Benno Schulenberg | 49fc528 | 2016-08-14 21:18:00 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 1 | Improvements in GNU nano |
| 2 | ======================== |
Benno Schulenberg | 9aaa835 | 2016-06-17 13:31:02 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 3 | |
Benno Schulenberg | 0465adb | 2017-11-18 11:25:32 +0100 | [diff] [blame] | 4 | Since 2.9.0: |
| 5 | - The ability to record and replay a series of keystrokes (a macro). |
| 6 | - Assigned functions to ^S (save file) and ^Q (start backward search). |
| 7 | - Indenting and unindenting have been integrated into the undo system. |
| 8 | - Support for $XDG_CONFIG_HOME for the nanorc file, and $XDG_DATA_HOME |
| 9 | for the history files (of search strings and cursor positions). |
| 10 | |
Benno Schulenberg | 1e8f6fd | 2017-04-11 21:37:27 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 11 | Since 2.8.0: |
Benno Schulenberg | a09eedf | 2017-08-27 09:31:35 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 12 | - Meta-Up/Meta-Down will search the previous/next occurrence. |
| 13 | - ^U pastes the first line of the cutbuffer at a prompt. |
Benno Schulenberg | 8f2ac1b | 2017-07-21 09:51:22 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 14 | - Softwrapping can be done at whitespace (with --soft --atblanks). |
Benno Schulenberg | 26fe211 | 2017-04-20 20:47:08 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 15 | - The ^G help texts have become searchable (with ^W and M-W). |
Benno Schulenberg | 1e8f6fd | 2017-04-11 21:37:27 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 16 | - Ctrl+Home and Ctrl+End jump to start and end of file. |
Benno Schulenberg | 8f2ac1b | 2017-07-21 09:51:22 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 17 | - In softwrap mode the cursor now moves per visual row instead of |
| 18 | per logical line, and the screen will scroll per row. |
Benno Schulenberg | 1e8f6fd | 2017-04-11 21:37:27 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 19 | |
Benno Schulenberg | 04aab23 | 2016-10-28 20:23:01 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 20 | Since 2.7.0: |
Benno Schulenberg | 7a8ae90 | 2016-12-11 12:03:50 +0100 | [diff] [blame] | 21 | - The keystroke ^] to complete a fragment to an existing full word. |
| 22 | - The ability to display line numbers in front of the text (M-#). |
Benno Schulenberg | 04aab23 | 2016-10-28 20:23:01 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 23 | |
Benno Schulenberg | bfcb4cd | 2016-06-27 09:04:37 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 24 | Since 2.6.0: |
Benno Schulenberg | 002652d | 2016-09-01 12:38:35 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 25 | - Shift plus the cursor keys can be used for selecting text. |
Benno Schulenberg | b2e2c89 | 2016-08-10 11:34:56 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 26 | - Ctrl+Arrow should now work also on a Linux virtual console. |
Benno Schulenberg | b40520b | 2016-07-28 09:21:27 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 27 | - Ctrl+Up and Ctrl+Down jump to previous or next block of text. |
| 28 | - Feedback during Unicode Input (M-V followed by six digits). |
| 29 | - The option 'wordchars' for specifying extra word characters. |
| 30 | - Hi-bit control characters are shown in a more readable manner. |
Benno Schulenberg | bfcb4cd | 2016-06-27 09:04:37 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 31 | - The ability to use negative numbers at the Go To Line prompt. |
| 32 | |
Benno Schulenberg | 9aaa835 | 2016-06-17 13:31:02 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 33 | Noteworthy changes since 2.2 |
| 34 | ---------------------------- |
| 35 | - The ability to comment/uncomment lines with a single keystroke (M-3). |
| 36 | - The ability to refresh the file list in the browser (^L). |
| 37 | - The ability to abort re-searches (^C after an M-W). |
| 38 | - Better feedback at startup when opening large or multiple files. |
| 39 | - The option 'justifytrim' for snipping whitespace from justified lines. |
| 40 | - The ability to discard a buffer (^O ^Q) when --tempfile is used. |
| 41 | - Replacing things in a marked region now takes place in situ, in context, |
| 42 | instead of changing the view to only the marked text. |
| 43 | - On some terminals Ctrl+Left / Ctrl+Right now work for PrevWord/NextWord. |
| 44 | - When in the middle of a word, PrevWord now jumps to the start of this |
| 45 | word (like Pico does) instead of to the start of the preceding word. |
| 46 | - Invalid byte sequences are properly displayed and not mistakenly found. |
| 47 | - Resizing the window does not exit from help viewer nor file browser. |
| 48 | - Improved arrangement of the shortcuts in the two help lines. |
| 49 | - Several small bug fixes in the syntax highlighting. |
| 50 | - System syntaxes can be improved upon with the 'extendsyntax' command. |
| 51 | - The ability to delete whole words with 'cutwordleft' and 'cutwordright'. |
| 52 | - The ability to save a file without prompting for its name ('savefile'). |
| 53 | - The ability to search backward without having to toggle the direction. |
| 54 | - Whitespace display (M-P) does not require configuration to be useful. |
| 55 | - Undo/redo is enabled by default (M-U/M-E) and works nearly everywhere |
| 56 | -- just not yet for justifying and indenting/unindenting. |
| 57 | - The ability to color the title bar, the status bar and the help lines. |
| 58 | - The ability to run a linter or formatter (^T) on the current buffer. |
| 59 | - The ability to only write to named pipes with --noread. |
| 60 | - Determination of the applicable syntax through libmagic -- when the |
| 61 | file extension nor the first line give an answer. |
| 62 | - The option 'positionlog' for saving/restoring the cursor position. |
| 63 | - The ability to read and write vim-style lock files. |
Jordi Mallach | aebfac8 | 2003-02-13 12:50:53 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 64 | |
Chris Allegretta | 8a07a96 | 2009-12-02 03:36:22 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 65 | Visible changes since 2.0 |
| 66 | ------------------------- |
| 67 | * Editor Features |
| 68 | - The ability to rebind (reassign) keys using the nanorc. |
| 69 | - The ability to read standard input like a pager ("nano -"). |
| 70 | - Color syntax highlighting can be set by the first line of a file. |
| 71 | - The ability to silence nanorc error messages (-q). |
| 72 | - Undo/redo operations (-u). |
| 73 | - Soft wrapping of text (-$). |
| 74 | |
| 75 | * File Handling |
| 76 | - Better handling of backup files: if nano can't write a backup file, |
| 77 | it won't try to write the original file afterward. |
| 78 | - Emergency savefiles retain ownerships and permissions when possible. |
| 79 | - Performance improvements in color syntax highlighting. |
| 80 | |
David Lawrence Ramsey | 139bae0 | 2006-05-17 13:38:07 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 81 | Visible changes since 1.2 |
| 82 | ------------------------- |
| 83 | * Editor Features |
| 84 | - Support for UTF-8. |
| 85 | - Moving to a specified line and column of a file, instead of just a |
David Lawrence Ramsey | d3887dc | 2006-07-22 15:57:28 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 86 | line (+LINE,COLUMN). |
David Lawrence Ramsey | 139bae0 | 2006-05-17 13:38:07 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 87 | - Smart home key (-A). |
| 88 | - Creation of unique backup files in a specified directory (-C <dir>). |
| 89 | - Insertion of spaces instead of a tab when Tab is pressed (-E). |
| 90 | - The long option for -K is now --rebindkeypad. |
| 91 | - Regular expression searching can now be toggled when nano is built |
| 92 | with --enable-tiny, so -R now means something else (see below). |
| 93 | - Restricted mode that provides more security than -o (-R). |
| 94 | - Blanking of the statusbar after 1 keystroke instead of 25 (-U). |
| 95 | - Word searches can optionally skip over punctuation (-W). |
| 96 | - Workaround for Delete's acting like Backspace (-d). |
| 97 | - Many more options are supported in the nanorc. |
| 98 | - Improvements to color syntax highlighting support: case insensitive |
| 99 | matching, the ability to include color syntaxes in separate files, |
| 100 | the ability to specify background colors without foreground colors, |
| 101 | etc. |
| 102 | - Insertion of single-byte characters via Esc Esc <000-255>. |
| 103 | - Insertion of all characters via "Verbatim Input" mode. |
| 104 | - Workaround for the "NumLock glitch". |
| 105 | - Meta-W now repeats the last search. Wrapping is now toggled via |
| 106 | Meta-L. |
| 107 | - Replacing and spell checking only selected text. |
David Lawrence Ramsey | c81aa06 | 2006-07-21 16:44:44 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 108 | - Indenting lines with one keystroke. |
David Lawrence Ramsey | 139bae0 | 2006-05-17 13:38:07 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 109 | - Copying text into the cutbuffer without cutting it. |
| 110 | - Scrolling the text up and down single lines without moving the |
| 111 | cursor. |
| 112 | - PageUp and PageDown work more smoothly when using -S. |
| 113 | - Scrolling the help text up and down single lines. |
| 114 | - Cutting all text from the current position to the end of the file |
| 115 | with one keystroke. |
| 116 | - Justifying the entire file with one keystroke. |
| 117 | - Justifying without removing spaces from the ends of lines. |
| 118 | - Unjustifying after justifying and immediately resizing. |
| 119 | - Going to the first or last line of the current paragraph. |
| 120 | - Going to the first or last line of the file without having to go to |
| 121 | the "Search" prompt. |
| 122 | - Searching for filenames in the file browser. |
| 123 | - Displaying spaces and tabs differently to make it easier to tell |
| 124 | them apart. |
| 125 | - Many more functions available at the statusbar prompt: moving to the |
| 126 | next or previous word, searching for matching brackets, "Verbatim |
| 127 | Input" mode, etc. |
David Lawrence Ramsey | 0e963be | 2006-06-05 15:44:55 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 128 | - The glibc 2.2.3 crashes involving extended regular expressions are |
| 129 | no longer worked around, as they can break anything using extended |
| 130 | regular expressions, and glibc 2.2.3 is old. You should upgrade to |
| 131 | at least glibc 2.2.4. |
David Lawrence Ramsey | 139bae0 | 2006-05-17 13:38:07 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 132 | |
| 133 | * File Handling |
| 134 | - Automatic adding of newlines to the ends of files without them can |
| 135 | now be disabled (-L). |
| 136 | - Converting from and to DOS/Mac file format is now toggled only at |
| 137 | the "Write File" prompt, via Meta-D and Meta-M, and the default file |
| 138 | format to save in is now set depending on what format the file was |
| 139 | originally in. -D now makes nano use bold text instead of reverse |
| 140 | video text, and Meta-D at the edit window now does a |
| 141 | word/line/character count. -O now makes the unused second line of |
| 142 | the screen part of the edit window, and Meta-O at the edit window |
| 143 | now toggles this behavior. |
| 144 | - Converting files that contain a mix of DOS and Mac format lines. |
| 145 | - Automatic switching on of -N with binary files has been removed, as |
| 146 | it causes problems with UTF-8 support. |
| 147 | |
Jordi Mallach | aebfac8 | 2003-02-13 12:50:53 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 148 | Visible changes since 1.0 |
| 149 | ------------------------- |
| 150 | * Editor Features |
| 151 | - Complete Pico compatibility (--pico has been removed, and -p means |
| 152 | something else, see below). |
Jordi Mallach | e2a9e3c | 2003-03-24 13:09:26 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 153 | - nanorc support (see nanorc.sample included in sources). |
Jordi Mallach | aebfac8 | 2003-02-13 12:50:53 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 154 | - Smooth scrolling (-S). |
David Lawrence Ramsey | 6d3485e | 2006-04-05 13:40:56 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 155 | - Support for searching for matching braces, brackets, etc. |
Jordi Mallach | aebfac8 | 2003-02-13 12:50:53 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 156 | - Help for all editor features. |
| 157 | - Color syntax highlighting support. |
David Lawrence Ramsey | 6d3485e | 2006-04-05 13:40:56 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 158 | - Quote string support, useful for mail agents, etc. (-Q). |
Jordi Mallach | aebfac8 | 2003-02-13 12:50:53 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 159 | - Insertion of output of external commands. |
| 160 | - Optional enabling of XON and XOFF control characters (-p). |
| 161 | - Tons of bugfixes/enhancements for already existing features. |
| 162 | |
| 163 | * File Handling |
| 164 | - Overwriting and appending or prepending to files. |
| 165 | - Writing marked text to separate files. |
| 166 | - Multiple file buffers (-F). |
| 167 | - Converting from and to DOS/Mac file format (-D/-M, -N to disable). |
| 168 | - Better control character handling. |
| 169 | - Creation of backup files (-B). |
| 170 | - Search/replace history (-H). |
| 171 | |
Benno Schulenberg | 3e5fcec | 2016-06-13 12:17:13 +0200 | [diff] [blame] | 172 | See the nano manual for detailed information on each feature. |