Gitiles
Code Review Sign In
review.blissroms.org / platform_external_nano / 4bf831ff39fd6b68bc0c585c34fe66d9f13eed7a / . / faq.html
blob: 5dc5531b1acf5ddb1801561008297c2a6a9d5ce7 [file] [log] [blame]
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]1<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
2<html>
Chris Allegretta35ac99d2001-02-15 00:25:17 +0000[diff] [blame]3<title>The GNU nano editor FAQ</title>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]4<head>
5 <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
6 <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Mozilla/4.73 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.2.16 i586) [Netscape]">
7</head>
8<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" link="#0000EF" vlink="#51188E" alink="#FF0000">
9
10<h1>
11<font color="#CC0000">The nano FAQ</font></h1>
12<h2>
13<font color="#330000">Table of Contents</font></h2>
14
15<h2>
16<font color="#330000"><a href="#1">1.&nbsp; General</a></font></h2>
17
18<blockquote><font color="#330000"><a href="#1.1">1.1 About this FAQ.</a></font>
19<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#1.2">1.2. How do I contribute to it?</a></font>
Chris Allegretta35ac99d2001-02-15 00:25:17 +0000[diff] [blame]20<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#1.3">1.3. What is GNU nano?</a></font>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]21<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#1.4">1.4. What is the history behind
22nano?</a></font>
23<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#1.5">1.5. Why the name change from
24TIP?</a></font>
Chris Allegretta51b3eec2000-12-18 02:23:50 +0000[diff] [blame]25<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#1.6">1.6. What is the current version
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]26of nano?</a></font>
27<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#1.7">1.7. I want to read the man page
28without having to download the program!</a></font></blockquote>
29
30<h2>
Chris Allegretta35ac99d2001-02-15 00:25:17 +0000[diff] [blame]31<font color="#330000"><a href="#2">2. Where to get GNU
32nano</a></font></h2>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]33
34<blockquote><font color="#330000"><a href="#2.1">2.1. FTP and WWW sites
35that carry nano.</a></font>
36<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#2.2">2.2. Redhat and derivatives (.rpm)
37packages.</a></font>
38<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#2.3">2.3. Debian (.deb) packages.</a></font>
39<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#2.4">2.4. By CVS (for the brave).</a></font></blockquote>
40
41<h2>
42<font color="#330000"><a href="#3">3. Installation and Configuration</a></font></h2>
43
44<blockquote><font color="#330000"><a href="#3.1">3.1. How do install the
45RPM or DEB package?</a></font>
46<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#3.2">3.2. Compiling from source: WHAT
47THE HECK DO I DO NOW?</a></font>
48<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#3.2">3.3. Why does everything go into
49/usr/local?</a></font>
50<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#3.4">3.4. I get errors about 'bindtextdomain',
Chris Allegretta8a646ad2000-11-28 00:15:54 +0000[diff] [blame]51'gettext' and/or 'gettextdomain'.&nbsp; What can I do about it?</a></font>
52<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#3.5">3.5. Nano should automatically
Chris Allegretta2c4feca2001-01-09 17:40:56 +0000[diff] [blame]53run strip on the binary when installing it!</a></font>
54<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#3.6">3.6. How can I make the
55executable smaller? This is too bloated!</a></font></blockquote>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]56
57<h2>
58<font color="#330000"><a href="#4">4. Running</a></font></h2>
59
60<blockquote><font color="#330000"><a href="#4.1">4.1. Ack!&nbsp; My backspace/delete/enter/double
61bucky/meta key doesn't seem to work!&nbsp; What can I do?</a></font>
62<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#4.2">4.2. Nano crashes when I type
63&lt;insert keystroke here>!</a></font>
64<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#4.3">4.3. Nano crashes when I resize
65my window.&nbsp;&nbsp; How can I fix that?</a></font>
66<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#4.4">4.4. Why does nano show ^\ and
67^_ in the shortcut list instead of ^G and ^J?</a></font>
Chris Allegretta47ddfaf2000-11-18 19:04:32 +0000[diff] [blame]68<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#4.5">4.5. When I type in a
69search string, the string I last searched for is already in front of
70my cursor! !What happened?!</a></font>
Chris Allegretta201d9bf2001-01-14 03:17:53 +0000[diff] [blame]71<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#4.6">4.6. I get the message "NumLock
Chris Allegretta40973792001-01-15 20:25:24 +0000[diff] [blame]72glitch detected. Keypad will malfunction with NumLock off." What
Chris Allegretta201d9bf2001-01-14 03:17:53 +0000[diff] [blame]73gives?</a></font>
74<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#4.7">4.7. How do I make nano my
75default editor (in Pine, mutt, etc.)?</a></font></blockquote>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]76
77<h2>
78<font color="#330000"><a href="#5">5. Internationalization</a></font></h2>
79
80<blockquote><font color="#330000"><a href="#5.1">5.1. There's no translation
81for my language!</a></font>
82<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#5.2">5.2. I don't like the translation
83for &lt;x> in my language.&nbsp;&nbsp; How can I fix it?</a></font></blockquote>
84
85<h2>
Chris Allegretta90d68952000-07-24 02:55:49 +0000[diff] [blame]86<font color="#330000"><a href="#6">6. Advocacy and Licensing</a></font></h2>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]87
88<blockquote><font color="#330000"><a href="#6.1">6.1. Why should I use
89nano instead of Pico?</a></font>
90<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#6.2">6.2. Why should I use Pico instead
91of nano?</a></font>
92<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#6.3">6.3. What is so bad about the
93PINE license?</a></font>
94<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#6.4">6.4. Okay, well what mail program
95should I use then?</a></font>
96<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#6.5">6.5. Why doesn't UW simply change
97their license?</a></font>
98<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#6.6">6.6. What if tomorrow UW changes
99the license to be truly Free Software?</a></font></blockquote>
100
101<h2>
102<font color="#330000"><a href="#7">7. Miscellaneous</a></font></h2>
103
104<blockquote><font color="#330000"><a href="#7.1">7.1. Nano related mailing
105lists.</a></font>
106<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#7.2">7.2. I want to send the development
107team a big load of cash (or just a thank you).</a></font>
108<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#7.3">7.3. How do I submit a patch?</a></font>
109<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#7.4">7.4. How do I join the development
110team?</a></font>
111<br><font color="#330000"><a href="#7.5">7.5. Can I have CVS write access?</a></font></blockquote>
112
113<h2>
114<a href="#8">8. ChangeLog</a></h2>
115
116<hr WIDTH="100%">
117<br>&nbsp;
118<h1>
119<a NAME="1"></a><font color="#330000">1.&nbsp; General</font></h1>
120
121<h2>
122<a NAME="1.1"></a><font color="#330000">1.1 About this FAQ.</font></h2>
123
124<blockquote><font color="#330000">This FAQ was written and is maintained
125by Chris Allegretta &lt;<a href="mailto:chrisa@asty.org">chrisa@asty.org</a>>,
126who also happens to be the creator of nano.&nbsp;&nbsp; Maybe someone else
127will volunteer to maintain this FAQ someday, who knows...</font></blockquote>
128
129<h2>
130<a NAME="1.2"></a><font color="#330000">1.2. How do I contribute to it?</font></h2>
131
132<blockquote><font color="#330000">Your best bet is to send it to the nano
Chris Allegretta66989d62000-09-27 03:16:11 +0000[diff] [blame]133email address, <a
134href="mailto:nano@nano-editor.org">nano@nano-editor.org</a> and if
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]135it is useful enough it will be included in future versions.</font></blockquote>
136
137<h2>
Chris Allegretta35ac99d2001-02-15 00:25:17 +0000[diff] [blame]138<a NAME="1.3"></a><font color="#330000">1.3. What is GNU nano?</font></h2>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]139
Chris Allegretta35ac99d2001-02-15 00:25:17 +0000[diff] [blame]140<blockquote><font color="#330000">GNU Nano is designed to be a free
141replacement for the Pico text editor, part of the PINE email suite from <a
142href="http://www.washington.edu/pine">The University of
143Washington</a>.&nbsp; It aims to "emulate Pico as closely as possible and
144perhaps include extra functionality.</font></blockquote>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]145
146<h2>
147<a NAME="1.4"></a><font color="#330000">1.4. What is the history behind
148nano?</font></h2>
149
150<blockquote><font color="#330000">Funny you should ask!</font>
151<p><b><font color="#330000">In the beginning...</font></b>
152<p><font color="#330000">For years Pine was THE program used to read email
153on a Unix system.&nbsp; The Pico text editor is the portion of the program
154one would use to compose his or her mail messages.&nbsp; Many beginners
155to Unix flocked to Pico and Pine because of their well organized, easy
Chris Allegretta7db63a52001-01-10 22:05:40 +0000[diff] [blame]156to use interfaces.&nbsp; With the proliferation of GNU/Linux in the mid to
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]157late 90's, many University students became intimately familiar with the
158strengths (and weaknesses) of Pine and Pico.</font>
159<p><b><font color="#330000">Then came debian...</font></b>
160<p><font color="#330000">The <a href="http://www.debian.org">debian GNU/Linux</a>
161distribution, known for its strict standards in distributing truly "free"
162software (i.e. had no restrictions on redistribution), would not include
163a binary package for Pine or Pico.&nbsp; Many people had a serious dilemma:&nbsp;
164they loved these programs, but they were not truly free software in the
165<a href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html">GNU</a>
166sense of the word.</font>
167<p><b><font color="#330000">The event...</font></b>
168<p><font color="#330000">It was in late 1999 when Chris Allegretta (our
169hero) was yet again complaining to himself about the less-than-perfect
170license Pico was distributed under, the 10000 makefiles that came with
171it and how just a few small improvements could make it the Best Editor
172in the World (TM).&nbsp; Having been a convert from Slackware to debian,
173he missed having a simple binary package that included Pine and Pico, and
174had grown tired of downloading them himself.</font>
175<p><font color="#330000">Finally something snapped inside and Chris coded
176and hacked like a madman for many hours straight one weekend to make a
177(barely usable) Pico clone, at the time called TIP (Tip Isn't Pico).&nbsp;
178The program could not be invoked without a filename, could not save files,
179had no help menu, spell checker, and so forth.&nbsp; But over time it improved,
180and with the help of a few great coders it matured to the almost stable
Chris Allegretta35ac99d2001-02-15 00:25:17 +0000[diff] [blame]181state it is today.
182<p><font color="#330000">In February 2001, nano has been declared an
183official GNU program by Richard Stallman. Nano is also nearing its 1.0
184release as of this writing (Valentine's Day 2001).
185 </font></blockquote>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]186
187<h2>
188<a NAME="1.5"></a><font color="#330000">1.5. Why the name change from TIP?</font></h2>
189
190<blockquote><font color="#330000">On January 10, 2000, TIP was officially
191renamed to nano because of a namespace conflict with another program called
192'tip'.&nbsp; The original 'tip' program "establishes a full duplex terminal
193connection to a remote host", and was included with many older Unix systems
194(and newer ones like Solaris). The conflict was not noticed at first because
Chris Allegretta7db63a52001-01-10 22:05:40 +0000[diff] [blame]195there is no 'tip' utility included with most GNU/Linux distributions (where
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]196nano was developed).</font></blockquote>
197
198<h2>
199<a NAME="1.6"></a><font color="#330000">1.6 What is the current version
200of nano?</font></h2>
201
202<blockquote><font color="#330000">The current version of nano *should*
Chris Allegretta2bfbda02001-03-23 03:50:44 +0000[diff] [blame]203be 1.0.0.&nbsp; Of course you should always check the nano hompage to
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]204see what the latest and greatest version is.</font></blockquote>
205
206<h2>
207<a NAME="1.7"></a><font color="#330000">1.7. I want to read the man page
208without having to download the program!</font></h2>
209
210<blockquote><font color="#330000">Jeez, demanding, aren't we?&nbsp;&nbsp;
Chris Allegretta66989d62000-09-27 03:16:11 +0000[diff] [blame]211Okay, look <a href="http://www.nano-editor.org/dist/nano.1.html">here</a>.</font></blockquote>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]212
213<hr WIDTH="100%">
214<h1>
Chris Allegretta35ac99d2001-02-15 00:25:17 +0000[diff] [blame]215<a NAME="2"></a><font color="#330000">2. Where to get GNU nano</font></h1>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]216
217<h2>
218<a NAME="2.1"></a><font color="#330000">2.1. FTP and WWW sites that carry
219nano.</font></h2>
220
221<blockquote><font color="#330000">The nano distribution can be downloaded
222at the following fine web and ftp sites:</font>
223<ul>
224<li>
Chris Allegretta66989d62000-09-27 03:16:11 +0000[diff] [blame]225<font color="#330000"><a href="http://www.nano-editor.org/dist">http://www.nano-editor.org/dist</a></font></li>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]226
227<li>
228<font color="#330000"><a href="http://www.ewtoo.org/~astyanax/nano/dist">http://www.ewtoo.org/~astyanax/nano/dist</a></font></li>
229
230<li>
Chris Allegretta66989d62000-09-27 03:16:11 +0000[diff] [blame]231<font color="#330000"><a href="ftp://ftp.nano-editor.org/pub/nano">ftp://ftp.nano-editor.org/pub/nano</a></font></li>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]232
233<li>
234<font color="#330000"><a href="ftp://nano.sourceforge.net/pub/nano/">ftp://nano.sourceforge.net/pub/nano</a></font></li>
235</ul>
236</blockquote>
237
238<h2>
239<a NAME="2.2"></a><font color="#330000">2.2. Redhat and derivatives (.rpm)
240packages.</font></h2>
241
242<blockquote>
243<ul>
244<li>
Chris Allegretta66989d62000-09-27 03:16:11 +0000[diff] [blame]245<font color="#330000"><a href="http://www.nano-editor.org/dist/RPMS">http://www.nano-editor.org/dist/RPMS</a></font></li>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]246
247<li>
248<font color="#330000"><a href="http://www.ewtoo.org/~astyanax/nano/dist/RPMS">http://www.ewtoo.org/~astyanax/nano/dist/RPMS</a></font></li>
249
250<li>
Chris Allegretta66989d62000-09-27 03:16:11 +0000[diff] [blame]251<font color="#330000"><a href="ftp://ftp.nano-editor.org/pub/nano/RPMS">ftp://ftp.nano-editor.org/pub/nano/RPMS</a></font></li>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]252
253<li>
254<font color="#330000"><a href="ftp://nano.sourceforge.net/pub/nano/RPMS">ftp://nano.sourceforge.net/pub/nano/RPMS</a></font></li>
255</ul>
256<font color="#330000">Additionally, check out the Redhat contribs section
257at:</font>
258<ul>
259<li>
260<font color="#330000"><a href="http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/distributions/redhat/contrib/libc6/i386">http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/distributions/redhat/contrib/libc6/i386</a></font></li>
261
262<li>
263<font color="#330000"><a href="ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/distributions/redhat/contrib/libc6/i386">ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/distributions/redhat/contrib/libc6/i386</a></font></li>
264</ul>
265</blockquote>
266
267<h2>
268<a NAME="2.3"></a><font color="#330000">2.3. Debian (.deb) packages.</font></h2>
269
270<blockquote><font color="#330000">For debian users, you can check out the
271current nano packages for:</font>
272<ul>
273<li>
Chris Allegretta42004f02000-11-19 00:34:46 +0000[diff] [blame]274<font color="#330000"><a href="http://www.debian.org/Packages/stable/editors/nano.html">stable</a></font></li>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]275
276<li>
277<font color="#330000"><a href="http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/editors/nano.html">unstable</a></font></li>
278</ul>
279<font color="#330000">Note that versions &lt; 0.9.10 are probably not for
Chris Allegretta42004f02000-11-19 00:34:46 +0000[diff] [blame]280those wanting to get serious work done, so until the stable distribution
281has an updated version of nano, you are best off using the one in unstable
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]282for now.</font></blockquote>
283
284<h2>
285<a NAME="2.4"></a><font color="#330000">2.4. By CVS (for the brave).</font></h2>
286
287<blockquote><font color="#330000">For the 'bleeding edge' current version
288of nano, you can use CVS to download the current source code.&nbsp; <b>Note:</b>
289believe it or not, by downloading code that has not yet stabilized into
290an official release, there could quite possibly be bugs, in fact the code
291may not even compile!&nbsp; Anyway, see <a href="https://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=1304">the
292nano CVS page</a> for info on anonymous CVS access to the nano source.</font></blockquote>
293
294<hr WIDTH="100%">
295<h1>
296<a NAME="3"></a><font color="#330000">3. Installation and Configuration</font></h1>
297
298<h2>
299<a NAME="3.1"></a><font color="#330000">3.1. How do install the RPM or
300DEB package?</font></h2>
301
302<blockquote><font color="#330000">It's simple really!&nbsp; As root, type
303<b>rpm
304-Uvh nano-x.y.z-1.i386.rpm</b> if you have a Redhat-ish system or
305<b>dpkg
306-i nano_x.y.z-1.deb</b> if you have a Debian-ish system, where
307<b>x.y.z</b>
Jordi Mallach79ea7dd2000-12-19 22:58:00 +0000[diff] [blame]308is the release of nano.&nbsp; There are other programs to install packages,
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]309and if you wish to use those, knock yourself out.</font></blockquote>
310
311<h2>
312<a NAME="3.2"></a><font color="#330000">3.2. Compiling from source: WHAT
313THE HECK DO I DO NOW?</font></h2>
314
315<blockquote><font color="#330000">Okay, take a deep breath, this really
316isn't hard.&nbsp; Unpack the nano source with a command like:</font>
317<p><b><font color="#330000">tar -zxvf nano-x.y.z.tar.gz</font></b>
318<p><font color="#330000">If you get error messages about the -z option,
319try this:</font>
Chris Allegretta8c81d232000-08-16 02:52:44 +0000[diff] [blame]320<p><b><font color="#330000">gzip -dc nano-x.y.z.tar.gz | tar xvf -</font></b>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]321<p><font color="#330000">(again, where x.y.z is the version number in question).&nbsp;
322Then you need to run configure with any options you might want (if any).</font>
323<p><font color="#330000">The average case is this:</font>
Chris Allegretta2c4feca2001-01-09 17:40:56 +0000[diff] [blame]324<p><b><font color="#330000">cd nano-x.y.z/</font></b>
325<br><b><font color="#330000">./configure</font></b>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]326<br><b><font color="#330000">make</font></b>
327<br><font color="#330000"><b>make install </b>(as root, of course)</font></blockquote>
328
329<h2>
330<a NAME="3.3"></a><font color="#330000">3.3. Why does everything go into
331/usr/local?</font></h2>
332
333<blockquote><font color="#330000">Well, that's what the <b>configure</b>
334script defaults to.&nbsp; If you wish to change this, simply do this:</font>
335<p><b><font color="#330000">./configure --prefix=/usr</font></b>
336<p><font color="#330000">to put nano into /usr/bin when you run <b>make
337install</b>.</font></blockquote>
338
339<h2>
340<a NAME="3.4"></a><font color="#330000">3.4. I get errors about 'bindtextdomain',
341'gettext' and/or 'gettextdomain'.&nbsp; What can I do about it?</font></h2>
342
343<blockquote><font color="#330000">Try doing a <b>./configure --with-included-gettext</b>
344and see if that solves your problem.&nbsp; You make need to do a <b>make
345clean ; make</b> to get it to work fully.</font></blockquote>
346
Chris Allegretta8a646ad2000-11-28 00:15:54 +0000[diff] [blame]347<h2>
348<a NAME="3.5"></a><font color="#330000">3.5. Nano should automatically
349run strip on the binary when installing it!</font></h2>
350
351<blockquote><font color="#330000">Actually, it does, but you have to use
352<b>make install-strip</b>. The default make install does not, and will
353not, run strip automatically.</font></blockquote>
354
Chris Allegretta2c4feca2001-01-09 17:40:56 +0000[diff] [blame]355<h2>
356<a NAME="3.6"></a><font color="#330000">
3573.6. How can I make the executable smaller? This is too
358bloated!</font></h2>
359
360<blockquote><font color="#330000">Actually, there are several parts of the
361editor that can be disabled. You can pass arguments to the
362<b>configure</b> script that disable certain features. Here's a brief
363list:
364<pre>
365<b>--disable-tabcomp</b> Disables tab completion code for a smaller binary
366<b>--disable-justify</b> Disable justify/unjustify function
367<b>--disable-speller</b> Disables spell checker function
368<b>--disable-help</b> Disables help function (^G)
369<b>--disable-browser</b> Disables mini file browser
370</pre><br>
Chris Allegretta3362cae2001-02-06 22:21:25 +0000[diff] [blame]371There's also the <b>--enable-tiny</b> option which disables everything
Chris Allegretta2c4feca2001-01-09 17:40:56 +0000[diff] [blame]372above, as well as some larger chunks of the program (like the marker code
373that you use Control-^ to select with). Also, if you know you aren't
374going to be using other languages you can use <b>--disable-nls</b> to
375disable internationalization and save a few K to a few dozen K depending
376on if you have locale support on your system. And finally there's always
377good old <b>strip</b> to strip all debugging code and code that exists in
378libraries on your system.
379</font></blockquote> <hr WIDTH="100%"> <h1>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]380<a NAME="4"></a><font color="#330000">4. Running</font></h1>
381
382<h2>
383<a NAME="4.1"></a><font color="#330000">4.1. Ack!&nbsp; My backspace/delete/enter/double
384bucky/meta key doesn't seem to work!&nbsp; What can I do?</font></h2>
385
386<blockquote><font color="#330000">Try setting your $TERM variable to 'vt100'.&nbsp;
387Nano doesn't yet support every term entry under the sun.</font>
388<p><font color="#330000">Bourne shell users (like bash): <b>export TERM=vt100</b></font>
389<br><font color="#330000">C Shell users (tcsh and csh): <b>setenv TERM
390vt100</b></font></blockquote>
391
392<h2>
393<a NAME="4.2"></a><font color="#330000">4.2. Nano crashes when I type &lt;insert
394keystroke here>!</font></h2>
395
396<blockquote><font color="#330000">If you aren't trying some bizarre keystroke
397combination with some bizarre $TERM entry, chances are you have found a
398bug.&nbsp;&nbsp; You are welcome to submit it to the nano-devel list or
Chris Allegretta66989d62000-09-27 03:16:11 +0000[diff] [blame]399to <a href="mailto:nano@nano-editor.org">nano@nano-editor.org</a>.</font></blockquote>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]400
401<h2>
402<a NAME="4.3"></a><font color="#330000">4.3. Nano crashes when I resize
403my window.&nbsp;&nbsp; How can I fix that?</font></h2>
404
405<blockquote><font color="#330000">Older versions of nano had this problem,
Jordi Mallach79ea7dd2000-12-19 22:58:00 +0000[diff] [blame]406please upgrade to a newer version (at least 0.9.9 would be great, 0.9.12
407is recommended).</font></blockquote>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]408
409<h2>
410<a NAME="4.4"></a><font color="#330000">4.4. Why does nano show ^\ and
411^_ in the shortcut list instead of ^G and ^J?</font></h2>
412
413<blockquote><font color="#330000">The help (^G) and justify (^J) functions
414were among the last to be written.&nbsp; To show the improvements that
415nano had over Pico (goto line # and replace), ^_ and ^\ were put on the
416shortcut list.&nbsp;&nbsp; If you use the <b>-p</b> option to nano you
417will get the same shortcuts at the bottom as Pico.</font></blockquote>
418
419<h2>
Chris Allegretta47ddfaf2000-11-18 19:04:32 +0000[diff] [blame]420<a name="4.5"><font color="#330000">4.5. When I type in a search
421string, the string I last searched for is already in front of my
422cursor! !What happened?!</font></h2>
423
Chris Allegrettab29550e2000-12-09 03:34:12 +0000[diff] [blame]424<blockquote><font color="#330000">In nano version 0.9.20, the default is
Chris Allegretta47ddfaf2000-11-18 19:04:32 +0000[diff] [blame]425to have a completely consistent user interface across all user input
426functions. This means that regardless of whether you're being asked for
Chris Allegretta3ebac1c2000-11-19 00:47:30 +0000[diff] [blame]427a filename to insert or write, or a string to search for, the
428previous value is already inserted before the cursor. If you prefer the
429old behavior, use the pico emulation mode (-p or --pico) or just hit
430Meta-P while in nano (see the ^G help text for more
431details).</font></blockquote>
Chris Allegretta47ddfaf2000-11-18 19:04:32 +0000[diff] [blame]432
433<h2>
Chris Allegretta201d9bf2001-01-14 03:17:53 +0000[diff] [blame]434<a NAME="4.6"></a>I get the message "NumLock glitch detected. Keypad
Chris Allegretta40973792001-01-15 20:25:24 +0000[diff] [blame]435will malfunction with NumLock off." What gives?</h2>
Chris Allegretta201d9bf2001-01-14 03:17:53 +0000[diff] [blame]436
437<blockquote>
438Nano (actually almost all console editors do) has issues when cycling
439the NumLock key in certain X terminals (rxvt, aterm, wterm, etc...). When
440you switch NumLock on to off, you put the terminal into an "application
441mode" that changes what sequences are sent by the keypad. These sequences
442vary sufficiently from terminal to terminal that it is nearly impossible
443to work around them from within nano.
444<br><br>
445In a nutshell, if you want to be able to use the keypad with the arrow and
446page up/down functionality, you have to exit nano and reset your terminal
447(presumably with "reset" or "stty sane" or similar) and then run nano
448again with NumLock off. If you know an easier way to restore "normal
Chris Allegretta3362cae2001-02-06 22:21:25 +0000[diff] [blame]449mode", please mail <A href="mailto:nano@nano-editor.org">nano@nano-editor.org</A>.
Chris Allegretta201d9bf2001-01-14 03:17:53 +0000[diff] [blame]450<br>&nbsp;</blockquote>
451
452<h2>
453<a NAME="4.7"></a>4.7. How do I make nano my default editor (in Pine,
Chris Allegretta47ddfaf2000-11-18 19:04:32 +0000[diff] [blame]454mutt, etc)?</h2>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]455
456<blockquote>You need to make nano your $EDITOR.&nbsp; If you want this
457to be saved, you should put a line like this in your <b>.bashrc</b> if
458you use bash:
459<p><b>export EDITOR=/usr/local/bin/nano</b>
460<p>or if you use tcsh put this in your <b>.cshrc</b> file:
461<p><b>setenv EDITOR /usr/local/bin/nano</b>
462<p>Change /usr/local/bin/nano to wherever nano is installed in your system.&nbsp;
463Type which nano to find out. This will not take effect until the next time
464you login.&nbsp; So log out and back in again.
465<p>Then on top that if you use Pine you must go into setup (type <b>S</b>
466at the main menu), then configure (type <b>C</b>).&nbsp; Hit enter on the
467lines that say:
468<p><b>[ ]&nbsp; enable-alternate-editor-cmd</b>
469<br><b>[ ]&nbsp; enable-alternate-editor-implicitly</b>
470<p>Then exit (<b>E</b>) and select Yes (<b>Y</b>).
471<p>Mutt users should see an effect immediately the next time you log in,
472no further configuration is needed.&nbsp; However, if you want to let people
473know you use nano to compose your email messages, you can put a line like
474this in your <b>.muttrc</b>:
475<p><b>my_hdr X-Composer: nano x.y.z</b>
476<p>Again, replace x.y.z with the version of nano you use.
477<br>&nbsp;</blockquote>
478
479<hr WIDTH="100%">
480<h1>
481<a NAME="5"></a><font color="#330000">5. Internationalization</font></h1>
482
483<h2>
484<a NAME="5.1"></a><font color="#330000">5.1. There's no translation for
485my language!</font></h2>
486
487<blockquote><font color="#330000">So, uh, get someone who speaks your native
488language to write one =-).&nbsp; Just grab the <b>nano.pot</b> file from
489the latest and greatest nano distribution (it's in the <b>po/</b> directory)
490and translate each line into your native language on the <b>msgstr</b>
Chris Allegretta66989d62000-09-27 03:16:11 +0000[diff] [blame]491line.&nbsp; Then send it to the nano devel list or <a href="mailto:nano@nano-editor.org">nano@nano-editor.org</a>.</font></blockquote>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]492
493<h2>
494<a NAME="5.2"></a><font color="#330000">5.2. I don't like the translation
495for &lt;x> in my language.&nbsp;&nbsp; How can I fix it?</font></h2>
496
497<blockquote><font color="#330000">The best way would probably be to e-mail
498the person listed in the <b>&lt;your_language>.po</b> file with your suggested
499corrections and they can in turn forward it to the nano email address,
500or the devel list.</font></blockquote>
501
502<hr WIDTH="100%">
503<h1>
504<a NAME="6"></a><font color="#330000">6. Advocacy and Licensing</font></h1>
505
506<h2>
507<a NAME="6.1"></a><font color="#330000">6.1. Why should I use nano instead
508of Pico?</font></h2>
509
510<blockquote><font color="#330000">There are many reasons to use nano instead
Chris Allegretta4bf831f2001-03-26 15:35:34 +0000[diff] [blame^]511of Pico, a more complete list can be found at the <a href="http://www.nano-editor.org">nano
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]512homepage</a>.</font></blockquote>
513
514<h2>
515<a NAME="6.2"></a><font color="#330000">6.2. Why should I use Pico instead
516of nano?</font></h2>
517
Chris Allegretta66989d62000-09-27 03:16:11 +0000[diff] [blame]518<blockquote>Again, check out the <a href="http://www.nano-editor.org">nano
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]519homepage</a> for a good summary of reasons.&nbsp; It really is a matter
520of personal preference as to which editor you should use.&nbsp; If you're
521the type of person who likes using the original version of a program, then
522Pico is the editor for you.&nbsp;&nbsp; If you're looking for a few more
523features and a 'better' license as far as adding your own changes (sacrificing
Chris Allegretta2d6f1bc2001-02-17 02:42:03 +0000[diff] [blame]524mailer integration and a little stability), nano is the way to go.
525</blockquote>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]526
527<h2>
528<a NAME="6.3"></a><font color="#330000">6.3. What is so bad about the PINE
529license?</font></h2>
530
Chris Allegretta2d6f1bc2001-02-17 02:42:03 +0000[diff] [blame]531<blockquote><font color="#330000">The U of W license for Pine and
532Pico is not considered truly Free Software according to both the Free
533Software Foundation and the the <a
534href="http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines">Debian
535Free Software Guidelines</a>.&nbsp; The main problem regards the
536limitations on distributing derived works: according to UW, you can
537distribute their software, and you can modfify it, but you can not do
538both, i.e. distribute modified binaries.</blockquote>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]539
540<h2>
541<a NAME="6.4"></a><font color="#330000">6.4. Okay, well what mail program
542should I use then?</font></h2>
543
Chris Allegretta2d6f1bc2001-02-17 02:42:03 +0000[diff] [blame]544<blockquote><font color="#330000"> If you are looking to use a Free
545Software program similar to PINE and emacs is not your things, you should
546definitely take a look at <a href="http://www.mutt.org">mutt</a>.&nbsp; It
547is a full-screen, console based mail program that actually has a lot more
548flexibility than Pine, but has a keymap included in the distribution that
549allows you to use the same keystrokes as Pine would to send and receive
550mail.&nbsp; It's also licensed under the GPL.</font></blockquote>
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]551
552<h2>
553<a NAME="6.5"></a><font color="#330000">6.5. Why doesn't UW simply change
554their license?</font></h2>
555
556<blockquote><font color="#330000">You're really not asking the right person
Chris Allegretta8c81d232000-08-16 02:52:44 +0000[diff] [blame]557here.&nbsp; I (Chris) waited a long time to see if UW would change their
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]558license because of the amount of high quality software being released and
559developed under the GPL without being taken advantage of by malicious corporate
560entities or other baddies, but no such luck so far.</font></blockquote>
561
562<h2>
563<a NAME="6.6"></a><font color="#330000">6.6. What if tomorrow UW changes
564the license to be truly Free Software?</font></h2>
565
566<blockquote><font color="#330000">Honestly nothing would make me happier
567than to see that happen.&nbsp; Nano would continue to be developed independently
568until such time as Pico had all the features nano did or the projects merged.&nbsp;
569That just does not seem very likely given that there has been no sign of
570any changes in the past few years in a positive direction.</font></blockquote>
571
572<hr WIDTH="100%">
573<h1>
574<a NAME="7"></a><font color="#330000">7. Miscellaneous</font></h1>
575
576<h2>
577<a NAME="7.1"></a><font color="#330000">7.1. Nano related mailing lists.</font></h2>
578
579<blockquote><font color="#330000">There are two mailing lists for nano
580hosted at <a href="http://www.sourceforge.net">SourceForge</a>, nano-announce
581and nano-devel.&nbsp; Nano-announce is a very low traffic list where new
Jordi Mallach79ea7dd2000-12-19 22:58:00 +0000[diff] [blame]582versions of nano are announced (surprise!)&nbsp; Nano-devel is a normally
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]583low, sometimes very high traffic list for dicussing the present and future
584development of nano.&nbsp; Here are links to where you can sign up for
585a given list:</font><font color="#330000"></font>
586<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>
587<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>
588
589<h2>
590<a NAME="7.2"></a><font color="#330000">7.2. I want to send the development
591team a big load of cash (or just a thank you).</font></h2>
592
593<blockquote><font color="#330000">That's fine.&nbsp; Send it <a href="mailto:nano-devel@lists.sourceforge.net">our
Chris Allegretta66989d62000-09-27 03:16:11 +0000[diff] [blame]594way</a>!&nbsp; Better yet, fix a <a href="http://www.nano-editor.org/dist/BUGS">bug</a>
595in the program or implement a <a href="http://www.nano-editor.org/dist/TODO">cool
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]596feature</a> and send us that instead (though cash is fine too).</font></blockquote>
597
598<h2>
599<a NAME="7.3"></a><font color="#330000">7.3. How do I submit a patch?</font></h2>
600
601<blockquote><font color="#330000">See Section <a href="#7.2">7.2</a>.</font></blockquote>
602
603<h2>
604<a NAME="7.4"></a><font color="#330000">7.4. How do I join the development
605team?</font></h2>
606
607<blockquote><font color="#330000">The easiest way is to consistently send
608in good patches that add some needed functionality, fix a bug or two and/or
609make the program more optimized/efficient.&nbsp; Then ask nicely and you
610will probably be added to the SourceForge development list and be given
611CVS write after awhile.&nbsp; There is a lot of responsibility that goes
612along with being a team member, so don't think it's just something to add
613to your resume.</font></blockquote>
614
615<h2>
616<a NAME="7.5"></a><font color="#330000">7.5. Can I have CVS write access?</font></h2>
617
618<blockquote><font color="#330000">Re-read Section </font><a href="#7.4">7.4</a><font color="#330000">
619and you should know the answer.</font></blockquote>
620
621<h1>
622<a NAME="8"></a>8. ChangeLog</h1>
623
624<blockquote>06/31/2000 - Initial framework.</blockquote>
Chris Allegrettac87a4112000-08-07 02:16:24 +0000[diff] [blame]625<P>
626$Id$
Chris Allegretta065bb1e2000-07-23 16:09:33 +0000[diff] [blame]627</body>
628</html>