GNU bug report logs - #74833
31.0.50; Copy to OS clipboard doesn't work in macOS Terminal.app with xterm-mouse-mode enabled

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From: Filipp Gunbin <fgunbin <at> fastmail.fm>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 74833 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Ship Mints <shipmints <at> gmail.com>
Subject: bug#74833: 31.0.50; Copy to OS clipboard doesn't work in macOS Terminal.app with xterm-mouse-mode enabled
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2024 19:35:15 +0300

On 13/12/2024 09:21 +0200, Eli Zaretskii wrote:

>> From: Ship Mints <shipmints <at> gmail.com>
>> Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2024 15:31:00 -0500
>> Cc: fgunbin <at> fastmail.fm, 74833 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
>> 
>> I have xterm-mouse-mode enabled when in tty mode on macOS and it does work for clicking/selecting but
>> this is independent of integrating the kill ring with the pasteboard. I am unaware of how to test the
>> completeness of the xterm mouse protocol support, however.
>
> So why is this an Emacs bug?  It sounds like the OP expects something
> to happen which shouldn't, because the xterm protocol for selections
> and the clipboard are not supported by Terminal.app?  In that case,
> this could be at best a feature request, not a bug.

I'll try to explain differently.

Without xterm-mouse-mode you can copy/paste from/into Terminal.app
window, looks like Terminal.app gives this ability on its own.  This is
not integration with Emacs kill ring, no.  Emacs cursor does not react
to mouse clicks, and selection happens with OS mouse pointer.  Paste
works rather slow (bad idea to paste large chunks of text), but
tolerable.

Now, yesterday my daily master build got me xterm-mouse-mode enabled, so
I did some testing just out of curiosity.  Most of the things work,
including clicking and selection.  However, Command-C now just doesn't
copy text to OS clipboard.  And it's non-obvious that you should disable
xterm-mouse-mode to be able to copy.

That's why I filed this bug - because previous behavior was not ideal
but working, and now only paste works.

Maybe we should just avoid enabling xterm-mouse-mode in Terminal.app.
Maybe functionality of xclip should be in core.

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