How to move the blinking cursor with the mouse in nano editor?

Question

I am writing a text file through the terminal using nano; everytime I need to select a position of a certain line of my text I can't help but scrolling all the lines moving the blinking cursor using the keyboard arrows; is there a way to avoid this and just use the mouse to directly select where I want the cursor to be?

Reminder: if I want to use gedit I need to type: ssh -X -l root name@ip — Federico Gentile, Dec 13 '14 at 00:57

score 23 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 13 '14 at 01:49

23

You can start nano with the -m (--mouse) option. From man nano

   -m (--mouse)
          Enable  mouse  support,  if  available  for  your system.  When
          enabled, mouse clicks can be used to place the cursor, set  the
          mark  (with  a double click), and execute shortcuts.  The mouse
          will work in the X Window System, and on the console  when  gpm
          is running.

answered Dec 13 '14 at 01:49

steeldriver

136,215
21
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336

1

That's what I was looking for! thank you very much!!! – Federico Gentile Dec 13 '14 at 02:15
4

Ok I just wasted 15 years hitting the arrows to navigate. This the most useful "hidden" feature ever. It should be by default. – Mehdi LAMRANI May 04 '19 at 21:10

score 13 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 18 '23 at 17:16

13

Add this to your ~/.nanorc file

set mouse

This will cause the mouse to work every time you open nano

(source The GNU nanorc documentation)

edited Jan 18 '23 at 17:16

Gabriel Staples

9,155

answered May 08 '18 at 19:03

chaptuck

1,056

score 9 · Answer 3 · edited Feb 15 '23 at 23:29

9

See The GNU nano text editor - Feature Toggles:

[...] the Meta key (Alt or Cmd, shown as M-) [...]

[...]

Mouse Support

M-M toggles the -m (--mouse) command-line option.

Esc+M (always after releasing both) might work, too.

Esc, M (after each other) might work, too.

edited Feb 15 '23 at 23:29

Gerold Broser

248

answered Aug 15 '17 at 15:25

Nythepegasus

101

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 13 '14 at 00:46

2

I think I understand that you want to go to a specific line and a specific character in that line, yes? Without moving the cursor manually through the entire file.

In nano:

If you hit Ctrl+_ (that's Control Shift -, on my keyboard), it will prompt you to enter a line and column number.

answered Dec 13 '14 at 00:46

hlmtre

101
5

2

That's good to know but in the question i was wandering if i can do what you just said with the mouse – Federico Gentile Dec 13 '14 at 00:48
This works but, dude, it is cumbersome to get the line and column to edit. – Francisco Nov 01 '16 at 14:54

How to move the blinking cursor with the mouse in nano editor?

4 Answers4