Jumping to the End of File in Nano

1. Introduction

Often, we have to edit long text files such as configurations or code using the command line. One of the tools we commonly use for this purpose is nano.

Sometimes, we need to make edits at the end of the file, and opening the file and scrolling all the way down is cumbersome. However, there are ways to jump to the end of the file in nano. In this tutorial, we’ll look at how to do this.

2. The +LINE Argument

While opening the file with nano, we can use the +LINE argument, where LINE is the line number it will open. By setting a large value for this, we can open the editor with the last line in focus. The idea is that if we use a number that exceeds the number of lines in the file, nano will open the last line.

Say our example file is /etc/mongod.conf and we want to open the last line of this file:

$ nano +999999 /etc/mongod.conf

We can also use a negative number to achieve the same result. When we use negative numbers, nano counts the line numbers from the end. So -1 will open the last line, -2 will open the second to last line, and so on. With a negative line number, the command will look like:

$ nano +-1 /etc/mongod.conf

With both of the above commands, nano will open the file for editing with the last line in focus.

3. Using Ctrl + Underscore

Assuming we have already opened a file in nano, we can use Ctrl + _ after which we can enter a line number to jump to. If our keyboard has the underscore (_) on a key above the minus sign (-), we need to then press Ctrl + Shift + –. Once we press these keys, the following prompt will appear:

Enter line number, column number:

Once we see this, we have three options:

• Enter 999999 or some large number that exceeds the number of lines in the file
• Enter -1
• Press Ctrl + V

Doing any one of the above actions will take us to the last line of the file.

4. Using Ctrl + W

While using nano, Ctrl + W is the shortcut for searching. Once we press this, a search prompt will open. We can then press Ctrl + V to jump to the end of the file.

5. Using Alt + /

After we’ve opened our file in nano, simply pressing Alt + / will take us to the last line. This is a one-step method.

6. Conclusion

In this article, we looked at several methods to jump to the end of the file in nano. The easiest way to do this is to open the editor with the last line in focus, by specifying a very large line number or -1 as the line number, using the +LINE option.

If we’ve already opened the file and we only need to jump to the end, we can use Alt + /. This shortcut is just one step, easier to remember, and not confused with other shortcuts. Methods involving Ctrl + V can be confused with the shortcut for pasting from the clipboard, which, in the terminal, is Ctrl + Shift + V.