#+TITLE: Nano configuration
#+setupfile: headers
#+OPTIONS: auto-id:t
#+HTML_HEAD_EXTRA: <meta name="description" content="Phundrak's nano configuration" />
#+HTML_HEAD_EXTRA: <meta property="og:title" content="Phundrak's nano configuration" />
#+HTML_HEAD_EXTRA: <meta property="og:description" content="Description of the nano configuration of Phundrak" />
#+PROPERTY: header-args :tangle ~/.config/nano/nanorc

* Introduction
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: Introduction-7e535842
:END:
*Before proceeding, be aware that I deprecated this nano config on August 28th, 2020, meaning I won’t update it anymore unless I use it again some day in the future. I will keep it on my website though.*

I nowadays rarely use Nano as a text editor, since I mainly rely on Emacs for all sorts of tasks, including quick file editing. However, at times, Emacs won’t work or won’t be available, and I therefore need a lightweight, fast and reliable text editor: Nano. And despite Nano being a simple piece of software, it does offer some customization I cannot refuse. Here is how I configured it:

* Configuration
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: Configuration-b55668a7
:END:
When saving a file, create a backup file by adding a tilde (=~=) to the file's name. And make and keep not just one backup file, but make and keep a uniquely numbered one every time a file is saved — when backups are enabled with =set backup= or =--backup= or =-B=. The uniquely numbered files are stored in the directory =~/.cache/nano/backups/=.
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
  set backup
  set backupdir /home/phundrak/.cache/nano/backups/
#+END_SRC

Save a file by default in Unix format. This overrides nano's default behavior of saving a file in the format that it had. (This option has no effect when you also use =set noconvert=.)
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
  set unix
#+END_SRC

** Keys behavior
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: Configuration-Keys_behavior-c665fa36
:END:
Make the Home key smarter. When Home is pressed anywhere but at the very beginning of non-whitespace characters on a line, the cursor will jump to that beginning (either forwards or backwards). If the cursor is already at that position, it will jump to the true beginning of the line.
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
  set smarthome
#+END_SRC

** Search
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: Configuration-Search-6e458076
:END:
Do case-unsensitive searches by default.
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
  unset casesensitive
#+END_SRC

Do regular-expression searches by default. Regular expressions in =nano= are of the extended type (ERE).
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
  set regexp
#+END_SRC

** Visual settings
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: Configuration-Visual_settings-9952f2ae
:END:
Use bold instead of reverse video for the title bar, status bar, key combos, function tags, line numbers, and selected text. This can be overridden by setting the options =titlecolor=, =statuscolor=, =keycolor=, =functioncolor=, =numbercolor=, and =selectedcolor=.
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
  set boldtext
#+END_SRC

Enable soft line wrapping for easier viewing of very long lines.
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
 set softwrap
#+END_SRC

When soft line wrapping is enabled, make it wrap lines at blank characters (tabs and spaces) instead of always at the edge of the screen.
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
  set atblanks
#+END_SRC

Display line numbers to the left of the text area.
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
  set linenumbers
#+END_SRC

Constantly display the cursor position in the status bar. This overrides the option =quickblank=.
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
  set constantshow
#+END_SRC

** Whitespace settings
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: Configuration-Whitespace_settings-8cef9cd7
:END:
Convert typed tabs to spaces. Sue me.
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
  set tabstospaces
#+END_SRC

Use a tab size of a certain amount of columns. The value of number must be greater than 0. The default value is 8.
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
set tabsize 2
#+END_SRC

Automatically indent a newly created line to the same number of tabs and/or spaces as the previous line (or as the next line if the previous line is the beginning of a paragraph).
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
  set autoindent
#+END_SRC

Remove trailing whitespace from wrapped lines when automatic hard-wrapping occurs or when text is justified.
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
set trimblanks
#+END_SRC

** Included configuration file
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: Configuration-Included_configuration_file-70b0f35b
:END:
Nano gives the opportunity to include some files located elsewhere. This is why I added [[https://github.com/scopatz/nanorc][this repo]] as a submodule of my dotfiles so I can access a lot of them at the same time. Since the submodule is cloned in =~/.config/nanorc=, we can add only one line to include all of the =.nanorc= files.
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
  include ~/.config/nano/nano-syntax/*.nanorc
#+END_SRC