How to select all and copy in vim

Question

how to select all and copy in vim insert mode  and is there another way to do it in normal mode  I have tried visual mode and gg and shift   gg to select all and then yank  however that doesn t transfer it to the clipboard to be able to paste it in another application like skype or chrome browser  I am sure this is a common task  and there are a lot of varieties by smarter ppl than me out there  please feel free to share yours

User · Answer

ggVG    will select from beginning to end

User · Answer

There are a few important informations missing from your question    output of   vim --version  OS  CLI or GUI  local or remote  do you use tmux  screen    If your Vim was built with clipboard support  you are supposed to use the clipboard register like this  in normal mode   gg  yG   If your Vim doesn t have clipboard support  you can manage to copy text from Vim to your OS clipboard via other programs  This pretty much depends on your OS but you didn t say what it is so we can t really help   However  if your Vim is crippled  the best thing to do is to install a proper build with clipboard support but I can t tell you how either because I don t know what OS you use   edit  On debian based systems  the following command will install a proper Vim with clipboard  ruby  python    support     sudo apt-get install vim-gnome

User · Answer

In normal mode   gg  yG  In ex mode     y

User · Answer

swpd s answer improved  I use   as a leader key and  a shortcut does the trick  Add this line if you prefer  a shortcut  map  lt Leader gt a   y  lt CR gt       I use Ctrl y shortcut to copy  vmap  lt C-y gt  y call system  xclip -i -selection clipboard   getreg        lt CR gt  call system  xclip -i   getreg        lt CR gt    And  v to paste  nmap  lt Leader gt v  call setreg      system  xclip -o -selection clipboard    lt CR gt p   Before using this you have to install xclip    sudo apt-get install xclip   Edit  When you use   y   it can be only pasted to Vim vim Ctrl Insert shortcut  And  map  lt C-a gt    y  lt Esc gt    is not conflicting any settings in my Vimrc

[vim] How to select all and copy in vim?

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