tmux copy paste with mouse

« error: unable to find string literal operator ‘operator”" __FILE__’ gcc 4.7

simultaneously edit matlab and octave files in emacs »

tmux copy paste with mouse

April 18, 2012 by awhan

problem at hand: how do i use the mouse to copy/paste text in xterm running tmux on PC?

normally you should not have problems selecting text and pasting it with your mouse. everybody knows about left clicking and then dragging to select and copy the text. in order to paste you need to middle click your mouse. however there are certain options which if set will prevent this functionality.

if you have set the following options

mouse-select-pane
mouse-select-window

you will notice that you are not able to select text at all.

the solution is to use the shift key.

hold down the shift key and then left click and drag across the target text. if you want to now paste the selected text back in to xterm, you must also hold down the shift key and then middle click in order to paste the text.

this is not mentioned in the tmux man pages so i do not think this is a tmux feature. guess this has something to do with xterm, but i m not sure.

xterm version 278-1
tmux version 1.6-2
archlinux
PC

guly in the comments informs me that iterm users on macosx need to use the option key.

bruceedge pointed out that if the target text area resides in a pane of a split window then trying to copy with this method will also copy stuff from adjacent panes.
to counter this problem one hack is to use the zoom pane functionality. say you want select text from a pane that resides in a split window with other panes. with keyboard focus on the target pane, you simply hit prefix + z to maximize this pane to the entire window. copy what ever it is you want to copy and then hit prefix + z again to toggle back to the previous state.

About these ads

Posted in tmux, xterm | Tagged copy paste, linux, mouse, tmux, xterm | 33 Comments

33 Responses

on May 3, 2012 at 11:19 am | Reply Suman Nandan

Thanks a lot for sharing this!
- on May 3, 2012 at 7:54 pm | Reply awhan
  
  thank you
on July 21, 2012 at 12:13 am | Reply xanthumn (@xanthumn)

Thank you!
This also works in “Gnome Terminal” and “rxvt-unicode/urxvt”.
- on August 3, 2012 at 2:56 pm | Reply awhan
  
  thanks for the info
on August 31, 2012 at 10:03 am | Reply vikred

Yes, you’re right! Without holding the Shift key would make tmux handle our mouse click and select events as if we were selecting it using keyboard (after a prefix-[ ). Holding it would directly send those events to the terminal emulator.
- on August 31, 2012 at 5:21 pm | Reply awhan
  
  thank you for the comment . yeah i m not too sure if this is xterm specific
on September 6, 2012 at 3:23 pm | Reply ohcibibi

Thanks a lot! I was about to throw my computer out of the window yesterday
- on September 6, 2012 at 3:25 pm | Reply ohcibi
  
  I wanted to add that I’m using rxvt-unicode and zsh and had the same issue
  - on September 6, 2012 at 6:13 pm awhan
    
    thank you
on October 24, 2012 at 10:22 pm | Reply cirrus

thanks works with tilda
- on October 25, 2012 at 3:04 am | Reply awhan
  
  thanks for your like and comment
on November 5, 2012 at 2:39 pm | Reply 33termiti

thank you
- on November 5, 2012 at 7:32 pm | Reply awhan
  
  thank you too
on December 25, 2012 at 3:39 am | Reply drobuddy

Very helpful… Thank you very much.
- on December 25, 2012 at 9:05 am | Reply awhan
  
  thank u too
on January 14, 2013 at 4:30 pm | Reply goppo

Thanks!
- on January 14, 2013 at 7:53 pm | Reply awhan
  
  thank u too
on January 18, 2013 at 1:37 am | Reply guly

on iTerm/macosx you need to use option key, shift doesn’t work
- on January 18, 2013 at 5:50 pm | Reply awhan
  
  thanks for the info
on January 29, 2013 at 3:53 am | Reply Hamlet

My office mates have asked me to thank you.
Apparently, they were getting tired of my cursing… (no windows in this office).

For reference: Linux+KDE, konsole 2.9.5 -> ssh -> tmux 1.7 here, and bash everywhere.
TMux options: mode-mouse=copy-mode, mouse-select-window=on .
- on January 29, 2013 at 8:43 am | Reply awhan
  
  ha ha
  they are welcome! thanks for the funny comment
on February 4, 2013 at 4:02 am | Reply Randomize46

Thank you!
- on February 5, 2013 at 10:32 am | Reply awhan
  
  you are welcome and thanks for the comment
on February 7, 2013 at 9:07 pm | Reply Archer Weston

What I love about this “solution” is that it is simple. I was going to play with key bindings after looking at other blogs, etc. You saved me though! Cannot beat simplicity.

Thanks!
An Archer
- on February 9, 2013 at 9:00 am | Reply awhan
  
  Many thanks! Just paying it forward and doing my duty in my limited capacity . thanks.
on February 13, 2013 at 10:49 pm | Reply vonehrenheim

Thank you soo much!!! I learned something useful today!
- on February 14, 2013 at 2:51 pm | Reply awhan
  
  you are welcome. thanks for leaving a nice comment
on March 8, 2013 at 8:16 am | Reply Maksim Lin (@mklin)

thanks for the tip! not being able to select text with a mouse when usign tmux has been bugging me for ages – great work for taking the time to post this.
- on March 9, 2013 at 1:17 pm | Reply awhan
  
  thanks mate!
on March 13, 2013 at 5:44 am | Reply darkbarth

Hey, thank you very much for the tip.
I’m quite new to tmux, but given good tips like yours, I almost have everything I need in my simple config .
- on May 5, 2013 at 5:06 pm | Reply awhan
  
  you are welcome mate
on May 3, 2013 at 2:09 am | Reply bruceedge

This works fine when you have a single column in a window, but once you split your terminal into multiple columns, the text selection spans both columns, which is never going to be what you want.
- on May 5, 2013 at 5:11 pm | Reply awhan
  
  indeed you are right. thanks for pointing that out to me. i never ran in to that situation. however i can pass on a dirty hack to get around this problem.
  in tmux version 1.8 one can zoom in on the pane and then unzoom using the prefix + z key chord.
  so if you want to copy stuff off of a pane simply hit your prefix key (Ctrl-b) and then hit z.
  this will maximize this pane. now copy your stuff and hit Ctrl-b z again.
  hope that helps and thanks for the comment

Comments RSS

Awhan Patnaik

Just another WordPress.com weblog

tmux copy paste with mouse

Like this:

33 Responses

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Categories

Top Posts

Follow “Awhan Patnaik”