Using nano as root sometimes changes permission on user's .nano_history file, causes an annoying message to appear when launching nano as user

[Tim Hull]

I have been having a weird problem - I have used nano as root (using sudo) to
edit some system config files.
However, somehow a .nano_history file got written with root ownership in the
user's home directory, and I get the
following message whenever I use nano as user:
Unable to open ~/.nano_history file, Permission denied
Press return to continue starting nano

This is annoying, and I've seen this problem occur in several installations.

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

You need to use sudo -H if you are using a program which will write files to
your home directory.

[Tim Hull (thully-arbornet)]

This doesn't seem like an ideal situation, as users new to Ubuntu aren't going
to know what
effects the home directory and what doesn't. Also, sometimes programs make
modifications to files
in the home directory under rare circumstances.

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

The command line is an expert interface; there are all sorts of ways to shoot
yourself in the foot. This is the way that sudo has always behaved; users
familiar with sudo will expect it, and the common case is much more convenient
this way.

[Tim Hull (thully-arbornet)]

I can see this in some cases, however, it seems as though some programs are
messing with
permissions inappropriately - such as the case of nano w/ its history file, and
also the case of k3b.

[Peter L (randomuser72)]

a I have the same problem as Tim wrote and I cant believe that this bug still exists in Ubuntu 11.10!! I found some workarounds to disable nano history, but its not solution...