Micro Cheatsheet

Micro is the default text editor of Garuda Linux. Unlike most of the distributions that provide vi or nano as default text editor, Garuda Linux ships micro because it is very user friendly, intuitive, has a beautiful UI and is easy to configure.

Micro editor

Cursor movement

Action	Keybinding
Move cursor	Up Arrow Down Arrow Right Arrow Left Arrow
Move lines up or down	Alt + Up Arrow Alt + Down Arrow
Start of line	Alt + Left Arrow Home
End of line	Alt + Right Arrow End
Start of file	Control + Up Arrow Control + Home
End of file	Control + Down Arrow Control + End
Previous or next paragraph	Alt + Left Curly Bracket Alt + Right Curly Bracket
Page up or down	PageUp PageDown
Go to line	Control + L

Selection

Action	Keybinding
Select text	Shift + Up Arrow Shift + Down Arrow Shift + Left Arrow Shift + Right Arrow
Select word left or right	Control + Shift + Left Arrow Control + Shift + Right Arrow
Select to start of line	Alt + Shift + Left Arrow Shift + Home
Select to end of line	Alt + Shift + Right Arrow Shift + End
Select to start of file	Control + Shift + Up Arrow
Select to end of file	Control + Shift + Down Arrow
Select all	Control + A
Multi-cursor	Control + left click

Editing

Action	Keybinding
New line	Enter
Indent or autocomplete	Tab
Outdent	Shift + Tab
Backspace	Backspace Control + H
Delete word left	Alt + Backspace Alt + Control + H
Delete	Delete
Toggle overwrite mode	Insert
Cut	Control + X
Cut line	Control + K
Copy	Control + C
Copy line	Control + C (no selection)
Paste	Control + V
Duplicate line	Control + D
Undo	Control + Z
Redo	Control + Y
Record or play macro	Control + U records, Control + J plays

Files and tabs

Action	Keybinding
Open file	Control + O
Save	Control + S
Quit	Control + Q
New tab	Control + T
Previous or next tab	Alt + Comma Alt + Period Control + PageUp Control + PageDown
Switch split	Control + W

Search

Action	Keybinding
Find	Control + F
Find next	Control + N
Find previous	Control + P

Other

Action	Keybinding
Toggle help	Control + G
Toggle key menu	Alt + G
Toggle ruler	Control + R
Command mode	Control + E
Shell mode	Control + B
Scroll	Mouse wheel

Tips

Micro has many features that the tables above do not cover.

Command bar

Press Control + E to open the command bar. Type part of a command and press Tab to complete it. Run help commands for the full list.

Command	Purpose
`save [filename]`	Save as a new file. Without a name it works like Control + S.
`replace foo bar [flags]`	Replace `foo` with `bar`. `-a` replaces all, `-l` searches literally.
`replaceall foo bar`	Same as `replace foo bar -a`.
`goto 123`	Jump to line 123. A negative number counts from the end, so `goto -10` is ten lines from the end.
`vsplit [filename]`	Split the window vertically, optionally with a file.
`hsplit [filename]`	Split the window horizontally, optionally with a file.
`tab [filename]`	Open a file in a new tab.
`term [command]`	Open a terminal inside Micro and run a command. Combine it with `vsplit` or `hsplit`.

Options

Options change how Micro behaves. Use set to save a value to settings.json, setlocal to change it only for the current file, and show to print the current value.

set ruler false
setlocal ruler false
show ruler

Useful options:

Option	Effect
`autosave=X`	Save the file every `X` seconds. The default `0` turns it off.
`autosu`	Use `sudo` automatically when saving a file that needs root rights.
`backup`	Keep backups of open buffers. Reopen the file to restore unsaved changes after a crash.
`clipboard`	`external` uses the desktop clipboard (default). `terminal` also works over SSH. `internal` is Micro only.
`softwrap`	Wrap long lines at the edge of the window. Use `wordwrap` with it to wrap by word.
`autoindent`	Keep the indentation of the previous line on a new line.

Run help options in the command bar for the full list.

Settings and key bindings

Your changes live in two JSON files in ~/.config/micro/:

settings.json for options. Only add values that differ from the default.
bindings.json for key bindings.

{
  "ruler": false
}

To change a key binding, use the bind command in the command bar. It writes to bindings.json for you. Capitalization matters, so use the names from help keybindings.

bind Ctrl-v Copy
bind Ctrl-c Paste
bind CtrlMouseLeft SelectLine

Multi-cursor

The cheatsheet lists Control + left click. Micro also has keyboard shortcuts for multiple cursors:

Keys	Purpose
Alt + N	Add a cursor on the next match of the selection
Alt + Shift + Up Arrow Alt + Shift + Down Arrow	Add a cursor on the line above or below
Alt + M	Add a cursor at the start of every line in the selection
Alt + X	Skip the current match
Alt + P	Remove the last cursor
Alt + C	Remove all cursors

Commenting lines

The default comment plugin toggles comments on the selected lines with Alt + Slash. You can also run comment in the command bar. Set the comment style with set commenttype "// %s", or use setlocal for one file.

Plugins and color schemes

Micro has a plugin manager in the command bar:

plugin list shows installed plugins.
plugin search foobar searches the official channel.
plugin install foo, plugin remove foo and plugin update manage plugins.

Change the color scheme with set colorscheme gotham. Custom color schemes go into ~/.config/micro/colorschemes/. Copy a file from runtime/colorschemes in the Micro sources as a starting point.

Source: Mastering the Micro text editor on the Garuda forum.