Nano
The editor nano is a free editor available on all unix systems.
It is not as good as e.g. emacs, but it is an ok alternative if you must work on a remote machine and do not have the time to learning editors like emacs or vi.
To open it, open a terminal and write nano
. To open a file called
file.txt in nano, write nano file.txt
.
The two bottom lines of the window then contain the basic commands (^G: means ctrl G, etc.):
^G Get Help ^O WriteOut ^R Read File ^Y Prev Page ^K Cut Text ^C Cur Pos
^X Exit ^J Justify ^W Where Is ^V Next Page ^U UnCut Text ^T To Spell
Pressing ctrl G gives a list of commands. The M in commands like M-T refers to the META key. On the Mac, you invoke the meta key by pressing the ESC key, and thereafter T (or whatever key is mentioned).
Useful commands when working with large files:
- M-G = Go to line number
- ^K = Remove the whole line (note: different from emacs and see)
To cut and paste text:
- Press ^A key
- Move to the end of the area you want to mark
- Press ^K to cut
- Move to where you want to paste it
- Press ^U to paste
The command info nano
contains some, well, info.