micro/runtime/help/options.md

Options

Micro stores all of the user configuration in its configuration directory.

Micro uses $MICRO_CONFIG_HOME as the configuration directory. If this environment variable is not set, it uses $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/micro instead. If that environment variable is not set, it uses ~/.config/micro as the configuration directory. In the documentation, we use ~/.config/micro to refer to the configuration directory (even if it may in fact be somewhere else if you have set either of the above environment variables).

Here are the available options:

• autoindent: when creating a new line, use the same indentation as the previous line.

  default value: true

• backup: micro will automatically keep backups of all open buffers. Backups are stored in ~/.config/micro/backups and are removed when the buffer is closed cleanly. In the case of a system crash or a micro crash, the contents of the buffer can be recovered automatically by opening the file that was being edited before the crash, or manually by searching for the backup in the backup directory. Backups are made in the background when a buffer is modified and the latest backup is more than 8 seconds old, or when micro detects a crash. It is highly recommended that you leave this feature enabled.

  default value: true

• basename: in the infobar, show only the basename of the file being edited rather than the full path.

  default value: false

• colorcolumn: if this is not set to 0, it will display a column at the specified column. This is useful if you want column 80 to be highlighted special for example.

  default value: 0

• colorscheme: loads the colorscheme stored in $(configDir)/colorschemes/option.micro, This setting is global only.

  default value: default

  Note that the default colorschemes (default, solarized, and solarized-tc) are not located in configDir, because they are embedded in the micro binary.

  The colorscheme can be selected from all the files in the ~/.config/micro/colorschemes/ directory. Micro comes by default with three colorschemes:

  You can read more about micro's colorschemes in the colors help topic (help colors).

• cursorline: highlight the line that the cursor is on in a different color (the color is defined by the colorscheme you are using).

  default value: true

• encoding: the encoding to open and save files with. Supported encodings are listed at https://www.w3.org/TR/encoding/.

  default value: utf-8

• eofnewline: micro will automatically add a newline to the file.

  default value: false

• fastdirty: this determines what kind of algorithm micro uses to determine if a buffer is modified or not. When fastdirty is on, micro just uses a boolean modified that is set to true as soon as the user makes an edit. This is fast, but can be inaccurate. If fastdirty is off, then micro will hash the current buffer against a hash of the original file (created when the buffer was loaded). This is more accurate but obviously more resource intensive. This option is only for people who really care about having accurate modified status.

  default value: true

• fileformat: this determines what kind of line endings micro will use for the file. UNIX line endings are just \n (linefeed) whereas dos line endings are \r\n (carriage return + linefeed). The two possible values for this option are unix and dos. The fileformat will be automatically detected (when you open an existing file) and displayed on the statusline, but this option is useful if you would like to change the line endings or if you are starting a new file.

  default value: unix

• filetype: sets the filetype for the current buffer. Set this option to off to completely disable filetype detection.

  default value: unknown. This will be automatically overridden depending on the file you open.

• ignorecase: perform case-insensitive searches.

  default value: false

• indentchar: sets the indentation character.

  default value: (space)

• infobar: enables the line at the bottom of the editor where messages are printed. This option is global only.

  default value: true

• keepautoindent: when using autoindent, whitespace is added for you. This option determines if when you move to the next line without any insertions the whitespace that was added should be deleted to remove trailing whitespace. By default, the autoindent whitespace is deleted if the line was left empty.

  default value: false

• keymenu: display the nano-style key menu at the bottom of the screen. Note that ToggleKeyMenu is bound to Alt-g by default and this is displayed in the statusline. To disable this, simply by Alt-g to UnbindKey.

  default value: false

• matchbrace: underline matching braces for '()', '{}', '[]' when the cursor is on a brace character.

  default value: true

• mkparents: if a file is opened on a path that does not exist, the file cannot be saved because the parent directories don't exist. This option lets micro automatically create the parent directories in such a situation.

  default value: false

• mouse: mouse support. When mouse support is disabled, usually the terminal will be able to access mouse events which can be useful if you want to copy from the terminal instead of from micro (if over ssh for example, because the terminal has access to the local clipboard and micro does not).

  default value: true

• paste: Treat characters sent from the terminal in a single chunk as a paste event rather than a series of manual key presses. If you are pasting using the terminal keybinding (not Ctrl-v, which is micro's default paste keybinding) then it is a good idea to enable this option during the paste and disable once the paste is over. See > help copypaste for details about copying and pasting in a terminal environment.

  default value: false

• readonly: when enabled, disallows edits to the buffer. It is recommended to only ever set this option locally using setlocal.

  default value: false

• rmtrailingws: micro will automatically trim trailing whitespaces at ends of lines.

  default value: false

• ruler: display line numbers.

  default value: true

• savecursor: remember where the cursor was last time the file was opened and put it there when you open the file again. Information is saved to ~/.config/micro/buffers/

  default value: false

• savehistory: remember command history between closing and re-opening micro. Information is saved to ~/.config/micro/buffers/history.

  default value: true

• saveundo: when this option is on, undo is saved even after you close a file so if you close and reopen a file, you can keep undoing. Information is saved to ~/.config/micro/buffers/.

  default value: false

• scrollbar: display a scroll bar

  default value: false

• scrollmargin: margin at which the view starts scrolling when the cursor approaches the edge of the view.

  default value: 3

• scrollspeed: amount of lines to scroll for one scroll event.

  default value: 2

• smartpaste: add leading whitespace when pasting multiple lines. This will attempt to preserve the current indentation level when pasting an unindented block.

  default value: true

• softwrap: wrap lines that are too long to fit on the screen.

  default value: false

• splitbottom: when a horizontal split is created, create it below the current split.

  default value: true

• splitright: when a vertical split is created, create it to the right of the current split.

  default value: true

• statusformatl: format string definition for the left-justified part of the statusline. Special directives should be placed inside $(). Special directives include: filename, modified, line, col, opt, bind. The opt and bind directives take either an option or an action afterward and fill in the value of the option or the key bound to the action.

  default value: $(filename) $(modified)($(line),$(col)) $(status.paste)| ft:$(opt:filetype) | $(opt:fileformat) | $(opt:encoding)

• statusformatr: format string definition for the right-justified part of the statusline.

  default value: $(bind:ToggleKeyMenu): bindings, $(bind:ToggleHelp): help

• statusline: display the status line at the bottom of the screen.

  default value: true

• sucmd: specifies the super user command. On most systems this is "sudo" but on BSD it can be "doas." This option can be customized and is only used when saving with su.

  default value: sudo

• syntax: enables syntax highlighting.

  default value: true

• tabmovement: navigate spaces at the beginning of lines as if they are tabs (e.g. move over 4 spaces at once). This option only does anything if tabstospaces is on.

  default value: false

• tabsize: the size in spaces that a tab character should be displayed with.

  default value: 4

• tabstospaces: use spaces instead of tabs.

  default value: false

• useprimary (only useful on unix): defines whether or not micro will use the primary clipboard to copy selections in the background. This does not affect the normal clipboard using Ctrl-c and Ctrl-v.

  default value: true

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Plugin options: all plugins come with a special option to enable or disable them. The option is a boolean with the same name as the plugin itself.

Any option you set in the editor will be saved to the file ~/.config/micro/settings.json so, in effect, your configuration file will be created for you. If you'd like to take your configuration with you to another machine, simply copy the settings.json to the other machine.

Global and local settings

You can set these settings either globally or locally. Locally means that the setting won't be saved to ~/.config/micro/settings.json and that it will only be set in the current buffer. Setting an option globally is the default, and will set the option in all buffers. Use the setlocal command to set an option locally rather than globally.

The colorscheme option is global only, and the filetype option is local only. To set an option locally, use setlocal instead of set.

In the settings.json file you can also put set options locally by specifying either a glob or a filetype. Here is an example which has tabstospaces on for all files except Go files, and tabsize 4 for all files except Ruby files:

{
	"ft:go": {
		"tabstospaces": false
	},
	"ft:ruby": {
		"tabsize": 2
	},
	"tabstospaces": true,
	"tabsize": 4
}

Or similarly you can match with globs:

{
	"*.go": {
		"tabstospaces": false
	},
	"*.rb": {
		"tabsize": 2
	},
	"tabstospaces": true,
	"tabsize": 4
}