How To Select, Copy, and Paste in Terminal Using Only Keyboard?

In this tutorial, we will explore various methods to select, copy, and paste text in the terminal using only the keyboard. This can significantly increase your productivity and speed when working in a terminal environment.

Using Tmux

Tmux is a terminal multiplexer that allows you to manage multiple terminal sessions within a single window. It also provides functionality for copying and pasting text using the keyboard.

Configuring Tmux

You can customize Tmux’s key combinations in the ~/.tmux.conf file. By adding specific commands to this file, you can change the keyboard shortcuts for copying and pasting text within Tmux.

For example, you can add the following lines to your ~/.tmux.conf file to enable Vim-style copy/paste configuration:

setw -g mode-keys vi
bind-key -T copy-mode-vi 'v' send -X begin-selection
bind-key -T copy-mode-vi 'y' send -X copy-selection-and-cancel

The mode-keys command sets the key bindings to Vim-style, and the bind-key commands set the ‘v’ key to begin the selection and the ‘y’ key to copy the selection.

Using Tmux-Yank

There is also a Tmux extension called Tmux-Yank that simplifies the copy/paste action to the system clipboard in Tmux. This can be especially useful if you frequently need to copy text from the terminal to other applications.

Using Screen

The screen command provides a selection mode for copying text.

Entering Selection Mode

To enter selection mode, press Ctrl+a and then Esc. You can then move your cursor to select the desired text using the arrow keys.

Copying and Pasting Text

Once the text is selected, you can quit the selection mode by pressing Esc again. To paste the copied text, press Ctrl+a and then ].

Using Emacs

If you are familiar with Emacs, you can use it as a terminal emulator and take advantage of its built-in text selection and copy/paste functionality.

Opening Terminal Mode

Open Emacs and enter the terminal mode by pressing Alt+X and then typing term.

Selecting, Copying, and Pasting Text

To select text, press Ctrl+Space and move your cursor using the arrow keys. To copy the selected text, press Alt+W. You can then switch back to the terminal mode by pressing Ctrl+C and then Ctrl+J, and paste the copied text by pressing Ctrl+Y.

Using xclip

If you have xclip installed, you can use it as a command-line interface to the X clipboard. This allows you to copy text to the clipboard using commands.

Copying Text to the Clipboard

For example, you can pipe the output of a command to xclip to copy it to the clipboard:

command | xclip -i

The -i option tells xclip to use the input from the pipe as the source for the copy operation.

Pasting Text from the Clipboard

To paste the copied text, you can use the xclip -o command:

xclip -o

The -o option tells xclip to output the contents of the clipboard.

Please note that these methods may have different requirements and limitations depending on your specific terminal setup. It is recommended to refer to the provided links and documentation for more detailed instructions and troubleshooting. Happy coding!