nano is a curses-based text editor. It is a clone of Pico, the editor of the Pine email client.
The nano project was started in 1999 due to licensing issues with the Pine suite (Pine was not distributed under a free software license), and also because Pico lacked some essential features.
nano aims to emulate the functionality and easy-to-use interface of Pico, while offering additional functionality, but without the tight mailer integration of the Pine/Pico package.
nano, like Pico, is keyboard-oriented, controlled with control keys.
Features include:
- Interactive search and replace.
- Color syntax highlighting.
- Go to line and column number .
- Auto-indentation.
- Feature toggles.
- UTF-8 support.
- Mixed file format auto-conversion.
- Verbatim input mode.
- Multiple file buffers.
- Smooth scrolling.
- Bracket matching.
- Customizable quoting string.
- Backup files.
- Internationalization support.
- Filename tab completion.
Website: nano-editor.org
Support: Manual
Developer: Chris Allegretta, David Lawrence, Jordi Mallach, Adam Rogoyski, Robert Siemborski, Rocco Corsi, David Benbennick, Mike Frysinger
License: GNU General Public License v3.0

nano is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
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