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Possible Duplicate:
Pasting X selection (not clipboard contents) with keyboard

Is there a shortcut for copy-paste under X? I'd like to use the keyboard for pasting.

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Bastl
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2 Answers2

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In graphical terminals, you can try CTRL+SHIFT+C and CTRL+SHIFT+V instead of CTRL+C and CTRL+V.

As an alternative, you can try CTRL+SHIFT+INSERT or SHIFT+INSERT. To copy a word with insert, you can use CTRL+INSERT The first one will paste the last highlighted word, and the second the last copied one.

They won't work everywhere, unfortunately, but it's a good start. You must be aware than in most cases, the best option will be CTRL+C and CTRL+V.

Note that these combinations may have to be mixed to work for different applications... For instance, on KDE, I have to use CTRL+SHIFT+C to copy from a Konsole, and then CTRL+V to paste in Firefox/Kate... or most of applications that are not a terminal. The key is that CTRL+C CAN'T be used to copy from the terminal, as it is a way to send a signal to the current running process in it... I've tested the combinations with INSERT with Konsole, too. One of them (CTRL+SHIFT+INSERT) does not work with NetBeans... Consequently, I'm not sure how to emulate the middle click behaviour from the keyboard...

oradwell
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Agemen
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    none of these work, to paste the selection (which I did not copy! just selected...) – Bastl Jun 30 '11 at 07:06
  • I got it.

    For X I was used to select and paste -- without copying.

    In gnome-terminal I can use CTRL+SHIFT+C to copy to clipboard. Then the contents are available in other apps.

    Select-and-paste seems to be a different approach, which works only in a terminal. please clarify if you know more about this.

     – Bastl Jun 30 '11 at 07:10
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    X does have two different systems: a select buffer and a cliboard. However I can select in Gnome-terminal and paste into Firefox textfields using Shift+Insert without having copied, so I'm not sure what you have configured differently. – Caleb Jun 30 '11 at 07:13
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    In standard Ubuntu this doesn't work. Neither shell -> GUI app nor GUI app -> GUI app (Firefox, jEdit). Only shell -> shell. – l0b0 Jun 30 '11 at 07:35
  • My keyboard lacks an 'insert' key, so thanks for mentioning the ctrl-shift-v option. – klokop Oct 15 '14 at 07:04
  • CTRL+SHIFT+C and CTRL+SHIFT+V works for me as an alternative to highlight and middle click in Terminator shell on Ubuntu 16.10 – Dennis Mar 31 '17 at 13:21
  • Good luck trying to get ALT + C/ALT +V work too. I'm working with Linux under RealVNC on the Mac with a Mac keyboard so I want CMD + C/CMD +V to work to simulate the mac environment where those are the standard copy/paste keys, but even if I disable "Enable menu access keys) in Keyboard Shortcuts menu of the terminal app, it fails to work. – clearlight Jul 18 '17 at 00:59
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Recipes for having a key perform the same action as a mouse middle-blick are given in the answers to this AskUbuntu question.

(Although the question was asked on the Ubuntu SE, there's nothing Ubuntu-specific in it: the solutions work on any X11 system.)

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Riccardo Murri
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