Ubuntu – Copy terminal result from one window to another

Sending virtual keypresses doesn't work for me (see comments), but that answer inspired me to look for similar solutions. Sending a "text" event with xvkbd ignores the current state of your physical keyboard:

sh -c 'xsel | xvkbd -xsendevent -file - 2>/dev/null'

xvkbd -text uses a few backslash sequences, so rather than dance with escaping, -file works. Add -delay 0 to enter the text without delay between the “keystrokes”. xvkbd also outputs some warning text about modifiers, but it appears to be irrelevant to this use (but I didn't want to see it in ~/.xsession-errors).

I bound this to a shortcut using System > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts.

Note that you need to have xsel and xvkbd packages installed:

sudo apt-get install xsel xvkbd

[SOLVED] I tested for this behaviour using the Ubuntu 11.10 live cd and did not have the same problems in terminal, so I guessed that a change I had made was likely to be the cause.

I had made some changes to the .bashrc file while following a tutorial on customising the bash user prompt, which must have caused this problem.

After restoring the original .bashrc file from backup, the problem with overlapping lines is resolved.

Thanks for your response Huckle. Cheers