How to paste to terminal ubuntu

Select/copy/paste in terminal using only the keyboard

I’m looking for a way to select, copy and paste the text in the terminal completely without the mouse.

I’ve been using tmux until now, but I find its key combinations a bit complex for everyday use of copy & paste, and I’m now looking for alternatives.

Do you guys have any suggestions?

5 Answers 5

I always use Ctrl + Shift + C and Ctrl + Shift + V to copy and paste in my (non tmux) terminal.
You can change these keyboard shortcuts in the keyboard preferences of your (non-tmux) terminal.

If however you want to keep using tmux you can also change the keyboard shortcuts of tmux by adding commands to

It will look like this

You don’t need the command prefix key to execute the commands in the

For more info about the things available for

Very rudimentary copying and pasting can be done using this however for a bit more usefulness I recommend using a Vim-style copy/paste config.
Enabling a Vim-style of copy/paste can be done with this config file or another config file. These do however require the use of the prefix key.
Someone even made a tmux extension to simplify the copy/paste action to the system clipboard in tmux. It might be worth a look.

If you want an alternative for Tmux you might try dvtm ( sudo apt-get install dvtm dtach ). I haven’t used it myself but it looks like it has similar options.

Right click to paste in terminal

At work I’m using putty to connect to a lot of Red Hat / CentOS machines and I love the fact that selecting a text means copy and right click means paste.

Can I set Ubuntu’s default terminal to do the same?

Edit: Thanks for the answers, but they are not exactly what I am looking for. While both are valid, I was actually looking for a way to use the functionality without using another terminal. So everything should work via the default gnome terminal.

I am not sure it’s possible, but I’ll try my luck and start a bounty on this.

Edit: Thank you guys for your answers and sorry for the late reply but I was out over the week-end. I’ll check the «selection/middle mouse button» solution tonight and come back to you.

The patch solution sounds also promising.

4 Answers 4

In gnome-terminal (and in Ubuntu in general) select text means «copy» (or «X selection» if you want to get technical, which is different from «clipboard copy»), which can be pasted via middle mouse click.

Let us know if it works for you.

Edit: I went ahead and checked it myself. It works perfectly. Here are the patched deb files for gnome-terminal-3.6.2: uploaded in mediafire

If you are using the same version of gnome-terminal, you can download the deb files and install it by:

Edit: For future reference, here is the full procedure:

Install build dependencies:

Download the sources and apply the patch:

Build and install:

Up to date patches are maintained by Tomi Valkeinen at https://github.com/tomba/gnome-terminal under ‘paste-*’ branches.

tomba/gnome-terminal/index.html 3. *-paste.patch file is now missing, stuck here, can’t proceed.

Let me expand on my original answer a little bit. Technically, the default terminal emulator, the gnome-terminal does not have this functionality and there’s no way to set it as far as I know or have seen from researching online. Therefore the answer to your question

Can I set Ubuntu’s default terminal to do the same?

is basically, no.

Copy and paste doesn’t work in the terminal

Before you go marking this as a dupe, I know about Ctrl + Shift + C and Ctrl + Shift + V

I try to use them, and it doesn’t work. On one particular Ubuntu computer, normal copy paste commands do not work: They do not work locally, and they do not work via remote session.

My guess was that perhaps logging into a computer where these functions where acting normally, and logging in via ssh would bypass the issue. This was not the case. I still cannot gain this functionally, even though the Ubuntu PC I am using has functional copy and paste from the terminal.

So I am out of guesses.

How do I enable this? The affected computer runs Ubuntu MATE 16.04. The terminal is mate-terminal, except when I login via ssh, in which case it’s Bash. Caja is the window manager.

5 Answers 5

Mark the text, that you want to paste by pressing the left mouse button and move the mouse. (You can left click twice to mark a word or three times to mark a line.)

Move the mouse cursor to where you want to paste the text.

Press the middle button or scrolling wheel (like it were a button). If no middle button, press the left and right buttons at the same time.

In a terminal window, the text will be pasted at the cursor position. This works in the same terminal window, in another terminal window as well as in other programs, for example Firefox and gedit.

2. A method that works in many but not all terminal windows

2.1 Via menus

Mark the text, that you want to paste by pressing the left mouse button and move the mouse.

Use a pull-down or right-click menu and select ‘Copy’ (to clipboard).

Move the mouse cursor to where you want to copy the text.

Use a pull-down or right-click menu and select ‘Paste’

2.2 hotkey combination with ctrl

Mark the text, that you want to paste by pressing the left mouse button and move the mouse.

Press shift + ctrl + c to ‘Copy’ (to clipboard).

Press shift + ctrl + v to ‘Paste’ into another terminal window.

Press ctrl + v to ‘Paste’ into a normal GUI application program, for example Firefox or Gedit.

FWIW, I don’t do much cutting & pasting in a terminal. Just typing. What are you up to that makes cutting important?

Copy/paste is provided by the terminal program, if at all. There is no general answer. Since you don’t tell us which terminal emulator you use, we cannot help. If terminal has pull down menu (gnome terminal), you may get hints. I am almost sure there is no Ctrl + V in xterm or rxvt.

The only general paste feature will come from the basic Linux OS. This works in a Virtual Terminal ( Alt + Ctrl + F1 ) as well. Use the left button to highlight. Then middle click to paste. Action must happen with no clicks between. Middle click is a focus and paste in one step. I use that all the time.

Also possible to install a clipboard imitation, maybe find terminal to cooperate with it. Transfer text from one program to another.

How to Copy Paste in Linux Terminal?

When you start using the Linux terminal whenever you want to copy or paste command or some text, we press universal Ctrl + c for copy, Ctrl + v But you are not able to do the same.

The same thing happens to me when I have started using a Linux based system.

I was wonder how I could copy the command from the web and post on terminals.

Initially, I was depended upon all the blogs for all information. Whenever I read the command, and I put the same command in terminal to work.

But I was not able to do.

So, Today I thought many other users having the same queries how they can do copy paste in terminals.

Let’s Begin Usually I show two method two approach the problems.

Table of Contents

Method 1: How to do copy and paste in linux?

Method to Copy

In the terminal, you have first to select the text which you want to copy then press right above the selected the text.

Then you just need to click on the copy button, this copied the text into your clipboard.

Method to Paste

Now you want to paste text or command in terminal

You just need to press right key and you will the option for the paste.

This is the pretty simple way to do.

If you want to copy content from the terminal you will select the text using cursor then press the right key you will see the option of copy then click on that option.

Voila! your copied paste is now in your terminal

Method 2: Which shortcut key use for copy and paste?

In my case I use pop’os Ubuntu-based distribution on Linux You can use Ctrl + Shift + C to copy the text and Ctrl + Shift+ V for paste.

Copy shortcut key

Paste shortcut key

Many other distribution has the same shortcuts.

If the above shortcut key didn’t work, then you can try another Ctrl + Insert to copy the text and Ctrl + Shift + V for paste.

Examples

If you want to copy content from the terminal you will select the text using cursor then press Ctrl + Shift + C

Now your code is copied you need to paste to text wherever you require for e.g. you want to paste in the web-browser, so to do this you have to press Ctrl + Shift V

I think you got the points how you can do copy paste in Linux terminal.

What happens in the terminal when you press Ctrl + c and Ctrl + v?

A system like windows or other software use Ctrl + c to copy content and Ctrl + V to paste content but this shortcut will not work in the terminal.

So then what happen when we press Ctrl + c

Ctrl + c is used to interrupt the running process.

Conclusion

We have shared the two methods through which you can do copy and paste the text or command in Linux.

Shortcut key are Ctrl + Shift + C to copy and Ctrl + Shift + V to paste the text.

Let’s try in your terminal too.

Drop us your response on how useful this content was. If readers are interested to know the basics of the Linux system then I’ll start the absolute beginner series where we try to capture all the information.

A man with a tech effusive who has explored some of the amazing technology stuff and is exploring more. While moving towards, I had a chance to work on Android development, Linux, AWS, and DevOps with several open-source tools.

How to Copy and Paste Text, Files and Folders in Linux Terminal

Standard copy-paste shortcuts don’t work in the Linux terminal.

Copying and pasting is one of the most used actions on a computer. While it is easy to do so with the Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V keyboard shortcuts, on the Linux terminal it is not so straightforward. You have several options to get the job done. Here is how you can copy and paste text, files and directories in Linux terminal.

Content

Copy and Paste Text

If you just want to copy a piece of text in the terminal, all you need to do is highlight it with your mouse, then press Ctrl + Shift + C to copy.

The Paste shortcut also applies when you copy a section of text from a Word document (or any other application) and want to paste it in the terminal. For example, you can copy a command from a web page in your browser and use the Ctrl + Shift + V shortcut to paste it in the terminal.

If for some reason these keyboard shortcuts don’t work, the terminal might not be properly configured for it. Look for options that allow you to customize keyboard shortcuts. These are instructions for the most popular terminals:

Most other terminals will lock you into the default universal combination for copying/pasting in the console without the ability to configure them.

Copy and Paste a Single File

Any time you want to copy a file or folder in the Linux command line, the above keyboard shortcut won’t work. You have to use the cp command. cp is shorthand for copy. The syntax is simple, too. Use cp followed by the file you want to copy and the destination where you want it moved.

That, of course, assumes that your file is in the same directory you’re working out of. You can specify both.

You also have the option of renaming your file while copying it. Specify the new name in the destination.

Copy and Paste a Folder and Its Contents

Copy and Paste Multiple Files

All three files of differing file types will be copied to the Documents directory.

Copy and Paste All Files of the Same Type

If you want to use multiple file types, say JPG and PNG, you can use the brackets from before.

Make Copying More Interactive

As you may have noticed while following this guide, using cp does not give you any sort of confirmation or prompt after finishing what it’s doing unless it encounters an error. This may cause a bit of discomfort especially when you’re doing very large file copy operations on slower hardware that could take a long time to complete.

Rsync vs CP

If you need to do several copy operations that overwrite files (such as creating a backup that you will update once in awhile) for some reason, rsync might just put a smile on your face.

rsync is a little more advanced in that it goes into the minutiae of each file, does a full comparison of the data in both, and within the file itself, only overwrites the data that has changed. This is especially useful if the destination folder is in an SSD, as it saves write cycles and doesn’t needlessly degrade the drive’s health by overwriting entire files.

Move a File or Folder

If you came here looking to move a file from one place to another without making a duplicate, you can do that easily too, but moving a file requires the mv command. The syntax is very similar to cp.

Similarly, you can also rename the file.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is rsync better than cp?

Neither is better than the other generally. rsync will make full comparisons of files in both the source and destination folders, taking up some computing resources to save on bandwidth or write cycles. It’s great if you’re constantly updating a backup of a particular folder, but less than ideal if you’re just doing a single copy operation.

cp functions more as a Swiss Army knife that just wants to get the job done. If you have to overwrite something, cp does it for you. Because of its capability for interactivity, it’s also more beginner-friendly and gives you a bit more control over the copying process.

Why can’t I just use Ctrl+C to copy items from my terminal?

In Linux terminal applications, pressing Ctrl + C on your keyboard sends a SIGINT (interrupt) signal to the kernel. It’s a simple way of telling Linux to stop whatever is running on that particular terminal.

If you configure the “Copy” function in your terminal to respond to that key combination, you will encounter problems when copying a line of text from an executing command while it’s still in the process of doing something.