The Nano Text Editor

Introduction

Nano is a text editor suited to working in UNIX from terminal windoes. It is not as powerful as the Xwindow-based editor, as it does not rely on the mouse, but still has many useful features.

Most nano commands are invoked by holding down the CTRL key (that is, the control key), and pressing one of the other keys. In this text, the control key is referred to using ^. For example, ^X means ``hold down the CTRL key and press the x key''. A list of commonly used control commands is provided at the bottom window of the nano window.

To get help when running nano, use ^G. Most of the important commands are also listed at the bottom of your screen.

Invoking nano

To edit a file called filename, type nano filename.

You can also pull an existing file into nano by using ^R. You will then be prompted for the file to read, which will be inserted at the current cursor position.

Navigation

The usual mouse-based point-and-click method is not supported by nano. Instead, you may use the arrow keys to move around the page in nano. The following commands are also useful:

To search for some text, use ^W. You will be prompted for the text to search for. It searches from the current cursor position, wrapping back up to the top if necessary.

Editing

As with most text editors, you can insert new text at the current cursor position just by typing the text in.

To delete a character, move the cursor to it and use ^D. You can also move to the character after it and press the BackSpace key.

You can also delete an entire line at a time by using ^K.

Cut and paste

^K does not delete lines permanently; the most recent set of deletions are stored in a buffer. These lines may be re-inserted at the current cursor loaction using ^U. This may be used to simulate cut and paste:

Repeatedly use ^K until all of the text you want to move has been deleted.
Move to the line that you want to insert the text at, and use ^U.

Note that pressing ^U more than once will cause multiple copies to be inserted. This is particularly useful if you want to copy text:

Repeatedly use ^K until all of the text you want to copy has been deleted.
Press ^U immediately to put a copy back in its original location.
Move to the line that you want to copy the text to, and use ^U.

Saving and Exiting

To save the current contents of the editor without exiting, use ^O. You will then be prompted for the file to save to. You can either type it in, or use ^T to get a list of files and directories.

To exit nano, use ^X. If you have not saved your file, you will be prompted to do so.