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When editing an authorised_keys file in Nano, I want to wrap long lines so that I can see the end of the lines (i.e tell whose key it is). Essentially I want it to look like the output of cat authorised_keys

So, I hit Esc + L which is the meta key for enabling long line wrapping on my platform and I see the message to say long line wrapping has been enabled but the lines do not wrap as I expect.

I'm using Terminal on OSX 10.8.5

To see the word wrapping style you described, use nano's "soft wrapping": Esc+$.


The Esc+L command you (and everyone) tried does "hard wrapping."

Note on keystroke notation - if you are new to Linux or nano, the notation Esc+$ does not mean hold down escape while pressing $. It means press and release Esc and then press $. The full key press sequence then is Esc, Shift+4.

Note on softwrap and formatting mistakes - Further, and especially if you are a new user to nano, be careful of softwrap. If you are editing a configuration file or something else that is sensitive to newlines or indents, formatting mistakes can be made. Until you get comfortable with softwrap’s behaviors, I suggest doing a quick check with softwrap off (do the key sequence again) before saving.

_{Source: https://www.nano-editor.org/dist/v2.9/nano.html (search for --softwrap)}

nano linewrap

Just searched for nano line wrapping and this came high in results, so I'll post my findings for GNU nano 2.2.6 on the Raspberry Pi, Raspbian GNU/Linux 7: Esc+L gave me the same message; but for the line wrapping to take effect I had to modify the line. As soon as I typed another character on the long line, wrapping kicked in.

I'm reading the replies here and need to set this straight!

Nano supports two different forms of line wrapping, and it can be essential to know the difference!

First, the Meta key below is often the Alt key, but not necessarily.

• 
  Soft line wrapping is activated with Meta-$. Wraps lines without inserting line break characters into the file. That is, the effect is purely visual.


• 
  Hard line wrapping is activated with Meta-L. Wraps lines by inserting line breaks into the file. The file is physically changed.

So if you activate it in a file where wraps are meaningful (configuration files, programming languages, scripts), you basically never want the hard line wraps or it'll change the meaning of the code.

Also, you'd have found these shortcuts with ^G (i.e. Ctrl-G) in Nano.

Setting a short alias for your nano editor also works well.
I normally use:

 alias  e='nano -$cwS'

 alias se='sudo nano -$cwS'

(Set these in ~/.bashrc (or .bash_aliases on some systems) or your favorite shell startup)

Flags/Options used:

$ = Enable soft-wrapping of lines (escaped using backslash)
c = Show constant cursor position (at bottom)
w = Disable any 'hard wrapping'
S = Smooth scrolling

And (as already mentioned) once in editor, use Esc, $ to toggle soft-wrapping ON/OFF.

Open the nanorc generally at ~/.nanorc or /etc/nanorc, comment out the line

set nowrap

And uncomment line

set softwrap

Hope it helps.

Mac users be advised the version of Nano shipped with High Sierra (v2.0.6) or earlier doesn't support soft line wrapping as described here. You'll get an unknown command error. v2.2 is the earliest version with mention of soft wrap in the man pages. So don't spend an hour trying all these solutions like I did.

Esc+L does work as expected.

The configuration settings for nano 1, nano 2, and nano 3 are different.

On nano 1, you only have the set nowrap setting which disables all wrapping.

On nano 2, set softwrap enables softwrapping and disables hardwrapping.

On nano 3, set softwrap is ignored and nano continues to hardwrap unless you also set set nowrap.

On nano 2 and 3, no set nowrap only disables hardwrapping! and on nano 3 you MUST use it if you want softwrapping.

So if you want text wrapping for long lines that doesn't break your configuration files (softwrapping only), this works for versions 2 and 3: ~/.nanorc

set nowrap

set softwrap