Subject: Re: bug#29357: Cut and paste problems on Linux on a text virtual console no longer works

From: Alan Mackenzie <[email-masked]>
Date: 15 Aug 2020 08:52:56 -0000

Hello, Michael and Stefan.

In article <[email-masked]> you wrote:
> [Please use "Reply to all" so the discussion is in the bug tracker.]

> Hi Michael,

> Thanks for replying back with details.  I'm hoping that the information
> you have provided will help someone who knows more about this stuff
> investigate this.

> Best regards,
> Stefan Kangas

> "Dr. Michael L. Dowling" <[email-masked]> writes:

>> Hello Stefan!

>> Thanks for  replying.  This  is an  old bug  report but  is nevertheless
>> still valid.

>> On Mon, Aug 10, 2020 at 09:14:36AM -0700, Stefan Kangas wrote:
>>> "Dr. Michael L. Dowling" <[email-masked]> writes:

>>> > The Report:

>>> > If I  use X-windows, there is  no problem with cutting  and pasting from
>>> > outside an emacs  buffer into an emacs buffer and  vice versa.  But this
>>> > no  longer works  when  in a  text  console.  When  on  a Linux  virtual
>>> > console, pasting into an emacs buffer results in the message:

>>> > "No selection available"

>> This continues to be the case to this day.

Forgive me for not answering each point individually.

The problem with GPM and Emacs had been annoying me so much that I got
into the GPM source code in early 2016 to try and fix it.  The conclusion
I came to then was that the GPM mouse works in two exclusive incompatible
ways: (i) it works on the virtual terminal; (ii) it works under the
control of an application, such as Emacs.  These two modes don't interact
with eachother.

Unfortunately, I didn't note down any of the precise details in GPM, but
the _only_ way to transfer text into or out of Emacs with GPM is first to
do M-x gpm-mouse-mode (to disable "application" mode), followed by normal
GPM operations on the screen.  I actually have gpm-mouse-mode disabled by
default, since I don't need to use mouse facilities in Emacs.

I did make a note about this in the Emacs manual on the page "Text-Only
Mouse".

There are several annoyances with this way of working - if you've got
side-by-side windows, you've really got to get rid of all but the
pertinent window before being able to mark text with the mouse; when you
yank text in with the middle button, linefeeds misbehave, giving
indentation where none is wanted.  For all that, having GPM is better
than not having it.
 
[ .... ]

>> Cheers,

>> Mike

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).