If I want to copy/paste something to/from a register I have no problem.
For example if I'm in Visual Mode and I press "ay the selected region get correctly copied to register a (and if I press "ayy in Normal Mode, the line under the cursor get correctly copied into a).
During the sequence I can see the characters I pressed in the bottom bar.
If I try to hit one of the sequences "*yy, "*dd, "+yy or "+dd, when I press the double quotes they appear in the bottom bar, but when after this I press * or + the sequence in the bottom bar disappear and if I complete the sequence, it doesn't copy anything to the CLIPBOARD and PRIMARY selections.
System: ArchLinux
Window manager: suckless DWM
Terminal: bash on suckless ST
You're missing +clipboard support in your Vim.
On ArchLinux, you can get a Vim with +clipboard support by installing the gvim package.
See Vim Installation on the ArchLinux wiki, more specifically this note:
The vim package is built without Xorg support; specifically the +clipboard feature is missing, so Vim will not be able to operate with the primary and clipboard selection buffers. The gvim package provides also the CLI version of Vim with the +clipboard feature.
The gvim package will include a new gvim command for a GUI version of Vim, but it will also include a regular console vim command, only that one will have support for +clipboard when running inside a terminal attached to an X11 display.
I am trying to paste a string I copied from a webpage in vim. I know that the string is copied in the system clipboard. My vim returns 1 when I run the :echo has('clipboard') command, so I typed :set paste, then positioned the cursor to the desired spot and hit "*p, but this doesn't seem to paste my whole selection. I copied to the clipboard Vader(father figure) but it only pastes Vader. Or is it pasting this because the word behind the cursor is Vader? And finally, what is the easiest way to paste something in vim from the system's clipboard?
I mention that I am using Ubuntu 14.04 (if this has any relevance).
I always use Ctrl+Shift+v in Insert mode, when pasting from system clipboard after doing set paste. Never had any problems doing so.
Otherwise you can use the vim-unimpaired plugin by tim pope and use the yo key mapping set by the plugin to paste. Using yo automatically sets the paste option and after you paste and leave Insert mode, it automatically toggles the set paste option.
Have this line in your .vimrc
set pastetoggle=<F2>
So whenever you press F2 in insert mode you can paste normally with no problems.
For more information refer here.
You only need to set paste if you intend to paste while in insert mode using the middle mouse button or any shortcut your terminal provides.
Now, it is possible that the register you're looking for is quote+. To confirm that just run :registers in order to view the contents of all registers.
I would also advise you to read the following help section :help x11-selection.
I'm currently using the system clipboard in vim as default register in combination with a clipboard manager like Diodon or Klipper (for KDE).
Add this to your vim configuration ~/.vimrc
" Use the system clipboard for yank / delete / paste operations
if has('unnamedplus')
set clipboard=unnamed,unnamedplus
endif
With this configuration vim copy/paste operations (in both directions) behave just like in any other graphical editor (the if has ('unnamedplus') assure that this behaviour is enabled only if vim is compiled with the +clipboard option otherwise behaves as default).
Note: on Windows and MacOS using unnamed or unnamedplus is equivalent.
On Linux are two different entities:
unnamed register is the selection buffer (try to select something with the mouse and then center click or click both sx and dx mouse buttons in another place).
unnamedplus register is actually the system clipboard
Vim version is 7.2.411, operating system is CentOS 6.
By default, i can use the mouse to select the text and click right key, then copy the selection to clipboard.
Now i want to use this option set mouse=a that i set it in ~/.vimrc file,
but the previous operation is not working. Whatever i try "+y or "*y, still not works.
I just want to use the function that copys the yand text to clipboard, simultaneously, and the set mouse=a to be set in .vimrc file.
Check whether you have set clipboard=autoselect,autoselectml and set guioptions+=a set (you'll probably have some other "letters" in there as well)? The a is related to copying to the cliboard. The mouse=a only enables you to use the mouse in all modes.
From your description it sounds like you're using Vim in a terminal. By default, the terminal is handling the mouse clicks, so it's the terminal selecting and copying the text. When you set mouse=a, Vim handles the mouse itself, so selecting doesn't copy to the clipboard.
If the version of Vim you're using was compiled without X11 support, you can't copy and paste from inside Vim. This would explain why "+y and "*y don't work. You should try to install a "full" Vim version using your distribution's package manager. Be sure to run vim and not vi from the command-line, to get the proper version.
In this case, you can still let the terminal handle mouse-clicks (instead of Vim) by holding shift when you click or drag. This way, you'll get the behaviour you had previously had before you set mouse=a.
After enabling set mouse=a, text copied inside of Vim will not paste outside of Vim. Does anybody know of a way to fix this?
Here, selecting text with the mouse turns on visual mode and disables the Copy option in the popup menu:
Press shift while selecting with the mouse. This will make mouse selection behave as if mouse=a was not enabled.
Note: this trick also applies to "middle button paste": if you want to paste in vim text that was selected outside, press shift while clicking the middle button. Just make sure that insert mode is activated when you do that (you may also want to :set paste to avoid unexpected effects).
OS X (mac):
hold alt/option while selecting (source)
Use ", +, y after making a visual selection either with the keyboard or the mouse. You shouldn’t be using the terminal’s copy command anyway, because that copies what the terminal sees instead of the actual content. Here is what this does:
",+ tells Vim to use the register named + for the next delete, yank or put. The register named + is a special register, it is the X11 clipboard register. (On other systems, you would use * instead, I think, see :help clipboard and :help x11-selection)
y is the yank command, which tells Vim to put the selection in the register named previously.
You could map it like this:
:vmap <C-C> "+y
And then highlight something with the mouse and press Control-C to copy it.
This feature only works when Vim has been compiled with the +xterm_clipboard option. Run vim --version to find out if it has.
Instead of set mouse=a use set mouse=r in .vimrc
On OSX use fn instead of shift.
In Ubuntu, it is possible to use the X-Term copy & paste bindings inside VIM (Ctrl-Shift-C & Ctrl-Shift-V) on text that has been hilighted using the Shift key.
Another OSX-Mac option is to uncheck View->Allow Mouse Reporting (or press ⌘-R to toggle it.) This allows you to toggle between mouse interaction and mouse selecting, which might be useful when selecting and copy/pasting a few bits because you don't have to hold a modifier key to do it.
Note for Multiline with line numbers:
I usually have line numbers enabled so this will also copy the line numbers if you select multiple lines. If you want to copy multiple lines without the line numbers disable the numbers with :set nonu and then you can :set nu to re-enable them after you're done copying.
Holding shift while copying and pasting with selection worked for me
You can use :set mouse& in the vim command line to enable copy/paste of text selected using the mouse. You can then simply use the middle mouse button or shiftinsert to paste it.
I accidently explained how to switch off set mouse=a, when I reread the question and found out that the OP did not want to switch it off in the first place. Anyway for anyone searching how to switch off the mouse (set mouse=) centrally, I leave a reference to my answer here: https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/506723/194822
Compilation settings that vim was compiled with, are part of the issue. vim --version shows these.
In OSX, the default vim has -clipboard But you need +clipboard
On osx you can and apparently generally should, use macvim. You can do brew cask install macvim That one has +clipboard.
Them you'll have two vims.
~$ ls -l /usr/bin/vim <--- default vim
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 1745984 15 Jul 2017 /usr/bin/vim
~$ ls -l /usr/local/bin/vim <-- macvim, installed recently via that mentioned brew line.
lrwxr-xr-x 1 apple admin 42 16 May 23:32 /usr/local/bin/vim -> /Applications/MacVim.app/Contents/bin/mvim
~$
running vim will run macvim 'cos /usr/local/bin should be before /usr/bin in the path, though you can check with which vim.
running vim(to run macvim), is fine but you may want to map vi to macvim 'cos otherwise running vi stays at the default vim! You can rewrite or delete(with rm) and recreate the vi sym link, with ln. And to do that without an 'operation not permitted" error, you have to (temporarily) disable SIL. https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/208478/how-do-i-disable-system-integrity-protection-sip-aka-rootless-on-macos-os-x .
macvim has +clipboard as shown by vim --version
Here is a working ~/.vim/vimrc with just the required lines.
:set mouse=a
:map <leader>c "+y
:map <leader>v "+p
The default leader key is backslash.
I read a suggestion that one should use the leader key.. (certainly control has many keys already in use, so the suggestion was to not use control. I don't know if that applies to command key too, but anyhow).
With that mentioned mapping, \c will do "+y which will copy from the register known as +, to the clipboard. And \v will paste from the register known as +.
So that's a copy/paste that works between windows.
Another OS may require "* rather than "+
Add set clipboard=unnamed to your .vimrc. So it will use the clipboard register '*' instead of the unnamed register for all yank, delete, change and put operations (note it does not only affect the mouse).
The behavior of register '*' depends on your platform and how your vim has been compiled (or if you use neovim).
If it does not work, you can try with set clipboard=unnamedplus, but this option only makes sense on X11 systems (and gvim therefore).
If you are using, Putty session, then it automatically copies selection.
If we have used "set mouse=a" option in vim, selecting using Shift+Mouse drag selects the text automatically.
Need to check in X-term.
em...
Keep pressing Shift and then click the right mouse button
Also worth mentioning, by having set mouse=nvi, when doing a selection and then pressing : <ESC> you will get the mouse selection copied to the primary selection clipboard (equivalent to a "*y).
Reference: help mouse
Main advantage of this method is the fact that if you have multiple vertical splits, it will only select from the current buffer. Using <Shift> as mentioned in the main answer, will, in this case, copy from all 3 files at the same time which is not exactly what one would want, expect or need.
A good workaround which is worth adding:
GPM daemon can be used which is a a cut and paste utility and mouse server for virtual consoles. It will provide functionalities across all the virtual consoles!
Copy-Paste actions can be done by <CTRL-C>/<CTRL-V>.
sudo apt-get install gpm
MAN pages of GPM
set set mouse=a in vi, using MobaXterm, after installing vim-gtk3 on server, dragging with mouse and Ctrl + Insert works, but seems it only work with MobaXterm
after installing vim-gtk3, vi will link to it
lala#kubu:~$ sudo apt install gvim
[sudo] password for lala:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Package gvim is a virtual package provided by:
vim-gtk3 2:8.2.2434-3ubuntu3.2
vim-athena 2:8.2.2434-3ubuntu3.2
You should explicitly select one to install.
E: Package 'gvim' has no installation candidate
lala#kubu:~$ which vi
/usr/bin/vi
lala#kubu:~$ file /usr/bin/vi
/usr/bin/vi: symbolic link to /etc/alternatives/vi
lala#kubu:~$ file /etc/alternatives/vi
/etc/alternatives/vi: symbolic link to /usr/bin/vim.gtk3
lala#kubu:~$
In ESC mode, when set mouse=a, select the text using mouse. This would enable the visual mode in vim. Then you can press 'y' to yank the selected text and 'p' to paste it wherever you want. This happens only within vim.
I've tried the methods mentioned at Vim: copy selection to OS X clipboard, but neither the * or + register seem to be working for me. I'm on OpenSuSE 11.3, and have vim and vim-data installed (there is no vim-full package as mentioned in the link in SuSE). I've tried with Klipper enabled and disabled. (edit) I've also tried pasting with ctrl+v and middle click.
Thanks in advance.
See if you have something called vimx, an X enabled version of vim. You can alias vim to that, and then use * register.
This is a superuser question.
I presume that you are running VIM in terminal and talk about VIM's visual selection, not selection with the mouse in terminal window.
Since in your case VIM isn't aware of the X, it obviously cannot communicate your selection to the X Window System. If you select something in terminal window with mouse, then you are selecting not in VIM, but in the terminal emulator which is aware of the X and communicates properly the current selection to X's clipboard.
You can try to play around with xsel tool which allows one to access the X clipboard from command line. You would need to override the usual clipboard shortcuts to not only put the content of the visual selection into the usual VIM register(s), but also to pipe it to the xsel so that it becomes the new X selection. (Strangely enough, I do not have the xsel installed on the SLES10 system I have right now at hand.) That obviously would only work if (1) the terminal is running locally or (2) remote server you are connected to allows the X forwarding. If the X forwarding is disabled on the server where you edit the files, then you have no chance to do in VIM: only selecting with mouse in terminal window would work.
Check synchronize contents of the clipboard and the selection in the clipper configuration.
Highlight text with the mouse (will not work with vim key selections).
Your selection is in the clipper.