1 <img alt="micro logo" src="./assets/micro-logo.svg" width="500px"/>
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10 **micro** is a terminal-based text editor that aims to be easy to use and intuitive, while also taking advantage of the capabilities
11 of modern terminals. It comes as a single, batteries-included, static binary with no dependencies; you can download and use it right now!
13 As its name indicates, micro aims to be somewhat of a successor to the nano editor by being easy to install and use.
14 It strives to be enjoyable as a full-time editor for people who prefer to work in a terminal, or those who regularly edit files over SSH.
16 Here is a picture of micro editing its source code.
18 ![Screenshot](./assets/micro-solarized.png)
20 To see more screenshots of micro, showcasing some of the default color schemes, see [here](http://zbyedidia.webfactional.com/micro/screenshots.html).
22 You can also check out the website for Micro at https://micro-editor.github.io.
26 - [Features](#features)
27 - [Installation](#installation)
28 - [Prebuilt binaries](#prebuilt-binaries)
29 - [Package Managers](#package-managers)
30 - [Building from source](#building-from-source)
31 - [Fully static binary](#fully-static-binary)
32 - [macOS terminal](#macos-terminal)
33 - [Linux clipboard support](#linux-clipboard-support)
34 - [Colors and syntax highlighting](#colors-and-syntax-highlighting)
35 - [Cygwin, Mingw, Plan9](#cygwin-mingw-plan9)
37 - [Documentation and Help](#documentation-and-help)
38 - [Contributing](#contributing)
44 - Easy to use and install.
45 - No dependencies or external files are needed — just the binary you can download further down the page.
47 - Common keybindings (<kbd>Ctrl-s</kbd>, <kbd>Ctrl-c</kbd>, <kbd>Ctrl-v</kbd>, <kbd>Ctrl-z</kbd>, …).
48 - Keybindings can be rebound to your liking.
50 - You shouldn't have to configure much out of the box (and it is extremely easy to configure).
52 - nano-like menu to help you remember the keybindings.
53 - Extremely good mouse support.
54 - This means mouse dragging to create a selection, double click to select by word, and triple click to select by line.
55 - Cross-platform (it should work on all the platforms Go runs on).
56 - Note that while Windows is supported Mingw/Cygwin is not (see below).
57 - Plugin system (plugins are written in Lua).
58 - micro has a built-in plugin manager to automatically install, remove, and update plugins.
59 - Built-in diff gutter.
60 - Simple autocompletion.
62 - Automatic linting and error notifications.
63 - Syntax highlighting for over [130 languages](runtime/syntax).
64 - Color scheme support.
65 - By default, micro comes with 16, 256, and true color themes.
66 - True color support (set the `MICRO_TRUECOLOR` environment variable to 1 to enable it).
67 - Copy and paste with the system clipboard.
69 - Easily configurable.
71 - Common editor features such as undo/redo, line numbers, Unicode support, soft wrapping, …
75 To install micro, you can download a [prebuilt binary](https://github.com/zyedidia/micro/releases), or you can build it from source.
77 If you want more information about ways to install micro, see this [wiki page](https://github.com/zyedidia/micro/wiki/Installing-Micro).
79 Use `micro -version` to get the version information after installing. It is only guaranteed that you are installing the most recent
80 stable version if you install from the prebuilt binaries, Homebrew, or Snap.
82 A desktop entry file and man page can be found in the [assets/packaging](https://github.com/zyedidia/micro/tree/master/assets/packaging) directory.
86 All you need to install micro is one file, the binary itself. It's as simple as that!
88 Download the binary from the [releases](https://github.com/zyedidia/micro/releases) page.
90 ### Installation script
92 There is a script which can install micro for you by downloading the latest prebuilt binary. You can find it at <https://getmic.ro>.
94 You can easily install micro by running
97 curl https://getmic.ro | bash
100 The script will place the micro binary in the current directory. From there, you can move it to a directory on your path of your choosing (e.g. `sudo mv micro /usr/bin`). See its [GitHub repository](https://github.com/benweissmann/getmic.ro) for more information.
102 To uninstall micro, simply remove the binary, and the configuration directory at `~/.config/micro`.
106 You can install micro using Homebrew on Mac:
112 **Note for Mac:** All micro keybindings use the control or alt (option) key, not the command
113 key. By default, macOS terminals do not forward alt key events. To fix this, please see
114 the section on [macOS terminals](https://github.com/zyedidia/micro#macos-terminal) further below.
116 On Linux, you can install micro through [snap](https://snapcraft.io/docs/core/install)
119 snap install micro --classic
122 **Note for Linux:** for interfacing with the local system clipboard, `xclip` or `xsel`
123 must be installed. Please see the section on [Linux clipboard support](https://github.com/zyedidia/micro#linux-clipboard-support)
126 Micro is also available through other package managers on Linux such as apt, dnf, AUR, Nix, and package managers
127 for other operating systems. These packages are not guaranteed to be up-to-date.
129 * Linux: Available in distro-specific package managers.
130 * `apt install micro` (Ubuntu 20.04 `focal`, and Debian `unstable | testing | buster-backports`). At the moment, this package (2.0.1-1) is outdated and has a known bug where debug mode is enabled.
131 * `dnf install micro` (Fedora).
132 * `yay -S micro` (Arch Linux).
133 * `eopkg install micro` (Solus).
134 * See [wiki](https://github.com/zyedidia/micro/wiki/Installing-Micro) for details about CRUX, Termux.
135 * Windows: [Chocolatey](https://chocolatey.org) and [Scoop](https://github.com/lukesampson/scoop).
136 * `choco install micro`.
137 * `scoop install micro`.
138 * OpenBSD: Available in the ports tree and also available as a binary package.
139 * `pkd_add -v micro`.
140 * NetBSD, macOS, Linux, Illumos, etc. with [pkgsrc](http://www.pkgsrc.org/)-current:
143 ### Building from source
145 If your operating system does not have a binary release, but does run Go, you can build from source.
147 Make sure that you have Go version 1.11 or greater and Go modules are enabled.
150 git clone https://github.com/zyedidia/micro
153 sudo mv micro /usr/local/bin # optional
156 The binary will be placed in the current directory and can be moved to
157 anywhere you like (for example `/usr/local/bin`).
159 The command `make install` will install the binary to `$GOPATH/bin` or `$GOBIN`.
161 You can install directly with `go get` (`go get github.com/zyedidia/micro/cmd/micro`) but this isn't
162 recommended because it doesn't build micro with version information (necessary for the plugin manager),
163 and doesn't disable debug mode.
165 ### Fully static binary
167 By default, the micro binary will dynamically link with core system libraries (this is generally
168 recommended for security and portability). However, there is a fully static prebuilt binary that
169 is provided for amd64 as `linux-static.tar.gz`, and to build a fully static binary from source, run
172 CGO_ENABLED=0 make build
177 If you are using macOS, you should consider using [iTerm2](http://iterm2.com/) instead of the default terminal (Terminal.app). The iTerm2 terminal has much better mouse support as well as better handling of key events. For best keybinding behavior, choose `xterm defaults` under `Preferences->Profiles->Keys->Presets...`, and select `Esc+` for `Left Option Key` in the same menu. The newest versions also support true color.
179 If you still insist on using the default Mac terminal, be sure to set `Use Option key as Meta key` under
180 `Preferences->Profiles->Keyboard` to use <kbd>option</kbd> as <kbd>alt</kbd>.
182 ### Linux clipboard support
184 On Linux, clipboard support requires:
186 - On X11, the `xclip` or `xsel` commands (for Ubuntu: `sudo apt install xclip`)
187 - On Wayland, the `wl-clipboard` command
189 If you don't have these commands, micro will use an internal clipboard for copy and paste, but it won't work with external applications.
191 ### Colors and syntax highlighting
193 If you open micro and it doesn't seem like syntax highlighting is working, this is probably because
194 you are using a terminal which does not support 256 color mode. Try changing the color scheme to `simple`
195 by pressing <kbd>Ctrl-e</kbd> in micro and typing `set colorscheme simple`.
197 If you are using the default Ubuntu terminal, to enable 256 make sure your `TERM` variable is set
200 Many of the Windows terminals don't support more than 16 colors, which means
201 that micro's default color scheme won't look very good. You can either set
202 the color scheme to `simple`, or download and configure a better terminal emulator
203 than the Windows default.
205 ### Cygwin, Mingw, Plan9
207 Cygwin, Mingw, and Plan9 are unfortunately not officially supported. In Cygwin and Mingw, micro will often work when run using
208 the `winpty` utility:
214 Micro uses the amazing [tcell library](https://github.com/gdamore/tcell), but this
215 means that micro is restricted to the platforms tcell supports. As a result, micro does not support
216 Plan9, and Cygwin (although this may change in the future). Micro also doesn't support NaCl (which is deprecated anyway).
220 Once you have built the editor, start it by running `micro path/to/file.txt` or `micro` to open an empty buffer.
222 micro also supports creating buffers from `stdin`:
228 You can move the cursor around with the arrow keys and mouse.
230 You can also use the mouse to manipulate the text. Simply clicking and dragging
231 will select text. You can also double click to enable word selection, and triple
232 click to enable line selection.
234 ## Documentation and Help
236 micro has a built-in help system which you can access by pressing <kbd>Ctrl-e</kbd> and typing `help`. Additionally, you can
237 view the help files here:
239 - [main help](https://github.com/zyedidia/micro/tree/master/runtime/help/help.md)
240 - [keybindings](https://github.com/zyedidia/micro/tree/master/runtime/help/keybindings.md)
241 - [commands](https://github.com/zyedidia/micro/tree/master/runtime/help/commands.md)
242 - [colors](https://github.com/zyedidia/micro/tree/master/runtime/help/colors.md)
243 - [options](https://github.com/zyedidia/micro/tree/master/runtime/help/options.md)
244 - [plugins](https://github.com/zyedidia/micro/tree/master/runtime/help/plugins.md)
246 I also recommend reading the [tutorial](https://github.com/zyedidia/micro/tree/master/runtime/help/tutorial.md) for
247 a brief introduction to the more powerful configuration features micro offers.
251 If you find any bugs, please report them! I am also happy to accept pull requests from anyone.
253 You can use the [GitHub issue tracker](https://github.com/zyedidia/micro/issues)
254 to report bugs, ask questions, or suggest new features.
256 For a more informal setting to discuss the editor, you can join the [Gitter chat](https://gitter.im/zyedidia/micro).
258 Sometimes I am unresponsive, and I apologize! If that happens, please ping me.