How can I make Vim paste from (and copy to) the system's clipboard?

Question

Unlike other editors, Vim stores copied text in its own clipboard. So, it's very hard for me to copy some text from a webpage and paste it into the current working file. It so happens I have to either open gedit or type it manually.

Can I make Vim paste from (and copy to) the system's clipboard?

Answer 1

TL;DR

Try using "*yy or "+yy to copy a line to your system's clipboard.

Full answer

Be aware that copying/pasting from the system clipboard will not work if :echo has('clipboard') returns 0. In this case, Vim is not compiled with the +clipboard feature and you'll have to install a different version or recompile it. Some Linux distros supply a minimal Vim installation by default, but if you install the vim-gtk or vim-gtk3 package you can get the extra features nonetheless.

The "* and "+ registers are for the system's clipboard (:help registers). Depending on your system, they may do different things. For instance, on systems that don't use X11 like OS X or Windows, the "* register is used to read from and write to the system clipboard. On X11 systems, both registers can be used. See :help x11-selection for more details, but basically the "* is analogous to X11's _PRIMARY_ selection (which usually copies things you select with the mouse and pastes with the middle mouse button) and "+ is analogous to X11's _CLIPBOARD_ selection (which is the clipboard proper).

If all that went over your head, try using "*yy or "+yy to copy a line to your system's clipboard. Assuming you have the appropriate compile options, one or the other should work.

You might like to remap this to something more convenient for you. For example, you could put vnoremap <C-c> "*y in your ~/.vimrc so that you can visually select and press Ctrl+c to yank to your system's clipboard.

You also may want to have a look at the 'clipboard' option described in :help cb. In this case, you can :set clipboard=unnamed or :set clipboard=unnamedplus to make all yanking/deleting operations automatically copy to the system clipboard. This could be an inconvenience in some cases where you are storing something else in the clipboard as it will overwrite it.

To paste you can use "+p or "*p (again, depending on your system and/or desired selection) or you can map these to something else. I type them explicitly, but I often find myself in insert mode. If you're in insert mode you can still paste them with proper indentation by using <C-r><C-p>* or <C-r><C-p>+. See :help i_CTRL-R_CTRL-P.

Vim's paste option (:help paste) is also worth mentioning: This puts Vim into a special "paste mode" that disables several other options, allowing you to easily paste into Vim using your terminal emulator's or multiplexer's familiar paste shortcut. (Simply type :set paste to enable it, paste your content and then type :set nopaste to disable it.) Alternatively, you can use the pastetoggle option to set a keycode that toggles the mode (:help pastetoggle).

I recommend using registers instead of these options, but if they are still too scary, this can be a convenient workaround while you're perfecting your Vim chops.

See :help clipboard for more detailed information.

Answer 2

I believe that this question deserves a more pictorial answer:

Entering Paste Mode

• ESC
• :set paste
• press i
• SHIFT + Insert (with a text copied on your clipboard)

Leaving Paste Mode

• ESC
• :set nopaste
• press i

You pasted the text and you're able to type again.

Answer 3

Yet another way to paste is just to 'r'ead 'cat' output:

:r!cat

This will run cat in the foreground, so you can send to the terminal what you want to insert/have in your clipboard. After you are done, press Ctrl + D to end the stream.

The benefits is you do not need to mess with indentation. The text is inserted right as is. Note in cat's place, there could be any command, like fold (I used to use this until I discovered gq) or any other filtering utility.

Although the '+' register seems to be more vimic, it does not work on all platforms, while r!cat just works.

'w'rite can be used pipe selection/range to an external utility's standard input. An example for an X system to copy to the clipboard:

`<,`>:w !xsel -ib

(I.e., make a visual selection and type :w !xsel -ib)

My bindings:

" Ctrl + K, Y while in visual mode
vnoremap <silent> <expr> <C-K>y ':w !xsel -ib<CR><CR>'
" copy from yank register while in normal mode
nnoremap <C-K>y :call system("xsel -ib", getreg("@0"))<CR>
nnoremap <C-K>r :r!cat<CR><CR>

Answer 4

After entering the Vim window, press I to enter into insert mode. Then move your cursor to the desired location and press the Ctrl + Insert buttons simultaneously to paste from the clipboard.

Answer 5

Copy to the OS clipboard

Select text in visual mode, and press "*y.

Paste from the OS clipboard

Press "*p.

Answer 6

I used the answer of NM Pennypacker and installed Vim via Homebrew for an early 2011 MacBook Pro:

brew install vim

Now I can also use the "* register to copy and paste text within Vim. I even didn't have to change something within my ~/.vimrc file or the $PATH. Homebrew added symlinks in /usr/local/bin, e.g., vim -> ../Cellar/vim/8.1.2350/bin/vim.

The alternative, which worked before, is to copy some lines of text within Vim by marking it with the mouse and using copy and paste (Cmd + C, Cmd + V) on a Mac. This option only works if the text you want to copy and paste is less in size than the window size of Vim. If you want to copy all text within Vim by marking the whole window or using Cmd + A, this will copy other parts of the console, written before starting Vim, which is very annoying.

So, I am happy having found the new method using the clipboard register.

Answer 7

Windows. Google mswin-vim. Download it and make it your _vimrc file.

Answer 8

Simple for Linux and Vim

Wanted to do something like this for a while but everything out there seemed to be rather complicated and/or did not work (for me).
So ...

Work Flow:

Modify text

1. Want to edit text in xclip.
2. Call buffer_modify.sh with Ctrl+Alt+M
3. Modify text in popup Vim
4. Either copy line or all text into xclip using Vim keybindings
5. Popup Vim exits
6. Modified text now in xclip and can be pasted using middle mouse button

Create text

1. Want to create some text
2. Call buffer_create.sh with Ctrl+Alt+C
3. Enter text into popup Vim
4. Either copy line or all text into xclip using Vim keybinds
5. Popup Vim exits
6. Created text now in xclip and can be pasted using middle mouse button

Keyboard Settings:

command              shortcut
buffer_modify.sh     Ctrl+Alt+M
buffer_create.sh     Ctrl+Alt+C

Commands:

buffer_modify.sh:

#!/bin/bash
xclip -o | /usr/bin/gvim -geometry 60x5 -bg lightgrey -fn 'FreeMono Bold 16' - ; wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -b toggle,above

buffer_create.sh:

#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/gvim -geometry 60x5 -bg lightgrey -fn 'FreeMono Bold 16' ; wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -b toggle,above

Note: Commands require wmctrl so that the popup gvim window stays on top which is generally what one wants.

Addition to Vim .vimrc file:

" write current line
function! XCLIP_CURRENT()
  :.w !xclip
  :q!
endfunc
" write all lines
function! XCLIP_ALL()
  :w !xclip
  :q!
endfunc

nnoremap &lt;Leader>xc :call XCLIP_CURRENT()<CR>
nnoremap &lt;Leader>xa :call XCLIP_ALL()<CR>

Comments:

• I found that using xclip put the captured text in some clipboard which could be pasted (using middle mouse button) into my xterms and both Firefox and Thunderbird.
• Creating shell scripts for both keyboard copy and paste settings allowed me to modify/tweak the desired action (in the script files) without having to go into the Settings application over and over again.
• Sometimes one wants a single line of text and sometimes one wants the whole file of text. Hence, the two Vim functions and map definitions.
• It would be easy to add an additional Vim function/keybinding allow for the writing of only selected text to the xclip.

Answer 9

These key combinations work on any OS.

Select target Text using the mouse, and refer to the key sequences to copy, cut, and paste.

• copy: Ctrl + Insert
• paste: Shift + Insert

• cut: Shift + Del
• paste: Shift + Insert

Answer 10

Mac OS X:

1. run vim --version | grep clipboard to check if the clipboard is enabled(with +)
2. add set clipboard=unnamed to .vimrc
3. restart terminal & vim

Answer 11

Shift + Right Click -> Paste

did the trick for me

Answer 12

A quick note for people whose Vim installation does not support the * and + registers. It is not necessary to download a new Vim installation to paste from the clipboard. Here is an alternative method:

1. Install parcellite (a clipboard manager with a low memory footprint);

2. In your .vimrc file, add the following:

   command Clip r !parcellite -c
   

3. Restart vim.

Now when you type in :Clip as an ex command, the contents of the clipboard will be pasted in at the cursor. You can also map the new command to a function key so as to be able to do this with one keystroke.

Answer 13

What simply worked for me in Linux (Ubuntu 20.04)

• Copying to system clipboard:

  1. Select what you want to copy in Visual mode.
  2. Type "+y
  3. Press Enter

• Paste something form system's clipboard:

  1. Move to the place where you want to paste the copied text in vim.
  2. Just type
     • "+P to paste before cursor OR
     • "+p to paste after cursor.

To know more how this works: Copy and Paste to/from Vim from/to Other Programs!

Answer 14

You can paste into vim by gnome-terminal's shortcut for paste. Place the file in insert mode and use

Ctrl+Shift+v.

Remember beforehand to

 :set paste 

to avoid messing with the indentation.

Answer 15

If you have it, try removing this from your vimrc: set mouse=a

It messes with the paste functionality.

Answer 16

I ran into this issue on a mid-2017 Macbook Pro running vim within iTerm2 as my primary development environment.

As other answers have suggested, I ran vim --version and noticed that it returns -clipboard, which means that the version of vim that shipped with my machine hasn't been compiled with the clipboard option.

The homebrew package for vim appears to compile with the clipboard option, so the fix for me was to:

1. Run brew install vim
2. Add set clipboard+=unnamed to my ~/.vimrc file
3. Close and reopen iTerm2

Answer 17

With Vim 8+ on Linux or Mac, you can now simply use the OS' native paste (ctrl+shift+V on Linux, cmd+V on Mac). Do not press i for Insert Mode.

It will paste the contents of your OS clipboard, preserving the spaces and tabs without adding autoindenting. It's equivalent to the old :set paste, i, ctrl+shift+V, esc, :set nopaste method.

You don't even need the +clipboard or +xterm_clipboard vim features installed anymore. This feature is called "bracketed paste". For more details, see Turning off auto indent when pasting text into vim

Answer 18

Since vim 8 right click enables visual mode by default. This prevents the "normal" copy & paste (call it a "defect by design" https://github.com/vim/vim/issues/1326). Fix it by doing:

echo "set mouse-=a" >> ~/.vimrc .

Exit and restart vim.

Answer 19

If you are using a mouse first do

 :set paste 

Then right click mouse and the contents in buffer will be pasted

Answer 20

The simplest solution to this, that also works between different Linux machines through ssh is:

1. Check whether vim supports X-11 clipboard: vim --version | grep clipboard. If it reports back -clipboard and -xterm_clipboard you should install either vim-gtk or vim-gnome (gvim on arch linux)

2. Add the following lines to your .vimrc:

set clipboard=unnamedplus
set paste

3. If you login on a different machine via ssh, use the option -Y: ssh -Y machine

Now copying and pasting should work exactly as expected on a single, and across different machines by only using y for yank and p for paste. NB modify .vimrc on all machines where you want to use this feature.

Answer 21

What you really need is EasyClip. It will do just that and so much more...

Answer 22

The other solutions are good if you want to change your vimrc, etc... However I wanted an simple way to copy from vim to my system keyboard. This is what I came up with.

• Select the text you want to copy with visual mode v
• Press : (it will automatically expand to show :'<,'>)
• Type y * or y + (depending on your system) to yank the selected text to the system clipboard

Answer 23

If you are using vim in MAC OSX, unfortunately it comes with older verion, and not complied with clipboard options. Luckily, homebrew can easily solve this problem.

install vim:

brew install vim --with-lua --with-override-system-vim

install gui verion of vim:

brew install macvim --with-lua --with-override-system-vim

restart the terminal to take effect.

append the following line to ~/.vimrc
set clipboard=unnamed

now you can copy the line in vim with yy and paste it system-wide.

Answer 24

Based on @lis2 answer, I use a simpler configuration that will not force Insert mode at the end:

" Copy and paste
if has('clipboard') && !has('gui_running')
  vnoremap <C-c> "+y
  vnoremap <C-x> "+d
  vnoremap <C-v> "+p
  inoremap <C-v> <C-r><C-o>+
endif

Mind that all these override default Vim mappings:

• v_CTRL-C: stop Visual mode
• v_CTRL-X: subtract [count] from number
• v_CTRL-V: blockwise Visual mode
• i_CTRL-V: insert next non-digit literally, which is also mapped to i_CTRL-Q

As an alternative, one can use keys inspired in the "yank", "delete" and "put" Vim verbs: <C-y>, <C-d> and <C-p> respectively. These would only override one default mapping:

• i_CTRL-P: backwards search keyword for completion

Answer 25

This works for me: Ctrl+Shift+V

Answer 26

For some international keyboards, you may need to press "+Space to get a ".

So in those case you would have to press "Space+y or "Space*y to copy.

And "Space+p or " Space*p to paste.

Answer 27

clipboard

There is a special register for storing this selection, it is the "* register. Nothing is put in here unless the information about what text is selected is about to change (e.g. with a left mouse click somewhere), or when another application wants to paste the selected text. Then the text is put in the "* register. For example, to cut a line and make it the current selection/put it on the CLIPBOARD:

    "*dd

Similarly, when you want to paste a selection from another application, e.g., by clicking the middle mouse button, the selection is put in the "* register first, and then 'put' like any other register. For example, to put the selection (contents of the CLIPBOARD):

    "*p

registers E354

> There are nine types of registers:                      
> 1. The unnamed register ""
> 2. 10 numbered registers "0 to "9
> 3. The small delete register "-
> 4. 26 named registers "a to "z or "A to "Z
> 5. four read-only registers ":, "., "% and "#
> 6. the expression register "=
> 7. The selection and drop registers "*, "+ and "~ 
> 8. The black hole register "_
> 9. Last search pattern register "/

Paste from clipboard

1. Clipboard: Copy
2. Vim insertmode, middle mouse key

Check for X11-clipboard support in terminal

When you like to run Vim in a terminal you need to look for a version of Vim that was compiled with clipboard support. Check for X11-clipboard support, from the console, type:

% vim --version

If you see "+xterm_clipboard", you are good to go.

http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Accessing_the_system_clipboard

The X server maintains three selections, called:

PRIMARY, SECONDARY and CLIPBOARD

The PRIMARY selection is conventionally used to implement copying and pasting via the middle mouse button. The SECONDARY and CLIPBOARD selections are less frequently used by application programs.

http://linux.die.net/man/1/xsel

Answer 28

There are two simple ways to do this. Make your file in insert mode and 1) press the middle button (the scroll wheel) in your mouse, or 2) Ctrl + Shift + V

Answer 29

It may also be worth mentioning, on OSX using Vim, you can select text with the mouse, Cmd-C to copy to OSX system clipboard, and the copied text will be available in the clipboard outside of Vim.

In other words, OSX treats it like it were a regular window, and this is where the much-maligned Apple "Command" button comes in handy.

B-30

Answer 30

If you are on windows and you want to paste contents of system clipboard using p then type this command.

:set clipboard = unnamed

This solved my problem.