Copy/paste from terminal [WAS: visual selection and X primary behavior]

[Sanel Zukan]

If you plan to use Emacs from terminal a lot (as I do) with this
approach, be warned that for every 'x' (character delete), 'xsel' would
be called. This is not that bad, as 'xsel' is pretty fast, but with many
x-ing, things can be noticeable; also for every clipboard cut/past X11
server has to be notified. That is why (I think) Vim makes this
available only from specific registers.

Because of that, here is updated version:

-------------------------->8---------------------------
(defadvice x-set-selection (around my-x-set-selection (type data))
  (message "Copied to %s selection" type)
  (let ((sel-type 
         (cond
          ((eq type 'PRIMARY) "--primary")
          ((eq type 'CLIPBOARD) "--clipboard")
          (t
           (error "Got unknown selection type: %s" type)))))
    (with-temp-buffer
      (insert text)
      (call-process-region (point-min) (point-max) "xsel" nil 0 nil sel-type "--input"))))

(defadvice x-get-selection-value (before my-x-get-selection-value)
  (message "Paste from PRIMARY selection")
  (insert (shell-command-to-string "xsel --primary --output")))

(defadvice x-get-clipboard (before my-x-get-clipboard)
  (message "Paste from CLIPBOARD selection")
  (insert (shell-command-to-string "xsel --clipboard --output")))

(ad-activate 'x-set-selection)
(ad-activate 'x-get-selection-value)
(ad-activate 'x-get-clipboard)
--------------------------8<---------------------------

Now it behaves just like Vim: copy/paste to '*' register will copy/paste
to primary selection and copy/paste to '+' will do the same to clipboard
selection. And no more hammering 'xsel' for every 'd' or 'x' combos :)

Cheers,
Sanel

Linus Arver <linusarver at gmail.com> writes:
> The second part involves making terminal Emacs yank into the clipboard
> when we press 'y'. This mirrors the behavior of GUI Emacs/Evil, so I
> suppose everyone should be using this part if you use terminal
> Emacs/Evil.
>
>     ; When yanking ('y' key) in terminal Emacs, copy into the X clipboard. As
>     ; suggested from http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.vim-emulation/2023, the
>     ; blog post at
>     ; http://hugoheden.wordpress.com/2009/03/08/copypaste-with-emacs-in-terminal/
>     ; touches on this topic; here is a modified version of that blog post:
>     (unless window-system
>         (when (getenv "DISPLAY")
>             ; Callback for when user cuts
>             (defun xsel-cut-function (text &optional push)
>                 ; Insert text to temp-buffer, and "send" content to xsel stdin
>                 (with-temp-buffer
>                     (insert text)
>                     ; I prefer using the "clipboard" selection (the one the
>                     ; typically is used by c-c/c-v) before the primary selection
>                     ; (that uses mouse-select/middle-button-click)
>                     (call-process-region
>                         (point-min)
>                         (point-max)
>                         "xsel"
>                         nil
>                         0
>                         nil
>                         "--clipboard" "--input"
>                     )
>                 )
>             )
>             ; Call back for when user pastes
>             (defun xsel-paste-function()
>                 ; Find out what is current selection by xsel. If it is different
>                 ; from the top of the kill-ring (car kill-ring), then return
>                 ; it. Else, nil is returned, so whatever is in the top of the
>                 ; kill-ring will be used.
>                 (let
>                     (
>                         (xsel-output
>                             (shell-command-to-string "xsel --clipboard --output")
>                         )
>                     )
>                 (unless (string= (car kill-ring) xsel-output) xsel-output))
>             )
>             ; Attach callbacks to hooks
>             (setq interprogram-cut-function 'xsel-cut-function)
>             (setq interprogram-paste-function 'xsel-paste-function)
>             ; Idea from
>             ; http://shreevatsa.wordpress.com/2006/10/22/emacs-copypaste-and-x/
>             ; http://www.mail-archive.com/help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org/msg03577.html
>         )
>     )
>
> Please let me know if what I've done can be improved upon.