In Emacs, how can I paste into multi-term

Question

When using multi-term to run a terminal within emacs, I would like to be able to paste a command into the multi-term window, and then run it. Currently, when I do so, the pasted item does appear in the multi-term input window, however, if I hit enter, the command is ignored. It also doesn't show up in the terminal's history. For example, I'm pasting

echo "hello"

It looks like it worked--I see the text following the prompt. But when I hit enter it doesn't execute. I'm using multi-term: http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/MultiTerm

Answer 1

The default function yank doesn't work with multi-term or more precisely with term-mode because the yank isn't « really » inserted. To paste, you've to use the function term-paste which is bound to S-insert by default. Of course, you can bind C-y to use it in term-mode

(add-hook 'term-mode-hook (lambda ()
                            (define-key term-raw-map (kbd "C-y") 'term-paste)))

Answer 2

In term-mode (which multi-term uses) there are two input modes:

• line mode
• char mode

You can switch to line mode with C-cC-j then yank the text, switch back to char mode C-cC-k and run the command. I think of char-mode as the input mode that works like you would expect terminal input to work. For example, if you type something on the command line and cut it with C-x, then C-y will paste what you cut from the command line. I think of line-mode as the input mode that you would expect from a text buffer in emacs.

For details about the two input modes check this page