1.1 Overview

The original goal for nano was a complete bug-for-bug compatible emulation of Pico, but nano's current goal is to be as compatible as possible while offering a superset of Pico's functionality. See See section Pico Compatibility, for more info.

The usual way to invoke nano is:

nano [OPTION]… [FILE]

But it is also possible to edit several files in a row. Additionally, the cursor can be put on a desired line number by adding this number with a plus sign before any filename, and even in a desired column by adding it with a comma. So the complete synopsis is:

nano [OPTION]… [[+LINE] FILE]…

nano [OPTION]… [[+,COLUMN] FILE]…

nano [OPTION]… [[+LINE,COLUMN] FILE]…

Email bug reports to nano@nano-editor.org.