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| <h1> |
| <font color="#CC0000">The nano FAQ</font></h1> |
| <h2> |
| <font color="#330000">Table of Contents</font></h2> |
| |
| <h2> |
| <font color="#330000"><a href="#1">1. General</a></font></h2> |
| |
| <blockquote><font color="#330000"><a href="#1.1">1.1 About this FAQ.</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#1.2">1.2. How do I contribute to it?</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#1.3">1.3. What is GNU nano?</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#1.4">1.4. What is the history behind |
| nano?</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#1.5">1.5. Why the name change from |
| TIP?</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#1.6">1.6. What is the current version |
| of nano?</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#1.7">1.7. I want to read the manpage |
| without having to download the program!</a></font></blockquote> |
| |
| <h2> |
| <font color="#330000"><a href="#2">2. Where to get GNU |
| nano</a></font></h2> |
| |
| <blockquote><font color="#330000"><a href="#2.1">2.1. FTP and WWW sites |
| that carry nano.</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#2.2">2.2. Redhat and derivatives (.rpm) |
| packages.</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#2.3">2.3. Debian (.deb) packages.</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#2.4">2.4. By CVS (for the brave).</a></font></blockquote> |
| |
| <h2> |
| <font color="#330000"><a href="#3">3. Installation and Configuration</a></font></h2> |
| |
| <blockquote><font color="#330000"><a href="#3.1">3.1. How do install the |
| RPM or DEB package?</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#3.2">3.2. Compiling from source: WHAT |
| THE HECK DO I DO NOW?</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#3.3">3.3. Why does everything go into |
| /usr/local?</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#3.4">3.4. I get errors about 'bindtextdomain', |
| 'gettext' and/or 'gettextdomain'. What can I do about it?</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#3.5">3.5. Nano should automatically |
| run strip on the binary when installing it!</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#3.6">3.6. How can I make the |
| executable smaller? This is too bloated!</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#3.7">3.7. Tell me more about this |
| multibuffer stuff!</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#3.8">3.8. How do I make a .nanorc file |
| that nano will read when I start it?</a></font></blockquote> |
| |
| <h2> |
| <font color="#330000"><a href="#4">4. Running</a></font></h2> |
| |
| <blockquote><font color="#330000"><a href="#4.1">4.1. Ack! My backspace/delete/enter/double |
| bucky/meta key doesn't seem to work! What can I do?</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#4.2">4.2. Nano crashes when I type |
| <insert keystroke here>!</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#4.3">4.3. Nano crashes when I resize |
| my window. How can I fix that?</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#4.4">4.4. Why does nano show ^\ |
| in the shortcut list instead of ^J?</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#4.5">4.5. When I type in a |
| search string, the string I last searched for is already in front of |
| my cursor! What happened?!</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#4.6">4.6. I get the message "NumLock |
| glitch detected. Keypad will malfunction with NumLock off." What |
| gives?</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#4.7">4.7. How do I make nano my |
| default editor (in Pine, mutt, etc.)?</a></font></blockquote> |
| |
| <h2> |
| <font color="#330000"><a href="#5">5. Internationalization</a></font></h2> |
| |
| <blockquote><font color="#330000"><a href="#5.1">5.1. There's no translation |
| for my language!</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#5.2">5.2. I don't like the translation |
| for <x> in my language. How can I fix it?</a></font></blockquote> |
| |
| <h2> |
| <font color="#330000"><a href="#6">6. Advocacy and Licensing</a></font></h2> |
| |
| <blockquote><font color="#330000"><a href="#6.1">6.1. Why should I use |
| nano instead of Pico?</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#6.2">6.2. Why should I use Pico instead |
| of nano?</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#6.3">6.3. What is so bad about the |
| Pine license?</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#6.4">6.4. Okay, well what mail program |
| should I use then?</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#6.5">6.5. Why doesn't UW simply change |
| their license?</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#6.6">6.6. What if tomorrow UW changes |
| the license to be truly Free Software?</a></font></blockquote> |
| |
| <h2> |
| <font color="#330000"><a href="#7">7. Miscellaneous</a></font></h2> |
| |
| <blockquote><font color="#330000"><a href="#7.1">7.1. Nano related mailing |
| lists.</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#7.2">7.2. I want to send the development |
| team a big load of cash (or just a thank you).</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#7.3">7.3. How do I submit a patch?</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#7.4">7.4. How do I join the development |
| team?</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><a href="#7.5">7.5. Can I have CVS write access?</a></font></blockquote> |
| |
| <h2> |
| <a href="#8">8. ChangeLog</a></h2> |
| |
| <hr WIDTH="100%"> |
| <br> |
| <h1> |
| <a NAME="1"></a><font color="#330000">1. General</font></h1> |
| |
| <h2> |
| <a NAME="1.1"></a><font color="#330000">1.1 About this FAQ.</font></h2> |
| |
| <blockquote><font color="#330000">This FAQ was written and is maintained |
| by Chris Allegretta <<a href="mailto:chrisa@asty.org">chrisa@asty.org</a>>, |
| who also happens to be the creator of nano. Maybe someone else |
| will volunteer to maintain this FAQ someday, who knows...</font></blockquote> |
| |
| <h2> |
| <a NAME="1.2"></a><font color="#330000">1.2. How do I contribute to it?</font></h2> |
| |
| <blockquote><font color="#330000">Your best bet is to send it to the nano |
| email address, <a |
| href="mailto:nano@nano-editor.org">nano@nano-editor.org</a> and if |
| it is useful enough it will be included in future versions.</font></blockquote> |
| |
| <h2> |
| <a NAME="1.3"></a><font color="#330000">1.3. What is GNU nano?</font></h2> |
| |
| <blockquote><font color="#330000">GNU Nano is designed to be a free |
| replacement for the Pico text editor, part of the Pine email suite from <a |
| href="http://www.washington.edu/pine">The University of |
| Washington</a>. It aims to "emulate Pico as closely as possible and |
| perhaps include extra functionality.</font></blockquote> |
| |
| <h2> |
| <a NAME="1.4"></a><font color="#330000">1.4. What is the history behind |
| nano?</font></h2> |
| |
| <blockquote><font color="#330000">Funny you should ask!</font> |
| <p><b><font color="#330000">In the beginning...</font></b> |
| <p><font color="#330000">For years Pine was THE program used to read email |
| on a Unix system. The Pico text editor is the portion of the program |
| one would use to compose his or her mail messages. Many beginners |
| to Unix flocked to Pico and Pine because of their well organized, easy |
| to use interfaces. With the proliferation of GNU/Linux in the mid to |
| late 90's, many University students became intimately familiar with the |
| strengths (and weaknesses) of Pine and Pico.</font> |
| <p><b><font color="#330000">Then came Debian...</font></b> |
| <p><font color="#330000">The <a href="http://www.debian.org">Debian GNU/Linux</a> |
| distribution, known for its strict standards in distributing truly "free" |
| software (i.e. had no restrictions on redistribution), would not include |
| a binary package for Pine or Pico. Many people had a serious dilemma: |
| they loved these programs, but they were not truly free software in the |
| <a href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html">GNU</a> |
| sense of the word.</font> |
| <p><b><font color="#330000">The event...</font></b> |
| <p><font color="#330000">It was in late 1999 when Chris Allegretta (our |
| hero) was yet again complaining to himself about the less-than-perfect |
| license Pico was distributed under, the 1000 makefiles that came with |
| it and how just a few small improvements could make it the Best Editor |
| in the World (TM). Having been a convert from Slackware to Debian, |
| he missed having a simple binary package that included Pine and Pico, and |
| had grown tired of downloading them himself.</font> |
| <p><font color="#330000">Finally something snapped inside and Chris coded |
| and hacked like a madman for many hours straight one weekend to make a |
| (barely usable) Pico clone, at the time called TIP (Tip Isn't Pico). |
| The program could not be invoked without a filename, could not save files, |
| had no help menu, spell checker, and so forth. But over time it improved, |
| and with the help of a few great coders it matured to the (hopefully) stable |
| state it is today. |
| <p><font color="#330000">In February 2001, nano has been declared an |
| official GNU program by Richard Stallman. Nano also reached it's first |
| production release on March 22, 2001.</font></blockquote> |
| |
| <h2> |
| <a NAME="1.5"></a><font color="#330000">1.5. Why the name change from TIP?</font></h2> |
| |
| <blockquote><font color="#330000">On January 10, 2000, TIP was officially |
| renamed to nano because of a namespace conflict with another program called |
| 'tip'. The original 'tip' program "establishes a full duplex terminal |
| connection to a remote host", and was included with many older Unix systems |
| (and newer ones like Solaris). The conflict was not noticed at first because |
| there is no 'tip' utility included with most GNU/Linux distributions (where |
| nano was developed).</font></blockquote> |
| |
| <h2> |
| <a NAME="1.6"></a><font color="#330000">1.6 What is the current version |
| of nano?</font></h2> |
| |
| <blockquote><font color="#330000">The current version of nano *should* |
| be 1.1.5. Of course you should always check the nano homepage to |
| see what the latest and greatest version is.</font></blockquote> |
| |
| <h2> |
| <a NAME="1.7"></a><font color="#330000">1.7. I want to read the man page |
| without having to download the program!</font></h2> |
| |
| <blockquote><font color="#330000">Jeez, demanding, aren't we? |
| Okay, look <a href="http://www.nano-editor.org/dist/nano.1.html">here</a>.</font></blockquote> |
| |
| <hr WIDTH="100%"> |
| <h1> |
| <a NAME="2"></a><font color="#330000">2. Where to get GNU nano</font></h1> |
| |
| <h2> |
| <a NAME="2.1"></a><font color="#330000">2.1. FTP and WWW sites that carry |
| nano.</font></h2> |
| |
| <blockquote><font color="#330000">The nano distribution can be downloaded |
| at the following fine web and ftp sites:</font> |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <font color="#330000"><a href="http://www.nano-editor.org/dist">http://www.nano-editor.org/dist</a></font></li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <font color="#330000"><a href="http://www.ewtoo.org/~astyanax/nano/dist">http://www.ewtoo.org/~astyanax/nano/dist</a></font></li> |
| <li> |
| <font color="#330000"><a href="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/nano">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/nano</a></font></li> |
| |
| </ul> |
| </blockquote> |
| |
| <h2> |
| <a NAME="2.2"></a><font color="#330000">2.2. Redhat and derivatives (.rpm) |
| packages.</font></h2> |
| |
| <blockquote> |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <font color="#330000"><a href="http://www.nano-editor.org/dist/RPMS">http://www.nano-editor.org/dist/RPMS</a></font></li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <font color="#330000"><a href="http://www.ewtoo.org/~astyanax/nano/dist/RPMS">http://www.ewtoo.org/~astyanax/nano/dist/RPMS</a></font></li> |
| |
| </ul> |
| <font color="#330000">Additionally, check out the Redhat contribs section |
| at:</font> |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <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> |
| |
| <li> |
| <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> |
| </ul> |
| </blockquote> |
| |
| <h2> |
| <a NAME="2.3"></a><font color="#330000">2.3. Debian (.deb) packages.</font></h2> |
| |
| <blockquote><font color="#330000">For Debian users, you can check out the |
| current nano packages for:</font> |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <font color="#330000"><a href="http://www.debian.org/Packages/stable/editors/nano.html">stable</a></font></li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <font color="#330000"><a href="http://www.debian.org/Packages/testing/editors/nano.html">testing</a></font></li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <font color="#330000"><a href="http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/editors/nano.html">unstable</a></font></li> |
| </ul> |
| <p><font color="#330000">You can also have a look at the</font> |
| <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> |
| |
| <font color="#330000">Note that versions < 0.9.10 are probably not for |
| those wanting to get serious work done, so if you are using Debian 2.2, check |
| that you have updated to 2.2r3, which comes with nano 0.9.23. If you're |
| tracking unstable, you probably have the newest version already.</font></blockquote> |
| |
| <h2> |
| <a NAME="2.4"></a><font color="#330000">2.4. By CVS (for the brave).</font></h2> |
| |
| <blockquote><font color="#330000">For the 'bleeding edge' current version |
| of nano, you can use CVS to download the current source code. <b>Note:</b> |
| believe it or not, by downloading code that has not yet stabilized into |
| an official release, there could quite possibly be bugs, in fact the code |
| may not even compile! Anyway, see <a href="https://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=1304">the |
| nano CVS page</a> for info on anonymous CVS access to the nano source.</font></blockquote> |
| |
| <hr WIDTH="100%"> |
| <h1> |
| <a NAME="3"></a><font color="#330000">3. Installation and Configuration</font></h1> |
| |
| <h2> |
| <a NAME="3.1"></a><font color="#330000">3.1. How do install the RPM or |
| DEB package?</font></h2> |
| |
| <blockquote><font color="#330000">It's simple really! As root, type |
| <b>rpm |
| -Uvh nano-x.y.z-1.i386.rpm</b> if you have a Redhat-ish system or |
| <b>dpkg |
| -i nano_x.y.z-1.deb</b> if you have a Debian-ish system, where |
| <b>x.y.z</b> |
| is the release of nano. There are other programs to install packages, |
| and if you wish to use those, knock yourself out.</font></blockquote> |
| |
| <h2> |
| <a NAME="3.2"></a><font color="#330000">3.2. Compiling from source: WHAT |
| THE HECK DO I DO NOW?</font></h2> |
| |
| <blockquote><font color="#330000">Okay, take a deep breath, this really |
| isn't hard. Unpack the nano source with a command like:</font> |
| <p><b><font color="#330000">tar -zxvf nano-x.y.z.tar.gz</font></b> |
| <p><font color="#330000">If you get error messages about the -z option, |
| try this:</font> |
| <p><b><font color="#330000">gzip -dc nano-x.y.z.tar.gz | tar xvf -</font></b> |
| <p><font color="#330000">(again, where x.y.z is the version number in question). |
| Then you need to run configure with any options you might want (if any).</font> |
| <p><font color="#330000">The average case is this:</font> |
| <p><b><font color="#330000">cd nano-x.y.z/</font></b> |
| <br><b><font color="#330000">./configure</font></b> |
| <br><b><font color="#330000">make</font></b> |
| <br><font color="#330000"><b>make install </b>(as root, of course)</font></blockquote> |
| |
| <h2> |
| <a NAME="3.3"></a><font color="#330000">3.3. Why does everything go into |
| /usr/local?</font></h2> |
| |
| <blockquote><font color="#330000">Well, that's what the <b>configure</b> |
| script defaults to. If you wish to change this, simply do this:</font> |
| <p><b><font color="#330000">./configure --prefix=/usr</font></b> |
| <p><font color="#330000">to put nano into /usr/bin when you run <b>make |
| install</b>.</font></blockquote> |
| |
| <h2> |
| <a NAME="3.4"></a><font color="#330000">3.4. I get errors about 'bindtextdomain', |
| 'gettext' and/or 'gettextdomain'. What can I do about it?</font></h2> |
| |
| <blockquote><font color="#330000">Try doing a <b>./configure --with-included-gettext</b> |
| and see if that solves your problem. You make need to do a <b>make |
| clean ; make</b> to get it to work fully.</font></blockquote> |
| |
| <h2> |
| <a NAME="3.5"></a><font color="#330000">3.5. Nano should automatically |
| run strip on the binary when installing it!</font></h2> |
| |
| <blockquote><font color="#330000">Actually, it does, but you have to use |
| <b>make install-strip</b>. The default make install does not, and will |
| not, run strip automatically.</font></blockquote> |
| |
| <h2> |
| <a NAME="3.6"></a><font color="#330000"> |
| 3.6. How can I make the executable smaller? This is too |
| bloated!</font></h2> |
| |
| <blockquote><font color="#330000">Actually, there are several parts of the |
| editor that can be disabled. You can pass arguments to the |
| <b>configure</b> script that disable certain features. Here's a brief |
| list: |
| <pre> |
| <b>--disable-tabcomp</b> Disables tab completion code for a smaller binary |
| <b>--disable-justify</b> Disable justify/unjustify function |
| <b>--disable-speller</b> Disables spell checker function |
| <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 1.1.5 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 1.1.5 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@lists.sourceforge.net">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 two mailing lists for nano |
| hosted at <a href="http://www.sourceforge.net">SourceForge</a>, nano-announce |
| 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. Here are links to where you can sign up for |
| a given list:</font><font color="#330000"></font> |
| <p><font color="#330000">nano-announce - <a href="http://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/nano-announce">http://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/nano-announce</a></font> |
| <br><font color="#330000">nano-devel - <a href="http://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/nano-devel">http://lists.sourceforge.net/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@lists.sourceforge.net">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 SourceForge 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> |