Paste clipboard shortcut in vimrc

Question

I know that I can paste the clipboard in by by typing ctrl-shift-v.

The problem is that this is a very counterintuitive shortcut. It requires me to move my hand in a very uncomfortable way.

I would like to paste the clipboard with something better, such as gcp.

I am trying to put a line in my vimrc file that will accomplish this, but I am getting major headaches as it seems to be impossible to do. Instead I must resort to some buffers, which i have been looking at for a while without result.

How do I place a line in the Vimrc which allows me to paste the clipboard content onto the file I'm in, upon a click of a shortcut of my choosing?

p.s. Solution was to install vim-gtk and after that i could do: :put +

I go to the url of the browser, highlight it, copy it by doing ctrl-c. Then i go into vim and would like to paste it there via shortcut, so i try doing "+p in normal mode and all i get printed is " — john-jones, Oct 21 '16 at 13:23
check this out: https://vi.stackexchange.com/questions/84/how-can-i-copy-text-to-the-system-clipboard-from-vim — Sundeep, Oct 21 '16 at 13:25
i am wading through that for quite a while and not finding the answer. — john-jones, Oct 21 '16 at 13:29
youre right. i installed vim-gtk and then :put + pastes the clipboard successfully. — john-jones, Oct 21 '16 at 13:43

Ingo Karkat · Answer 1 · 2016-10-21T12:53:07.563

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Assuming Vim has access to the clipboard, you can insert the clipboard contents (in Vim register +) via <C-R><C-R>+ (in insert mode) and via "+p in other modes.

Thus, some mappings could be:

:noremap <F2> "+p
:noremap! <F2> <C-R><C-R>+

To paste as completely new lines, you can also use

:put +

edited Oct 21 '16 at 12:53

answered Oct 21 '16 at 10:28

Ingo Karkat

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Shouldn't the second mapping be inoremap? – statox Oct 21 '16 at 10:40
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@statox: :map! combines :imap and :cmap; this might be useful in the command-line as well. See :help map-modes. – Ingo Karkat Oct 21 '16 at 11:27
Oh I didn't know that, thanks for the clarification! – statox Oct 21 '16 at 11:29
Hmm. Shouldn't the first one nnoremap, though? – Rich Oct 21 '16 at 11:33

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:38

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Update: In order to access the system clipboard(s) Vim needs to be compiled with support for this. You can use the commands :echo has('clipboard') and, on Unix, :echo has('xterm_clipboard') to check for this. As it turns out, question asker did not have these features compiled in. Their ctrl-shift-v shortcut was pasting into the terminal and Vim was receiving the text as if it were typed. This existing question describes how to get the system clipboard accessible from within Vim.

The standard method of pasting from the system clipboard is via the + register, which you can access from normal mode with a command such as "+p. (Outside of X11 sytems, the * register will also work. See :help x11-selection for a discussion of the difference.)

You can therefore create your gcp mapping for normal/visual/select modes with the commands:

:nnoremap gcp "+p
:noremap gcp "+p

The following works for insert mode (see :help i_CTRL-O), but gcp isn't the best choice of trigger in insert mode, for obvious reasons, so you're probably going to want to pick something else:

:inoremap gcp <c-o>"+p

N.B. ctrl-shift-v is not a standard Vim shortcut, and as far as I'm aware, such a shortcut can only be set up outside of Vim. Is there any chance you're on Windows, you have clipboard=unnamed set, and you're actually just using mswin.vim's ctrl-v shortcut?

edited May 23 '17 at 12:38

Community

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answered Oct 21 '16 at 11:32

Rich

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Im on linux. I go to the url of the browser, highlight it, copy it by doing ctrl-c. Then i go into vim and would like to paste it there via shortcut, so i try doing "+p in normal mode and all i get printed is " – john-jones Oct 21 '16 at 13:21
@HermannIngjaldsson Terminal Vim or GUI Vim? What is the output of :echo has('clipboard')? – Rich Oct 21 '16 at 13:30
terminal vim. the output of the echo is 0. – john-jones Oct 21 '16 at 13:31
@HermannIngjaldsson What about :echo has('xterm_clipboard') – Rich Oct 21 '16 at 13:33
that returns 0 as well. – john-jones Oct 21 '16 at 13:34
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@HermannIngjaldsson If that is the case, your version of Vim does not appear to be compiled with clipboard support. I'm not sure how your ctrl-shift-v command is working from normal mode. – Rich Oct 21 '16 at 13:36
Its only working in insert mode. – john-jones Oct 21 '16 at 13:36
@HermannIngjaldsson In that case, Vim doesn't know you're pasting at all. You're pasting into your terminal, and Vim sees it as if it were being typed. – Rich Oct 21 '16 at 13:37
Let us continue this discussion in chat. – Rich Oct 21 '16 at 13:44

Paste clipboard shortcut in vimrc

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