Any way to search for text within nano?
Solution 1
Ctrl + W is the shortcut for searching. The same effect can be achieved by pressing the F6 key. After entering the search term, press Enter. To repeat the search, issue Alt + W, and to search the previous occurrence, press Alt + Q. In this menu, you can select earlier searches using the arrow up/ down keys.
To toggle backwards searching, you need to press Alt + B in the search dialog.
For more shortcuts, press F1
Solution 2
CTRL+W and find your text in nano
Solution 3
^W (F6) Search for a string or a regular expression
- Not in all system work F1 for help page. Try ^G.
- Not in all system nano has help page
Yep, it's just help page below. For those who see this message [ Sorry, support for this function has been disabled ] instead of nano help page
^G (F1) Display this help text
^X (F2) Close the current file buffer / Exit from nano
^O (F3) Write the current file to disk
^J (F4) Justify the current paragraph
^R (F5) Insert another file into the current one
^W (F6) Search for a string or a regular expression
^Y (F7) Go to previous screen
^V (F8) Go to next screen
^K (F9) Cut the current line and store it in the cutbuffer
^U (F10) Uncut from the cutbuffer into the current line
^C (F11) Display the position of the cursor
^T (F12) Invoke the spell checker, if available
M-\ (M-|) Go to the first line of the file
M-/ (M-?) Go to the last line of the file
^_ (F13) (M-G) Go to line and column number
^\ (F14) (M-R) Replace a string or a regular expression
^^ (F15) (M-A) Mark text at the cursor position
M-W (F16) Repeat last search
M-^ (M-6) Copy the current line and store it in the cutbuffer
M-} Indent the current line
M-{ Unindent the current line
^F Go forward one character
^B Go back one character
^Space Go forward one word
M-Space Go back one word
^P Go to previous line
^N Go to next line
^A Go to beginning of current line
^E Go to end of current line
M-( (M-9) Go to beginning of paragraph; then of previous paragraph
M-) (M-0) Go just beyond end of paragraph; then of next paragraph
M-] Go to the matching bracket
M-- (M-_) Scroll up one line without scrolling the cursor
M-+ (M-=) Scroll down one line without scrolling the cursor
M-< (M-,) Switch to the previous file buffer
M-> (M-.) Switch to the next file buffer
M-V Insert the next keystroke verbatim
^I Insert a tab at the cursor position
^M Insert a newline at the cursor position
^D Delete the character under the cursor
^H Delete the character to the left of the cursor
M-T Cut from the cursor position to the end of the file
M-J Justify the entire file
M-D Count the number of words, lines, and characters
^L Refresh (redraw) the current screen
^Z Suspend the editor (if suspend is enabled)
(M-X) Help mode enable/disable
(M-C) Constant cursor position display enable/disable
(M-O) Use of one more line for editing enable/disable
(M-S) Smooth scrolling enable/disable
(M-P) Whitespace display enable/disable
(M-Y) Color syntax highlighting enable/disable
(M-H) Smart home key enable/disable
(M-I) Auto indent enable/disable
(M-K) Cut to end enable/disable
(M-L) Long line wrapping enable/disable
(M-Q) Conversion of typed tabs to spaces enable/disable
Solution 4
You can search for text in nano using Ctrl W.
Alt W (or Esc, W) will repeat the find. (Alternatively, leaving the box blank will default to the last text searched for.)
Pressing Ctrl R while in the Find prompt will activate Replace mode.
As of nano 2.8.2 (May 2017), searching also works in nano's Ctrl G help screen.
Related videos on Youtube
JD Isaacks
Author of Learn JavaScript Next github/jisaacks twitter/jisaacks jisaacks.com
Updated on September 18, 2022Comments
-
JD Isaacks over 1 year
Nano is the editor I use in command prompts.
When I open a large file I would like to search for some text (think Ctrl + F).
Is there a way to do this?
-
Alexey Ce over 7 yearsCtrl + \ is useful for replace. I never noticed, it's there at the bottom of the nano screen.
-
-
fIwJlxSzApHEZIl almost 9 yearsAlt + W is closing out the iterm shell for me and not repeating the search on Mac
-
ubuntu_uk_user over 8 yearsAlt-B isn't working for me
-
ubuntu_uk_user over 8 yearsHow would you search for a string that occurs multiple times, so loop through highlighting the matched text?
-
Lekensteyn over 8 years@ParsaAkbari Your terminal emulator is probably intercepting the keystroke. Try modifying the terminal shortcuts or use a different one. Konsole works for me.
-
Emiel almost 8 yearsIf you type ctrl + W again and press enter, you will go to the next item. (But I agree that Alt + W is faster.)
-
Eleanor Zimmermann over 7 years
Esc - W
did it for me in Mac OS X El Capitan, v10.11.5 thankyou -
user3757405 over 7 yearsI've discovered recently, a lot of shortcuts tend to work if you press Shift as well, so Alt-Shift-W may work too. (Which makes things a lot easier for repeated searches.)
-
computingfreak over 7 yearsF6 triggers the same action, and saves a keystroke.
-
Lakshman Pilaka over 6 yearsAlt W is what i was looking for.
-
user3757405 over 6 yearsNote, some terminals grab
Alt W
, butAlt Shift W
should also work -
TechFanDan over 2 yearsIn a Citrix window, I found that F6 worked whereas CTRL+W would close the tab in the browser.