Copy text from nano editor to shell

Question

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

User · Answer

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.

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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  gt  gt     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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

Nano to Shell   1  Using mouse to mark the text   2  Right-Click the mouse in the Shell   Within Nano   1  CTRL 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 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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

Relatively straightforward solution    From the first character you want to copy  hold Shift down and go all the way to the end  Press Ctrl K  which cuts the text from the file  Press Ctrl X  and then N to not save any changes  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

User · Answer

Much easier method    cat my file  Ctrl Shift c to copy the required output from the terminal  Ctrl Shift v to paste it wherever you like

[linux] Copy text from nano editor to shell

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Second method

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