Linux Command Line Tutorial

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When working on the command line, quite often you will need to create or edit files. Two of the most famous and powerful command-line editors are Vim and emacs. On the other hand, they are equally difficult to learn. But there is a simpler editor available to just get things done and that is nano.

All commands are prefixed with a control(^) character or metacharacter(M). caret symbol represents control and M represents Meta. Control will generally be your control key. Meta character depends on the keyboard setup. It can either be an Esc key, alt key, or a special meta key.

In this video, I will help you learn the basic usage of the nano editor, including how to create an open file, edit a file, save a file, search and replace text, cut and paste text, and more.

If you wish to get more help, while inside nano editor hit: ^G

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Navigation

Command	Effect
^F	Forward one character
^B	Back one character
^Space	Forward one word
M-Space	Back one word
^P	Previous line
^N	Next line
^A	Beginning of the current line
^E	End of the current line
M-(	Beginning of the current paragraph
M-)	End of the current paragraph
M-\	The first line of the file
M-/	The last line of the file
^_	Move the cursor to a specific line

Search and Replace

Command	Effect
^W	Search pattern
M-W	Move to the next match
^\	Search pattern and replace

Copy, Cut and Paste

Command	Effect
M-A	Select text(set a selection mark)
^6	Cancel the selection press
M-6	Copy the selected text to the clipboard
^K	Cut the selected text
^U	Paste the text at the cursor position

Save and Exit

Command	Effect
^O	Save changes
^X	Exit nano

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