2025.06.12 - GNU nano 8.5 "Sigourney"
• Anchors are now saved when a file is closed, and restored when
the file is reopened -- if and when --positionlog is active.
• Nano exits with an error status upon keystrokes ^O^Q and ^X^Q.
• Keystroke ^L just centers the cursor, while M-% cycles it.
• Option --whitespace is accepted, but left undocumented.
• Syntax coloring now works correctly in more locales.
Before starting to use nano-8.5, best first reverse the order of
your filepos_history file. This file is most likely located in
~/.nano/ or ~/.local/share/nano/. In the relevant directory do:
tac filepos_history >reversed
mv reversed filepos_history
GNU nano is a simple and easy-to-use editor for on the terminal.
https://nano-editor.org/manual.html
A concise overview of nano's shortcut keystrokes:
https://nano-editor.org/cheatsheet.html
The tarball and its signature are here:
https://nano-editor.org/dist/v8/nano-8.5.tar.xz
https://nano-editor.org/dist/v8/nano-8.5.tar.xz.asc
Specific issues that were addressed in this release:
https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?62269 (save and restore anchors [wish])
https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?65755 (provide an exit-with-error [wish])
https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?66978 (cross-compiling failed)
https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?67092 (unbound M-i in Turkish locale)
https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?67094 (lack of coloring in some locales)
https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?67120 (trouble with duplicates in history)
Changes between v8.4 and v8.5:
------------------------------
Peter Michaux (1):
build: add the 'm4/host-cpu-c-abi.m4' file to .gitignore
Benno Schulenberg (46):
anchor: change the aspect of any anchor to a dagger (†)
bindings: always bind ^Q in the WriteOut menu, not only for --saveonexit
bindings: do not list ^L twice (in main help text and help lines)
bindings: let ^L just center the cursor, not cycle it -- let M-% cycle it
bindings: lowercase an ASCII character in a locale-proof manner
build: fix compilation for config with --enable-tiny --enable-histories
build: fix compilation when configured with --disable-histories
build: fix compilation when configured with --disable-utf8
build: swap two linker arguments, to enable compilation on Cygwin
bump version numbers and add a news item for the 8.5 release
docs: add a suggested key combo for wiping all anchors to sample nanorc
docs: baptize the release
docs: in cheatsheet, equalize the spacing in three consecutive blocks
docs: mention that --positionlog also saves the positions of anchors
docs: reword the descriptions of --operatingdir and 'set operatingdir'
feedback: change the appearance of anchors when they will be saved
feedback: change the level of a certain message, to show it is special
feedback: report the setting and removing of an anchor just once
feedback: show in mini bar the presence of an anchor on the cursor line
feedback: suppress "Jumped to anchor" when line numbers are active
feedback: suppress "Removed anchor" when the mini bar is hidden
gnulib: pull in the fix for a cross-compilation failure
gnulib: update to its current upstream state
history: always save the last cursor position, also for line=1,column=1
history: always save the positions of any anchors
history: reverse the order in the file-positions list, to latest first
menus: reshuffle an item, to avoid truncating its help-line label
moving: make cycling (M-%) independent from centering (^L)
new feature: exit with an error status (2) for ^X^Q and ^O^Q
new feature: save and restore anchors when the first line has an anchor
options: accept --whitespacedisplay and 'set whitespacedisplay'
po: update translations and regenerate POT file and PO files
syntax: default: show hard spaces with a lightgrey background
syntaxes: add a license line to files that were created by Mike Frysinger
syntaxes: use character classes instead of range expressions
tweaks: avoid using toupper() and tolower() where easily possible
tweaks: elide an auxiliary variable that is no longer needed
tweaks: elide the unneeded passing around of three parameters
tweaks: elide the unneeded use of an auxiliary function
tweaks: in the browser, implement M-\ and M-/ in a slightly denser way
tweaks: properly tag some keywords in texi doc, instead of using quotes
tweaks: random unimportant edits here and there
tweaks: rename 'use_utf8' to 'using_utf8', and make it a global variable
tweaks: shorten a URL, and update it to use https
tweaks: use reallocations, instead of new allocations plus frees
tweaks: use the correct modifier, to avoid a warning on 32-bit machines
--
Benno
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