nano, Syntax Highlighting

GNU nano is my favorite text editor while I’m on console. Although, it doesn’t offer syntax highlighting by default, it comes with a decent set of syntax highlighting files. Usually, these files are exist in /usr/local/share/nano or /usr/share/nano, depending on your distro’s preference. You can enable syntax highlighting for your prefered language(s) by including related file(s) with .nanorc extension in your ~/.nanorc file.

~/.nanorc - FreeBSD

include "/usr/local/share/nano/asm.nanorc"
include "/usr/local/share/nano/awk.nanorc"
include "/usr/local/share/nano/c.nanorc"
include "/usr/local/share/nano/cmake.nanorc"
include "/usr/local/share/nano/css.nanorc"
include "/usr/local/share/nano/debian.nanorc"
include "/usr/local/share/nano/fortran.nanorc"
include "/usr/local/share/nano/gentoo.nanorc"
include "/usr/local/share/nano/groff.nanorc"
include "/usr/local/share/nano/html.nanorc"
include "/usr/local/share/nano/java.nanorc"
include "/usr/local/share/nano/makefile.nanorc"
include "/usr/local/share/nano/man.nanorc"
include "/usr/local/share/nano/mgp.nanorc"
include "/usr/local/share/nano/mutt.nanorc"
include "/usr/local/share/nano/nanorc.nanorc"
include "/usr/local/share/nano/objc.nanorc"
include "/usr/local/share/nano/ocaml.nanorc"
include "/usr/local/share/nano/patch.nanorc"
include "/usr/local/share/nano/perl.nanorc"
include "/usr/local/share/nano/php.nanorc"
include "/usr/local/share/nano/pov.nanorc"
include "/usr/local/share/nano/python.nanorc"
include "/usr/local/share/nano/ruby.nanorc"
include "/usr/local/share/nano/sh.nanorc"
include "/usr/local/share/nano/tcl.nanorc"
include "/usr/local/share/nano/tex.nanorc"
include "/usr/local/share/nano/xml.nanorc"

~/.nanorc - Funtoo or Gentoo

include "/usr/share/nano/asm.nanorc"
include "/usr/share/nano/awk.nanorc"
include "/usr/share/nano/c.nanorc"
include "/usr/share/nano/cmake.nanorc"
include "/usr/share/nano/css.nanorc"
include "/usr/share/nano/debian.nanorc"
include "/usr/share/nano/fortran.nanorc"
include "/usr/share/nano/gentoo.nanorc"
include "/usr/share/nano/groff.nanorc"
include "/usr/share/nano/html.nanorc"
include "/usr/share/nano/java.nanorc"
include "/usr/share/nano/makefile.nanorc"
include "/usr/share/nano/man.nanorc"
include "/usr/share/nano/mgp.nanorc"
include "/usr/share/nano/mutt.nanorc"
include "/usr/share/nano/nanorc.nanorc"
include "/usr/share/nano/objc.nanorc"
include "/usr/share/nano/ocaml.nanorc"
include "/usr/share/nano/patch.nanorc"
include "/usr/share/nano/perl.nanorc"
include "/usr/share/nano/php.nanorc"
include "/usr/share/nano/pov.nanorc"
include "/usr/share/nano/python.nanorc"
include "/usr/share/nano/ruby.nanorc"
include "/usr/share/nano/sh.nanorc"
include "/usr/share/nano/tcl.nanorc"
include "/usr/share/nano/tex.nanorc"
include "/usr/share/nano/xml.nanorc"

Note: If the file doesn’t exist, you should create it first:

$ touch ~/.nanorc

UPDATE: I usually get the list of all .nanorc files on my system and write them to my ~/.nanorc using the following one liner set of commands. It should work on both bash and csh. Moreover, it disables text-wrapping which you can enable by cutting it off from the begging of it. Just be warned it generates a new ~/.nanorc file for the current user and wipes out all of your old settings.

*BSD$ printf 'set nowrap\n\n' > ~/.nanorc \
    && find /usr/local/share/nano/ -iname '*.nanorc' \
    | xargs printf 'include "%s"\n' >> ~/.nanorc && cat ~/.nanorc

GNU/Linux$ printf 'set nowrap\n\n' > ~/.nanorc \
    && find /usr/share/nano/ -iname '*.nanorc' \
    | xargs printf 'include "%s"\n' >> ~/.nanorc && cat ~/.nanorc

Console FLOSS FOSS FreeBSD Funtoo Gentoo GNU Linux nano Terminal Unix

See also