{"id":20765793,"url":"https://github.com/hakerdefo/giga-beest","last_synced_at":"2025-06-17T03:35:44.014Z","repository":{"id":94602846,"uuid":"398093140","full_name":"hakerdefo/GIGA-beest","owner":"hakerdefo","description":"Turn GNU nano editor into a fancy \u0026 powerful editor.","archived":false,"fork":false,"pushed_at":"2021-08-20T02:36:54.000Z","size":10,"stargazers_count":14,"open_issues_count":0,"forks_count":0,"subscribers_count":1,"default_branch":"main","last_synced_at":"2025-04-30T10:01:49.257Z","etag":null,"topics":["editor","linux","nano","text-editor"],"latest_commit_sha":null,"homepage":"","language":null,"has_issues":true,"has_wiki":null,"has_pages":null,"mirror_url":null,"source_name":null,"license":null,"status":null,"scm":"git","pull_requests_enabled":true,"icon_url":"https://github.com/hakerdefo.png","metadata":{"files":{"readme":"README.md","changelog":null,"contributing":null,"funding":null,"license":null,"code_of_conduct":null,"threat_model":null,"audit":null,"citation":null,"codeowners":null,"security":null,"support":null,"governance":null,"roadmap":null,"authors":null,"dei":null,"publiccode":null,"codemeta":null}},"created_at":"2021-08-19T22:48:38.000Z","updated_at":"2025-02-21T19:36:26.000Z","dependencies_parsed_at":"2023-07-28T17:30:51.758Z","dependency_job_id":null,"html_url":"https://github.com/hakerdefo/GIGA-beest","commit_stats":null,"previous_names":[],"tags_count":0,"template":false,"template_full_name":null,"purl":"pkg:github/hakerdefo/GIGA-beest","repository_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/hakerdefo%2FGIGA-beest","tags_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/hakerdefo%2FGIGA-beest/tags","releases_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/hakerdefo%2FGIGA-beest/releases","manifests_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/hakerdefo%2FGIGA-beest/manifests","owner_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/owners/hakerdefo","download_url":"https://codeload.github.com/hakerdefo/GIGA-beest/tar.gz/refs/heads/main","sbom_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/hakerdefo%2FGIGA-beest/sbom","host":{"name":"GitHub","url":"https://github.com","kind":"github","repositories_count":260286402,"owners_count":22986582,"icon_url":"https://github.com/github.png","version":null,"created_at":"2022-05-30T11:31:42.601Z","updated_at":"2022-07-04T15:15:14.044Z","host_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub","repositories_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories","repository_names_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repository_names","owners_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/owners"}},"keywords":["editor","linux","nano","text-editor"],"created_at":"2024-11-17T11:18:59.168Z","updated_at":"2025-06-17T03:35:44.001Z","avatar_url":"https://github.com/hakerdefo.png","language":null,"funding_links":[],"categories":[],"sub_categories":[],"readme":"# GIGA-beest\n## Turn GNU nano editor into a fancy \u0026amp; powerful editor\n\nGNU nano is a lovely little editor that comes preinstalled in many GNU/Linux distributions. It is a very handy and capable editor despite its small footprint. According to documentation available on GNU nano's website,  \n\u003e GNU nano was designed to be a free replacement for the Pico text editor, part of the Pine email suite from The University of Washington. It aimed to \"emulate Pico as closely as is reasonable and then include extra functionality\".  \n\nPerhaps this aim of emulating Pico is responsible for less than friendly default keybindings of nano. And for some unknown and obscure reasons many of nano's cool features are disabled by default. This results in nano coming out across as a plain Jane little text editor that is uncool. And that is not true.  \n\nIt is so darn easy to unleash the true potential of nano and make it shine. All one needs to do is create a file with the name \u003ccode\u003e.nanorc\u003c/code\u003e in the \u003ccode\u003e$HOME\u003c/code\u003e directory,  \n```text\ntouch $HOME/.nanorc\n```\nNext open that file and simply paste the following content in it,  \n```text\nset atblanks\nset autoindent\nset backup\nset backupdir \"/home/$USER/Documents/Nano_Backups/\"\nset boldtext\nset constantshow\nset cutfromcursor\nset indicator\nset linenumbers\nset magic\nset minibar\nset mouse\nset showcursor\nset softwrap\nset speller \"aspell -x -c\"\nset trimblanks\nset whitespace \"»·\"\nset zap\nset multibuffer\n\nset titlecolor bold,lightwhite,blue\nset promptcolor lightwhite,lightblack\nset statuscolor bold,lightwhite,green\nset errorcolor bold,lightwhite,red\nset spotlightcolor black,lime\nset selectedcolor lightwhite,magenta\nset stripecolor ,yellow\nset scrollercolor cyan\nset numbercolor cyan\nset keycolor cyan\nset functioncolor green\n\ninclude \"/usr/share/nano/*.nanorc\"\n\nbind ^Q exit all\nbind ^S savefile main\nbind ^W writeout main\nbind ^O insert main\nbind ^H help all\nbind ^H exit help\nbind ^F whereis all\nbind ^G findnext all\nbind ^B wherewas all\nbind ^D findprevious all\nbind ^R replace main\nbind ^X cut main\nbind ^C copy main\nbind ^V paste all\nbind ^P location main\nbind ^E execute main\nbind ^A mark main\nunbind ^K main\nunbind ^U all\nunbind ^N main\nunbind ^Y all\nunbind M-J main\nunbind M-T main\nbind ^T gotoline main\nbind ^T gotodir browser\nbind ^T cutrestoffile execute\nbind ^L linter execute\nbind M-U undo main\nbind M-R redo main\nbind ^Z undo main\nbind ^Y redo main\n\n```\nYou'll have to replace \u003ccode\u003e$USER\u003c/code\u003e in the following line,  \n\u003ccode\u003eset backupdir \"/home/$USER/Documents/Nano_Backups/\"\u003c/code\u003e  \nwith your actual \u003ccode\u003eusername\u003c/code\u003e and then save this file.  \n\nWouldn't it be nice if the colors in nano were different for a normal user and a root user? Yes, for sure. To do so create an empty \u003ccode\u003e.nanorc\u003c/code\u003e file in the root's directory. You'll have to do this with the help of either \u003ccode\u003esudo\u003c/code\u003e or \u003ccode\u003esu\u003c/code\u003e,  \n```text\ntouch /root/.nanorc\n```\nOpen that file and paste this content in it and save the changes.  \n```text\nset atblanks\nset autoindent\nset backup\nset backupdir \"/root/Documents/Nano_Backups/\"\nset boldtext\nset constantshow\nset cutfromcursor\nset indicator\nset linenumbers\nset magic\nset minibar\nset mouse\nset showcursor\nset softwrap\nset speller \"aspell -x -c\"\nset trimblanks\nset whitespace \"»·\"\nset zap\nset multibuffer\n\nset titlecolor bold,lightwhite,magenta\nset promptcolor black,yellow\nset statuscolor bold,lightwhite,magenta\nset errorcolor bold,lightwhite,red\nset spotlightcolor black,orange\nset selectedcolor lightwhite,cyan\nset stripecolor ,yellow\nset scrollercolor magenta\nset numbercolor magenta\nset keycolor lightmagenta\nset functioncolor magenta\n\ninclude \"/usr/share/nano/*.nanorc\"\n\nbind ^Q exit all\nbind ^S savefile main\nbind ^W writeout main\nbind ^O insert main\nbind ^H help all\nbind ^H exit help\nbind ^F whereis all\nbind ^G findnext all\nbind ^B wherewas all\nbind ^D findprevious all\nbind ^R replace main\nbind ^X cut main\nbind ^C copy main\nbind ^V paste all\nbind ^P location main\nbind ^E execute main\nbind ^A mark main\nunbind ^K main\nunbind ^U all\nunbind ^N main\nunbind ^Y all\nunbind M-J main\nunbind M-T main\nbind ^T gotoline main\nbind ^T gotodir browser\nbind ^T cutrestoffile execute\nbind ^L linter execute\nbind M-U undo main\nbind M-R redo main\nbind ^Z undo main\nbind ^Y redo main\n\n```\n\nFinally we need to create a couple of directories to save the backup files. Backups are enabled in nano and this is a good choice if you ask me.  \nBackup directory for a normal user,  \n```text\nmkdir -p $HOME/Documents/Nano_Backups/\n```\nAnd backup directory for root user. Do run this command as \u003ccode\u003esudo\u003c/code\u003e or \u003ccode\u003esu\u003c/code\u003e,  \n```text\nmkdir -p /root/Documents/Nano_Backups/\n```\n\nSpell checker is enabled in nano via this configuration but to utilize it you'll have to install \u003ccode\u003easpell\u003c/code\u003e and \u003ccode\u003easpell-dictionary\u003c/code\u003e from your package manager.  \n\nKudos! We have turned a timid GNU nano into a powerful wildebeest.  \nAnd don't forget what some wise man famously and rightly said,  \n\u003e Good Things Come in Small Packages.\n\nCredit for this whole effort goes to [Klaatu](https://github.com/notklaatu) and his podcast on GNU nano. If you are not listening to his podcasts you for sure are missing something great. Go check it out as soon as possible,  \n[The GNU  World  Order](http://gnuworldorder.info/)  \n\nBye Bye.  \n","project_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/projects/github.com%2Fhakerdefo%2Fgiga-beest","html_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/projects/github.com%2Fhakerdefo%2Fgiga-beest","lists_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/projects/github.com%2Fhakerdefo%2Fgiga-beest/lists"}