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Copy & Paste Keybindings #968
Description
Environment
Windows build number: 10.0.18362.86
Windows Terminal version (if applicable):
Steps to reproduce
In the standard Windows 10 console, you can enable the use of Ctrl+C/V for copy and paste. Windows Terminal doesn't have this, and it is extremely frustrating.
Expected behavior
Enable the use of Ctrl+C for copy and Ctrl+V for paste.
Actual behavior
Ctrl+C doesn't copy anything, and Ctrl+V just writes ^V at the prompt.
Reacted by Jonathan Peppers, Giovanni Bassi, Thomas Thomassen, Mike Purvis, Tereza Tomcova, Nikola Pavlović, Felix Freiberger, Hunter Haydel, Nato Boram, Eli Sagie and 98 more
Reacted by Denis Malinochkin, Hung Ton, Roope Mäkinen, Kazutomo Niwa, Gagan Bhat, Devin Cody, Jean.R, Gonzalo Pelós, clstr, Koki Iijima and 9 more
Activity
zadjii-msft commentedon May 23, 2019
This sounds right up Carlos Zamora (@carlos-zamora)'s alley
zadjii-msft commentedon May 23, 2019
Or actually, anyone could hop on this. You'd want to set up copy and paste actions in App.cpp (like
_Scroll, for example) that trigger the appropriate actions on the TermControl. There should already be Copy and Paste ShortcutActions, so it's just a matter of registering defaults for them, and wiring the actions to the bindings (seeHookupKeyBindingsor similar in App.cpp).DHowett-MSFT commentedon May 23, 2019
I must insist that the default bindings for this not be
Ctrl+-only.DHowett-MSFT commentedon May 23, 2019
Agh, sorry. I didn't intend to close this issue.
CobusKruger commentedon May 23, 2019
I know why you're saying that, and that's of course why the normal console has it behind a setting one must enable. But having them behind Ctrl+Shift or something similar defeats the purpose. It's the muscle memory that make these the keybindings worth having.
For me, having Ctrl+V enter
^Vhas never been useful and I suspect that this is true for a very significant number of people. Would it be possible to enable this as a setting?DHowett-MSFT commentedon May 23, 2019
Maybe we'll need profile-specific key bindings. Right now, all binds are re-bindable 😄
49 remaining items
mikepurvis commentedon Apr 9, 2020
I'm just calling out that it's unfair to be clutching our pearls and claiming the Terminal team have made the wrong call here because it's different from "every other terminal on Windows or Linux", when every other terminal on Windows is a third party affair and the team here has copied as defaults what the leading Linux distribution has been doing since forever.
And the only reason this isn't an issue on Mac OS as well is that cmd and ctrl on that system happen to be separate buttons.
bjorn-ali-goransson commentedon Apr 9, 2020
jave27 commentedon Apr 9, 2020
For telemetry's sake, I just downloaded and built this terminal today, and this is my only major complaint so far. There's an option in Preferences that indicates to me that Ctrl-C/V should work, but it quite obviously doesn't. Please enable the "Smart Ctrl-C" feature mentioned above, it's been my #1 complaint about CMD since the dawn of time. :)
gakio12 commentedon Apr 10, 2020
I want to point out that I found this issue searching for how Windows Terminal implemented copy paste. One of the biggest complaints I hear from developers working on both Linux and Windows is that Windows copy/paste is inconsistent with whatever third party shell is installed and between Linux. Nearly every Linux distribution / terminal uses
ctrl+shift+c/v, so I am glad that Windows Terminal also has that set as the default.bjorn-ali-goransson commentedon Apr 10, 2020
Why not have both Ctrl+C/V and Ctrl+Shift+C/V though?
zadjii-msft commentedon Apr 10, 2020
Björn Ali Göransson (@bjorn-ali-goransson) We actually just changed the default settings file to include both, so users can easily opt-out of Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V if they want.
See this PR and #5187
soilstack commentedon Apr 19, 2020
Nonsense. It means people abandon trying to fix it, or don't know that it can be fixed.
It's the reason I am on this thread at all now.
DHowett-MSFT commentedon Apr 19, 2020
Michael (@soilstack) thanks. Consider reading the most recent messages on this thread.
SteveIves commentedon Jun 9, 2020
It is truly astounding to me that you guys can't figure out how to make something as fundamental as this work! This is a huge deal. I love everything else about the Terminal app, but this basic flaw catches me out every time I use it.
zadjii-msft commentedon Jun 9, 2020
Steve Ives (@SteveIves) You know you can change your keybindings to be whatever you'd like, right? If you want Ctrl+C/V as copy-paste, go ahead and add those to your keybindings. If you want Ctrl+Shift+C/V, you can use those too. If you want alt+q as copy and shift+0 as paste, go for it.
As of 1.0, the defaults include Ctrl+Shift+C/V as copy-paste, and new users will also get Ctrl+C/V as copy/paste in their settings file.
EDIT: use whatever subset of these you want:
{ "keybindings": [ // Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V for copy paste { "keys": "ctrl+c", "command": "copy"}, { "keys": "ctrl+v", "command": "paste"}, // Ctrl+Shift+C / Ctrl+Shift+V for copy paste { "keys": "ctrl+shift+c", "command": "copy"}, { "keys": "ctrl+shift+v", "command": "paste"}, // Disable Ctrl+Shift+C / Ctrl+Shift+V for copy paste { "keys": "ctrl+shift+c", "command": "unbound"}, { "keys": "ctrl+shift+v", "command": "unbound"}, ] }SteveIves commentedon Jun 10, 2020
Mike Griese (@zadjii-msft) yes, I know this, and as a dev I can do this. But if you want Terminal to replace cmd.exe then you need to fix this.
zadjii-msft commentedon Jun 10, 2020
Out of curiosity, what part of
is us not fixing this?
jagojar commentedon Jun 11, 2020
Ctrl+Shift+C/V is not natural. Also not right-click menu? I find Windows Terminal useful, but the lack of the menu and Ctrl+C/V is making me reconsider my options.
DHowett commentedon Jun 11, 2020
Yeah, this thread has run its course. Anybody who is inclined to comment: read the most recent four comments. It says all you need to know.