Nano is designed to be simple and beginner-friendly. It shows the most important shortcuts at the bottom of the screen: ^ means Ctrl and M- means Alt, so ^X is Ctrl+X and M-U is Alt+U.
[nano](/man/nano) textfile.txt
[nano](/man/nano) +25 textfile.txt
| Key | Description |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+G | Display help text |
| Ctrl+X | Exit nano (prompts to save if modified) |
To save and quit: Ctrl+X, answer y, confirm the file name with Enter.
Useful startup options:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| +25 | Open the file at line 25 |
| -l | Show line numbers |
| -v | View mode (read-only) |
| -B | Keep a backup of the previous version when saving |
Use the arrow keys for basic movement, or these shortcuts for faster navigation.
| Key | Description |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+A | Move to beginning of line |
| Ctrl+E | Move to end of line |
| Ctrl+Y | Scroll up one page |
| Ctrl+V | Scroll down one page |
| Ctrl+Left | Move to previous word |
| Ctrl+Right | Move to next word |
| Ctrl+_ | Go to a specific line (and column) number |
| Ctrl+C | Show current cursor position (line, column) |
Nano prompts for the file name before writing, so you can also save under a new name.
| Key | Description |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+O | Write out (save) the current file |
| Ctrl+R | Read (insert) another file into the current one |
| Alt+< | Switch to the previous open file |
| Alt+> | Switch to the next open file |
Search remembers the last term: press Enter at an empty search prompt to reuse it.
| Key | Description |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+W | Search forward |
| Ctrl+Q | Search backward |
| Alt+W | Repeat search, next match |
| Alt+Q | Repeat search, previous match |
| Ctrl+\ | Search and replace |
During replace, answer y to replace one match, n to skip, a to replace all.
Cut and paste work on whole lines by default. To work on a selection, set a mark first with Alt+A, then move the cursor to select.
| Key | Description |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+K | Cut the current line (or selected text) |
| Alt+6 | Copy the current line (or selected text) |
| Ctrl+U | Paste the last cut text |
| Alt+A | Start selecting text (set mark) |
| Alt+U | Undo |
| Alt+E | Redo |
| Ctrl+D | Delete the character under the cursor |
| Ctrl+J | Justify the current paragraph |
| Ctrl+T | Execute a command (or spell check in older versions) |
| Alt+# | Toggle line numbers |
Holding Shift with the arrow keys also selects text in modern nano versions.
Nano reads ~/.nanorc at startup. Options set there apply to every session.
set linenumbers
set tabsize 4
set tabstospaces
set autoindent
set mouse