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| Nano (text editor) | |
|---|---|
| Name | Nano |
| Caption | Nano editing a text file |
| Developer | FSF volunteers |
| Released | 1999 |
| Operating system | Unix-like, Microsoft Windows |
| Platform | GNU/Linux, BSD, macOS, Windows |
| Size | small |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Text editor |
| License | GNU GPL |
Nano (text editor) is a lightweight, modeless text editor originally created as a free software replacement for Pico (program), intended to provide a simple, easy-to-use interface for editing plain text. It emphasizes accessibility for users familiar with editors associated with UNIX environments and utilities like mailx, pine, and mutt. Nano has been bundled with many GNU and Linux distributions and competes in scope with editors such as vi, Vim, Emacs (text editor), and gedit.
Nano was started in 1999 by Christopher P. Nelson as "TIP" and later renamed to emulate the small size suggested by the metric prefix nano; its early development responded to licensing concerns surrounding Pine and Pico (program). The project moved under the stewardship of maintainers including Ramón de Córdoba and Benno Schulenberg, and has evolved alongside free software projects such as GNU Project, Debian, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and Fedora (operating system). Over time, Nano integrated features driven by contributors from communities around OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and distributions like Ubuntu, Arch Linux, and Gentoo Linux. Major milestones include adoption of UTF-8 support, enhanced search-and-replace, and multibuffer functionality inspired by editors like Emacs (text editor) and XEmacs.
Nano provides plain-text editing with commands displayed at the bottom of the screen, offering features such as line numbering, soft-wrapping, multiple undo/redo, and regular expression search-and-replace influenced by tools like grep, sed, and awk. It supports internationalization via locales used in POSIX and ISO/IEC 10646 systems and provides syntax highlighting for many languages and formats, comparable to highlighting found in Scintilla-based editors and IDEs like Eclipse and Visual Studio Code. Nano implements file locking compatible with flock semantics, backup file creation akin to utilities in GNU Core Utilities, and spell checking integration through programs such as aspell and hunspell. It also supports mouse interaction in terminal emulators like xterm, gnome-terminal, and Konsole.
Nano is modeless and offers an on-screen two-line shortcut bar at the bottom, a design choice contrasting with modal editors associated with Bill Joy's legacy in vi and with editors embraced by communities around Richard Stallman and Stallmanism-related projects. Users invoke commands via Control and Meta keystrokes compatible with terminal multiplexers such as screen and tmux, and terminal emulators found in X Window System sessions managed by X.Org Foundation or compositors like Wayland. Nano’s UI is text-based and works in console environments provided by systemd boot sequences or init systems like SysVinit; it is also used within SSH sessions managed by OpenSSH and in recovery consoles on systems from vendors including IBM, Dell, and HP.
Configuration is managed through system-wide and per-user files such as nanorc, paralleling how configuration is handled in projects like GNU Bash, Zsh (shell), and Tcsh. Users enable syntax highlighting rules derived from community-maintained collections similar to those used by GeSHi and can bind keys to commands in ways reminiscent of customization in Emacs (text editor) and Vim. Nano supports environment variables used across POSIX systems and can interoperate with file managers like Midnight Commander and Nautilus (software), as well as editors invoked by development tools such as Make (software), GCC, and build systems like CMake.
Nano is available on a wide range of Unix-like platforms including Linux kernel distributions (for example Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora (operating system), openSUSE), BSD variants (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD), and macOS. Ports and packages exist for Microsoft Windows through projects like Cygwin and native builds for environments such as MSYS2. It is distributed via package managers including APT (software) for Debian-based systems, RPM (file format) for Red Hat-based distributions, Homebrew for macOS, and ports systems like pkgsrc and pkg (FreeBSD). Nano is commonly included in installation images and live CDs produced by projects like Knoppix and Tails (operating system).
Nano is developed as free software under the GNU General Public License (GPL), with source hosted and maintained by contributors using tools and platforms such as Git, mailing lists moderated in the style of Kernel (software) community discussions, and patch contributions reviewed similarly to workflows in Linux kernel development. The project follows practices seen in other GNU utilities and collaborates informally with maintainers of GNU Core Utilities and related toolchains. Development discussions and releases reference standards from organizations like ISO, The Open Group, and technologies such as POSIX.
Nano has been praised for its low barrier to entry by users migrating from editors bundled with mail clients like Pine (email client) and for system administrators operating in recovery or minimal environments such as those used by Debian maintainers and Red Hat engineers. Reviews in forums frequented by communities around Stack Overflow, GitHub, and distribution-specific mailing lists often contrast Nano’s simplicity with feature-rich editors like Emacs (text editor) and Vim. Educational projects and workshops from organizations such as Free Software Foundation, Linux Foundation, and university computing services at institutions like MIT, Harvard University, and University of California, Berkeley commonly recommend Nano for initial command-line text editing tasks.
Category:Free software Category:Text editors