nanorc.5

.\" Hey, EMACS: -*- nroff -*-
.\" nanorc.5 is Copyright (C) 2003, 2004, 2005 Free Software
.\" Foundation, Inc.
.\"
.\" This is free documentation, see the latest version of the GNU General
.\" Public License for copying conditions.  There is NO warranty.
.\"
.\" $Id$
.TH NANORC 5 "version 1.3.8" "August 01, 2005"
.\" Please adjust this date whenever revising the manpage.
.\"
.SH NAME
nanorc \- GNU nano's rcfile
.SH DESCRIPTION
This manual page documents GNU \fBnano\fP's rcfile.
.PP
\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, \fBnano\fP also implements some
missing (or disabled by default) features in Pico, such as "search and
replace" and "go to line number".
.PP
The \fInanorc\fP file contains the default settings for \fBnano\fP.
During startup, \fBnano\fP will first read its system-wide settings from
\fISYSCONFDIR/nanorc\fP, and then user-specific settings from
\fI~/.nanorc\fP.

.SH 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 highlighting rules for different text
patterns.  GNU nano will read one command per line.

Options in rcfiles take precedence over nano's defaults, and command
line options override rcfile settings.

Options are unset by default, except for options that take an argument.

The supported commands and arguments are:

.TP 3
.B set/unset autoindent
Use auto-indentation.
.TP
.B set/unset backup
Create backup files in \fIfilename~\fP.
.TP
.B set backupdir "\fIdirectory\fP"
Set the directory where \fBnano\fP puts unique backup files if file
backups are enabled.
.TP
.B set/unset backwards
Do backwards searches by default.
.TP
.B set brackets "\fIstring\fP"
Set the characters treated as closing brackets.  They cannot contain
blank characters.  Only closing punctuation, optionally followed by
closing brackets, can end sentences.
.TP
.B set/unset casesensitive
Do case sensitive searches by default.
.TP
.B set/unset const
Constantly display the cursor position in the status bar.
.TP
.B set/unset cut
Use cut to end of line by default.
.TP
.B set fill \fIn\fP
Wrap lines at column number \fIn\fP.  If \fIn\fP is 0 or less, the
maximum line length will be the screen width less \fIn\fP columns.  The
default value is -8.
.TP
.B set/unset historylog
Enable \fI~/.nano_history\fP for saving and reading search/replace
strings.
.TP
.B set/unset morespace
Allow use of the blank line below the titlebar as extra editing space.
.TP
.B set/unset mouse
Enable mouse support, so that mouse clicks can be used to set the mark
and run shortcuts.
.TP
.B set/unset multibuffer
Allow inserting files into their own buffers.
.TP
.B set/unset noconvert
Don't convert files from DOS/Mac format.
.TP
.B set/unset nofollow
Don't follow symlinks when writing files.
.TP
.B set/unset nohelp
Don't display the help lists at the bottom of the screen.
.TP
.B set/unset nowrap
Don't wrap text at all.
.TP
.B set operatingdir "\fIdirectory\fP"
\fBnano\fP will only read and write files inside \fIdirectory\fP and its
subdirectories.  Also, the current directory is changed to here, so
files are inserted from this dir.  By default the operating directory
feature is turned off.
.TP
.B set/unset preserve
Preserve the XON and XOFF keys (^Q and ^S).
.TP
.B set punct "\fIstring\fP"
Set the characters treated as closing punctuation.  They cannot contain
blank characters.  Only closing punctuation, optionally followed by
closing brackets, can end sentences.
.TP
.B set quickblank
Do quick statusbar blanking.  Statusbar messages will disappear after 1
keystroke instead of 25.
.TP
.B set quotestr "\fIstring\fP"
The email-quote string, used to justify email-quoted paragraphs.  This
is an "extended regular expression" if your system supports them,
otherwise a literal string.  The default value is

	set quotestr "^([\ \\t]*[|>:}#])+"

if you have regexps, otherwise set quotestr ">\ ".  Note that '\\t'
above stands for a literal Tab character.
.TP
.B 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.
.TP
.B set/unset regexp
Do regular expression searches by default.
.TP
.B 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 position, it will jump to the true beginning of the
line.
.TP
.B set/unset smooth
Use smooth scrolling by default.
.TP
.B set speller \fIspellprog\fP
Use spelling checker \fIspellprog\fP instead of the built-in one, which
calls \fIspell\fP.
.TP
.B set/unset suspend
Allow nano to be suspended.
.TP
.B set tabsize \fIn\fP
Use a tab size of \fIn\fP columns.  The value of \fIn\fP must be greater
than 0.  The default value is 8.  
.TP
.B set/unset tabstospaces
Convert typed tabs to spaces.
.TP
.B set/unset tempfile
Save automatically on exit, don't prompt.
.TP
.B set/unset view
Disallow file modification.
.TP
.B set whitespace "\fIstring\fP"
Set the two characters used to display the first characters of tabs and
spaces.  They must be single-column characters.
.TP
.B syntax "\fIstr\fP" ["\fIfileregex\fP" ... ]
Defines a syntax named \fIstr\fP which can be activated via the \fB-Y\fP
flag, or will be automatically activated if the current filename matches
\fIfileregex\fP.  All following \fBcolor\fP and \fBicolor\fP statements
will apply to \fIsyntax\fP until a new syntax is defined.

The \fInone\fP syntax is reserved; specifying it on the command line is
the same as not having a syntax at all.  The \fIdefault\fP syntax is
special: it takes no \fIfileregex\fP, and applies to files that don't
match any other syntax's \fIfileregex\fP.
.TP
.B color \fIfgcolor\fP,\fIbgcolor\fP "\fIregex\fP" ...
For the currently defined syntax, display all expressions matching
\fIregex\fP with foreground color \fIfgcolor\fP and background color
\fIbgcolor\fP, at least one of which must be specified.  Legal colors
for foreground 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 specifying a \fIbgcolor\fP tells \fBnano\fP to attempt
to use a transparent background.
.TP
.B icolor \fIfgcolor\fP,\fIbgcolor\fP "\fIregex\fP" ...
Same as above, except that the expression matching is case insensitive.
.TP
.B color \fIfgcolor\fP,\fIbgcolor\fP start="\fIsr\fP" end="\fIer\fP"
Display expressions which start with \fIsr\fP and end with \fIer\fP
with foreground color \fIfgcolor\fP and background color \fIbgcolor\fP,
at least one of which must be specified.  This allows syntax
highlighting to span multiple lines.  Note that all subsequent instances
of \fIsr\fP after an initial \fIsr\fP is found will be highlighted until
the first instance of \fIer\fP.
.TP
.B icolor \fIfgcolor\fP,\fIbgcolor\fP start="\fIsr\fP" end="\fIer\fP"
Same as above, except that the expression matching is case insensitive.

.SH FILES
.TP
.I SYSCONFDIR/nanorc
System-wide configuration file
.TP
.I ~/.nanorc
Per-user configuration file
.SH SEE ALSO
.PD 0
.TP
\fBnano\fP(1)
.PP
\fI/usr/share/doc/nano/examples/nanorc.sample\fP (or equivalent on your
system)
.SH AUTHOR
Chris Allegretta <chrisa@asty.org>, et al (see \fIAUTHORS\fP and
\fITHANKS\fP for details).  This manual page was written by Jordi
Mallach <jordi@gnu.org>.