Copy all the lines to clipboard

Question

Is there any way to copy all lines from open file to clipboard in VI editor. I tried yG but it's not using clipboard to store those lines.

So is it possible?

Despairing

Similar questions - https://mcmap.net/q/55275/-yank-entire-file & #3997578 – Kedah

If you're on Windows and yank doesn't work, see the 17th answer from the top: #1620518 – Scottiescottish

Answer 1

You should yank the text to the * or + registers:

gg"*yG

Explanation:

• gg to get the cursor to the first character of the file
• "*y to start a yank command to the register * from the first line, until...
• G to go the end of the file

Maudemaudie

How do you mark up the text so it looks like keys? I haven't seen that yet on SO. – Mango

Hello... its not working?clipboard data remains unaltered. when I type gg cursor goes to first line... but when I type "*yG ..cpu beeps at * ..so is it normal or some problem with my vim? I am on Ubuntu.. – Despairing

Do you have Deadkeys enabled? (e.g., when you hit 'a you get á) If so, you need to press space after ". – Cruciferous

Vim can only access the system clipboard if it is compiled with xterm_clipboard enabled. To find out whether you have this feature, run :version in vim, and look for the +xterm_clipboard flag. If it is preceded by a minus sign, then you won't have this functionality. If this is the case, you might want to compile vim yourself, or run gvim which usually has this feature enabled. – Pirozzo

@nelstrom: you are right its not installed .. I cannot recompile vim now... I will give it a try.. maybe later .. thanks everyone :) – Despairing

The problem with this approach is that it moves the cursor and scrolls the window around. Twice. The other answer has far fewer keystrokes and drawbacks :) – Pratte

On Ubuntu, if your vim is compiled without the <code>+xterm_clipboard</code> flag, you can install vim-gnome which is compiled with this flag. (bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/vim/+bug/837882) – Arboreous

@AntonyThomas, for OS X you need to compile Vim with clipboard support, the easiest method I could find, is to use homebrew, with the following formula: brew install https://raw.github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-dupes/master/vim.rb – Dott

To enable xterm_clipboard flag in Ubuntu, install vim-gnome package – Kine

To copy selected lines, select the lines with Shift+V and then do "*y – Kine

CMS - Your answer has "accumulated" a few caveats. Can I suggest these be edited into your answer? Also, does your answer apply to both vi & vim or just vim, as the commentor conspicuous-compiler suggested on ldigas answer (currently) below. – Kedah

This answer works for Putty, whereas @Rook's answer doesn't – Transfigure

@Pratte the :y+ doesn't work in other scenarios like Vintageous in Sublime Text. gg"*yG works for me in that case. – Onomatology

@BentOnCoding,what's the replacement of VIM? – Ipa

As for Mac(High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G65)), I have vim without clipboard support, the '+' register working for me, so the code is gg"+yG – Sashenka

Everytime I use VIM I feel I am entering secret cheat codes <= <= X O => => – Cultigen

This only seems to get me a single line of text to the clipboard, not all text. I have +xterm_clipboard enabled in vim on Ubuntu 18.04. Why is this not working ever? It only copies and pastes line 358 of 363 lines... why that line? – Marika

Without vim, c-a,c-c will work. Whats the point of vim, if I have to press this many keys. – Francophobe

thanks a lot, I found a lot of approaches but this is the best, simple and easy!!! – Micronutrient

Answer 2

Use:

:%y+

to yank all lines.

Explanation:

• % to refer the next command to work on all the lines
• y to yank those lines
• + to copy to the system clipboard

NB: In Windows, + and * are equivalent see this answer.

If anyone is getting E850: Invalid register name error, try :%y"+ to copy all content to the clipboard and "+p to paste it (thanks to @deadLock)

Handcraft

Plus it won't change cursor location. – Darter

@guangnan: These registers don't exist in vi; only in vim. Try typing :help to ensure you're actually in vim. – Utu

I needed to set clipboard=unnamed, but then this worked great! – Phytogeography

@ConspicuousCompiler I have the error as Guagnan, and confirmed as VIM, not sure what to do :( – Parisi

@ZachL You are likely running a version of vim without xterm clipboard support or connected via a session without clipboard support. You can see the options that were used when compiling vim by typing :version. Odds are, you'll need to install a different package with vim compiled with X support. – Utu

I'm going to use this solution... but I'm going to make a keyboard shortcut to it. This is a better solution, but it's not easier to type. I've been gg"+yG ing for years now and never been a great solution for me. I'm going to add nmap <C-a><C-c> to my vimrc. – Unreasonable

This worked after I installed the vim-gnome package as described in this answer – Sequela

Vim says E850: Invalid register name:( – Guesthouse

Works fine for me on mac with VIM 7.3 – Husserl

This solution only works if vim was compiled with the clipboard option (vim --version will show +clipboard in that case). If it wasn't, Brian's solution (:%w !pbcopy) is a solution for Mac. Alternatives are available for other operating systems (e.g. xclip). – Micmac

This answer worked for me - the accepted answer didn't. On OSX, vim 8.0.46 – Barranquilla

Can anyone kindly explain that when to use "+ and when to use + (as in this case) to refer to a register? – Hilde

@Hilde "+ is a specific register, which means "the system clipboard register", so use "+ when you want to copy something to paste it outside of vim. – Psychophysics

For easy copying, for your vimrc you can just do: nnoremap <leader>Y :%y+<CR> (uses <kbd>Space</kbd> + <kbd>Y</kbd> as that's what I set my leader to, change shortcut as you want). – Psychophysics

Didn't work on CentOS 7 VPS from Vultr. I get E850: Invalid register name. vi --version shows me -clipboard but I don't know how to enable it and turn it to +clipboard – Wingback

If anyone gets E850 install sudo apt-get install vim-gnome – Rebhun

This gets me the same 363 lines yanked and it will only paste line 358... WHY!?! – Marika

If anyone getting E850: Invalid register name try :%y"+ to copy all content to the clipboard and "+p to paste it – Allie

@deadLock, wow, solid comment. You can add that as an answer as it's very relevant for newer Vim versions, and it will give you more visibility – Remembrancer

Not working on my remote debian 10 when trying to get the copied lines to my local ubuntu 20.04... No errors either... – Nutter

:'<,'>w !pbcopy - to copy a selected line on mac. – Lupe

Answer 3

on Mac

• copy selected part: visually select text(type v or V in normal mode) and type :w !pbcopy

• copy the whole file :%w !pbcopy

• past from the clipboard :r !pbpaste

Endgame

Works smoothly. An explanation of the commands would be really nice. – Ellita

@Geo pbcopy is a Mac utility. On Linux, xsel might work instead, or clip on Windows. – Remaremain

This won't work if the file is longer than the height of your terminal. – Showily

@SridharSarnobat :%w !pbcopy still works if the file is longer than the height of the terminal. – Arsenite

Oh sorry, I meant over ssh where the client is a Mac and the server is Linux (which I assumed was what the OP was looking for but now that I think about it, that's an unrelated problem). In my defense, I'd avoid vim for copying and pasting for local files, but that's my personal taste. Good tips. – Showily

Answer 4

Another easy way to copy the entire file if you're having problems using VI, is just by typing "cat filename". It will echo the file to screen and then you can just scroll up and down and copy/paste.

Dispatcher

E603: :catch without :try – Aplanospore

And if you want to do that without leaving vim, you can run the following command: :!cat %. And to copy the file's contents programmatically to the clipboard on Mac OS: :!cat % | pbcopy – Mislay

Needed to copy file from Ubuntu VM on Windows to Debian in GCP opened in browser window... :/ Variations of vim yanking did not work, this worked to paste to Windows then upload file to GCP. – Mcalister

This is straight forward approach, I like it. – Xanthate

"just" scroll up and down a thousand lines. – Backcross

Answer 5

The clipboard is buffer +. To copy to clipboard, do "+y and [movement].

So, gg"+yG will copy the whole file.

Similarly, to paste from clipboard, "+p

Cruciferous

Just to add to this (4 years later...), this has a slight drawback in that your cursor position will jump to the top of the file. To avoid this (e.g. if you are mapping this to some shortcut in your vimrc), you can do something like: mqgg"+yG`q – Pickard

Answer 6

This is what I do to yank the whole file:

ggVGy

Transported

I'm afraid this does not answer the question, as you are yanking to the default register, not to the clipboard. – Utu

@ConspicuousCompiler it would if he had the clipboard set to copy the yanked text into + though. – Lawless

@Lawless not the quickest (:%y) nor neatest (at least ggyG is better) method though. – Decury

@ConspicuousCompiler what is the difference between default register and clipboard? – Capri

Answer 7

You can use "cat" command to open file and use mouse to copy

Rhodic

But that wont be the "vi" way, if file is huge then also it will be a problem... This might work but not a suggested way... – Unlucky

reset the terminal beforehand, then select all and copy. This works through ssh session. – Paulina

Fastest way for large files (under 10 thousand lines) in different remote servers if xterm_clipboard is unavailable – Plantagenet

easy and simple solution – Diego

simple and works if want to copy from remote linux server (via mac terminal) into any app in the mac laptop – Decanter

Answer 8

(in reply to @rshdev, and to avoid having to recompile vim with +xterm_clipboard per @nelstrom in comments on OP)

there's a program called xclip that works like putclip on Ubuntu 11:

:%!xclip -sel clip
u

it's not installed by default. to install, use:

sudo apt-get install xclip

Cementation

This works with vi as well, and not just vim. ESC :version On Linux you are probably not running "vi" even if that is what you typed. – Halfblooded

To avoid having to type u after the command, just insert a w after the % like so :%w !xclip -sel clip – Cacus

Answer 9

On Ubuntu 12

you might try to install the vim-gnome package:

sudo apt-get install vim-gnome

I tried it, because vim --version told me that it would have the flag xterm_clipboard disabled (indicated by - ), which is needed in order to use the clipboard functionality.

-> installing the vim-gnome package on Ubuntu 12 also installed a console based version of vim, that has this option enabled (indicated by a + before the xterm_clipboard flag)

On Arch Linux

you may install vim-clipboard for the same reason.

If you run neovim then you should install xclip (as explained by help clipboard-tool)

Agential

unix.stackexchange.com/questions/25965/… is there any other option anybody knows? – Bronwyn

Answer 10

you can press gg to locate your curser to the start of the file,then press yG to copy all the content from the start to end(G located) to buffer.good luck!

Shortwinded

Answer 11

Do copy the whole file inside the vim or its tabs

y G 

then move to a tab and paste by

p

and to cut the whole file use

d G

Levy

Answer 12

If you're using Vim in visual mode, the standard cut and paste keys also apply, at least with Windows.

• CTRLA means "Mark the entire file.
• CTRLC means "Copy the selection.
• ESC means "De-select, so your next key press doesn't replace the entire file :-)

Under Ubuntu terminal (Gnome) at least, the standard copy also works (CTRLSHIFTC, although there doesn't appear to be a standard keyboard shortcut for select all (other than ALTE followed by A).

Tropophilous

But if you aren't using mswin.vim, then ctrl-a increments the next number on the current line. – Broil

@Mark, this behavior is from a standard Vim install so I assume that's the default. All bets are off if the environment is configured differently, though if that were the case, I suspect the OP would know what they're doing :-) In either case, OP stated in a comment they were on Ubuntu so the Windows part of my answer probably doesn't apply. The Gnome terminal stuff would. – Tropophilous

Answer 13

gVim:

:set go=a

ggVG

See :help go-a:

'a' Autoselect:  If present, then whenever VISUAL mode is started,
 or the Visual area extended, Vim tries to become the owner of
 the windowing system's global selection.  This means that the
 Visually highlighted text is available for pasting into other
 applications as well as into Vim itself.  When the Visual mode
 ends, possibly due to an operation on the text, or when an
 application wants to paste the selection, the highlighted text
 is automatically yanked into the "* selection register.
 Thus the selection is still available for pasting into other
 applications after the VISUAL mode has ended.
     If not present, then Vim won't become the owner of the
 windowing system's global selection unless explicitly told to
 by a yank or delete operation for the "* register.
 The same applies to the modeless selection.

Garin

Answer 14

:%y a Yanks all the content into vim's buffer, Pressing p in command mode will paste the yanked content after the line that your cursor is currently standing at.

Stater

Answer 15

I tried a few of the commands that people have mentioned above. None worked. Then I got hold of the simplest of them all.

Step 1: vi <filename>
Step 2: Right click on the title bar of the Putty window
Step 3: Select "Clear scrollback" (to avoid copying the rest of your SSH session)
Step 4: Right click again and select "Copy all to clipboard".

Malvoisie

For 15000 line file, this didn't grab it all. I needed to increase my Putty's Window > Settings > lines of scrollback to 40000 (also available by right-clicking the title bar). It also helps to use cat instead of vi since that scrolls through all the text. – Scottiescottish

I ended up always losing lines from the top and bottom of the file this way. What I do now is cat, then middle-click at the start and end of the file to extend selection. – Scottiescottish

When I tried this I only got the 111 lines on the screen but there are 174 lines in my file, so Noumenon's cat answer worked for me – Torry

Answer 16

There wasn't a concept of "clipboard" in Bill Joy's vi so I don't think there is a built-in way to do it.

gVim's automatic copy-anything-highlighted-to-the-clipboard feature is easiest or use an external program via :!

For Cygwin's vim I use

:%!putclip
u

Maybe Ubuntu has a CLI app like putclip??

Noctule

great suggestion, thanks! there is such a program, called xclip. for details, I posted a separate answer (it would have been too confusing to read from a comment, without the extra newlines and code formatting). – Cementation

Answer 17

Well, all of these approaches are interesting, however as lazy programmer I use yank all line by using combination of number + y

for example you have source code file with total of 78 lines, you can do as below:

1. gg to get cursor at first line
2. insert 78 + y --> it yanks 78 lines below your cursor and current line

Nobie

Answer 18

I have added the following line to my .vimrc

nnoremap <F5> :%y+<CR>

This allows me to copy all text in Vim to the clipboard by pressing F5 (in command mode).

Birkett

E850: Invalid register name on Ubuntu 18.04 and Vim 7.4 – Lease

@Lease I tried this on Windows. Maybe the <CR> part is different on Ubuntu – Birkett

Answer 19

If your fingers default to CTRL-A CTRL-C, then try the mappings from $VIMRUNTIME/mswin.vim.

" CTRL-C and CTRL-Insert are Copy
vnoremap <C-C> "+y

" CTRL-A is Select all
noremap <C-A> gggH<C-O>G
inoremap <C-A> <C-O>gg<C-O>gH<C-O>G
cnoremap <C-A> <C-C>gggH<C-O>G
onoremap <C-A> <C-C>gggH<C-O>G
snoremap <C-A> <C-C>gggH<C-O>G
xnoremap <C-A> <C-C>ggVG

I have them mapped to <Leader><C-a> and <Leader><C-c>.

Rior

Answer 20

Here's a map command to select all to the clipboard using CTRL+a:

"
" select all with control-a
"
nnoremap <C-a> ggmqvG"+y'q

Add it to your .vimrc and you're good to go...

Slippage

Answer 21

I know ten years on this should be settled but the first two answers did not work for me so I kept digging. On a Redhat (remote server) - Windows 10 (local machine), if you cannot select the whole thing with a mouse, you are stuck because the usual copies do not work between the remote and the local machine clipboards.

So, to copy on the remote Linux and to paste on the local Windows, specify the primary buffer with the * and do a nice double yank

Use gg" * yy.

Tyrus

Ubuntu Vim 7.4 doesn't work, it only yanks the very first line, but doesn't put all lines into clipboard – Lease

Ubuntu Vim 7.4 doesn't work, it only yanks the very first line, but doesn't put all lines into clipboard in :version I have "-xterm_clipboard". After installed vim-gnome Vim 8.0 with :version +xterm_clipboard also doesn't work – Lease

Answer 22

You can use a shortcur, like this one:

noremap <F6> :%y+<CR>

It means, when you push F6 in normald mode, it will copy the whole file, and add it to the clipboard. Or you just can type in normal mode :%y+ and then push Enter.

Success

Answer 23

easy-peasy way:

if you are in windows and want to copy whole text to your local clipboard not the remote server buffer you are working with, no need for any extra tool, just:

1. zoom out up to see your whole file text on your screen
2. with mouse select all of them and then right click to copy to your local clipboard

Note1: nowadays on many kind of terminals (like window terminal) you can zoom in/out with ctrl++/ctrl+- and reset zoom size with ctrl+0

Note2: if your vim is numbering lines of file you can :set nonumber

Barong

Answer 24

I have created a function to perform this action, place it on your ~/.vimrc.

fun! CopyBufferToClipboard()
    %y+
endfun
nnoremap <Leader>y :call CopyBufferToClipboard()<CR>
command! -nargs=0 CopyFile :call CopyBufferToClipboard()

OBS: If you are using neovim you also need some clipboard manager like xclip. for more information type in neovim :h checkhealth

It is also important to mention that not always a simple y will copy to the clipboard, in order to make every copy feed + wich is "Clipboard Register" try to set: :set clipboard=unnamed,unnamedplus. For mor information see: :h unnamed.

Here more information on vim wikia.

Martijn

Answer 25

While many of the above answers are excellent, none of those solutions worked for me because I'm using the default VIM installation which came with Ubuntu 16.04, and it didn't have the clipboard option installed by default. I also wanted to paste the text into an external program.

Solution that worked: Ubuntu's default terminal allows you to highlight the entire contents by pressing Edit then Select All.

Worshipful

Answer 26

I use Vim in PowerShell and when I needed to copy a short block of code to windows clipboard;

I use :set nonumber to remove line numbers, then select the code visually with cursor and right click. Then I paste it to where ever I want with Ctrl + V.

Paramnesia

Answer 27

I couldn't copy files using the answers above but I have putty and I found a workaround on Quora.

1. Change settings of your PuTTY session, go to logging and change it to "printable characters". Set the log file
2. Do a cat of the respective file
3. Go to the file you set in step #1 and you will have your content in the log file.

Note: it copies all the printed characters of that session to the log file, so it will get big eventually. In that case, delete the log file and cat the target file so you get that particular file's content copied on your machine.

Appassionato

Answer 28

Click the left mouse button, drag across the section you want to copy and release. The code automatically gets copied to clipboard.

Eckenrode

The file could be huge, and dragging the whole text with a mouse is not productive (nor a vi way). – Wither

Actually this is a good answer and works for me. In my system, environment is v restrictive. I have to cat the output on the screen, and then use mouse to drag, select and release.. then I copy to Windows Notepad++.. and works great. Nothing else works. – Auctioneer

It is not copied to clipboard but rather to primary selection, which is not the same. – Puto