micro/runtime/help/options.md

Options

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

Micro uses the $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/micro as the configuration directory. As per the XDG spec, if $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is not set, ~/.config/micro is used as the config directory.

Here are the options that you can set:

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

  default value: true

• autosave: micro will save the buffer every 8 seconds automatically. Micro also will automatically save and quit when you exit without asking. Be careful when using this feature, because you might accidentally save a file, overwriting what was there before.

  default value: false

• 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

• 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 (lf) whereas dos line endings are \r\n (crlf). The two possible values for this option are unix and dos. The fileformat will be automatically detected 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. This setting is local only.

  default value: this will be automatically set depending on the file you have open

• ignorecase: perform case-insensitive searches.

  default value: false

• indentchar: sets the indentation character.

  default value:

• 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. 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

• mouse: whether to enable 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

• pluginchannels: contains all the channels micro's plugin manager will search for plugins in. A channel is simply a list of 'repository' json files which contain metadata about the given plugin. See the Plugin Manager section of the plugins help topic for more information.

  default value: https://github.com/micro-editor/plugin-channel

• pluginrepos: contains all the 'repositories' micro's plugin manager will search for plugins in. A repository consists of a repo.json file which contains metadata for a single plugin.

  default value:

• rmtrailingws: micro will automatically trim trailing whitespaces at eol.

  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.

  default value: false

• savehistory: remember command history between closing and re-opening micro.

  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.

  default value: false

• scrollbar: display a scroll bar

  default value: false

• scrollmargin: amount of lines you would like to see above and below the cursor.

  default value: 3

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

  default value: 2

• smartpaste: should micro 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: should micro wrap lines that are too long to fit on the screen.

  default value: false

• splitbottom: when a horizontal split is created, should it be created below the current split?

  default value: true

• splitright: when a vertical split is created, should it be created to the right of the current split?

  default value: true

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

  default value: true

• matchbrace: highlight matching braces for '()', '{}', '[]'

  default value: false

• matchbraceleft: when matching a closing brace, should matching match the brace directly under the cursor, or the character to the left? only matters if matchbrace is true

  default value: false

• syntax: turns syntax on or off.

  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

• 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: sets the tab size to option

  default value: 4

• tabstospaces: use spaces instead of tabs

  default value: false

• termtitle: defines whether or not your terminal's title will be set by micro when opened.

  default value: false

• useprimary (only useful on *nix): 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

---

Default plugin options:

• autoclose: automatically close {} () [] "" ''. Provided by the autoclose plugin

  default value: true

• ftoptions: by default, micro will set some options based on the filetype. At the moment, micro will use tabs for makefiles and spaces for python and yaml files regardless of your settings. If you would like to disable this behavior turn this option off.

  default value: true

• linter: Automatically lint when the file is saved. Provided by the linter plugin.

  default value: true

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.

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
}