Copy text from nano editor to shell

Is it possible to copy text from a file, opened with nano, to the shell?

I have a text file, and I want to copy several lines to the console, but I cannot find a keyboard shortcut to copy the text.

Nano to Shell:

1. Using mouse to mark the text.

2. Right-Click the mouse in the Shell.

Within Nano:

1. CTRL+6 (or CTRL+Shift+6 or hold Shift and move cursor) for Mark Set and mark what you want (the end could do some extra help).

2. ALT+6 for copying the marked text.

3. CTRL+u at the place you want to paste.

or

1. CTRL+6 (or CTRL+Shift+6 or hold Shift and move cursor) for Mark Set and mark what you want (the end could do some extra help).

2. CTRL+k for cutting what you want to copy

3. CTRL+u for pasting what you have just cut because you just want to copy.

4. CTRL+u at the place you want to paste.

For whoever still looking for a copy + paste solution in nano editor

To select text

• ctrl+6
• Use arrow to move the cursor to where you want the mark to end

Note: If you want to copy the whole line, no need to mark just move the cursor to the line

To copy:

• Press alt + 6

To paste:

• Press ctrl + U

Reference

Much easier method (for short pieces of text):
$ cat my_file

Ctrl+Shift+c to copy the required output from the terminal

Ctrl+Shift+v to paste it wherever you like

nano does not seem to have the ability to copy/paste from the global/system clipboard or shell.

However, you can copy text from one file to another using nano's file buffers. When you open another file buffer with ^R (Ctrl + r), you can use nanos built-in copy/paste functionality (outlined below) to copy between files:

• M-6 (Meta + 6) to copy lines to nano's clipboard.
• ^K (Ctrl + k) to cut the current line and store it in nano's clipboard.
• ^^ (Ctrl + Shift + 6) to select text. Once you have selected the text, you can use the above commands to copy it or cut it.
• ^U (Ctrl + u) to paste the text from nano's clipboard.

Finally, if the above solution will not work for you and you are using a terminal emulator, you may be able to copy/paste from the global clipboard with Ctrl + Shift + c and Ctrl + Shift + v (Cmd + c and Cmd + v on OSX) respectively. screen also provides an external copy/paste that should work in nano. Finally if all you need to do is capture certain lines or text from a file, consider using grep to find the lines and xclip or xsel (or pbcopy/pbpaste on OSX) to copy them to the global clipboard (and/or paste from the clipboard) instead of nano.

The thread is quite old, but today I humbled around with the same question and all the mentioned solutions above did not help. As I wished to copy long lines my solution is - acording to what @themisterunknown wrote above - outside nano. I used awk!

awk '{ if (NR==87) print $0 }' filename

where NR==[line number] and $0 is complete line.

I don't know any way to do this directly in nano. However you can use "cat" or "grep" to display lines of your file in the console.

If you use a terminal multiplexer like "screen" you can copy and paste strings like this.

Simply use Ctrl+Shift+6 to copy current line or you can set mark using Ctrl+6 and copy multiple lines using above command as well.

Relatively straightforward solution:

1. From the first character you want to copy, hold Shift down and go all the way to the end.

2. Press Ctrl+K, which cuts the text from the file.

3. Press Ctrl+X, and then N to not save any changes.

4. Paste the cut text anywhere you want.

Alternatively, if your text fits into the screen, you can simply use mouse to select and it automatically copies it to clipboard.

First method

This method seems to work when the content doesn't include ●.

Install xsel or similar and assign a global shortcut key for this command in your WM or DE:

xsel -o | sed -r 's/^ ?[[:digit:]]+($| +)//g' | perl -pe 's/\n/●/g' | sed -r 's/●●/\n\n/g; s/ ?● {1,}/ /g; s/●/\n/g' | xsel -b

Put this in your ~/.Xresources:

*selectToClipboard: false

Issue this in your xterm once to activate the above option:

xrdb -load ~/.Xresources

Now select the line(s) including the line numbers by pressing Shift while dragging the mouse. After the selection click your key combo; the line(s) are coppied and ready to be pasted anywhere you like.

Second method

Doesn't have the shortcoming of the first method.

Install xdotool and xsel or similar.

Put these two lines

Ctrl <Btn3Down>: select-start(PRIMARY, CLIPBOARD)
Ctrl <Btn3Up>: select-end(CLIPBOARD, PRIMARY)

in your ~/.Xresources like so:

*VT100*translations: #override \n\
    Alt <Key> 0xf6: exec-formatted("xdg-open '%t'", PRIMARY, CUT_BUFFER0) \n\                           
    Ctrl <Key>0x2bb: copy-selection(CLIPBOARD) \n\                              
    Alt <Key>0x2bb: insert-selection(CLIPBOARD) \n\                             
    Ctrl <Key> +:       larger-vt-font() \n\                                    
    Ctrl <Key> -:       smaller-vt-font() \n\
    Ctrl <Btn3Down>: select-start(PRIMARY, CLIPBOARD) \n\
    Ctrl <Btn3Up>: select-end(CLIPBOARD, PRIMARY) 

Issue this in your xterm once to activate the above option:

xrdb -load ~/.Xresources

Create this scrip in your path:

#!/bin/bash                                                                  

filepid=$(xdotool getwindowpid $(xdotool getactivewindow))                   
file=$(ps -p "$filepid" o cmd | grep -o --color=never "/.*")                   

firstline=$(xsel -b)                                                         
lastline=$(xsel)                                                             

sed -n ""$firstline","$lastline"p" "$file" | xsel -b

Assign a global shortcut key to call this script in your WM or DE.

Now when you want to copy a line (paragraph), select only the line number of that line (paragraph) by right mouse button while pressing Shift+Ctrl. After the selection click your custom global key combo you've created before. The line (paragraph) is coppied and ready to be pasted anywhere you like.

If you want to copy multiple lines, do the above for the first line and then for the last line of the range, instead of Shift+Ctrl+Btn3 (right mouse button), just select the number by left mouse button while pressing only Shift. After this, again call the script by your custom global shortcut. The range of lines are coppied and ready to pasted anywhere you like.

The copy buffer can't be accessed outside of nano, and nowhere I found any buffer file to read.

Here is a dirty alternative when in full NOX: Printing a given file line in the bash history.

So the given line is available as a command with the UP key.

> sed "LINEq;d" FILENAME >> ~/.bash_history

Example:

sed "342q;d" doc.txt >> ~/.bash_history

Then to reload the history into the current session:

history -n

Or to make history reloading automatic at new prompts, paste this in .bash_profile:

PROMPT_COMMAND='history -n ; $PROMPT_COMMAND'

---

Note for AZERTY keyboards and very probably others layouts that require SHIFT for printing numbers from the top keys.

To toggle nano text selection (Mark Set/Unset) the shortcut is:

CTRL + SHIFT + 2

Or

ALT + a

You can then select the text with the arrows keys.

All of the others shortcuts works fine as the documentation:

CTRL + k or F9 to cut.

CTRL + u or F10 to paste.

Select the text in nano with the mouse and then right click on the mouse. Text is now copied to your clipboard. If it does not work try to start nano with the mouse option on : nano -m filename

The following works in Nano but also anywhere in a terminal:

• Copy text from a terminal, after selecting with your mouse: Ctrl + shift + C.

• And to past text in to a terminal: Ctrl + shift + V.

M-^ is copy Text. "M" in my environment is "Esc" key ! not "Ctrl"; so I use Esc + 6 to copy that.

> [nano help] Escape-key sequences are notated with the Meta (M-) symbol and can be entered using either the Esc, Alt, or Meta key depending on your keyboard setup.

1. Ctrl + 6 to mark the text that you want to copy
   
   
2. Ctrl + k to cut the text and Ctrl + u to paste back to the original place
   
   
3. Go to the desired line where you want to paste the code marked in step (2). Ctrl + u to paste it.

Hope it helps.