Can I use double click to select and copy in tmux? - tmux

Question

I am learning to use tmux, I found when I in a tmux window, double-click to select and copy function did not work any more.
Can I use double-click to select and copy just as in iterm2?
I have googled for some time, but did not find an short and clear answer to this. I have added setw -g mode-mouse on in the tmux configure file already.

Answer 1

I found a way to achieve that: hold the option key when double clicking.

Answer 2

Don't know about iterm2, but this can be made to work in tmux 3.0 or newer(tested on Linux w/ tmux 3.0, last command uses X11 xclip).
Added triple click to select and copy a line too.
# Double LMB Select & Copy (Word)
bind-key -T copy-mode-vi DoubleClick1Pane \
select-pane \; \
send-keys -X select-word-no-clear \; \
send-keys -X copy-pipe-no-clear "xclip -in -sel primary"
bind-key -n DoubleClick1Pane \
select-pane \; \
copy-mode -M \; \
send-keys -X select-word \; \
send-keys -X copy-pipe-no-clear "xclip -in -sel primary"
# Triple LMB Select & Copy (Line)
bind-key -T copy-mode-vi TripleClick1Pane \
select-pane \; \
send-keys -X select-line \; \
send-keys -X copy-pipe-no-clear "xclip -in -sel primary"
bind-key -n TripleClick1Pane \
select-pane \; \
copy-mode -M \; \
send-keys -X select-line \; \
send-keys -X copy-pipe-no-clear "xclip -in -sel primary"
If you don't use copy-mode-vi, replace this with copy-mode.
For older tmux versions check the edit-history.

Answer 3

In Alacrity holding Shift allows copying as if there's no tmux.
source

Answer 4

Building off of #ideasman42 's answer. This is using tmux 2.8 and pbcopy for macos mojave.
# Double LMB Select & Copy (Word)
bind-key -n DoubleClick1Pane \
select-pane \; \
copy-mode -M \; \
send-keys -X select-word \; \
run-shell "sleep .5s" \; \
send-keys -X copy-pipe-and-cancel "pbcopy"
bind-key -n DoubleClick1Pane \
select-pane \; \
copy-mode -M \; \
send-keys -X select-word \; \
run-shell "sleep .5s" \;
send-keys -X copy-pipe-and-cancel "pbcopy
My version selects the word, briefly highlights it, copies it to the system buffer and then cancels copy-mode.

Answer 5

I have figured out a copy paste mechanism that is similar of what you will expect form a terminal
I used the following settings to be able to:
select a word with a mouse double click action
select a line with a mouse tripple click action
select a partial line a mouse drag and drop action
This solution will keep the selection highlighted and copy the selection output to both clipboard buffers (primary and clipboard)
When you hit "Enter" you exit and go back to the shell
The advantage here is that you can use both middle mouse button as shift-insert combination outside of tmux to paste the content, while it is still selected.
Also when you exited back to the shell, you can use middle mouse button or hit shift-insert to paste the content
All what you would expect from a normal terminal environment
# Enable mouse control
setw -g mouse on
unbind -T copy-mode-vi Enter
bind-key -T copy-mode-vi Enter \
send -X cancel
# Drag and Drop Aelect & Copy (Selection)
bind-key -T copy-mode-vi MouseDragEnd1Pane \
send-keys -X copy-pipe "xclip -in -f | xclip -in -sel c" \; \
send-keys -X no-clear
# Double LMB Select & Copy (Word)
bind-key -T copy-mode-vi DoubleClick1Pane \
select-pane \; \
send-keys -X select-word \; \
send-keys -X copy-pipe "xclip -in -f | xclip -in -sel c" \; \
send-keys -X no-clear
bind-key -n DoubleClick1Pane \
select-pane \; \
copy-mode -M \; \
send-keys -X select-word \; \
send-keys -X copy-pipe "xclip -in -f | xclip -in -sel c" \; \
send-keys -X no-clear
# Triple LMB Select & Copy (Line)
bind-key -T copy-mode-vi TripleClick1Pane \
select-pane \; \
send-keys -X select-line \; \
send-keys -X copy-pipe "xclip -in -f | xclip -in -sel c" \; \
send-keys -X no-clear
bind-key -n TripleClick1Pane \
select-pane \; \
copy-mode -M \; \
send-keys -X select-line \; \
send-keys -X copy-pipe "xclip -in -f | xclip -in -sel c" \; \
send-keys -X no-clear
# Middle click to paste from the primary buffer
unbind-key MouseDown2Pane
bind-key -n MouseDown2Pane run "tmux set-buffer \"$(xclip -o)\"; tmux paste-buffer"
# Shift insert to paste from the clipboard
unbind-key S-IC
bind-key S-IC run "tmux set-buffer \"$(xclip -o -sel c)\"; tmux paste-buffer"
NOTE1 : in order for this to work across a ssh session : -X has to be provided as option to ssh
NOTE2: I'm using tmux version 2.8

Answer 6

On Kitty/Alacritty, we double-click on the text-block while keeping Shift pressed. And copying works fine natively as well as within tmux.

Answer 7

Just uncheck the "Enable mouse reporting" option in iTerm2.
But this has side effect: set -g mouse on in ~/.tmux.conf will not work.