Turn Off Whole Line Copy in Visual Studio Code

Question

I'm trying to disable the function in Visual Studio Code where if you don't have a selection highlighted, ctrl+c copies the entire line. I have never tried to do this on purpose, but I am always doing it accidentally when I hit ctrl+c instead of ctrl+v.

Here's what I have tried, which seems like it should work:

Under File->Preferences->Keyboard Shortcuts, there is the default setting:

{ "key": "ctrl+c", "command":  "editor.action.clipboardCopyAction",                    "when": "editorTextFocus" }, 

I have attempted to change this, so that it only copies when something is selected, by placing the following in my keybindings.json file:

{ "key": "ctrl+c",  "command": "-editor.action.clipboardCopyAction"}, { "key": "ctrl+c",  "command": "editor.action.clipboardCopyAction",                     "when": "editorHasSelection" } 

I think this should clear the previous binding before re-binding the copy action to only function when something is actually selected. HOWEVER, it doesn't work. The editor still copies a whole line when nothing is selected. If I only have the first line in there, it successfully removes the binding completely, so I know it's doing something, but the "when" tag doesn't seem to be functioning the way it should.

Is there any way to get the editor to do what I want?

Answer 1

In Settings enter the following line:

"editor.emptySelectionClipboard": false 

That should do exactly what you want.

Answer 2

Because this comes up on Google as a popular answer...

FYI this is also now a setting in the Settings GUI, search the settings for "empty selection" and it'll narrow it down. Untick to disable and praise your chosen deity.