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xterm copy/paste in vi not working

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loc

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Aug 14, 2009, 9:50:00 AM8/14/09
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I just upgraded to Slackware current which is using X.Org 6.8.99.903(243)
and I'm having a problem with copy and paste in an xterm when using vi.
The copy only works for text selected which is currently displayed on the
screen, if I select text and then either scroll so the highlighted text is
no longer visible on the screen or close the xterm, I can't paste.

To reproduce go into vi and enter insert mode by pressing 'i' type something
then highlight it by clicking the left mouse button. Now press and hold
enter until the highlighted text scrolls off the screen and then press the
middle mouse button to try and paste. The text that was just selected does
not paste.

My vi/elvis version is 2.2.0, but I don't think it's a vi problem because
I was using that same vi version with xterm -version X.Org 6.8.99.903(232)
without this problem. However I don't have this copy/paste problem in
KDE's Konsole or vim, it's just vi using this newer version of xterm.
Any ideas what the problem may be?

loc

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Aug 14, 2009, 4:27:43 PM8/14/09
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Doing some more testing, vim has the same problem as elvis, but copy/paste
works good in Konsole so I think it is a bug with xterm version 243.

Thomas Dickey

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Aug 20, 2009, 4:16:01 AM8/20/09
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On Aug 14, 4:27 pm, loc <c320...@gmail.com> wrote:

> loc <c320...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I just upgraded to Slackware current which is using X.Org 6.8.99.903(243)
> > and I'm having a problem with copy and paste in anxtermwhen using vi.

> > The copy only works for text selected which is currently displayed on the
> > screen, if I select text and then either scroll so the highlighted text is
> > no longer visible on the screen or close thexterm, I can't paste.

>
> > To reproduce go into vi and enter insert mode by pressing 'i' type something
> > then highlight it by clicking the left mouse button.  Now press and hold
> > enter until the highlighted text scrolls off the screen and then press the
> > middle mouse button to try and paste.  The text that was just selected does
> > not paste.
>
> > My vi/elvis version is 2.2.0, but I don't think it's a vi problem because
> > I was using that same vi version withxterm-version X.Org 6.8.99.903(232)

> > without this problem.  However I don't have this copy/paste problem in
> > KDE's Konsole or vim, it's just vi using this newer version ofxterm.
> > Any ideas what the problem may be?
>
> Doing some more testing, vim has the same problem as elvis, but copy/paste
> works good in Konsole so I think it is a bug withxtermversion 243.

Unless I saw the difference in similarly-configured xterms
running side-by-side on the same host (to get the same locale,
etc), I'd assume it was some configuration difference.

Source for 232 is here:
ftp://invisible-island.net/xterm/
Changes are summarized here:
http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.log.html

hth

--
Thomas E. Dickey <dic...@invisible-island.net>
http://invisible-island.net
ftp://invisible-island.net

loc

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Aug 20, 2009, 10:00:15 AM8/20/09
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Thomas Dickey <dic...@his.com> wrote:

> On Aug 14, 4:27?pm, loc <c320...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> loc <c320...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> > I just upgraded to Slackware current which is using X.Org 6.8.99.903(243)
>> > and I'm having a problem with copy and paste in anxtermwhen using vi.
>> > The copy only works for text selected which is currently displayed on the
>> > screen, if I select text and then either scroll so the highlighted text is
>> > no longer visible on the screen or close thexterm, I can't paste.
>>
>> > To reproduce go into vi and enter insert mode by pressing 'i' type something
>> > then highlight it by clicking the left mouse button. ?Now press and hold

>> > enter until the highlighted text scrolls off the screen and then press the
>> > middle mouse button to try and paste. ?The text that was just selected does

>> > not paste.
>>
>> > My vi/elvis version is 2.2.0, but I don't think it's a vi problem because
>> > I was using that same vi version withxterm-version X.Org 6.8.99.903(232)
>> > without this problem. ?However I don't have this copy/paste problem in

>> > KDE's Konsole or vim, it's just vi using this newer version ofxterm.
>> > Any ideas what the problem may be?
>>
>> Doing some more testing, vim has the same problem as elvis, but copy/paste
>> works good in Konsole so I think it is a bug withxtermversion 243.
>
> Unless I saw the difference in similarly-configured xterms
> running side-by-side on the same host (to get the same locale,
> etc), I'd assume it was some configuration difference.
>
> Source for 232 is here:
> ftp://invisible-island.net/xterm/
> Changes are summarized here:
> http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.log.html
>

I found the problem, the fix is to right click on the KDE clipboard on the panel
and select configure Klipper and check the box by "Ignore selection" also
make sure "Separate clipboard and selection" is selected, then after
applying that, right click again on the clipboard and select
"Clear Clipboard History". Now the selection buffer works as expected.

Thomas Dickey

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Aug 20, 2009, 8:16:53 PM8/20/09
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sounds good (thanks for the feedback).

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