Nano

13 April 2005

(Introducing Text Editors Part 1: Nano)

Introduction

The simplest command-line editors are pico and nano. Pico was the original Unix mini-editor. Because pico was not free software, nano was created as a compatible but enhanced clone.

Nano is short for "Nano's ANOther editor". As a mark of (dis?)respect for their size, nano and pico are usually referred to by a small first letter.

While nano is compatible with pico, it can do a few more things and is better all round. Nano is also included by default on many GNU/Linux/BSD distributions. Therefore nano is the basis of this post. Much of it will apply to pico too.

Opening Files

To open a file in nano, just type: (do not type the #)

# nano filename

That is basically all you need to know to get going with nano. It is really that simple!

If you want to edit a system file then you need to use the -w option. This stops the text from wrapping.

# nano -w filename

Leaving nano

To leave nano, just type Ctrl+x. It will ask you if you want to save and where you want to save it.

Killing and Yanking

To Kill text (i.e. cut) just type Ctrl+k. To Yank text (i.e. paste) just type Ctrl+u

Where is text?

To search for text then use the where function by typing Ctrl+w

More about nano

Don't worry if you can't remember all that yet, all 12 possible nano commands are at the bottom of the nano screen/window. The little roof means the Ctrl key, so ^X means Ctrl-x.

In theory Nano can do much more but in practice you wouldn't want to. Any job more complicated than this would be better off done in a more complicated program.

Nano is a handy little toy because it opens automatically. If you just want to change a variable in a small file or something, then nano requires very few keystrokes do get the job done.

More sources of information

This is already overkill but if you really must know more then Nano has a homepage, you can also read its man file by typing:

# man nano

I really cannot think of anything more to say about nano, it is just that simple! If you think I have missed an important fact that the world needs to know then please make a comment below.

What do you have to say?

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