Vim Mode copy-paste not working on Tmux

Question

I am new at using Tmux. I have seen that it is quite difficult to copy-paste inside Tmux. So I searched for an easier method. Some sites suggested that I should use vim mode as I am quite familiar with vim. But, vim mode copy-paste isn't working. I don't know what I am doing wrong. This is my ~/.tmux.conf file.

# Improve colors
set -g default-terminal 'screen-256color'

# Set scrollback buffer to 10000
set -g history-limit 10000

# Customize the status line
set -g status-fg  green
set -g status-bg  black

set -g mouse on

bind P paste-buffer
bind-key -T copy-mode-vi v send-keys -X begin-selection
bind-key -T copy-mode-vi r send-keys -X rectangle-toggle
bind-key -T copy-mode-vi y send-keys -X copy-pipe-and-cancel 'xclip -in -selection clipboard'

# remap prefix to Control + a
set -g prefix M-a
# bind 'C-a C-a' to type 'C-a'
bind M-a send-prefix
unbind C-b



# List of plugins
set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tpm'
set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-sensible'

# Other examples:
# set -g @plugin 'github_username/plugin_name'
# set -g @plugin 'git@github.com/user/plugin'
# set -g @plugin 'git@bitbucket.com/user/plugin'

set -g @plugin 'jimeh/tmux-themepack'

set -g @themepack 'powerline/block/blue'

# Initialize TMUX plugin manager (keep this line at the very bottom of tmux.conf)
run -b '~/.tmux/plugins/tpm/tpm'

I am using Tmux 2.5. Thanks in advance for help.

Answer 1

• Make sure to have setw -g mode-keys vi in your conf file

• As you can see your yanking (which is also sent to the clipboard) is using an external command: xclip. Therefore, make sure to have xclip installed or install it with this script for example.

• Make sure to enter copy mode with C-b [, then v to begin selection, then y to yank, finally C-b ] to quit copy mode.

• Not sure if this makes a difference but you can try:

   bind-key -T copy-mode-vi 'v' send -X begin-selection
   bind-key -T copy-mode-vi 'r' send -X rectangle-toggle
   bind-key -T copy-mode-vi 'y' send -X copy-pipe-and-cancel
  

---

You can also make your .tmux.conf more transportable between versions by catching the tmux version in a variable and using some if statements. I personally have the following .tmux.conf which worked well so far for different versions (never used 2.5 though), I have also stitched this from different sources so I am not 100% sure that the version conditions are really true for every versions:

#check version and put in variable
run-shell 'tmux setenv -g TMUX_VERSION $(tmux -V | sed -En "s/^tmux ([0-9]+(.[0-9]+)?).*/\1/p")'

setw -g mode-keys vi
if-shell -b '[ "$(echo "$TMUX_VERSION < 2.4" | bc)" = 1 ]' " \
  bind-key -t vi-copy v begin-selection; \
  bind-key -t vi-copy r rectangle-toggle; \
  bind-key -t vi-copy y copy-pipe 'xclip -selection clipboard -in'"

#You would have to adapt here by changing ">" to ">="
#and maybe changing the key binding by what you
#already have if what you have indeed worked after 
#checking the points I gave you earlier.
if-shell -b '[ "$(echo "$TMUX_VERSION > 2.5" | bc)" = 1 ]' " \
  bind-key -T copy-mode-vi 'v' send -X begin-selection; \
  bind-key -T copy-mode-vi 'r' send -X rectangle-toggle; \
  bind-key -T copy-mode-vi 'y' send -X copy-pipe-and-cancel 'xclip -selection clipboard -in'"

It would probably help everyone if someone could check/share a fully portable .tmux.conf for vim like copy/paste with xclip support.