nano: Command-line Options
3 Command-line Options
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‘nano’ takes the following options from the command line:
‘-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. The uniquely numbered files are stored in the specified
directory.
‘-D’
‘--boldtext’
Use bold text instead of reverse video text.
‘-E’
‘--tabstospaces’
Convert typed tabs to spaces.
‘-F’
‘--multibuffer’
Read a file into a new buffer by default.
‘-G’
‘--locking’
Enable 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 file nor at the user’s nanorc.
‘-K’
‘--rebindkeypad’
Interpret the numeric keypad keys so that they all work properly.
You should only need to use this option if they don’t, as mouse
support won’t work properly with this option enabled.
‘-L’
‘--nonewlines’
Don’t add newlines to the ends of 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’
‘--morespace’
Use the blank line below the title bar as extra editing space.
‘-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 "CHARACTERS"’
‘--quotestr="CHARACTERS"’
Set the quoting string for justifying. The default value is "^([
\t]*[|>:}#])+" if extended regular expression support is available,
and "> " otherwise. Note that ‘\t’ stands for a literal Tab
character.
‘-R’
‘--restricted’
Restricted mode: don’t read or write to any file not specified on
the command line; don’t read any nanorc files nor history files;
don’t allow suspending nor 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 use backup files. This restricted mode
is also accessible by invoking ‘nano’ with any name beginning with
‘r’ (e.g. ‘rnano’).
‘-S’
‘--smooth’
Enable smooth scrolling. Text will scroll line-by-line, instead of
the usual chunk-by-chunk behavior.
‘-T NUMBER’
‘--tabsize=NUMBER’
Set the displayed tab length to NUMBER columns. The value of
NUMBER must be greater than 0. The default 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 parts of words.
‘-X "CHARACTERS"’
‘--wordchars="CHARACTERS"’
Specify which other characters (besides the normal alphanumeric
ones) should be considered as parts of words. This overrides
option ‘-W’ (‘--wordbounds’).
‘-Y NAME’
‘--syntax=NAME’
Specify the syntax to be used for highlighting. 
Syntax
Highlighting for more info.
‘-a’
‘--atblanks’
When doing soft line wrapping, wrap lines at whitespace instead of
always at the edge of the screen.
‘-c’
‘--constantshow’
Constantly display the cursor position (line number, column number,
and character number) on the status bar. Note that this overrides
option ‘-U’ (‘--quickblank’).
‘-d’
‘--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.
‘-g’
‘--showcursor’
Make the cursor visible in the file browser, putting it on the
highlighted item. Useful for braille users.
‘-h’
‘--help’
Show a summary of command-line options and exit.
‘-i’
‘--autoindent’
Automatically indent new lines to the same number of spaces and
tabs as the previous 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.
‘-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 ‘^Q’ (XON) and ‘^S’ (XOFF) sequences so data being
sent to the editor can be stopped and started.
‘-q’
‘--quiet’
Obsolete option. Recognized but ignored.
‘-r NUMBER’
‘--fill=NUMBER’
Hard-wrap lines at column NUMBER (by inserting a newline
character). If the given value is 0 or less, wrapping will occur
at the width of the screen minus the given amount, allowing the
wrapping width to vary along with the width of the screen if and
when it is resized. The default value is -8. This option
conflicts with ‘-w’ (‘--nowrap’); the last one given takes effect.
‘-s PROGRAM’
‘--speller=PROGRAM’
Use the given program to do spell checking and correcting. By
default, ‘nano’ uses the command specified in the ‘SPELL’
environment variable for this. If ‘SPELL’ is not set, and
‘--speller’ is not specified either, then ‘nano’ uses its own
interactive spell corrector, which requires the GNU ‘spell’ program
to be installed.
‘-t’
‘--tempfile’
Don’t ask whether to save a modified buffer when exiting with ‘^X’,
but assume yes. This option is useful when ‘nano’ is used as the
composer of a mailer program.
‘-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’
Don’t allow the contents of the file to be altered. Note that this
option should NOT be used in place of correct file permissions to
implement a read-only file.
‘-w’
‘--nowrap’
Don’t hard-wrap long lines at any length. This option conflicts
with ‘-r’ (‘--fill’); the last one given takes effect.
‘-x’
‘--nohelp’
Expert Mode: don’t show the Shortcut List at the bottom of the
screen. This affects the location of the status bar as well, as in
Expert Mode it is located at the very bottom of the editor.
Note: When accessing the help system, Expert Mode is temporarily
disabled to display the help-system navigation keys.
‘-z’
‘--suspend’
Enable the ability to suspend ‘nano’ using the system’s suspend
keystroke (usually ‘^Z’).
‘-$’
‘--softwrap’
Enable ’soft wrapping’. This will make ‘nano’ attempt to display
the entire contents of any line, even if it is longer than the
screen width, by continuing it over multiple screen lines. Since
‘$’ normally refers to a variable in the Unix shell, you should
specify this option last when using other options (e.g. ‘nano
-wS$’) or pass it separately (e.g. ‘nano -wS -$’).
‘-b’
‘-e’
‘-f’
‘-j’
Ignored, for compatibility with Pico.
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