How to copy across terminals?

Question

I'm using Linux system. Two vims are opened in two terminals. Now I'd like to copy text from A to B. One way to do so is to select text in A, use mouse to copy, then switch to B, in the insert mode, command <c-r>+ will paste the text.

Is there anyway to perform it without using mouse? like "+yy in A, when switch to B, o<c-r>+? I explored couple of combinations in vain. And I searched for "copy across terminals", but find nothing.

user @statox suggests one solution using visual mode, i.e. v$"+y in A, when switch to B, o<c-r>+.

Is there any simple way that can copy the text in A without entering into v mode? Admittedly entering into v-mode does not involve too many key strikes, just wonder if there is better way. Eg. if the cursor is at the middle of a line, yy copies the whole line (to register "), while 0v$y does the same thing with extra key stroke.

Or, my question can be reduced to if there is any way with fewer key strokes than 0v$"+y for copy such that I can use <alt-tab>o<c-r>+ to paste.

Answer 1

You can check if Vim is built with clipboard support with:

:echo has('clipboard')

If the output is 1, the following should be enough to achieve your goal:

"*y    in source Vim
"*p    in destination Vim

You can make it all a lot more seamless by synchronizing the clipboard register and the default register with this setting in your vimrc:

set clipboard^=unnamed

If the output of :echo has('clipboard') is 0, consider installing a proper Vim like vim-gtk or vim-gnome (the name of the package may differ from distro to distro).

Answer 2

I think the solution you already mention in your question is the correct one. If you want to reduce the number of keystrokes, you can simply create a map, e.g.

vmap <leader>y "+y
vmap <leader>d "+d
nmap <leader>p "+p
nmap <leader>P "+P
vmap <leader>p "+p
vmap <leader>P "+P

See the second entry here.

Answer 3

To extend @romainl's answer, (with clipboard support) you can use registers that are shared with system wide clipboard.

"+y    To yank/copy from a vim-terminal
"+p    To paste in destination vim-terminal

"*y    To yank/copy from a vim-terminal
"*p    To paste in destination vim-terminal

By executing these commands, you are yanking/copying/storing selected contents in registers, and pasting them to destination Vim-terminal. These two special registers + and * are shared with the system wide clipboard (and hence many other programs such as web browser, gedit etc). Register + is associated with copy/paste buffer and * is associated with selection buffer (one that inserts a copy of selection with a middle click on a text field in, say, Ubuntu) and can be pasted using ctrl + v (ctrl + shift + v on gnome-terminal).

Answer 4

1) On Fedora I use the following setup:

dnf install vim-X11

vim-X11 comes with clipboard support - maybe in other distros it is similar.

2) Set an alias in my .bashrc

alias vim="vimx"

3) In .vimrc:

set clipboard=unnamedplus

Now the usual yank in Vim goes into the system clipboard and every Ctrl-C outside of vim can be pasted in vim.

Answer 5

If you are using a Mac(OSX), you can install pbcopy (using brew install pbcopy --see http://brew.sh/ for more details). Then run the following (straight from commandline) without touching the mouse:

EXAMPLE:

1. In TERMINAL# 001:

   cat /tmp/stuff.txt | pbcopy

2. You can switch to terminal #002 (without using the mouse) by using the built-in hot keys in OSX's terminal application: command + i

3. In TERMINAL# 002: Open the new file in vim

   vi newfile

4. Put vim in insert mode with i

5. Insert the text from the clipboard with command + V (to paste from the clipboard on a Mac)

6. Enjoy the rest of your day!