Nano Keybindings

Linux console text editors mostly remain obtuse for many users. There is some hope. Some newer editors such as micro seem designed to be more palatable. The nano text editor has risen in popularity the past few years, but the default keyboard bindings do not follow the Common User Access (CUA) design of GUI editors. Fortunately, users can modify the interface.

Here is one example of a custom $HOME/.nanorc:

    set atblanks
    set autoindent
    set boldtext
    set constantshow
    set cutfromcursor
    set indicator
    set linenumbers
    set magic
    set minibar
    set mouse
    set showcursor
    set softwrap
    set speller "aspell -x -c"
    set tabsize 2
    set tabstospaces
    set trimblanks
    set whitespace "»·"
    set zap
    set multibuffer

    set titlecolor bold,lightwhite,blue
    set promptcolor lightwhite,lightblack
    set statuscolor bold,lightwhite,green
    set errorcolor bold,lightwhite,red
    set spotlightcolor black,lime
    set selectedcolor lightwhite,magenta
    set stripecolor ,yellow
    set scrollercolor cyan
    set numbercolor cyan
    set keycolor cyan
    set functioncolor green

    include "/usr/share/nano/*.nanorc"

    bind ^Q exit all
    bind ^S savefile main
    bind ^W writeout main
    bind ^O insert main
    bind ^H help all
    bind ^H exit help
    bind ^F whereis all
    bind ^G findnext all
    bind ^B wherewas all
    bind ^D findprevious all
    bind ^R replace main
    bind ^X cut main
    bind ^C copy main
    bind ^V paste all
    bind ^P location main
    bind ^E execute main
    bind ^A mark main
    unbind ^K main
    unbind ^U all
    unbind ^N main
    unbind ^Y all
    unbind M-J main
    unbind M-T main
    bind ^T gotoline main
    bind ^T gotodir browser
    bind ^T cutrestoffile execute
    bind ^L linter execute
    bind M-U undo main
    bind M-R redo main
    bind ^Z undo main
    bind ^Y redo main
    

The following changes might be helpful when running nano as root:

    set titlecolor bold,lightwhite,red
    set promptcolor black,yellow
    set statuscolor bold,lightwhite,magenta
    set spotlightcolor black,orange
    set selectedcolor lightwhite,cyan
    set scrollercolor magenta
    set numbercolor magenta
    set keycolor lightmagenta
    set functioncolor magenta
    

Posted: September 13, 2023 Category: Usability Tagged: General

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