System Clipboard Vim within TMUX within SSH session

Question

I have vim open inside tmux inside an ssh session. How can I make vim use my laptop's system clipboard as the default copy paste? The default set clipboard=unamed isn't working. Both systems are Ubuntu in case that matters.

Answer 1

Clipboard integration feature (PASTE64/OSC52) is helpful if your terminal emulator supports it. For example, iTerm2 supports it (I am not sure about Ubuntu).

Add this function to your "remote" .vimrc. yank something and run :OscCopy. It works even it is inside tmux session.

function! OscCopy()
  let encodedText=@"
  let encodedText=substitute(encodedText, '\', '\\\\', "g")
  let encodedText=substitute(encodedText, "'", "'\\\\''", "g")
  let executeCmd="echo -n '".encodedText."' | base64 | tr -d '\\n'"
  let encodedText=system(executeCmd)
  if $TMUX != ""
    "tmux
    let executeCmd='echo -en "\x1bPtmux;\x1b\x1b]52;;'.encodedText.'\x1b\x1b\\\\\x1b\\" > /dev/tty'
  else
    let executeCmd='echo -en "\x1b]52;;'.encodedText.'\x1b\\" > /dev/tty'
  endif
  call system(executeCmd)
  redraw!
endfunction
command! OscCopy :call OscCopy()

gist

Answer 2

You need to do two things.

1. On your remote system, install a clipboard-aware Vim (and the X dependencies needed for clipboard support):

   $ sudo apt-get install vim-gtk
   

2. On your local system, start your ssh session with X11 forwarding enabled:

   $ ssh -X user@hostname
   

   See $ man ssh for the security implications of X11 forwarding.