Navigating the nano Editor

Although vim is a very complicated editor with many powerful features, nano is a very simple editor. For individuals who need a simple console mode text editor that is easy to navigate, nano is the tool to use. It's also a great text editor for kids who are starting on their Linux command line adventure.

The nano text editor is a clone of the Unix systems' Pico editor. Although Pico also is a light and simple text editor, it is not licensed under the GPL. Not only is the nano text editor licensed under the GPL, it is also part of the GNU project.

The nano text editor is installed on most Linux distributions by default. Everything about the nano text editor is simple. To open a file at the command line with nano:

$ nano myprog.c

If you start nano without a filename, or if the file doesn't exist, nano simply opens a new buffer area for editing. If you specify an existing file on the command line, nano reads the entire contents of the file into a...