Prevent Vim from clearing the clipboard on exit
VimClipboardVim Problem Overview
When I open Vim from a terminal, copy some text to the system clipboard, and exit Vim, the system clipboard gets cleared.
How to keep the copied text in the clipboard?
Vim Solutions
Solution 1 - Vim
Synthesizing answers from superuser, just add the following to your .vimrc
autocmd VimLeave * call system("xsel -ib", getreg('+'))
Solution 2 - Vim
Install Parcellite, or glipper for Gnome and klipper for KDE.
Restart your computer or run it manually.
Solution 3 - Vim
Based on Matt's answer, the following uses xclip instead of xsel:
autocmd VimLeave * call system('echo ' . shellescape(getreg('+')) .
\ ' | xclip -selection clipboard')
Solution 4 - Vim
I ran into this issue and a related problem where suspending vim with ctrl-z would also clear the clipboard. I've extended Matt's solution to fix both:
set clipboard=unnamedplus
if executable("xsel")
function! PreserveClipboard()
call system("xsel -ib", getreg('+'))
endfunction
function! PreserveClipboadAndSuspend()
call PreserveClipboard()
suspend
endfunction
autocmd VimLeave * call PreserveClipboard()
nnoremap <silent> <c-z> :call PreserveClipboadAndSuspend()<cr>
vnoremap <silent> <c-z> :<c-u>call PreserveClipboadAndSuspend()<cr>
endif
The if executable("xsel") guard is there to avoid errors if xsel is not installed. The nnoremap mapping preserves the clipboard when suspending from normal mode and the vnoremap mapping handles suspending from visual or select modes.
I've confirmed this works on vim 7.4 and 8.0.
Solution 5 - Vim
Use NeoVim. It by default doesn't clear the clipboard on exit. You will still need to set clipboard=unnamedplus (typically in ~/.config/nvim/init.vim) and have xsel or xclip tools installed.
Keep in mind that some other defaults are different as well.
Solution 6 - Vim
Please correct me if I'm wrong but from my understandings of Vim...
- Vim uses registers instead of the clipboard to store copied/cut data.
- These registers are preserved when exiting vim in a status file but are not accessible outside of the running process unless you manually open the file and inspect its contents
- Saving stuff to the + registre while Vim runs allows you to paste to other applications.
- By suspending vim (CTRL-Z) instead of closing it, these registers are still accessible.
Does that provide assistance?
Solution 7 - Vim
Based on Matt's answer
When using his method copying multiple lines added slashes to the end of lines when pasting.
This should remedy that.
autocmd VimLeave * exe ":!echo " . shellescape(getreg('+')) . " | xclip -selection clipboard"
When i used "shellescape" with "system" newlines kept getting escaped. But that didn't happen when i used exe.
Don't know the real reason. but this worked.