GNU nano keyboard shortcuts cheat sheet
Printable cheat sheet covering all 57 GNU nano 2025 keyboard shortcuts and hotkeys, organized by category. Export as PDF or print directly.
All shortcuts
- Ctrl+S — Save current file
- Ctrl+O — Offer to write file ("Save as")
- Ctrl+R — Insert a file into current one
- Ctrl+X — Close buffer, exit from nano
- Ctrl+K — Cut current line into cutbuffer
- Alt+6 — Copy current line into cutbuffer
- Ctrl+U — Paste contents of cutbuffer
- Alt+T — Cut until end of buffer
- Ctrl+BracketRight — Complete current word
- Alt+3 — Comment/uncomment line/region
- Alt+U — Undo last action
- Alt+E — Redo last undone action
- Ctrl+Q — Start backward search
- Ctrl+W — Start forward search
- Alt+Q — Find next occurrence backward
- Alt+W — Find next occurrence forward
- Alt+R — Start a replacing session
- Ctrl+H — Delete character before cursor
- Ctrl+D — Delete character under cursor
- Alt+Backspace — Delete word to the left
- Ctrl+Delete — Delete word to the right
- Alt+Delete — Delete current line
- Ctrl+T — Execute some command
- Ctrl+J — Justify paragraph or region
- Alt+J — Justify entire buffer
- Alt+B — Run a syntax check
- Alt+F — Run a formatter/fixer/arranger
- Alt+Semicolon — Replay macro
- Ctrl+B — One character backward
- Ctrl+F — One character forward
- Ctrl+ArrowLeft — One word backward
- Ctrl+ArrowRight — One word forward
- Ctrl+A — To start of line
- Ctrl+E — To end of line
- Ctrl+P — One line up
- Ctrl+N — One line down
- Ctrl+ArrowUp — To previous block
- Ctrl+ArrowDown — To next block
- Ctrl+Y — One page up
- Ctrl+V — One page down
- Alt+Backslash — To top of buffer
- Alt+Slash — To end of buffer
- Alt+G — Go to specified line
- Alt+BracketRight — Go to complementary bracket
- Alt+ArrowUp — Scroll viewport up
- Alt+ArrowDown — Scroll viewport down
- Ctrl+C — Report cursor position
- Alt+D — Report line/word/character count
- Ctrl+G — Display help text
- Alt+A — Turn the mark on/off
- Tab — Indent marked region
- Shift+Tab — Unindent marked region
- Alt+N — Turn line numbers on/off
- Alt+P — Turn visible whitespace on/off
- Alt+V — Enter next keystroke verbatim
- Ctrl+L — Refresh the screen
- Ctrl+Z — Suspend nano
Other Code & Text apps
Related pages