nanorc.5

.\" Hey, EMACS: -*- nroff -*-
.\" nanorc.5 is Copyright (C) 2003 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 1.3.5" "November 6, 2004"
.\" 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
.IR SYSCONFDIR/nanorc ,
and then user-specific settings from
.IR ~/.nanorc .

.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" and "color" 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
\fBset/unset autoindent\fP
Use auto-indentation.
.TP
\fBset/unset backup\fP
Create backup files in
.IR filename~ .
.TP
\fBset backupdir "\fIdirectory\fP"\fP
Set the directory where \fBnano\fP puts the backup files if file backups
are enabled.
\fBset brackets "\fIstring\fP"\fP
Set the characters treated as closing brackets.  They cannot contain
tabs or spaces.  Only closing punctuation, optionally followed by
closing brackets, can end sentences.
.TP
\fBset/unset const\fP
Constantly display the cursor position in the status bar.
.TP
\fBset/unset cut\fP
Use cut to end of line with ^K by default.
.TP
\fBset fill \fIn\fP\fP
Wrap lines at column number \fIn\fP.  If \fIn\fP is 0 or less, the line
length will be the screen width less \fIn\fP.  The default value is -8.
.TP
\fBset/unset historylog\fP
Enable
.I ~/.nano_history
for saving and reading search/replace strings.
.TP
\fBset/unset multibuffer\fP
Allow inserting files into their own buffers.
.TP
\fBset/unset noconvert\fP
Don't convert files from DOS/Mac format.
.TP
\fBset/unset nofollow\fP
Don't follow symlinks when writing files.
.TP
\fBset/unset nohelp\fP
Don't display the help lists at the bottom of the screen.
.TP
\fBset/unset nowrap\fP
Don't wrap text at all.
.TP
\fBset operatingdir "\fIdirectory\fP"\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
\fBset/unset preserve\fP
Preserve the XON and XOFF keys (^Q and ^S).
.TP
\fBset punct "\fIstring\fP"\fP
Set the characters treated as closing punctuation.  They cannot contain
tabs or spaces.  Only closing punctuation, optionally followed by
closing brackets, can end sentences.
.TP
\fBset quotestr "\fIstring\fP"\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
\fBset/unset rebinddelete\fP
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
\fBset/unset regexp\fP
Do regular expression searches by default.
.TP
\fBset/unset smarthome\fP
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
\fBset/unset smooth\fP
Use smooth scrolling by default.
.TP
\fBset speller \fIspellprog\fP\fP
Use spelling checker \fIspellprog\fP instead of the built-in one, which
calls \fIspell\fP.
.TP
\fBset/unset suspend\fP
Allow nano to be suspended with ^Z.
.TP
\fBset tabsize \fIn\fP\fP
Use a tab size of \fIn\fP columns instead of the default (8); must be
greater than 0.
.TP
\fBset/unset tempfile\fP
Save automatically on exit, don't prompt.
.TP
\fBset/unset view\fP
Disallow file modification.
.TP
\fBset whitespace "\fIstring\fP"\fP
Set the two characters used to display the first characters of tabs and
spaces.  They cannot be control 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 statements will apply to
\fIsyntax\fP until a new syntax is defined.
.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 optional background
color \fIbgcolor\fP.  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.  If your
terminal supports transparency, not specifying a \fIbgcolor\fP tells
\fBnano\fP to attempt to use a transparent background.
.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 optional background color
\fIbgcolor\fP.  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.
\fI

.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
.I AUTHORS
and
.I THANKS
for details).
This manual page was written by Jordi Mallach <jordi@gnu.org>.