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Syntax highlighting in nano on Mac OS
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install nano.sh
# Last updated March, 2022 for Apple silicon Macs
# Install Homebrew if you don't already have it: https://brew.sh
# install nano from homebrew
brew install nano nanorc
# update your nanorc file
echo 'include "/opt/homebrew/share/nanorc/*.nanorc"' >> ~/.nanorc
# close and re-open your terminal and you'll have syntax highlighting
@JBallin
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JBallin commented Feb 12, 2018

I had issues with above solutions but laid out how I did it here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/48752837/4722345

@supriyo-biswas
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It's also possible to use a wildcard instead of listing all the files:

include /usr/local/share/nano/*.nanorc

@chaim1221
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yeah wildcard would have been helpful at the top, lol...

but all this talk about not working on High Sierra, it was literally as simple as the first two commands idk what y'all did

@brandonimitch
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Doesn't work

@fevangelou
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Thanks for the tips from the original post and the comments following.

Since Nano Editor v4.0 was released today, I made a bash script to simplify installation on the Mac, with syntax highlighting enabled.

https://gist.github.com/fevangelou/be744753730e86b8783fd481f311a7c9

Enjoy :)

@a3igner
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a3igner commented Apr 10, 2019 •
edited

I tried this but gets an error from nanorc

Cannot find directory

Include ~/.nanorc/Syntax

Even though it does exist! I tried every other possible way to write the include statement

What is wrong? I managed to find out after some digging and will answer this here in case other people have the same problem as me.

nano -V

are we running 4.0 or some old version of nano that comes with OSX?

sudo nano /etc/paths

does it look like this?

GNU nano 4.0 /etc/paths

/usr/bin
/bin
/usr/sbin
/sbin
/usr/local/bin
~/Library/Python/2.7/bin/

then change the order and copy the row for /usr/local/bin to the top as such

/usr/local/bin
/usr/bin
/bin
/usr/sbin
/sbin
~/Library/Python/2.7/bin/

Voila. now nano -V shows up as Vers 4.0 (use new terminal window). and all the syntax is loaded correctly.

@peterdk
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peterdk commented Oct 13, 2019

Just installing from brew works perfectly here on 10.14.

@Julian-Nash
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Julian-Nash commented Feb 17, 2020 •
edited

Create a ~/.nanorc file and paste the include list above.

In your ~/.bash_profile:

alias nano=./usr/local/bin/nano

Next time you open nano you should see the syntax highlighting

@aurimasniekis
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Updated .nanorc file with latest syntaxes from brew

include /usr/local/share/nano/asm.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nano/autoconf.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nano/awk.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nano/c.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nano/changelog.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/default.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nano/elisp.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nano/fortran.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nano/gentoo.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nano/go.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nano/groff.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nano/guile.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nano/html.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nano/java.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nano/javascript.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nano/json.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nano/lua.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/nanohelp.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nano/nanorc.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nano/nftables.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/po.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nano/postgresql.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/rust.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nano/sh.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nano/spec.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nano/tcl.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nano/tex.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nano/texinfo.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nano/xml.nanorc

@BlakeGardner
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Author

@aurimasniekis thanks, I've updated the gist to reflect the new file list

@valosekj
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My set-up on MacOS Catalina (10.15.7) with zsh

Install nano from homebrew

brew install nano

After it, I have two versions of nano:

$ ls /usr/local/bin/nano
/usr/local/bin/nano           # installed from brew
$ ls /usr/bin/nano      
/usr/bin/nano                 # original one

Create alias to nano installed from brew inside my zsh config file:

$ sudo vim /etc/zshrc
alias nano='/usr/local/bin/nano'

Create nanorc file and include which languages you want to highlight:

nano ~/.nanorc

@docdyhr
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docdyhr commented Apr 29, 2021 •
edited

nanorc: stable 2020.10.10, HEAD
Improved Nano Syntax Highlighting Files
https://github.com/scopatz/nanorc

brew install nanorc

include /usr/local/share/nanorc/Dockerfile.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/Rnw.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/apacheconf.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/arduino.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/asciidoc.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/asm.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/awk.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/batch.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/c.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/clojure.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/cmake.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/coffeescript.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/colortest.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/conf.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/conky.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/creole.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/csh.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/csharp.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/css.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/csv.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/cython.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/dot.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/dotenv.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/elixir.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/email.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/erb.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/etc-hosts.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/fish.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/fortran.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/fsharp.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/gemini.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/genie.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/gentoo.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/git.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/gitcommit.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/glsl.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/go.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/gophermap.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/gradle.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/groff.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/haml.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/haskell.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/hcl.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/html.j2.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/html.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/i3.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/ical.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/ini.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/inputrc.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/jade.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/java.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/javascript.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/js.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/json.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/keymap.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/kickstart.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/kotlin.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/ledger.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/lisp.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/lua.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/m3u.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/makefile.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/man.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/markdown.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/moonscript.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/mpdconf.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/mutt.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/nanorc.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/nginx.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/nmap.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/ocaml.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/octave.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/patch.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/peg.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/perl.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/perl6.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/php.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/pkg-config.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/pkgbuild.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/po.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/pov.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/powershell.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/privoxy.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/prolog.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/properties.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/pug.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/puppet.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/python.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/reST.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/rpmspec.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/ruby.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/rust.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/scala.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/sed.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/sh.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/sieve.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/sls.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/sparql.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/sql.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/svn.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/swift.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/systemd.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/tcl.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/tex.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/toml.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/ts.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/twig.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/vala.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/verilog.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/vi.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/x11basic.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/xml.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/xresources.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/yaml.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/yum.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/zig.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/zsh.nanorc
include /usr/local/share/nanorc/zshrc.nanorc

@BlakeGardner
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Author

@docdyhr I've updated the gist with your new list of includes

@atmonshi
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atmonshi commented May 8, 2021

thank you so much, worked perfectly for me on mac OS

@hacker1024
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hacker1024 commented May 10, 2021 •
edited

Why does every file need to be listed? The following works for me:

brew install nano
echo 'include "/usr/local/share/nano/*.nanorc"' >> ~/.nanorc

@lorthirk
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+1 on @hacker1024 comment. single include with *.nanorc works for me as well.

@regexyl
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regexyl commented Jun 20, 2021

Thanks this worked! Is there any reason why the syntax highlighting only applies to nano, not sudo nano though?

@lorthirk
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Thanks this worked! Is there any reason why the syntax highlighting only applies to nano, not sudo nano though?

In order to have it for sudo nano you have to edit the .nanorc for the root user

@regexyl
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regexyl commented Jun 20, 2021

@lorthirk That makes sense. Thanks for the help!

@romantech
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romantech commented Aug 22, 2021 •
edited

Why does every file need to be listed? The following works for me:

brew install nano
echo 'include "/usr/local/share/nano/*.nanorc"' >> ~/.nanorc

This is nice! It works fine for me. Thank you!

@secfb
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secfb commented Oct 4, 2021

Mac OSX Big Sur
nano version:5.8

brew install nano 
echo 'include "/opt/homebrew/Cellar/nano/5.8/share/nano/*.nanorc"'>> ~/.nanorc

@robert-duplock-adg
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robert-duplock-adg commented Dec 13, 2021 •
edited

Thanks @secfb (above), it worked beautifully on an M1 Mac running Monterery & zsh.
I ran:

brew install nano 
# Restart terminal
nano -V 
# Note the version number
echo 'include "/opt/homebrew/Cellar/nano/NANO_VERSION_NUMBER/share/nano/*.nanorc"'>> ~/.nanorc
# EG: echo 'include "/opt/homebrew/Cellar/nano/5.9/share/nano/*.nanorc"'>> ~/.nanorc

@tagplus5
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Brew creates symlink so you don't need set nano version number:
echo 'include "/usr/local/share/nano/*.nanorc"' >> ~/.nanorc

@bbuchheim
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or for Apple Silicon: echo 'include "/opt/homebrew/Cellar/nano/*/share/nano/*.nanorc"' >> ~/.nanorc

@BlakeGardner
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Author

Brew creates symlink so you don't need set nano version number: echo 'include "/usr/local/share/nano/*.nanorc"' >> ~/.nanorc

Thanks @tagplus5, updated the gist for Apple Silicon

@phillco
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phillco commented Apr 7, 2022

or for Apple Silicon: echo 'include "/opt/homebrew/Cellar/nano//share/nano/.nanorc"' >> ~/.nanorc

Thanks! It's weird that you have to encode the wildcard for the version and you don't get a nice symlink like /usr/local/share/nano/ on Intel Macs. Hopefully there's only one version there at a time!

@eureka-cpu
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Brew creates symlink so you don't need set nano version number: echo 'include "/usr/local/share/nano/*.nanorc"' >> ~/.nanorc

Thanks @tagplus5, updated the gist for Apple Silicon

This worked for me, brew install nano and then this command. Thanks! (on M1 MBP)

@IoannisTM
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for me what worked is

echo "include /opt/homebrew/Cellar/nano/6.3/share/nano/*.nanorc" >> ~/.nanorc

@up9cloud
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brew install nano
echo include "$(brew --prefix nano)/share/nano/*.nanorc" >> ~/.nanorc

or

brew install nano
brew install nanorc
echo include "$(brew --prefix nanorc)/share/nanorc/*.nanorc" >> ~/.nanorc

@x86txt
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x86txt commented Nov 8, 2022

latest is:

echo "include /opt/homebrew/Cellar/nano/6.4/share/nano/*.nanorc" >> ~/.nanorc

@x86txt
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x86txt commented Nov 27, 2022 •
edited

For macOS Ventura:

brew install nano nanorc

echo "include /opt/homebrew/Cellar/nano/7.0/share/nano/*.nanorc" >> ~/.nanorc

Note you might want to take this opportunity to just start with a clean .nanorc if you've been upgrading nano and nanorc frequently.

mv ~/.nanorc ~/.nanorc.orig && echo "include /opt/homebrew/Cellar/nano/7.0/share/nano/*.nanorc" > ~/.nanorc

@RobThree
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RobThree commented Feb 15, 2023 •
edited

@x86txt: Replace the …/nano/7.0/share/… part with …/nano/*/share/… so you don't have to keep updating your .nanorc file every time nano updates to a newer version.

@dhorster
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Worked for me:

brew install nano nanorc
echo 'include "/usr/local/Cellar/nano/*/share/nano/*.nanorc"' >> ~/.nanorc

@s-ota-66
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Worked for me:

brew install nano nanorc
echo 'include "/opt/homebrew/share/nanorc/*.nanorc"' >> ~/.nanorc

macOS Ventura 13.2.1
Homebrew 4.0.13

@BlakeGardner
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Author

Thanks, updated the gist @s-ota-66

@benolot
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benolot commented Apr 22, 2023 •
edited

Thanks all for the guide! Can confirm current version is working on 13.3.1

@ryenus
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ryenus commented May 11, 2023 •
edited

Better to use $(brew --prefix) to work with both Intel & ARM chips

brew install nano nanorc
echo 'include "'"$(brew --prefix)"'/share/nanorc/*.nanorc"'

@nospam2k
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nospam2k commented Nov 24, 2023 •
edited

echo 'include "/usr/local/Cellar/nano/*/share/nano/*.nanorc"' >> ~/.nanorc

Works for Sonora

@firstrecall
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firstrecall commented Nov 29, 2023 •
edited

echo 'include "/usr/local/Cellar/nano/*/share/nano/*.nanorc"' >> ~/.nanorc

Probably it would be better to use

echo 'include "'"$(brew --cellar nano)"'/*/share/nano/*.nanorc"' >> ~/.nanorc

so in such case it will use the right path depends on if mac uses Intel or Apple Silicon

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