How to copy text from vim to an external program

clipboardvimx-server

I'm trying to copy-paste some text from vim. I'm doing v to enter visual mode, then y once I selected my block.

It appears to copy the text into vim's clipboard, because p will paste it.
But in another program (e.g. Chrome), right-click->paste doesn't paste the correct text. How do I copy text to the correct clipboard?

Best Answer

The following will work only if vim --version indicates that you have +xterm_clipboard feature. If not, you will have to install extra packages or recompile vim with that feature added.

There are actually two options for this:

"+y

copies to the "usual" clipboard buffer (so you can paste using Ctrl+V, right click and select "Paste" etc), while

"*y

copies to the X11 selection - you can paste from this buffer using middle click.

Note that "* and "+ work both ways. So if you have selected some text in another application, you can paste it into vim using "*p and if you have copied some text (using, say, Ctrl-C) then you can paste it into vim using "+p.

Related Solutions

Copy / paste text selections between tmux and the clipboard

Use the following tmux.conf with copy-pipe in the new versions of tmux (1.8+):

set -g mouse on
# To copy:
bind-key -n -t emacs-copy M-w copy-pipe "xclip -i -sel p -f | xclip -i -sel c "

# To paste:
bind-key -n C-y run "xclip -o | tmux load-buffer - ; tmux paste-buffer"

prefix+[ into copy-mode
select content with mouse(hold)
M-w to copy that part into system clipboard
C-y the paste it inside tmux, C-v to paste it inside other regular application like web browser.

Vim: copy, then paste more than once

I would do that in this way (really useful for many paste):

Go somewhere into the word Linux, then "ayiw to copy the word
- "a to select register «a»
- y for copying
- i to specify we are "in" (the word, the paragraph, ...)
- w to choose the word
Got to next word w (or somewhere into the word)
Paste on time and save that as macro qbdiw"aPq
- qb to start recording macro in register «b»
- d for deleting
- i to specify we are "in" (the word, the paragraph, ...)
- w to choose the word
- "a to select the register «a» (previously saved)
- P to paste the word before the cursor
- q to stop recording the macro
Then to use the macro the first time, go to the next word w and press @b
Finally, and it is where the advantage of this method can be seen, go the each word you want to replace and press @@

Hint: Replace the w by W in qbdiw"aPq to select word with punctuation, like HP-UX

Issue: When the word is the last in the line it will delete the space before the word.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Copy / paste text selections between tmux and the clipboard

Vim: copy, then paste more than once

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