Getting back old copy paste behaviour in tmux, with mouse

Question

This is what I used to do in tmux to copy-paste (using the mouse, the keyboard works differently and it is not what I am interested about):

Select text with mouse, left-button pressed
Paste text with middle-button

I have upgraded my OS, and this has gotten a new tmux version. I have not changed my .tmux.conf config file.

This is what I have to do with the current version of tmux, 1.6 (which comes pre-packaged in the latest crunchbang linux):

Select text with mouse, left-button pressed and shift key
Paste text with middle-button
Terminal gets blocked, a litte information area shows some numbers on the top right of the current pane (i.e. [0/24], probably something related to how many characters have been pasted), which mean little to me and I do not need / want (edit: it seems copy-mode is entered automatically here)
I have to press the q key to get a functional terminal again.

This is too much hassle for something I do dozens of times a day. How to get the old mechanism working again?

in my terminal `st`, `Shift`+`MouseMiddle` pastes the Xselection like traditional behavior. FWIW, `MouseMiddle` without a modifier does nothing. — nabin-info, Feb 24 '17 at 07:29

score 304 · Answer 1 · answered May 28 '14 at 08:32

304

Copy the text: select the text and press mouse left-button with shift key press too.
Paste the text with shift key + middle-button

answered May 28 '14 at 08:32

Yves Blusseau

4,244
4
16
7

31

For OSX users it's the option key, as described in this blog post: http://awhan.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/tmux-copy-paste-with-mouse/ – pangratz Aug 04 '14 at 14:09
3

In fact, after selecting text with Shift+LMB you can use OS functionality (Ctrl-Shift-C in my case) to copy to the non-X11 clipboard. – Eugene Pankov Feb 28 '15 at 08:13
10

The OP clearly states that they want to be able to copy and paste with the mouse, without using the keyboard. Pressing `Shift` (or option key on OSX) is the oldest trick in the book and works on most emulators, but doesn't answer the original question. – Lqueryvg Dec 04 '16 at 22:59
2

@pangratz Using the option key may work for iTerm users, but not for users of native Terminal. – anishpatel Jan 25 '19 at 21:27
1

Thank you for this workaround! It’s still suboptimal though – mouse wheel = scrolling the history, and all other mouse functions = normal would be much better. – Torsten Bronger Jun 10 '20 at 12:22
This does not work anymore in xterm-361 , see https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/617021/how-do-i-restore-shiftmousebutton-select-when-mouse-protocol-is-enabled-in-xt – simon Nov 02 '20 at 10:09

dr-jan · Accepted Answer · 2023-08-20T19:53:13.107

101

To restore the default copy/paste configuration you need to (at least temporarily) turn off mouse support within tmux:

prefix : set -g mouse off

Where prefix is the tmux access key (Ctrl+B by default unless you re-map it). : starts command mode and set -g sets the parameter globally.

When mouse mode is turned off, the standard copy/paste functions provided by your operating system work as expected.

Something else you might want to do is 'maximise' the current pane, so you can copy multiple lines easily. Ctrl+B, z toggles the 'zoom' of the current pane.

The code below can be added to your .tmux.conf file to bind the m and M keys to 'mouse on' and 'mouse off' respectively. This lets you use Ctrl+B, m to turn on mouse support; Ctrl+B, M to turn it off.

# toggle mouse mode to allow mouse copy/paste
# set mouse on with prefix m
bind m \
    set -g mouse on \;\
    display 'Mouse: ON'
# set mouse off with prefix M
bind M \
    set -g mouse off \;\
    display 'Mouse: OFF'

If you’re working with an old (pre-2.1) version of tmux, you instead need to use the following:

prefix : set -g mode-mouse off

There are more details and some handy key bindings to automate all this here:

http://tangledhelix.com/blog/2012/07/16/tmux-and-mouse-mode/

The main thrust of the article linked to above is this excerpt from .tmux.conf:

# disable mouse control by default - change 'off' to 'on' to enable by default.
setw -g mode-mouse off
set-option -g mouse-resize-pane off
set-option -g mouse-select-pane off
set-option -g mouse-select-window off
# toggle mouse mode to allow mouse copy/paste
# set mouse on with prefix m
bind m \
    set -g mode-mouse on \;\
    set -g mouse-resize-pane on \;\
    set -g mouse-select-pane on \;\
    set -g mouse-select-window on \;\
    display 'Mouse: ON'
# set mouse off with prefix M
bind M \
    set -g mode-mouse off \;\
    set -g mouse-resize-pane off \;\
    set -g mouse-select-pane off \;\
    set -g mouse-select-window off \;\
    display 'Mouse: OFF'
# zoom this pane to full screen
bind + \
    new-window -d -n tmux-zoom 'clear && echo TMUX ZOOM && read' \;\
    swap-pane -s tmux-zoom.0 \;\
    select-window -t tmux-zoom
# restore this pane
bind - \
    last-window \;\
    swap-pane -s tmux-zoom.0 \;\
    kill-window -t tmux-zoom

edited Aug 20 '23 at 19:53

answered Jul 18 '13 at 13:59

dr-jan

2,124
2
21
22

17

If you have tmux 1.8 or newer, there is a built-in command, Control-B z which will toggle the zoomed status of the current pane. So C-B z to zoom this pane to full screen, the same command again to restore. This removes the need to define the C-B + and C-B - key sequences at the end of the configuration above. – dr-jan Sep 17 '15 at 15:36
9

If you have tmux 2.1 or newer, all the mouse related commands have been made obsolete, replaced by 'mouse' which sets everything. So, to disable mouse mode by default use 'setw -g mouse off'. Remove any references to 'mode-mouse', 'mouse-resize-pane', 'mouse-select-pane' or 'mouse-select-window'. – dr-jan Mar 17 '16 at 14:09
74

However, mouse-mode on has its benefits: it lets me scroll. Is there a combination of settings that lets me use my terminal like a normal darn terminal? Copy/paste and scroll included? – Mihai Danila Aug 12 '16 at 22:44
I've not got this working yet, but see https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=204091 (which references https://github.com/tmux/tmux/issues/145) for details of configuring the mouse wheel to scroll up in copy/paste mode. – dr-jan Aug 24 '16 at 17:24
1

Is there some other setting I may have messed with, because on `OSx (Sierra)`, `option` doesn't help. Turning `mode-mouse off` allows me to select like normal, but then I can't copy into the clipboard (`cmd+C` or `cmd+shift+C` do nothing, or ring an error bell, or bring up the color-selector) – dwanderson Jan 17 '17 at 20:08
5

Tested with tmux v3, one binding to turn it on and off: `bind-key -T prefix m set -g mouse\; display 'Mouse: #{?mouse,ON,OFF}'` – Evgeny Mar 03 '20 at 16:57
Why are you using `setw` instead of `set`? – winklerrr Jan 27 '21 at 06:27
Why are you setting 4 different options for the mouse when according to this [documentation](https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/tmux.1.html#MOUSE_SUPPORT) there is only one option `mouse` which enables all mouse features? – winklerrr Jan 27 '21 at 06:34
@winklerrr, as explained in the answer itself, modern tmuxes have a single mouse command `mouse off`, whilst versions before 2.1 use `mode-mouse off` and even older versions use the four mouse commands shown. So it all depends on which version of tmux you are using. – dr-jan Jan 31 '21 at 17:18

fluder · Answer 3 · 2016-10-24T11:42:32.690

45

If "set -g mode-mouse on" you can do this trick:

On Mac, press "fn" button, then select text and copy with mouse right click or keyboard cmd+c.

edited Oct 24 '16 at 11:42

answered Oct 07 '16 at 20:23

fluder

551
5
7

8

for me, this seems to work only if I do not scroll with the mouse. once I scroll with mouse, this no longer works – Paul Dec 29 '16 at 22:46
Also you can paste with `fn` + `Middle-Click` – SpinUp __ A Davis Jul 29 '19 at 19:17

winklerrr · Answer 4 · 2020-09-04T07:10:29.623

31

tmux 2.6+

Mouse needs to be activated for this to work, so do: Ctrl + B and then type :set -g mouse on. (Or better: set this setting in your tmux.conf for consistency.)

Windows 10

With mouse mode activated, on Windows you need to press Shift as explained below.

Copy

Hold down Shift and select with your mouse the text you want to copy.
Now right click to copy the selected text (without holding Shift).

Edge Case: Horizontally Splitted Panes

When working with horizontally splitted panes the selecting part is not that easy because a selection over multiple lines also spans over multiple panes, selecting text parts you don't want to select. To avoid the selection to leave the current pane also press Ctrl while pressing Shift (thanks to @Franck).

Another workaround would be to quickly change the layout of the panes (e.g. with Ctrl + B and then Space) and then change it back afterwards.

Paste

Hold down Shift and right click to insert the copied text.

Simple as that. Enjoy!

macOS

With mouse mode activated, on macOS you need to press fn instead. To copy the selection use CMD + C as usual.

edited Sep 04 '20 at 07:10

answered Oct 11 '19 at 11:43

winklerrr

13,026
8
71
88

The best. Simple and elegant. – feeble Apr 16 '20 at 11:50
1

To add to this, if you have multiple panes splitted horizontally you won't be able to copy by just pressing Shift, you would need to actually press Ctrl + Shift + – Franck Mercado Sep 04 '20 at 03:59
on macOS in iTerm the option (alt) key also allows to use your mac's own copy & paste – John Smith Mar 27 '22 at 06:20
If you have the mouse, and if you use multiple pane, you can use the Z (zoom) key/option – NoDataFound Dec 06 '22 at 18:20

score 11 · Answer 5 · answered May 13 '17 at 16:04

11

Modified from here - I use xclip instead of xsel in the original:

bind -T root MouseDown2Pane run -b "xclip -o | tmux load-buffer - && tmux paste-buffer -s ' '"

This is working merrily for me in tmux 2.5-rc2

answered May 13 '17 at 16:04

Andy

17,423
9
52
69

this works nice in the terminal, but it behaves weird when I try to paste in vim – Tropilio Apr 02 '19 at 12:25

score 10 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 15 '15 at 04:44

10

Use <prefix>+m toggle mouse mode on or off

bind m run "if [[ `tmux show-option -w | grep mode-mouse.*on` ]]; then toggle=off; else toggle=on; fi; tmux display-message \"mouse tmux: \$toggle\"; tmux set-option -w mode-mouse \$toggle &> /dev/null; for cmd in mouse-select-pane mouse-resize-pane mouse-select-window; do tmux set-option -g \$cmd \$toggle &> /dev/null; done;"

answered Jul 15 '15 at 04:44

Kaixuan Wang

117
1
3

This worked perfect for me. Thanks so much. I wanted to be able to scroll in mouse mode, but that was breaking my ability to copy text. This allows for quick switching if you want to disable mouse mode. – Bijan Sep 18 '15 at 19:12
10

I use `bind m set-option mouse\; display-message "Mouse is now #{?mouse,on,off}"` – Maxim Suslov Aug 06 '18 at 10:51
user wants to be able to copy and paste, not yet more .tmux.conf customization! – Jack Wasey Dec 04 '18 at 15:49

Umashankar · Answer 7 · 2019-04-18T18:24:11.567

7

For users of Mac + iTerm2 + tmux(version >2.1):

Ensure the mouse mode is set in tmux config (Just add set -g mode-mouse on in ~/.tmux.conf). Now, to copy the text inside a pane:

Press option + command and select the text you wanna copy using the mouse cursor. It's like cropping a pic.
The selected text would have copied automatically (no need of command + c). Just paste it by usual means.

edited Apr 18 '19 at 18:24

answered Oct 27 '18 at 00:58

Umashankar

71
1
5

Goblinhack · Answer 8 · 2017-11-28T23:04:15.200

6

I had problems getting Christian's example to work for Tmux 2, I think some typos. I got the below to work and is a bit easier to read and sets both global and window mode. hth someone. new user and tmux is great!

bind m run "\
    tmux show-options -g | grep -q "mouse\\s*on"; \
    if [ \$? = 0 ]; \
    then  \
        toggle=off;  \
    else  \
        toggle=on;  \
    fi;  \
    tmux display-message \"mouse is now: \$toggle\";  \
    tmux set-option -w mouse \$toggle; \
    tmux set-option -g mouse \$toggle; \
    "

edited Nov 28 '17 at 23:04

answered Apr 22 '16 at 15:00

Goblinhack

2,859
1
26
26

1

Works for me. Tested against tmux HEAD from github (as of yesterday). – Lqueryvg Dec 04 '16 at 23:15
2

To make this work I had to change the `show-options` line to `tmux show-options -g | grep -q "mouse\\s*on"; \ `. This is because the regex `mouse.*on` matches `@scroll-in-moused-over-pane "on"` which is part of the plugin *nhdaly/tmux-better-mouse-mode* – Mandy Schoep Oct 01 '17 at 09:40
1

Simpler binding that does basically the same thing - `bind-key -T prefix m set -g mouse\; display 'Mouse: #{?mouse,ON,OFF}'` – Evgeny Mar 03 '20 at 17:00

score 3 · Answer 9 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

3

This is a modified version of Kaixuan's answer that is compatible with Tmux 2.1.

`bind m run "if [[ `tmux show-options -w | grep mouse.*on` ]]; then toggle=off; else toggle=on; fi; tmux display-message \"mouse tmux: \$toggle\"; tmux set-option -w mouse \$toggle &> /dev/null;`"

All the mode-mouse options have been combined into one mouse option and show-option had to be replaced with show-options

edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

Community

1
1

answered Jan 20 '16 at 19:04

Christian Schlensker

21,708
19
73
121

1

this is suppose to be on the tmux.conf? ?? – Arnold Roa Feb 08 '16 at 11:55
1

where is this going ? – statquant Jul 22 '16 at 11:47
@ArnoldRoa @statquant: Yes, this goes into `~/.tmux.conf` file. It is binding the `+m` key to run that inline script. – inblueswithu Dec 04 '17 at 14:45

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered May 11 '19 at 16:11

0

in ~/.tmux.conf:

set -g mouse off

having bind r source-file ~/.tmux.conf may be useful too so you can do ctrl-d r to reload the config for instance.

answered May 11 '19 at 16:11

localhostdotdev

1,795
16
21

jftuga · Answer 11 · 2020-06-01T13:50:23.427

Based on the other answers posted here, I have created a concise solution that works with (at least) tmux 2.8 and tmux 3.1.

You can toggle tmux mouse support on and off, by pressing prefix-M. In the .tmux.conf file, include this line:

bind-key -T prefix m run "m=$(tmux show -g mou|grep -q on;echo $?);tmux set -g mou $m;tmux display mouse:\$m"

This will display mouse: 1 when enabled and mouse: 0 when disabled. Repeatedly pressing prefix-M will toggle the mouse mode between on and off.