Configuring the nano text editor

nano 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, nano also implements some missing (or disabled by default) features in Pico, such as "search and replace" and "goto line number".

Lets go ahead and configure it.

($:~)=> nano -w ~/.nanorc

# Use auto-indentation 
set autoindent 
 
# Backup files to filename~ 
set backup 
 
# Use cut to end of line with ^K by default 
set cut 
 
# Enable ~/.nano_history for saving and reading search/replace strings. 
# set historylog 
 
# Don't convert files from DOS/Mac format 
set noconvert 
 
# Don't follow symlinks when writing files 
# set nofollow 
 
# Don't display the help lists at the bottom of the screen 
# set nohelp 
 
# Don't wrap text at all 
set nowrap 
 
# Use smooth scrolling as the default 
set smooth 
 
# Use this spelling checker instead of the internal one.  This option 
# does not properly have a default value. 
set speller "aspell -c" 
 
# Allow nano to be suspended with ^Z 
# set suspend 
 
# Use this tab size instead of the default; it must be greater than 0 
# set tabsize 8 
 
# Save automatically on exit, don't prompt 
# set tempfile 
 
# Enable ~/.nano_history for saving and reading search/replace strings. 
# set historylog 
 
# Disallow file modification, why would you want this in an rc file? ;) 
# set view 
 
#Color Syntax Highlighting 
syntax "c-file" "\.(c|h)$" 
color red "\<[A-Z_]{2,}\>" 
color green "\<(float|char|int|void|static|const|struct)\>" 
color brightyellow "\<(if|while|do|else|case|switch)\>" 
color brightcyan "^#(  )*(define|include|ifn?def|endif|elif|else|if)" 
color brightyellow "<[^=       ]*>" ""(.|[^"])*"" 
color brightyellow start=""(\\.|[^\"])*\\( |   )*$" end="^(\\.|[^\"])*"" 
color brightblue "//.*" 
color brightblue start="/\*" end="\*/" 
 
syntax "HTML" "\.html$" 
color blue start="<" end=">" 
color red "&[^;        ]*;" 
 
syntax "TeX" "\.tex$" 
color green "\\.|\\[A-Za-z]*" 
color magenta "[{}]" 
color blue "%.*" 
 
syntax "mutt" 
color green "^>.*" 
 
syntax "php" ".*/*.php$" 
color brightwhite "\{|\}|\." 
color red "('[^']*')" 
color red "\"[^\"]*\"" 
color brightblue "(\$([[:alpha:]_]|->)*)" 
color brightgreen "((\$(([[:alpha:]_0-9])+\->)+)[[:alpha:]_0-9]+\()" 
color yellow " (if|else if|else|return|case|break)" 
color yellow "\|\||\?|!|\||&&|=|;|\(|\)" 
color red "false|true" 
color brightwhite "[[:space:]]+debug|[[:space:]]+echo|\$this\->debug" 
color cyan "//.*" 
color cyan start="/\*" end="\*/" 
 
syntax "groff" "\.ms$" "\.mm$" "\.me$" "\.tmac$" "^tmac." ".rof" 
color cyan "^\.ds [^ ]*" 
color cyan "^\.nr [^ ]*" 
color brightmagenta "\\." 
color brightmagenta "\\f." 
color brightmagenta "\\f\(.." 
color brightmagenta "\\s(\+|\-)?[0-9]" 
color cyan "(\\|\\\\)n." 
color cyan "(\\|\\\\)n\(.." 
color cyan start="(\\|\\\\)n\[" end="]" 
color brightgreen "^\. *[^ ]*" 
color yellow "^\.\\\".*$" 
color green "(\\|\\\\)\*." 
color green "(\\|\\\\)\*\(.." 
color green start="(\\|\\\\)\*\[" end="]" 
color brightred "\\\(.." 
color brightred start="\\\[" end="]" 
color brightcyan "\\\\\$[1-9]" 
 
syntax "perl" "\.p[lm]$" 
color red "\<(accept|alarm|atan2|bin(d|mode)|c(aller|h(dir|mod|op|own|root)|lose(dir)?|onnect|os|rypt)|d(bm(close|open)|efined|elete|ie|o 
|ump)|e(ach|of|val|x(ec|ists|it|p))|f(cntl|ileno|lock|ork)|get(c|login|peername|pgrp|ppid|priority|pwnam|(host|net|proto|serv)byname|pwuid 
|grgid|(host|net)byaddr|protobynumber|servbyport)|([gs]et|end)(pw|gr|host|net|proto|serv)ent|getsock(name|opt)|gmtime|goto|grep|hex|index| 
int|ioctl|join|keys|kill|last|length|link|listen|local(time)?|log|lstat|m|mkdir|msg(ctl|get|snd|rcv)|next|oct|open(dir)?|ord|pack|pipe|pop 
|printf?|push|q|qq|qx|rand|re(ad(dir|link)?|cv|do|name|quire|set|turn|verse|winddir)|rindex|rmdir|s|scalar|seek|seekdir|se(lect|mctl|mget| 
mop|nd|tpgrp|tpriority|tsockopt)|shift|shm(ctl|get|read|write)|shutdown|sin|sleep|socket(pair)?|sort|spli(ce|t)|sprintf|sqrt|srand|stat|st 
udy|substr|symlink|sys(call|read|tem|write)|tell(dir)?|time|tr|y|truncate|umask|un(def|link|pack|shift)|utime|values|vec|wait(pid)?|wantarray|warn|write)\>" 
color magenta "\<(continue|else|elsif|do|for|foreach|if|unless|until|while|eq|ne|lt|gt|le|ge|cmp|x|my|sub|use|package|can|isa)\>" 
color cyan start="[$@%]" end="( |\\W|-)" 
color yellow "".*"|qq\|.*\|" 
color white "[sm]/.*/" 
color white start="(^use| = new)" end=";" 
color green "#.*" 
color yellow start="<< 'STOP'" end="STOP" 
 
syntax "Java source" "\.java$" 
color green "\<(boolean|byte|char|double|float|int|long|new|short|this|transient|void)\>" 
color red "\<(break|case|catch|continue|default|do|else|finally|for|if|return|switch|throw|try|while)\>" 
color cyan "\<(abstract|class|extends|final|implements|import|instanceof|interface|native|package|private|protected|public|static|strictfp|super|synchronized|throws|volatile)\>" 
color red ""[^"]*"" 
color yellow "<(true|false|null)>" 
color blue "//.*" 
color blue start="/\*" end="\*/" 
color brightblue start="/\*\*" end="\*/" 
color brightgreen,brightgreen "[       ]+$" 
 
syntax "nanorc" "[\.]*nanorc$" 
color white "^ *(set|unset).*$" 
color cyan "^ *(set|unset) (autoindent|backup|const|cut|fill|keypad|multibuffer|noconvert|nofollow|nohelp|nowrap|operatingdir|preserve|quotestr|regexp|smooth|speller|suspend|tabsize|tempfile|historylog|view)" 
color brightwhite "^ *syntax [^ ]*" 
color brightblue "^ *set\>" "^ *unset\>" "^ *syntax\>" 
color white "^ *color\>.*" 
color yellow "^ *color (bright)?(white|black|red|blue|green|yellow|magenta|cyan)\>" 
color magenta "^ *color\>" 
color green "^#.*$" 
 
syntax "bash" "\.sh$" 
color brightblack "#.*" 
color brightyellow "\(" "\)" "\{" "\}" 
color red "\<[A-Z_]{2,}\>" 
color red "[\$\*\'\`\|\=]" 
color brightblue "\[.*\]" 
color green "\<-e\>" "\<-d\>" "\<-f\>" "\<-r\>" "\<-g\>" "\<-u\>" "\<-u\>" "\<-w\>" "\<-x\>" "\<-L\>" 
color green "\<-eq\>" "\<-ne\>" "\<-gt\>" "\<-lt\>" "\<-ge\>" "\<-le\>" "\<-s\>" "\<-n\>" "\<-z\>" 
color blue "\" "\" "\" "\" "\" "\" "\" "\" "\" 
color blue "\" "\" "\" "\" "\" 
color brightwhite "\.*"

And thats it. You may want to read the /usr/share/doc/nano/nanorc.sample file for any other options you may want or change the color highlighting a bit.

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