[ANNOUNCE] nano-8.5 is released

Benno Schulenberg <[email protected]> Thu, 12 Jun 2025 09:52:05 +0200
Newsgroups	gmane.org.fsf.announce
Message-ID	<973dbfa8-f455-45d7-8387-d7bee7d0cab3__26222.7121785813$1749733532$gmane$org@telfort.nl>
2025.06.12 - GNU nano 8.5  "Sigourney"

• Anchors are now saved when a file is closed, and restored when
   the file is reopened -- if and when --positionlog is active.
• Nano exits with an error status upon keystrokes ^O^Q and ^X^Q.
• Keystroke ^L just centers the cursor, while M-% cycles it.
• Option --whitespace is accepted, but left undocumented.
• Syntax coloring now works correctly in more locales.



Before starting to use nano-8.5, best first reverse the order of
your filepos_history file.  This file is most likely located in
~/.nano/ or ~/.local/share/nano/.  In the relevant directory do:

     tac  filepos_history  >reversed
     mv  reversed  filepos_history



GNU nano is a simple and easy-to-use editor for on the terminal.
   https://nano-editor.org/manual.html

A concise overview of nano's shortcut keystrokes:
   https://nano-editor.org/cheatsheet.html

The tarball and its signature are here:
   https://nano-editor.org/dist/v8/nano-8.5.tar.xz
   https://nano-editor.org/dist/v8/nano-8.5.tar.xz.asc



Specific issues that were addressed in this release:
   https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?62269  (save and restore anchors [wish])
   https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?65755  (provide an exit-with-error [wish])
   https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?66978  (cross-compiling failed)
   https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?67092  (unbound M-i in Turkish locale)
   https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?67094  (lack of coloring in some locales)
   https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?67120  (trouble with duplicates in history)



Changes between v8.4 and v8.5:
------------------------------

Peter Michaux (1):
       build: add the 'm4/host-cpu-c-abi.m4' file to .gitignore

Benno Schulenberg (46):
       anchor: change the aspect of any anchor to a dagger (†)
       bindings: always bind ^Q in the WriteOut menu, not only for --saveonexit
       bindings: do not list ^L twice (in main help text and help lines)
       bindings: let ^L just center the cursor, not cycle it -- let M-% cycle it
       bindings: lowercase an ASCII character in a locale-proof manner
       build: fix compilation for config with --enable-tiny --enable-histories
       build: fix compilation when configured with --disable-histories
       build: fix compilation when configured with --disable-utf8
       build: swap two linker arguments, to enable compilation on Cygwin
       bump version numbers and add a news item for the 8.5 release
       docs: add a suggested key combo for wiping all anchors to sample nanorc
       docs: baptize the release
       docs: in cheatsheet, equalize the spacing in three consecutive blocks
       docs: mention that --positionlog also saves the positions of anchors
       docs: reword the descriptions of --operatingdir and 'set operatingdir'
       feedback: change the appearance of anchors when they will be saved
       feedback: change the level of a certain message, to show it is special
       feedback: report the setting and removing of an anchor just once
       feedback: show in mini bar the presence of an anchor on the cursor line
       feedback: suppress "Jumped to anchor" when line numbers are active
       feedback: suppress "Removed anchor" when the mini bar is hidden
       gnulib: pull in the fix for a cross-compilation failure
       gnulib: update to its current upstream state
       history: always save the last cursor position, also for line=1,column=1
       history: always save the positions of any anchors
       history: reverse the order in the file-positions list, to latest first
       menus: reshuffle an item, to avoid truncating its help-line label
       moving: make cycling (M-%) independent from centering (^L)
       new feature: exit with an error status (2) for ^X^Q and ^O^Q
       new feature: save and restore anchors when the first line has an anchor
       options: accept --whitespacedisplay and 'set whitespacedisplay'
       po: update translations and regenerate POT file and PO files
       syntax: default: show hard spaces with a lightgrey background
       syntaxes: add a license line to files that were created by Mike Frysinger
       syntaxes: use character classes instead of range expressions
       tweaks: avoid using toupper() and tolower() where easily possible
       tweaks: elide an auxiliary variable that is no longer needed
       tweaks: elide the unneeded passing around of three parameters
       tweaks: elide the unneeded use of an auxiliary function
       tweaks: in the browser, implement M-\ and M-/ in a slightly denser way
       tweaks: properly tag some keywords in texi doc, instead of using quotes
       tweaks: random unimportant edits here and there
       tweaks: rename 'use_utf8' to 'using_utf8', and make it a global variable
       tweaks: shorten a URL, and update it to use https
       tweaks: use reallocations, instead of new allocations plus frees
       tweaks: use the correct modifier, to avoid a warning on 32-bit machines


-- 

Benno
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