Quick Guide To nano Text Editor On The Raspberry Pi

If I need to edit text files directly on my Raspberry Pi my text editor of choice is nano. There are other text editors available but I prefer nano’s relatively straightforward interface.

As a command line based utility it may feel strange for users who are more familiar with a graphical interface but it is easy to learn the basics. Syntax colouring is available which makes reading and reviewing scripts easy.

Launching nano

To start nano you can simply type nano at the command prompt. This will launch with a “new buffer”. In other words an empty text file that has no name.

In order to launch an existing text file you type nano followed by the file name :

nano berryclip_01.py

You will see something like this :

If your file is not in the current directory you will need to specify the full path :

nano /home/pi/berrryclip/berryclip_01.py

If the file is a system file you may need to use elevated permissions :

sudo nano -w /etc/fstab

Note: Always use the -w switch when opening system files. It disables wrapping long lines and ensures the file isn’t modified in a way that may affect your system.

Editing Text

Once in nano you can start typing. Additional functions can be activated by using the CTRL or ESC keys. These short-cuts are listed at the end of this post. You can list these keys while in nano using CTRL+G (Press and hold the CTRL key then press the G key) :

Return to the main screen using CTRL+X.

To get you started here is a brief summary of nano’s most useful features.

Saving and Quiting

To save a file you can use CTRL+O.

To quit nano you can use CTRL+X. You will be prompted to save your file if it has changed and you can answer this prompt with either a Y or a N. If you’ve changed your mind at this point you can return the main edit screen using CTRL+C.

Cutting and Pasting

Cut a line using CTRL+K. To copy a line use ALT+6.

Paste a line at the cursor position using CTRL+U.

To cut or copy multiple lines use CTRL+K or ALT+6 on each line and then paste them all using a single CTRL+U. They are pasted in the order that you cut/copied them. Using CTRL+U again will paste another set of text if required.

You can also mark a block of text before cutting. Position your cursor at the start of the text and press CTRL+6. Then position your cursor after the text and use CTRL+K or ALT+6 to cut or copy. CTRL+U to paste.

Searching and Replacing Text

To search for text use CTRL+W. Enter the text you need to find and press Enter. To repeat the search use ALT+W.
To perform a search and replace use ALT+R.

You can’t open files once nano is running. Although you can insert a file into the current buffer you can not open a file directly once you are in nano. You need to launch it from the command line. I find this quite strange. If you need to edit a number of files you need to quit and then load each one in turn from the command line.

Key Short-cut Summary

For some reason the official nano website keeps the nano “Control” and “Meta” short-cuts a closely guarded secret so I have listed them here.

Note : Some operations have multiple short-cuts.

The official GNU nano editor homepage : https://www.nano-editor.org/