Find and replace "tabs" using search and replace in nano

Question

How can I search and replace horizontal tabs in nano? I've been trying to use [\t] in regex mode, but this only matches every occurrence of the character t.

I've just been using sed 's/\t//g' file, which works fine, but I would still be interested in a nano solution.

Answer 1

In nano to search and replace:

1. Press Ctrl + \
2. Enter your search string and hit return
3. Enter your replacement string and hit return
4. Press A to replace all instances

To replace tab characters you need to put nano in verbatim mode: Alt+Shift+V. Once in verbatim mode, you can type any character in it'll be be accepted literally when in verbatim mode, then hit return.

References

• 3.8. Tell me more about this verbatim input stuff!
• Nano global search and replace tabs to spaces or spaces to tabs
• Is it possible to easily switch between tabs and spaces in nano?

Answer 2

In case Ctrl+\ doesn't work as expected, one may use Alt+R as alternative.