So when I use nano it opens a little interface to edit the file. However, is there a way to open the file with text editor?, as that is much easier to edit, navigate and save.

closed as off-topic by peterh, Stephen Rauch, Jeff Schaller, muru, JdeBP Dec 17 '17 at 2:49


  • "This question has been posted on multiple sites. Cross-posting is strongly discouraged; see the help center and community FAQ for more information." – peterh, Stephen Rauch, Jeff Schaller, muru, JdeBP

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    Cross-posted: askubuntu.com/questions/986977/… – steeldriver Dec 17 '17 at 0:34
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    Firstly nano is a text editor as is vim. Secondly, easy is subjective. It doesn't get much easier than nano or vim. – Travis Clarke Dec 17 '17 at 1:00
  • It's much harder to navigate - e.g. you can't change position with your mouse, you have to use arrows etc. And to save the file it takes 3 commands as opposed to simply command + S – Zorgan Dec 17 '17 at 1:03
  • If your criteria for easy is fewer key-strokes or mouse support then why not vim?: ZZ or :x (save and quit) :set mouse=a (all mouse features). – Travis Clarke Dec 17 '17 at 1:15
  • Or emacs if you are looking for a more elegant GUI. – Travis Clarke Dec 17 '17 at 1:36
  1. Nano Is a text editor. Now I must admit that I dislike it And the first thing I do is uninstall it and install my prefered editor, but it is an editor capable of doing all basic editing tasks.

  2. if you type nano chances are you will start nano. If you do not want to run nano, don't type nano.

  3. If you did not type nano, but it started anyway for example sudoedit, visudo, etc. either set the EDITOR or VISUAL environment variable to point to the editor of your choice (remember that you may need the editor to not background itself or it will cause problems with the wrappers). Also if you are using a debian derived distro sensible-editor and alternatives allow further configuration.

  4. If you did not type nano and You are still getting nano In spite of the above you can rename nano to something like nano.real and make a symbolic link from nano to the editor of your choice (as long as your editor does not automatically background itself, a wrapper script may help).
