720 lines
33 KiB
HTML
720 lines
33 KiB
HTML
<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
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<title>The GNU nano editor FAQ</title>
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
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<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Mozilla/4.73 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.2.16 i586) [Netscape]">
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</head>
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<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" link="#0000EF" vlink="#51188E" alink="#FF0000">
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<h1>
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<font color="#CC0000">The nano FAQ</font></h1>
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<h2>
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<font color="#330000">Table of Contents</font></h2>
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<h2>
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<font color="#330000"><a href="#1">1. General</a></font></h2>
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<blockquote><font color="#330000"><a href="#1.1">1.1 About this FAQ.</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#1.2">1.2. How do I contribute to it?</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#1.3">1.3. What is GNU nano?</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#1.4">1.4. What is the history behind
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nano?</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#1.5">1.5. Why the name change from
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TIP?</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#1.6">1.6. What is the current version
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of nano?</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#1.7">1.7. I want to read the manpage
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without having to download the program!</a></font></blockquote>
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<h2>
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<font color="#330000"><a href="#2">2. Where to get GNU
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nano</a></font></h2>
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<blockquote><font color="#330000"><a href="#2.1">2.1. FTP and WWW sites
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that carry nano.</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#2.2">2.2. Redhat and derivatives (.rpm)
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packages.</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#2.3">2.3. Debian (.deb) packages.</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#2.4">2.4. By CVS (for the brave).</a></font></blockquote>
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<h2>
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<font color="#330000"><a href="#3">3. Installation and Configuration</a></font></h2>
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<blockquote><font color="#330000"><a href="#3.1">3.1. How do install the
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RPM or DEB package?</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#3.2">3.2. Compiling from source: WHAT
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THE HECK DO I DO NOW?</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#3.3">3.3. Why does everything go into
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/usr/local?</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#3.4">3.4. I get errors about 'bindtextdomain',
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'gettext' and/or 'gettextdomain'. What can I do about it?</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#3.5">3.5. Nano should automatically
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run strip on the binary when installing it!</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#3.6">3.6. How can I make the
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executable smaller? This is too bloated!</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#3.7">3.7. Tell me more about this
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multibuffer stuff!</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#3.8">3.8. How do I make a .nanorc file
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that nano will read when I start it?</a></font></blockquote>
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<h2>
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<font color="#330000"><a href="#4">4. Running</a></font></h2>
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<blockquote><font color="#330000"><a href="#4.1">4.1. Ack! My backspace/delete/enter/double
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bucky/meta key doesn't seem to work! What can I do?</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#4.2">4.2. Nano crashes when I type
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<insert keystroke here>!</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#4.3">4.3. Nano crashes when I resize
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my window. How can I fix that?</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#4.4">4.4. Why does nano show ^\
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in the shortcut list instead of ^J?</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#4.5">4.5. When I type in a
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search string, the string I last searched for is already in front of
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my cursor! What happened?!</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#4.6">4.6. I get the message "NumLock
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glitch detected. Keypad will malfunction with NumLock off." What
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gives?</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#4.7">4.7. How do I make nano my
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default editor (in Pine, mutt, etc.)?</a></font></blockquote>
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<h2>
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<font color="#330000"><a href="#5">5. Internationalization</a></font></h2>
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<blockquote><font color="#330000"><a href="#5.1">5.1. There's no translation
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for my language!</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#5.2">5.2. I don't like the translation
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for <x> in my language. How can I fix it?</a></font></blockquote>
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<h2>
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<font color="#330000"><a href="#6">6. Advocacy and Licensing</a></font></h2>
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<blockquote><font color="#330000"><a href="#6.1">6.1. Why should I use
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nano instead of Pico?</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#6.2">6.2. Why should I use Pico instead
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of nano?</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#6.3">6.3. What is so bad about the
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Pine license?</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#6.4">6.4. Okay, well what mail program
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should I use then?</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#6.5">6.5. Why doesn't UW simply change
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their license?</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#6.6">6.6. What if tomorrow UW changes
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the license to be truly Free Software?</a></font></blockquote>
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<h2>
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<font color="#330000"><a href="#7">7. Miscellaneous</a></font></h2>
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<blockquote><font color="#330000"><a href="#7.1">7.1. Nano related mailing
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lists.</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#7.2">7.2. I want to send the development
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team a big load of cash (or just a thank you).</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#7.3">7.3. How do I submit a patch?</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#7.4">7.4. How do I join the development
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team?</a></font>
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<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#7.5">7.5. Can I have CVS write access?</a></font></blockquote>
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<h2>
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<a href="#8">8. ChangeLog</a></h2>
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<hr WIDTH="100%">
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<br>
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<h1>
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<a NAME="1"></a><font color="#330000">1. General</font></h1>
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<h2>
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<a NAME="1.1"></a><font color="#330000">1.1 About this FAQ.</font></h2>
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<blockquote><font color="#330000">This FAQ was written and is maintained
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by Chris Allegretta <<a href="mailto:chrisa@asty.org">chrisa@asty.org</a>>,
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who also happens to be the creator of nano. Maybe someone else
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will volunteer to maintain this FAQ someday, who knows...</font></blockquote>
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<h2>
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<a NAME="1.2"></a><font color="#330000">1.2. How do I contribute to it?</font></h2>
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<blockquote><font color="#330000">Your best bet is to send it to the nano
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email address, <a
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href="mailto:nano@nano-editor.org">nano@nano-editor.org</a> and if
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it is useful enough it will be included in future versions.</font></blockquote>
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<h2>
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<a NAME="1.3"></a><font color="#330000">1.3. What is GNU nano?</font></h2>
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<blockquote><font color="#330000">GNU Nano is designed to be a free
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replacement for the Pico text editor, part of the Pine email suite from <a
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href="http://www.washington.edu/pine">The University of
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Washington</a>. It aims to "emulate Pico as closely as possible and
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perhaps include extra functionality.</font></blockquote>
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<h2>
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<a NAME="1.4"></a><font color="#330000">1.4. What is the history behind
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nano?</font></h2>
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<blockquote><font color="#330000">Funny you should ask!</font>
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<p><b><font color="#330000">In the beginning...</font></b>
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<p><font color="#330000">For years Pine was THE program used to read email
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on a Unix system. The Pico text editor is the portion of the program
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one would use to compose his or her mail messages. Many beginners
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to Unix flocked to Pico and Pine because of their well organized, easy
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to use interfaces. With the proliferation of GNU/Linux in the mid to
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late 90's, many University students became intimately familiar with the
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strengths (and weaknesses) of Pine and Pico.</font>
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<p><b><font color="#330000">Then came Debian...</font></b>
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<p><font color="#330000">The <a href="http://www.debian.org">Debian GNU/Linux</a>
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distribution, known for its strict standards in distributing truly "free"
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software (i.e. had no restrictions on redistribution), would not include
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a binary package for Pine or Pico. Many people had a serious dilemma:
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they loved these programs, but they were not truly free software in the
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<a href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html">GNU</a>
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sense of the word.</font>
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<p><b><font color="#330000">The event...</font></b>
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<p><font color="#330000">It was in late 1999 when Chris Allegretta (our
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hero) was yet again complaining to himself about the less-than-perfect
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license Pico was distributed under, the 1000 makefiles that came with
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it and how just a few small improvements could make it the Best Editor
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in the World (TM). Having been a convert from Slackware to Debian,
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he missed having a simple binary package that included Pine and Pico, and
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had grown tired of downloading them himself.</font>
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<p><font color="#330000">Finally something snapped inside and Chris coded
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and hacked like a madman for many hours straight one weekend to make a
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(barely usable) Pico clone, at the time called TIP (Tip Isn't Pico).
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The program could not be invoked without a filename, could not save files,
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had no help menu, spell checker, and so forth. But over time it improved,
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and with the help of a few great coders it matured to the (hopefully) stable
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state it is today.
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<p><font color="#330000">In February 2001, nano has been declared an
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official GNU program by Richard Stallman. Nano also reached it's first
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production release on March 22, 2001.</font></blockquote>
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<h2>
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<a NAME="1.5"></a><font color="#330000">1.5. Why the name change from TIP?</font></h2>
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<blockquote><font color="#330000">On January 10, 2000, TIP was officially
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renamed to nano because of a namespace conflict with another program called
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'tip'. The original 'tip' program "establishes a full duplex terminal
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connection to a remote host", and was included with many older Unix systems
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(and newer ones like Solaris). The conflict was not noticed at first because
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there is no 'tip' utility included with most GNU/Linux distributions (where
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nano was developed).</font></blockquote>
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<h2>
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<a NAME="1.6"></a><font color="#330000">1.6 What is the current version
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of nano?</font></h2>
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<blockquote><font color="#330000">The current version of nano *should*
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be 1.1.7. Of course you should always check the nano homepage to
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see what the latest and greatest version is.</font></blockquote>
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<h2>
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<a NAME="1.7"></a><font color="#330000">1.7. I want to read the man page
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without having to download the program!</font></h2>
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<blockquote><font color="#330000">Jeez, demanding, aren't we?
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Okay, look <a href="http://www.nano-editor.org/dist/nano.1.html">here</a>.</font></blockquote>
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<hr WIDTH="100%">
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<h1>
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<a NAME="2"></a><font color="#330000">2. Where to get GNU nano</font></h1>
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<h2>
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<a NAME="2.1"></a><font color="#330000">2.1. FTP and WWW sites that carry
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nano.</font></h2>
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<blockquote><font color="#330000">The nano distribution can be downloaded
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at the following fine web and ftp sites:</font>
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<ul>
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<li>
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<font color="#330000"><a href="http://www.nano-editor.org/dist">http://www.nano-editor.org/dist</a></font></li>
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<li>
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<font color="#330000"><a href="http://www.ewtoo.org/~astyanax/nano/dist">http://www.ewtoo.org/~astyanax/nano/dist</a></font></li>
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<li>
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<font color="#330000"><a href="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/nano">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/nano</a></font></li>
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</ul>
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</blockquote>
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<h2>
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<a NAME="2.2"></a><font color="#330000">2.2. Redhat and derivatives (.rpm)
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packages.</font></h2>
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<blockquote>
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<ul>
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<li>
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<font color="#330000"><a href="http://www.nano-editor.org/dist/RPMS">http://www.nano-editor.org/dist/RPMS</a></font></li>
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<li>
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<font color="#330000"><a href="http://www.ewtoo.org/~astyanax/nano/dist/RPMS">http://www.ewtoo.org/~astyanax/nano/dist/RPMS</a></font></li>
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</ul>
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<font color="#330000">Additionally, check out the Redhat contribs section
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at:</font>
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<ul>
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<li>
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<font color="#330000"><a href="http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/redhat/contrib/libc6/i386">http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/distributions/redhat/contrib/libc6/i386</a></font></li>
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<li>
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<font color="#330000"><a href="ftp://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/redhat/contrib/libc6/i386">ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/distributions/redhat/contrib/libc6/i386</a></font></li>
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</ul>
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</blockquote>
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<h2>
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<a NAME="2.3"></a><font color="#330000">2.3. Debian (.deb) packages.</font></h2>
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<blockquote><font color="#330000">For Debian users, you can check out the
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current nano packages for:</font>
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<ul>
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<li>
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<font color="#330000"><a href="http://www.debian.org/Packages/stable/editors/nano.html">stable</a></font></li>
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<li>
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<font color="#330000"><a href="http://www.debian.org/Packages/testing/editors/nano.html">testing</a></font></li>
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<li>
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<font color="#330000"><a href="http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/editors/nano.html">unstable</a></font></li>
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</ul>
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<p><font color="#330000">You can also have a look at the</font>
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<font color="#330000"><a href="ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/n/nano/">Package Pool</a> to see all the available binary and source packages.</font></p>
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<font color="#330000">Note that versions < 0.9.10 are probably not for
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those wanting to get serious work done, so if you are using Debian 2.2, check
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that you have updated to 2.2r3, which comes with nano 0.9.23. If you're
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tracking unstable, you probably have the newest version already.</font></blockquote>
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<h2>
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<a NAME="2.4"></a><font color="#330000">2.4. By CVS (for the brave).</font></h2>
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<blockquote><font color="#330000">For the 'bleeding edge' current version
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of nano, you can use CVS to download the current source code. <b>Note:</b>
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believe it or not, by downloading code that has not yet stabilized into
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an official release, there could quite possibly be bugs, in fact the code
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may not even compile! Anyway, see <a href="http://savannah.gnu.org/cvs/?group_id=1025">the
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nano CVS page</a> for info on anonymous CVS access to the nano source.</font></blockquote>
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<hr WIDTH="100%">
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<h1>
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<a NAME="3"></a><font color="#330000">3. Installation and Configuration</font></h1>
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<h2>
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<a NAME="3.1"></a><font color="#330000">3.1. How do install the RPM or
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DEB package?</font></h2>
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<blockquote><font color="#330000">It's simple really! As root, type
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<b>rpm
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-Uvh nano-x.y.z-1.i386.rpm</b> if you have a Redhat-ish system or
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<b>dpkg
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-i nano_x.y.z-1.deb</b> if you have a Debian-ish system, where
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<b>x.y.z</b>
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is the release of nano. There are other programs to install packages,
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and if you wish to use those, knock yourself out.</font></blockquote>
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<h2>
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<a NAME="3.2"></a><font color="#330000">3.2. Compiling from source: WHAT
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THE HECK DO I DO NOW?</font></h2>
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<blockquote><font color="#330000">Okay, take a deep breath, this really
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isn't hard. Unpack the nano source with a command like:</font>
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<p><b><font color="#330000">tar -zxvf nano-x.y.z.tar.gz</font></b>
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<p><font color="#330000">If you get error messages about the -z option,
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try this:</font>
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<p><b><font color="#330000">gzip -dc nano-x.y.z.tar.gz | tar xvf -</font></b>
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<p><font color="#330000">(again, where x.y.z is the version number in question).
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Then you need to run configure with any options you might want (if any).</font>
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<p><font color="#330000">The average case is this:</font>
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<p><b><font color="#330000">cd nano-x.y.z/</font></b>
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<br><b><font color="#330000">./configure</font></b>
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<br><b><font color="#330000">make</font></b>
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<br><font color="#330000"><b>make install </b>(as root, of course)</font></blockquote>
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<h2>
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<a NAME="3.3"></a><font color="#330000">3.3. Why does everything go into
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/usr/local?</font></h2>
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<blockquote><font color="#330000">Well, that's what the <b>configure</b>
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script defaults to. If you wish to change this, simply do this:</font>
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<p><b><font color="#330000">./configure --prefix=/usr</font></b>
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<p><font color="#330000">to put nano into /usr/bin when you run <b>make
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install</b>.</font></blockquote>
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<h2>
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<a NAME="3.4"></a><font color="#330000">3.4. I get errors about 'bindtextdomain',
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'gettext' and/or 'gettextdomain'. What can I do about it?</font></h2>
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<blockquote><font color="#330000">Try doing a <b>./configure --with-included-gettext</b>
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and see if that solves your problem. You make need to do a <b>make
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clean ; make</b> to get it to work fully.</font></blockquote>
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<h2>
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<a NAME="3.5"></a><font color="#330000">3.5. Nano should automatically
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run strip on the binary when installing it!</font></h2>
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<blockquote><font color="#330000">Actually, it does, but you have to use
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<b>make install-strip</b>. The default make install does not, and will
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not, run strip automatically.</font></blockquote>
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<h2>
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<a NAME="3.6"></a><font color="#330000">
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3.6. How can I make the executable smaller? This is too
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bloated!</font></h2>
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<blockquote><font color="#330000">Actually, there are several parts of the
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editor that can be disabled. You can pass arguments to the
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<b>configure</b> script that disable certain features. Here's a brief
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list:
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<pre>
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<b>--disable-tabcomp</b> Disables tab completion code for a smaller binary
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<b>--disable-justify</b> Disable justify/unjustify function
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<b>--disable-speller</b> Disables spell checker function
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<b>--disable-help</b> Disables help function (^G)
|
|
<b>--disable-browser</b> Disables mini file browser
|
|
<b>--disable-wrapping</b> Disables all wrapping of text (and -w flag)
|
|
<b>--disable-mouse</b> Disables mouse support (and -m flag)
|
|
<b>--disable-operatingdir</b> Disable setting of operating directory
|
|
</pre><br>
|
|
There's also the <b>--enable-tiny</b> option which disables everything
|
|
above, as well as some larger chunks of the program (like the marker code
|
|
that you use Control-^ to select with). Also, if you know you aren't
|
|
going to be using other languages you can use <b>--disable-nls</b> to
|
|
disable internationalization and save a few K to a few dozen K depending
|
|
on if you have locale support on your system. And finally there's always
|
|
good old <b>strip</b> to strip all debugging code and code that exists in
|
|
libraries on your system.
|
|
<p>If, in the other hand, you can't live without bells and whistles, you could
|
|
try:
|
|
<pre>
|
|
<b>--enable-extra</b> Enable extra functions, including easter eggs
|
|
<b>--enable-nanorc</b> Enable use of .nanorc file
|
|
<b>--enable-color</b> Enables color and syntax highlighting
|
|
<b>--enable-multibuffer</b> Enables having multiple file buffers open
|
|
</font></blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<h2>
|
|
<a NAME="3.7"></a><font color="#330000">
|
|
3.7. Tell me more about this multibuffer stuff!</font></h2>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote><font color="#330000"> To use multiple file buffers, you must
|
|
be using nano 1.1.7 or newer, and you must have configured nano with
|
|
<b>--enable-multibuffer</b> or <b>--enable-extra</b> (use nano -V to check).
|
|
Then when you want to enable inserting a file into its own buffer instead of
|
|
into the current file, just hit <b>Meta-F</b>, then insert the file as normal
|
|
with <b>^R</b>. If you always want files to be loaded into their own buffers,
|
|
use the <b>--multibuffer</b> or <b>-F</b> flag when you invoke nano. <P>
|
|
|
|
You can move between the buffers you have open with the <b>Meta-<</b> and
|
|
<b>Meta-></b> keys, or more easily with <b>Meta-,</b> and <b>Meta-.</b>
|
|
(clear as mud, right? =-). When you have more than one file buffer open,
|
|
the ^X shortcut will say "Close", instead of the normal "Exit" when only one
|
|
buffer is open.
|
|
</font></blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<h2>
|
|
<a NAME="3.8"></a><font color="#330000">
|
|
3.8. How do I make a .nanorc file that nano will read when I start it?</font></h2>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote><font color="#330000"> It's not hard at all! But, your version
|
|
of nano must have beem compiled with <b>--enable-nanorc</b>, and again must
|
|
be version 1.1.7 or newer (use nano -V to check your version and compiled
|
|
features). Then simply copy the <b>nanorc.sample</b>
|
|
that came with the nano source or your nano package (most likely in
|
|
/usr/doc/nano) to .nanorc in your home directory. If you didn't get one,
|
|
the syntax is simple. Flags are turned on and off by using the word
|
|
<b>set</b> and the getopt_long flag for the feature, for example "set
|
|
pico" or "set nowrap". </font></blockquote> <hr WIDTH="100%">
|
|
|
|
<h1><a NAME="4"></a><font color="#330000">4. Running</font></h1>
|
|
|
|
<h2>
|
|
<a NAME="4.1"></a><font color="#330000">4.1. Ack! My backspace/delete/enter/double
|
|
bucky/meta key doesn't seem to work! What can I do?</font></h2>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote><font color="#330000">Try setting your $TERM variable to 'vt100'.
|
|
Nano doesn't yet support every term entry under the sun.</font>
|
|
<p><font color="#330000">Bourne shell users (like bash): <b>export TERM=vt100</b></font>
|
|
<br><font color="#330000">C Shell users (tcsh and csh): <b>setenv TERM
|
|
vt100</b></font></blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<h2>
|
|
<a NAME="4.2"></a><font color="#330000">4.2. Nano crashes when I type <insert
|
|
keystroke here>!</font></h2>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote><font color="#330000">If you aren't trying some bizarre keystroke
|
|
combination with some bizarre $TERM entry, chances are you have found a
|
|
bug. You are welcome to submit it to the
|
|
<a href="mailto:nano-devel@gnu.org">nano-devel</a> list or
|
|
to <a href="mailto:nano@nano-editor.org">nano@nano-editor.org</a>.</font></blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<h2>
|
|
<a NAME="4.3"></a><font color="#330000">4.3. Nano crashes when I resize
|
|
my window. How can I fix that?</font></h2>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote><font color="#330000">Older versions of nano had this problem,
|
|
please upgrade to a newer version (at least 0.9.9 would be great, 0.9.12
|
|
is recommended).</font></blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<h2>
|
|
<a NAME="4.4"></a><font color="#330000">4.4. Why does nano show ^\ in the
|
|
shortcut list instead of ^J?</font></h2>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote><font color="#330000">The help (^G) and justify (^J) function
|
|
were among the last to be written. To show the improvements that
|
|
nano had over Pico (goto line # and replace), ^_ and ^\ were put on the
|
|
shortcut list. Later, ^G came back in place of ^_ as it proved
|
|
to be very valuable for new UNIX users. If you use the <b>-p</b> option to
|
|
nano (or hit Meta-P) you will get the same shortcuts at the bottom as
|
|
Pico.</font></blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<h2>
|
|
<a name="4.5"><font color="#330000">4.5. When I type in a search
|
|
string, the string I last searched for is already in front of my
|
|
cursor! What happened?!</font></h2>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote><font color="#330000">In nano version 0.9.20, the default is
|
|
to have a completely consistent user interface across all user input
|
|
functions. This means that regardless of whether you're being asked for
|
|
a filename to insert or write, or a string to search for, the
|
|
previous value is already inserted before the cursor. If you prefer the
|
|
old behavior, use the pico emulation mode (-p or --pico) or just hit
|
|
Meta-P while in nano (see the ^G help text for more
|
|
details).</font></blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<h2>
|
|
<a NAME="4.6"></a>I get the message "NumLock glitch detected. Keypad
|
|
will malfunction with NumLock off." What gives?</h2>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote>
|
|
Nano (actually almost all console editors do) has issues when cycling
|
|
the NumLock key in certain X terminals (rxvt, aterm, wterm, etc...). When
|
|
you switch NumLock on to off, you put the terminal into an "application
|
|
mode" that changes what sequences are sent by the keypad. These sequences
|
|
vary sufficiently from terminal to terminal that it is nearly impossible
|
|
to work around them from within nano.
|
|
<br><br>
|
|
In a nutshell, if you want to be able to use the keypad with the arrow and
|
|
page up/down functionality, you have to exit nano and reset your terminal
|
|
(presumably with "reset" or "stty sane" or similar) and then run nano
|
|
again with NumLock off. If you know an easier way to restore "normal
|
|
mode", please mail <A href="mailto:nano@nano-editor.org">nano@nano-editor.org</A>.
|
|
<br> </blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<h2>
|
|
<a NAME="4.7"></a>4.7. How do I make nano my default editor (in Pine,
|
|
mutt, etc)?</h2>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote>You need to make nano your $EDITOR. If you want this
|
|
to be saved, you should put a line like this in your <b>.bashrc</b> if
|
|
you use bash (or <b>.zshrc</b> if you believe in zsh):
|
|
<p><b>export EDITOR=/usr/local/bin/nano</b>
|
|
<p>or if you use tcsh put this in your <b>.cshrc</b> file:
|
|
<p><b>setenv EDITOR /usr/local/bin/nano</b>
|
|
<p>Change /usr/local/bin/nano to wherever nano is installed in your system.
|
|
Type which nano to find out. This will not take effect until the next time
|
|
you login. So log out and back in again.
|
|
<p>Then on top that if you use Pine you must go into setup (type <b>S</b>
|
|
at the main menu), then configure (type <b>C</b>). Hit enter on the
|
|
lines that say:
|
|
<p><b>[ ] enable-alternate-editor-cmd</b>
|
|
<br><b>[ ] enable-alternate-editor-implicitly</b>
|
|
<p>Then exit (<b>E</b>) and select Yes (<b>Y</b>).
|
|
<p>Mutt users should see an effect immediately the next time you log in,
|
|
no further configuration is needed. However, if you want to let people
|
|
know you use nano to compose your email messages, you can put a line like
|
|
this in your <b>.muttrc</b>:
|
|
<p><b>my_hdr X-Composer: nano x.y.z</b>
|
|
<p>Again, replace x.y.z with the version of nano you use.
|
|
<br> </blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<hr WIDTH="100%">
|
|
<h1>
|
|
<a NAME="5"></a><font color="#330000">5. Internationalization</font></h1>
|
|
|
|
<h2>
|
|
<a NAME="5.1"></a><font color="#330000">5.1. There's no translation for
|
|
my language!</font></h2>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote><font color="#330000">On June of 2001, GNU nano entered the
|
|
<a href="www.iro.umontreal.ca/contrib/po/HTML">Free Translation Project</a>
|
|
and since then, translations should be managed from there.
|
|
<p>If there isn't a translation for your language, you could ask
|
|
<a href="http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/contrib/po/HTML/teams.html">your language
|
|
team</a> to tranlate nano, or better still, join your team and do it yourself.
|
|
Joining a team is easy. You just need to ask the
|
|
<a href="mailto:translation@iro.umontreal.ca">TP coordinator</a> to add you
|
|
to your team, and send a <a href="http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/contrib/po/HTML/disclaim.html">translation disclaimer to the FSF</a> (this is necessary as
|
|
nano is an official GNU package, but it does <strong>not</strong> mean that
|
|
you transfer the rights of your work to the FSF, it's just so the FSF can
|
|
legaly manage them).</p>
|
|
<p>In any case, translating nano is very easy. Just grab the
|
|
<b>nano.pot</b> file from the latest and greatest nano distribution
|
|
(it's in the <b>po/</b> directory) and translate each line into your native
|
|
language on the <b>msgstr</b> line. When you're done, you should
|
|
send it to the TP's central po repository.
|
|
|
|
<h2>
|
|
<a NAME="5.2"></a><font color="#330000">5.2. I don't like the translation
|
|
for <x> in my language. How can I fix it?</font></h2>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote><font color="#330000">The best way would probably be to e-mail
|
|
the person listed in the <code>Last-Translator:</code> field in
|
|
<b><your_language>.po</b> file with your suggested corrections and
|
|
they can make the changes reach the nano devel list.</font></blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<hr WIDTH="100%">
|
|
<h1>
|
|
<a NAME="6"></a><font color="#330000">6. Advocacy and Licensing</font></h1>
|
|
|
|
<h2>
|
|
<a NAME="6.1"></a><font color="#330000">6.1. Why should I use nano instead
|
|
of Pico?</font></h2>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote><font color="#330000">There are many reasons to use nano instead
|
|
of Pico, a more complete list can be found at the <a href="http://www.nano-editor.org">nano
|
|
homepage</a>.</font></blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<h2>
|
|
<a NAME="6.2"></a><font color="#330000">6.2. Why should I use Pico instead
|
|
of nano?</font></h2>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote>Again, check out the <a href="http://www.nano-editor.org">nano
|
|
homepage</a> for a good summary of reasons. It really is a matter
|
|
of personal preference as to which editor you should use. If you're
|
|
the type of person who likes using the original version of a program, then
|
|
Pico is the editor for you. If you're looking for a few more
|
|
features and a 'better' license as far as adding your own changes (sacrificing
|
|
mailer integration with Pine), nano is the way to go.
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<h2>
|
|
<a NAME="6.3"></a><font color="#330000">6.3. What is so bad about the Pine
|
|
license?</font></h2>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote><font color="#330000">The U of W license for Pine and
|
|
Pico is not considered truly Free Software according to both the Free
|
|
Software Foundation and the the <a
|
|
href="http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines">Debian
|
|
Free Software Guidelines</a>. The main problem regards the
|
|
limitations on distributing derived works: according to UW, you can
|
|
distribute their software, and you can modify it, but you can not do
|
|
both, i.e. distribute modified binaries.</blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<h2>
|
|
<a NAME="6.4"></a><font color="#330000">6.4. Okay, well what mail program
|
|
should I use then?</font></h2>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote><font color="#330000"> If you are looking to use a Free
|
|
Software program similar to Pine and emacs is not your thing, you should
|
|
definitely take a look at <a href="http://www.mutt.org">mutt</a>. It
|
|
is a full-screen, console based mail program that actually has a lot more
|
|
flexibility than Pine, but has a keymap included in the distribution that
|
|
allows you to use the same keystrokes as Pine would to send and receive
|
|
mail. It's also licensed under the GPL.</font></blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<h2>
|
|
<a NAME="6.5"></a><font color="#330000">6.5. Why doesn't UW simply change
|
|
their license?</font></h2>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote><font color="#330000">You're really not asking the right person
|
|
here. I (Chris) waited a long time to see if UW would change their
|
|
license because of the amount of high quality software being released and
|
|
developed under the GPL without being taken advantage of by malicious corporate
|
|
entities or other baddies, but no such luck so far.</font></blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<h2>
|
|
<a NAME="6.6"></a><font color="#330000">6.6. What if tomorrow UW changes
|
|
the license to be truly Free Software?</font></h2>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote><font color="#330000">Honestly nothing would make me happier
|
|
than to see that happen. Nano would continue to be developed independently
|
|
until such time as Pico had all the features nano did or the projects merged.
|
|
That just does not seem very likely given that there has been no sign of
|
|
any changes in the past few years in a positive direction.</font></blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<hr WIDTH="100%">
|
|
<h1>
|
|
<a NAME="7"></a><font color="#330000">7. Miscellaneous</font></h1>
|
|
|
|
<h2>
|
|
<a NAME="7.1"></a><font color="#330000">7.1. Nano related mailing lists.</font></h2>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote><font color="#330000">There are three mailing lists for nano
|
|
hosted at <a href="http://savannah.gnu.org">Savannah</a>, info-nano, help-nano
|
|
and nano-devel. Nano-announce is a very low traffic list where new
|
|
versions of nano are announced (surprise!) Nano-devel is a normally
|
|
low, sometimes high traffic list for discussing the present and future
|
|
development of nano. Help-nano is for getting help with the editor
|
|
without needing to hear all of the development issues surrunding it.
|
|
Here are links to where you can sign up for
|
|
a given list:</font><font color="#330000"></font>
|
|
<p><font color="#330000">info-nano - <a href="
|
|
http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-nano">
|
|
http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-nano</a></font>
|
|
<br>
|
|
<font color="#330000">help-nano -
|
|
<a href="http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-nano">
|
|
http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-nano</a></font>
|
|
<br>
|
|
<font color="#330000">nano-devel -
|
|
<a href="http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/nano-devel">
|
|
http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/nano-devel</a></font>
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<h2>
|
|
<a NAME="7.2"></a><font color="#330000">7.2. I want to send the development
|
|
team a big load of cash (or just a thank you).</font></h2>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote><font color="#330000">That's fine. Send it <a href="mailto:nano-devel@gnu.org">our
|
|
way</a>! Better yet, fix a <a href="http://www.nano-editor.org/dist/BUGS">bug</a>
|
|
in the program or implement a <a href="http://www.nano-editor.org/dist/TODO">cool
|
|
feature</a> and send us that instead (though cash is fine too).</font></blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<h2>
|
|
<a NAME="7.3"></a><font color="#330000">7.3. How do I submit a patch?</font></h2>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote><font color="#330000">See Section <a href="#7.2">7.2</a>.</font></blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<h2>
|
|
<a NAME="7.4"></a><font color="#330000">7.4. How do I join the development
|
|
team?</font></h2>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote><font color="#330000">The easiest way is to consistently send
|
|
in good patches that add some needed functionality, fix a bug or two and/or
|
|
make the program more optimized/efficient. Then ask nicely and you
|
|
will probably be added to the Savannah development list and be given
|
|
CVS write after awhile. There is a lot of responsibility that goes
|
|
along with being a team member, so don't think it's just something to add
|
|
to your resume.</font></blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<h2>
|
|
<a NAME="7.5"></a><font color="#330000">7.5. Can I have CVS write access?</font></h2>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote><font color="#330000">Re-read Section </font><a href="#7.4">7.4</a><font color="#330000">
|
|
and you should know the answer.</font></blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<h2>
|
|
<a NAME="8"></a><font color="#330000">8. ChangeLog</font>
|
|
</h2>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote>2001/12/26 - Misc. fixes (Aaron S. Hawley, DLR).</blockquote>
|
|
<blockquote>2001/10/02 - Update for Free Translation Project.</blockquote>
|
|
<blockquote>2001/10/02 - Assorted fixes, Debian additions.</blockquote>
|
|
<blockquote>2001/06/30 - Silly typo fix.</blockquote>
|
|
<blockquote>2001/05/05 - Spelling fixes by David Lawrence Ramsey.</blockquote>
|
|
<blockquote>2001/05/02 - Misc fixes.</blockquote>
|
|
<blockquote>2001/03/26 - Typo fix in an URL.</blockquote>
|
|
<blockquote>2001/02/17 - Advocacy updates.</blockquote>
|
|
<blockquote>2001/02/15 - Added GNU notes for 0.9.99pre3.</blockquote>
|
|
<blockquote>2001/02/06 - Typo fixes.</blockquote>
|
|
<blockquote>2001/01/14 - Added note about numlock glitch.</blockquote>
|
|
<blockquote>2001/01/10 - Linux --> GNU/Linux.</blockquote>
|
|
<blockquote>2001/01/09 - Added "making exe smaller section.</blockquote>
|
|
<blockquote>2000/12/19 - Typo and assorted error fixes.</blockquote>
|
|
<blockquote>2000/11/28 - Added blurb about make install-strip.</blockquote>
|
|
<blockquote>2000/11/19 - Changed Debian frozen to stable.</blockquote>
|
|
<blockquote>2000/11/18 - Previous string display (4.5).</blockquote>
|
|
<blockquote>2000/09/27 - Moved addresses to nano-editor.org.</blockquote>
|
|
<blockquote>2000/06/31 - Initial framework.</blockquote>
|
|
<P>
|
|
$Id$
|
|
</body>
|
|
</html>
|