How do I extend a selection in nano and pico with the keyboard, so I can move and copy blocks?
Sorry, this is a question I would normally find out by myself but I have searched a lot in different occasions now without success.
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I got this from inside the help screen in nano by pressing ctrl-g:
Ctrl F-Key Esc Key
^^ (F15) (M-A) Mark text at the cursor position
M-^ (M-6) Copy the current line and store it in the cutbuffer
^U (F10) Uncut from the cutbuffer into the current line
^ = ctrl
M = esc
So you position your cursor at the beginning of where you want to select and press esc-a or ctrl-shift-6 or F15 then move the cursor with the arrow keys to highlight the text. Once it is highlighted press esc-6 to copy the text. Lastly move to where you want to paste and press ctrl-u or F10. I just tested this in nano 2.0.6 on OS X but should work across the board.
einstiien
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When available, you can use the Alt key for Meta. So Alt-A toggles set-mark and release-mark – Dennis Williamson Jan 27 '10 at 21:22
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Works great, thank you! Can someone tell me the reason why "M" stands for escape? – user12096 Jan 27 '10 at 21:28
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Good question, I had to do some searching but found it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta_key – einstiien Jan 27 '10 at 21:31
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Also, I tried alt but it didn't work on my console. Could be my emulation though, I have some custom settings because of the servers I connect to. – einstiien Jan 27 '10 at 21:33