nano: Rebinding Keys
8.3 Rebinding Keys
==================
Key bindings can be changed via the following three commands in a nanorc
file:
‘bind key function menu’
Rebinds ‘key’ to ‘function’ in the context of ‘menu’ (or in all
menus where the function exists when ‘all’ is used).
‘bind key "string" menu’
Makes ‘key’ produce ‘string’ in the context of ‘menu’ (or in all
menus where the key exists when ‘all’ is used). The ‘string’ can
consist of text or commands or a mix of them. (To enter a command
into the ‘string’, precede its keystroke with ‘M-V’.)
‘unbind key menu’
Unbinds ‘key’ from ‘menu’ (or from all menus where the key exists
when ‘all’ is used).
The format of ‘key’ should be one of:
‘^X’ —— where X is a Latin letter, or one of several ASCII
characters (@, ], \, ^, _), or the word "Space". Example: ‘^C’.
‘M-X’ —— where X is any ASCII character except [, or the word
"Space". Example: ‘M-8’.
‘Sh-M-X’ —— where X is a Latin letter. Example: ‘Sh-M-U’. By
default, each Meta+letter keystroke does the same as the
corresponding Shift+Meta+letter. But when any Shift+Meta bind is
made, that will no longer be the case, for all letters.
‘FN’ —— where N is a numeric value from 1 to 24. Example: ‘F10’.
(Often, ‘F13’ to ‘F24’ can be typed as ‘F1’ to ‘F12’ with Shift.)
‘Ins’ or ‘Del’.
Rebinding ‘^M’ (Enter) or ‘^I’ (Tab) is probably not a good idea.
Rebinding ‘^[’ (Esc) is not possible, because its keycode is the starter
byte of Meta keystrokes and escape sequences. Rebinding any of the
dedicated cursor-moving keys (the arrows, Home, End, PageUp and
PageDown) is not possible. On some terminals it’s not possible to
rebind ‘^H’ (unless ‘--raw’ is used) because its keycode is identical to
that of the Backspace key.
Valid names for the ‘function’ to be bound are:
‘help’
Invokes the help viewer.
‘cancel’
Cancels the current command.
‘exit’
Exits from the program (or from the help viewer or file browser).
‘writeout’
Writes the current buffer to disk, asking for a name.
‘savefile’
Writes the current file to disk without prompting.
‘insert’
Inserts a file into the current buffer (at the current cursor
position), or into a new buffer when option ‘multibuffer’ is set.
‘whereis’
Starts a forward search for text in the current buffer — or for
filenames matching a string in the current list in the file
browser.
‘wherewas’
Starts a backward search for text in the current buffer — or for
filenames matching a string in the current list in the file
browser.
‘findprevious’
Searches the next occurrence in the backward direction.
‘findnext’
Searches the next occurrence in the forward direction.
‘replace’
Interactively replaces text within the current buffer.
‘cut’
Cuts and stores the current line (or the marked region).
‘copy’
Copies the current line (or the marked region) without deleting it.
‘paste’
Pastes the currently stored text into the current buffer at the
current cursor position.
‘zap’
Throws away the current line (or the marked region). (This
function is bound by default to ‘Alt+Delete’.)
‘chopwordleft’
Deletes from the cursor position to the beginning of the preceding
word. (This function is bound by default to ‘Shift+Ctrl+Delete’.
If your terminal produces ‘^H’ for ‘Ctrl+Backspace’, you can make
‘Ctrl+Backspace’ delete the word to the left of the cursor by
rebinding ‘^H’ to this function.)
‘chopwordright’
Deletes from the cursor position to the beginning of the next word.
(This function is bound by default to ‘Ctrl+Delete’.)
‘cutrestoffile’
Cuts all text from the cursor position till the end of the buffer.
‘mark’
Sets the mark at the current position, to start selecting text.
Or, when it is set, unsets the mark.
‘location’
Reports the current position of the cursor in the buffer: the line,
column, and character positions. (The old name of this function,
’curpos’, is deprecated.)
‘wordcount’
Counts and reports on the status bar the number of lines, words,
and characters in the current buffer (or in the marked region).
‘execute’
Prompts for a program to execute. The program’s output will be
inserted into the current buffer (or into a new buffer when ‘M-F’
is toggled).
‘speller’
Invokes a spell-checking program, either the default ‘hunspell’ or
GNU ‘spell’, or the one defined by ‘--speller’ or ‘set speller’.
‘formatter’
Invokes a full-buffer-processing program (if the active syntax
defines one).
‘linter’
Invokes a syntax-checking program (if the active syntax defines
one).
‘justify’
Justifies the current paragraph (or the marked region). A
paragraph is a group of contiguous lines that, apart from possibly
the first line, all have the same indentation. The beginning of a
paragraph is detected by either this lone line with a differing
indentation or by a preceding blank line.
‘fulljustify’
Justifies the entire current buffer (or the marked region).
‘indent’
Indents (shifts to the right) the current line or the marked lines.
‘unindent’
Unindents (shifts to the left) the current line or the marked
lines.
‘comment’
Comments or uncomments the current line or the marked lines, using
the comment style specified in the active syntax.
‘complete’
Completes (when possible) the fragment before the cursor to a full
word found elsewhere in the current buffer.
‘left’
Goes left one position (in the editor or browser).
‘right’
Goes right one position (in the editor or browser).
‘up’
Goes one line up (in the editor or browser).
‘down’
Goes one line down (in the editor or browser).
‘scrollup’
Scrolls the viewport up one row (meaning that the text slides down)
while keeping the cursor in the same text position, if possible.
(This function is bound by default to ‘Alt+Up’. If ‘Alt+Up’ does
nothing on your Linux console, see the FAQ:
<https://nano-editor.org/dist/latest/faq.html#4.1>.)
‘scrolldown’
Scrolls the viewport down one row (meaning that the text slides up)
while keeping the cursor in the same text position, if possible.
(This function is bound by default to ‘Alt+Down’.)
‘center’
Scrolls the line with the cursor to the middle of the screen.
‘prevword’
Moves the cursor to the beginning of the previous word.
‘nextword’
Moves the cursor to the beginning of the next word.
‘home’
Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current line.
‘end’
Moves the cursor to the end of the current line.
‘beginpara’
Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current paragraph.
‘endpara’
Moves the cursor to the end of the current paragraph.
‘prevblock’
Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current or preceding block
of text. (Blocks are separated by one or more blank lines.)
‘nextblock’
Moves the cursor to the beginning of the next block of text.
‘pageup’
Goes up one screenful.
‘pagedown’
Goes down one screenful.
‘firstline’
Goes to the first line of the file.
‘lastline’
Goes to the last line of the file.
‘gotoline’
Goes to a specific line (and column if specified). Negative
numbers count from the end of the file (and end of the line).
‘findbracket’
Moves the cursor to the bracket (or brace or parenthesis, etc.)
that matches (pairs) with the one under the cursor. ⇒set
matchbrackets.
‘anchor’
Places an anchor at the current line, or removes it when already
present. (An anchor is visible when line numbers are activated.)
‘prevanchor’
Goes to the first anchor before the current line.
‘nextanchor’
Goes to the first anchor after the current line.
‘prevbuf’
Switches to editing/viewing the previous buffer when multiple
buffers are open.
‘nextbuf’
Switches to editing/viewing the next buffer when multiple buffers
are open.
‘verbatim’
Inserts the next keystroke verbatim into the file.
‘tab’
Inserts a tab at the current cursor location.
‘enter’
Inserts a new line below the current one.
‘delete’
Deletes the character under the cursor.
‘backspace’
Deletes the character before the cursor.
‘recordmacro’
Starts the recording of keystrokes — the keystrokes are stored as a
macro. When already recording, the recording is stopped.
‘runmacro’
Replays the keystrokes of the last recorded macro.
‘undo’
Undoes the last performed text action (add text, delete text, etc).
‘redo’
Redoes the last undone action (i.e., it undoes an undo).
‘refresh’
Refreshes the screen.
‘suspend’
Suspends the editor and returns control to the shell (until you
tell the process to resume execution with ‘fg’).
‘casesens’
Toggles whether searching/replacing ignores or respects the case of
the given characters.
‘regexp’
Toggles whether searching/replacing uses literal strings or regular
expressions.
‘backwards’
Toggles whether searching/replacing goes forward or backward.
‘older’
Retrieves the previous (earlier) entry at a prompt.
‘newer’
Retrieves the next (later) entry at a prompt.
‘flipreplace’
Toggles between searching for something and replacing something.
‘flipgoto’
Toggles between searching for text and targeting a line number.
‘flipexecute’
Toggles between inserting a file and executing a command.
‘flippipe’
When executing a command, toggles whether the current buffer (or
marked region) is piped to the command.
‘flipnewbuffer’
Toggles between inserting into the current buffer and into a new
empty buffer.
‘flipconvert’
When reading in a file, toggles between converting and not
converting it from DOS/Mac format. Converting is the default.
‘dosformat’
When writing a file, switches to writing a DOS format (CR/LF).
‘macformat’
When writing a file, switches to writing a Mac format.
‘append’
When writing a file, appends to the end instead of overwriting.
‘prepend’
When writing a file, ’prepends’ (writes at the beginning) instead
of overwriting.
‘backup’
When writing a file, creates a backup of the current file.
‘discardbuffer’
When about to write a file, discard the current buffer without
saving. (This function is bound by default only when option
‘--saveonexit’ is in effect.)
‘browser’
Starts the file browser (in the Read File and Write Out menus),
allowing to select a file from a list.
‘gotodir’
Goes to a directory to be specified, allowing to browse anywhere in
the filesystem.
‘firstfile’
Goes to the first file in the list when using the file browser.
‘lastfile’
Goes to the last file in the list when using the file browser.
‘nohelp’
Toggles the presence of the two-line list of key bindings at the
bottom of the screen. (This toggle is special: it is available in
all menus except the help viewer and the linter. All further
toggles are available in the main menu only.)
‘zero’
Toggles the presence of title bar and status bar.
‘constantshow’
Toggles the constant display of the current line, column, and
character positions.
‘softwrap’
Toggles the displaying of overlong lines on multiple screen lines.
‘linenumbers’
Toggles the display of line numbers in front of the text.
‘whitespacedisplay’
Toggles the showing of whitespace.
‘nosyntax’
Toggles syntax highlighting.
‘smarthome’
Toggles the smartness of the Home key.
‘autoindent’
Toggles whether a newly created line will contain the same amount
of leading whitespace as the preceding line — or as the next line
if the preceding line is the beginning of a paragraph.
‘cutfromcursor’
Toggles whether cutting text will cut the whole line or just from
the current cursor position to the end of the line.
‘breaklonglines’
Toggles whether long lines will be hard-wrapped to the next line.
(The old name of this function, ’nowrap’, is deprecated.)
‘tabstospaces’
Toggles whether typed tabs will be converted to spaces.
‘mouse’
Toggles mouse support.
Valid names for ‘menu’ are:
‘main’
The main editor window where text is entered and edited.
‘help’
The help-viewer menu.
‘search’
The search menu (AKA whereis).
‘replace’
The ’search to replace’ menu.
‘replacewith’
The ’replace with’ menu, which comes up after ’search to replace’.
‘yesno’
The ’yesno’ menu, where the Yes/No/All/Cancel question is asked.
‘gotoline’
The ’goto line (and column)’ menu.
‘writeout’
The ’write file’ menu.
‘insert’
The ’insert file’ menu.
‘browser’
The ’file browser’ menu, for selecting a file to be opened or
inserted or written to.
‘whereisfile’
The ’search for a file’ menu in the file browser.
‘gotodir’
The ’go to directory’ menu in the file browser.
‘execute’
The menu for inserting the output from an external command, or for
filtering the buffer (or the marked region) through an external
command, or for executing one of several tools. (The old form of
this menu name, ’extcmd’, is deprecated.)
‘spell’
The menu of the integrated spell checker where the user can edit a
misspelled word.
‘linter’
The linter menu, which allows jumping through the linting messages.
‘all’
A special name that encompasses all menus. For ‘bind’ it means all
menus where the specified ‘function’ exists; for ‘unbind’ it means
all menus where the specified ‘key’ exists.
Info Catalog
nano: Syntax Highlighting
nano: Nanorc Files