Syntax highlighting in nano on Mac OS

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

Mac OSX Big Sur
nano version:5.8

brew install nano 

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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)

for me what worked is

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

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

latest is:

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

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

@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.

Worked for me:

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

Worked for me:

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

macOS Ventura 13.2.1
Homebrew 4.0.13

Thanks, updated the gist @s-ota-66

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

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

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