Syntax highlighting on nano

Question

Can nano do syntax highlighting like gedit and vim? How can I enable it? I need at least bash and python syntax highlights.

Answer 1

The nano editor provides syntax highlighting for a few languages and scripts by itself. Check out /usr/share/nano/

nits@nits-excalibur:~$ ls /usr/share/nano/
asm.nanorc     fortran.nanorc   man.nanorc     ocaml.nanorc   ruby.nanorc
awk.nanorc     gentoo.nanorc    mgp.nanorc     patch.nanorc   sh.nanorc
c.nanorc       groff.nanorc     mutt.nanorc    perl.nanorc    tcl.nanorc
cmake.nanorc   html.nanorc      nano-menu.xpm  php.nanorc     tex.nanorc
css.nanorc     java.nanorc      nanorc.nanorc  pov.nanorc     xml.nanorc
debian.nanorc  makefile.nanorc  objc.nanorc    python.nanorc

Link them to your user's nano configuration file present at ~/.nanorc with something similiar to this line:

nits@nits-excalibur:~$ cat ~/.nanorc
include /usr/share/nano/sh.nanorc

Now, syntax highlighting is enabled in nano for whatever file you linked (You could also link multiple files)

Note: Sometimes you might get a segmentation fault after you have edited your ~/.nanorc file. If such an error occurs, unsetting the LANG environment variable helps. You can unset it with unset LANG in the terminal. (Solution obtained from here)

There are also other solutions if you are not satisfied with your bash highlighting. One example of such can be found here

Answer 2

Yes you can, however the default syntax definitions are quite poor and incomplete. I'm maintaining a more accurate set of definitions here, for anyone who finds them useful.

Answer 3

Yes, it does seem possible. Here's a guide that explains how to enable syntax highlighting: http://tuxarena.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-to-enable-syntax-highlighting-in.html.

It took me a few seconds to google "syntax highlighting nano" and that popped right up. I'd recommend trying to search for your question before asking it, as you will probably get a quicker response time.

On a side note, I highly recommend taking the plunge and learning Vim (or emacs, if that suits you better.) It will only take 20 or 30 minutes to learn the basic functionality you get out of nano, and you can learn about additional features and plugins at whatever pace you want to.