[vim/vim] Add OSC52 plugin for clipboard support (PR #18575)

Foxe Chen

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Oct 14, 2025, 10:23:14 PM (6 days ago) Oct 14

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WIP

You can view, comment on, or merge this pull request online at:

https://github.com/vim/vim/pull/18575

Commit Summary

9ed5593 initial commit

File Changes

(1 file)

A runtime/plugin/osc52.vim (62)

Patch Links:

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Maxim Kim

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Oct 14, 2025, 10:28:29 PM (6 days ago) Oct 14

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habamax left a comment (vim/vim#18575)

Could you consider making it optional?

With location in ~/pack/dist/opt/osc52/plugin/... we should be able to enable it with packadd osc52.

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Foxe Chen

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Oct 14, 2025, 10:45:15 PM (6 days ago) Oct 14

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64-bitman left a comment (vim/vim#18575)

Could you consider making it optional?

With location in ~/pack/dist/opt/osc52/plugin/... we should be able to enable it with packadd osc52.

Yes I planned on doing that, I'll change it later

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Foxe Chen

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Oct 14, 2025, 11:08:13 PM (6 days ago) Oct 14

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@64-bitman pushed 1 commit.

432ebdb initial commit

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Foxe Chen

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Oct 16, 2025, 9:27:40 PM (4 days ago) Oct 16

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@64-bitman pushed 3 commits.

7b7e9a1 initial commit
c5565b0 move to pack
0e90f6d use autoload

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Foxe Chen

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Oct 16, 2025, 9:29:41 PM (4 days ago) Oct 16

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@64-bitman pushed 1 commit.

da6afc8 fix filelist

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Foxe Chen

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Oct 16, 2025, 9:31:11 PM (4 days ago) Oct 16

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@64-bitman pushed 1 commit.

1978ace fix filelist

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Foxe Chen

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Oct 16, 2025, 9:38:30 PM (4 days ago) Oct 16

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f397272 add comments

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Foxe Chen

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Oct 16, 2025, 10:28:06 PM (4 days ago) Oct 16

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2b42e57 add docs

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Foxe Chen

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Oct 16, 2025, 10:29:38 PM (4 days ago) Oct 16

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43862cf add docs

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Foxe Chen

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Oct 16, 2025, 10:30:21 PM (4 days ago) Oct 16

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4b98bdb add docs

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Foxe Chen

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Oct 16, 2025, 10:32:31 PM (4 days ago) Oct 16

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64-bitman left a comment (vim/vim#18575)

Could anyone test in MacOS? I have added documentation on how to use

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Foxe Chen

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Oct 17, 2025, 7:50:56 AM (4 days ago) Oct 17

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@64-bitman pushed 1 commit.

af1c7ce add docs

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Foxe Chen

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Oct 17, 2025, 5:56:46 PM (3 days ago) Oct 17

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@64-bitman pushed 6 commits.

6081bfe initial commit
e7757dd move to pack
2615c44 use autoload
f7f2e11 fix filelist
a35a303 add comments
63bb682 add docs

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Foxe Chen

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Oct 18, 2025, 12:58:36 AM (3 days ago) Oct 18

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@64-bitman pushed 1 commit.

3b2c050 make available function be autoloaded

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Foxe Chen

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Oct 18, 2025, 1:00:59 AM (3 days ago) Oct 18

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64-bitman left a comment (vim/vim#18575)

I think this is ready. I didn't add tests because this plugin is very simple anyways + I can't figure out a way to actually test the plugin

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Christian Brabandt

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Oct 18, 2025, 10:44:05 AM (3 days ago) Oct 18

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chrisbra left a comment (vim/vim#18575)

did someone try it out? Ping @peterwu who requested this functionality in #14995

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Peter Wu

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Oct 18, 2025, 12:14:12 PM (3 days ago) Oct 18

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peterwu left a comment (vim/vim#18575)

I tested on my MacBook and it didn't seem to work.

compiled from https://github.com/64-bitman/vim/tree/osc52_plugin
make
make install
~/.vimrc

packadd osc52
set clipmethod^=osc52

This will print ^[[?1;2c when launching vim.
5. ~/.vimrc

packadd osc52
g:osc52_force_avail = true
set clipmethod^=osc52

This doesn't print anything when launching vim.

If I do "+yy, the content is not copied to the + register.
If I do "*yy, thee content is copied to the * register but not available in the system clipboard.
The same happens to "*p as it does not paste what's in the system clipboard to the vim session.

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Foxe Chen

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Oct 18, 2025, 2:34:52 PM (3 days ago) Oct 18

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@64-bitman pushed 2 commits.

432ebdb initial commit
7bfda38 Merge branch 'osc52_plugin' of https://github.com/64-bitman/vim into osc52_plugin

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Foxe Chen

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Oct 18, 2025, 2:35:02 PM (3 days ago) Oct 18

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@64-bitman pushed 0 commits.

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Foxe Chen

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Oct 18, 2025, 2:43:53 PM (3 days ago) Oct 18

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@64-bitman pushed 1 commit.

ec52fc8 change getchar opts

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Foxe Chen

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Oct 18, 2025, 2:47:30 PM (3 days ago) Oct 18

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@64-bitman pushed 1 commit.

0315858 change getchar opts

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Foxe Chen

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Oct 18, 2025, 2:48:15 PM (3 days ago) Oct 18

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@64-bitman pushed 1 commit.

0f0c30f change getchar opts

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Foxe Chen

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Oct 18, 2025, 2:54:24 PM (3 days ago) Oct 18

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64-bitman left a comment (vim/vim#18575)

In all cases, ommiting g:osc52_force_avail = true results in some escape chars printed on the terminal before vim shows up.

That is likely from Vim trying to detect if the terminal supports OSC 52, I've made it now that is prints a message while waiting for a response (which may never come)

Ghostty prints ^[[?62;22;52c while kitty prints ^[[?62;52c. And when this happens, the OSC52 function does not work.

Can you elaborate on this? The plugin should match the '52' in those responses and enable the osc52 functionality. Or is it just printing characters to the screen? If so can you try the latest commit?

The following is for my test on Terminal app but the same steps were performed for Ghostty and kitty.

compiled from https://github.com/64-bitman/vim/tree/osc52_plugin

make

make install

~/.vimrc
packadd osc52
set clipmethod^=osc52
This will print ^[[?1;2c when launching vim. 5. ~/.vimrc
packadd osc52
g:osc52_force_avail = true
set clipmethod^=osc52
This doesn't print anything when launching vim.

If I do "+yy, the content is not copied to the + register.

If I do "*yy, thee content is copied to the * register but not available in the system clipboard.

The same happens to "*p as it does not paste what's in the system clipboard to the vim session.

It seems that that the MacOS default terminal does not support OSC52, could you show the value of v:clipmethod? It looks like iTerm supports OSC 52 so could you try that? Thanks.

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Peter Wu

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Oct 18, 2025, 4:20:18 PM (3 days ago) Oct 18

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peterwu left a comment (vim/vim#18575)

I did a git pull off the osc52_plugin, recompiled and discovered a few things.

If g:osc52_force_avail = true is not set in vimrc, now it prints something like this:

Waiting for OSC 52 response...^[[?64;1;2;4;6;17;18;21;22c

By that, I mean:

put the following in vimrc

packadd osc52
set clipmethod^=osc52

run vim
vim will print these characters right after like this:

$ vim
Waiting for OSC 52 response...^[[?64;1;2;4;6;17;18;21;22c

at this time, the vim session seems to wait for ever until I hit ENTER
after I hit ENTER, the main vim session shows up but at the bottom it displays a similar message:

~                type  :help version9<Enter>   for version infoWaiting for OSC 52 response...^[[?64;1;2;4;6;17;18;21;22c

that's right: the Waiting message follows directly after the initial startup message
6. at this stage, I can't fire vim commands, such as i, d, y, p, etc. These keys will be printed right after the Waiting message
7. This stops when I hit ENTER again
8. Now, I use the vim session as usual

So, imo, the updated commits made things even worse. Before the chars were displayed at step3 but after I hit ENTER, it let me use vim without step 6.

I also tested iTerm2, v3.6.4. If I followed the instructions to disable clipboard access, I can copy content to clipboard but cannot paste content from clipboard. I'm not familar with iTerm2 so maybe I didn't figure out a setting somewhere to enable paste.

Another thing that I noticed:

On my MacBook Air running 26.0.1, I was able to compile from source without any issues;
On my MacBook Pro running 26.0.1, I couldn't compile the https://github.com/64-bitman/vim.git (neither master nor osc52_plugin) but I could compile https://github.com/vim/vim.git with no issues.

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Yamagi

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Oct 18, 2025, 4:21:52 PM (3 days ago) Oct 18

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Yamagi left a comment (vim/vim#18575)

I gave it a try with Alacritty under Linux and both copy and paste are working fine. Just a small nitpicks: I'm also seeing Waiting for OSC 52 response...^[[?6c. The message added in the last commits makes clear what's going on, but what about adding a hint that the response may never come and pressing Return forces Vim to continue? Also, why do I need press Return four times until Vim starts? :messages is empty.

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alex-huff

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Oct 19, 2025, 1:14:36 PM (2 days ago) Oct 19

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alex-huff left a comment (vim/vim#18575)

I experience the same issues. However, if I manually run

:packadd osc52
:set clipmethod^=osc52

after vim has already loaded it works as expected. It seems the primary device attributes event isn't get triggered specifically in the context that .vimrc is loaded, causing Available() to hang.

One more thing. When pasting a clipboard that has no newlines, it seems a newline is inserted at the end.