• Created by Unknown User (support_team@hostdime.com), last modified by Unknown User (jareds) on Oct 30, 2018

You are viewing an old version of this page. View the current version.

Compare with Current View Page History

« Previous Version 2 Next »

Nano is a tool you can use to modify or create files within SSH. It is incredibly useful for editing existing files and offers a wide range of functionality.

Opening or creation of files:


nano /filedirectory/filename


Nano is a modeless editor, meaning once you have opened a file you can type to add text to it. There may be times when you need to turn off line wrap to ensure there are no formatting issues.


To disable wrapping on long text lines:



nano -w /filedirectory/filename



When you have a file open using nano, there are commands that will assist you in finding, editing, or saving content. Below is a list of commands you can use when editing a file with nano to perform common operations:

To exit:

CTRL+x



To save after modification, exit with the above command and enter "y" when prompted.

To cancel any modification, exit with the above command and enter "n" when prompted.

If creating a new file, upon running the above command you will also be prompted for a file name. Enter the desired file name to create the file.

To cut a single line:



CTRL+k



To paste a line:



CTRL+u



To search for items:



CTRL+w



To save without exiting:



CTRL+o



Justify current selected paragraph:



CTRL+j



Insert a file into the currently selected one:



CTRL+r



Move to previous screen:



CTRL+y


Move to next screen:



CTRL + v



Display cursor:



CTRL+c



Invoke spell checker:



CTRL+t



For further commands that can be used when utilizing the nano utility, please use the following command to pull up a full list of features.

To pull up nano help page:



CTRL+g

  • No labels