GNU nano

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GNU nano is a free, command‑line text editor for Unix‑like systems. It mimics Pico, the editor from the Pine email client, but adds many extra features and is released under the GNU General Public License.

History in brief
- Created in 1999 by Chris Allegretta under the name TIP (TIP Isn't Pico) to provide a free Pico replacement.
- Renamed to nano in January 2000 to avoid a conflict with the Unix command tip.
- Joined the GNU Project in February 2001.

Key features
- Keyboard driven, using control keys (for example, Ctrl+O to save, Ctrl+W to search).
- A two‑line shortcut bar at the bottom shows common commands; Ctrl+G opens the help screen.
- Supports syntax highlighting, line numbers, regular expression search and replace, multiple buffers, indenting blocks, and undo/redo.
- Keys can be rebound; on keyboards without a Meta key you can simulate it with Escape.
- Can use a mouse to click the shortcut bar and position the cursor.
- Cross‑platform and included with many GNU‑based systems.

Licensing and maintenance
- Free software under the GNU GPL (historically GPL‑1.0‑or‑later, then GPL‑2.0‑or‑later, now GPL‑3.0‑or‑later).
- Maintenance has passed through several hands: Allegretta to David Lawrence Ramsey in 2003; Ramsey stepped down in 2007. The current maintainer is Benno Schulenberg.
- In 2016, some developers left the GNU Project over copyright policy, creating a temporary fork; nano returned to GNU later that year with the 2.7.0 release.

Name and branding
- The name nano comes from the SI prefix nano (one thousandth of pico) to suggest a smaller Pico.
- The logo resembles the lowercase Greek letter eta (η).