The friendly Editor
Installation
Install the latest version of Nano by downloading and unzipping your desired version, e.g. nano-5.9. Make sure that the following dependencies are present on your system:
sudo yum install ncurses ncurses-devel
(or libncurses-dev on Debian)
And then build the editor from source:
cd nano-5.9
./configure
make
make install
Cheat Sheet
Overview of nano's shortcuts:
File handling
| Ctrl+S | Save current file |
| Ctrl+O | Offer to write file ("Save as") |
| Ctrl+R | Insert a file into current one |
| Ctrl+X | Close buffer, exit from nano |
Editing
| Ctrl+K | Cut current line into cutbuffer |
| Alt+6 | Copy current line into cutbuffer |
| Ctrl+U | Paste contents of cutbuffer |
| Alt+T | Cut until end of buffer |
| Ctrl+] | Complete current word |
| Alt+3 | Comment/uncomment line/region |
| Alt+U | Undo last action |
| Alt+E | Redo last undone action |
Search and replace
| Ctrl+Q | Start backward search |
| Ctrl+W | Start forward search |
| Alt+Q | Find next occurrence backward |
| Alt+W | Find next occurrence forward |
| Alt+R | Start a replacing session |
Deletion
| Ctrl+H | Delete character before cursor |
| Ctrl+D | Delete character under cursor |
| Alt+Bsp | Delete word to the left |
| Ctrl+Del | Delete word to the right |
| Alt+Del | Delete current line |
Operations
| Ctrl+T | Execute some command |
| Ctrl+J | Justify paragraph or region |
| Alt+J | Justify entire buffer |
| Alt+B | Run a syntax check |
| Alt+F | Run a formatter/fixer/arranger |
| Alt+: | Start/stop recording of macro |
| Alt+; | Replay macro |
Moving around
| Ctrl+B | One character backward |
| Ctrl+F | One character forward |
| Ctrl+← | One word backward |
| Ctrl+→ | One word forward |
| Ctrl+A | To start of line |
| Ctrl+E | To end of line |
| Ctrl+P | One line up |
| Ctrl+N | One line down |
| Ctrl+↑ | To previous block |
| Ctrl+↓ | To next block |
| Ctrl+Y | One page up |
| Ctrl+V | One page down |
| Alt+\ | To top of buffer |
| Alt+/ | To end of buffer |
Special movement
| Alt+G | Go to specified line |
| Alt+] | Go to complementary bracket |
| Alt+↑ | Scroll viewport up |
| Alt+↓ | Scroll viewport down |
| Alt+< | Switch to preceding buffer |
| Alt+> | Switch to succeeding buffer |
Information
| Ctrl+C | Report cursor position |
| Alt+D | Report line/word/character count |
| Ctrl+G | Display help text |
Various
| Alt+A | Turn the mark on/off |
| Tab Indent | marked region |
| Shift+Tab | Unindent marked region |
| Alt+N | Turn line numbers on/off |
| Alt+P | Turn visible whitespace on/off |
| Alt+V | Enter next keystroke verbatim |
| Ctrl+L | Refresh the screen |
| Ctrl+Z | Suspend nano |