Textbook of Linux

nano is a simple, friendly terminal text editor aimed at people who find vi and emacs intimidating. It uses a modeless design: you type, and the text appears; no modes to learn, no cryptic commands. Keybindings are shown at the bottom of the screen (^G for help, ^O to save, ^X to exit, ^W to search), using ^ to mean Ctrl.

Nano started in 1999 as a clone of pico (the editor inside the Pine email client), growing into its own project under the GNU umbrella. It is now the default editor on Ubuntu and many other distributions, picked precisely because its learning curve is minutes instead of years.

nano file.txt
EDITOR=nano git commit          # use nano for commit messages
sudo nano /etc/hosts            # quick system edits

Configuration lives in ~/.nanorc and /etc/nanorc, with settings like set linenumbers, set autoindent, and include lines for syntax highlighting. For users who will spend serious time editing text, nano's lack of power eventually frustrates; for quick edits, for beginners, and for sysadmins who want an editor that Just Works, it is an excellent choice.