nano/ssh session freezes on some pastes into Windows terminal

April 30, 2025

• linux
• windows
• nano
• ssh
• windows terminal
• problem

Scenario - ssh into a linux system from Windows using windows terminal/powershell, edit a file in nano and try and paste something.

Sometimes the terminal then freezes, and rings the bell on every keystroke or paste attempt. You can free it up by killing nano from another login session.

The problem is described in this thread:

This problem has been fixed in the latest versions of nano, but it will take a while to get into the distributions. The workaround in the meantime is to use something like PuTTY.