Nano HOWTO

"nano" is a popular command-line text editor.

Open and create files

To open and create files in nano, simply type:

nano filename

Example

A nano window looks like this:

 GNU nano 2.2.4                           File:filename
                                                           



^G Get Help        ^O WriteOut        ^R Read File       ^Y Prev Page       ^K Cut Text        ^C Cur Pos
^X Exit            ^J Justify         ^W Where Is        ^V Next Page       ^U UnCut Text      ^T To Spell

Keyboard shortcuts

• Ctrl+O - save changes
• Ctrl+X - exit nano. If you ask nano to exit from a modified file, it will ask you if you want to save it. Just press N in case you don't, or Y in case you do. It will then ask you for a filename. Just type it in and press Enter.
• Ctrl+K - cut a single line; to cut multiple lines, simply use several Ctrl+Ks in a row.
• Ctrl+U - paste
• Ctrl+6 (or Alt+A) - start/stop marking the text; marked text also can be cut with Ctrl+K
• Ctrl+W - search for a string
• Alt+W - find next

External links

• Gentoo Linux Documentation - Nano Basics Guide
• The GNU nano homepage