend ‘nano’ using the system’s suspend
1 keystroke (usually ‘^Z’).
1
1 ‘-$’
1 ‘--softwrap’
1 Enable ’soft wrapping’. This will make ‘nano’ attempt to display
1 the entire contents of any line, even if it is longer than the
1 screen width, by continuing it over multiple screen lines. Since
1 ‘$’ normally refers to a variable in the Unix shell, you should
1 specify this option last when using other options (e.g. ‘nano
1 -wS$’) or pass it separately (e.g. ‘nano -wS -$’).
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1 ‘-b’
1 ‘-e’
1 ‘-f’
1 ‘-j’
1 Ignored, for compatibility with Pico.
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