How do I copy text from my xterm without a mouse?

Question

I want to use part of the output of a command run from the command line in another xterm, or as part of a different command. For instance:

> grep error error.log
error: can't find file ~/<some very long path>/thisfile

and I want to do this:

>ls ~/<some very long path>/

I know two ways to do this:
1. copy ~/<some very long path>/ with the mouse.
2. use some combination of head/tail/awk/sed/perl/cut/etc... to extract only what I need from the output and then use that inside backticks.

Is there any way to copy text without using the mouse? The example that comes to mind is visual mode inside VIM, but I don't know how to do that inside the xterm.

Answer 1

You can use GNU screen's copy and paste commands.

Quick tutorial:

1. Open screen: screen (or screen myprog my args here)
2. Run your program, producing output you want copied
3. Enter copy mode: Control+a+[
4. Move your cursor to the start point
5. Hit Enter
6. Move your cursor to the end point
7. Hit Enter
8. Paste: Control+a+]

Screen is much more powerful than that (I use it to tab several virtual terminals without the need for a special terminal emulator, and also so that I don't loose my sessions when X crashes or something). To get out of screen, simply end your shell session, or type Ctrl+a, Ctrl+\.

Answer 2

I find XSel is useful in similar situations. It's a tool that manipulates the X selection. For example, this will store the output of your command to the clipboard:

grep error error.log | xsel -bi

Answer 3

You could also use tmux which has similar capabilities to screen. Once you're in tmux and you have the output you want to copy, you can do the following to copy and then paste it:

1. Enter copy mode with Ctrl + B, [
2. Move the cursor with the arrow keys and then start selection with Ctrl + Space
3. Move the cursor to select the text/region to copy and then copy with Alt + W (this will immediately exit you from copy mode)
4. You can now paste (within tmux only) using Ctrl + B, ]

These instructiuons assume emacs key bindings are enabled. For the vi bindings see this comparison or just follow this step-by-step guide.

Answer 4

The OP said he didn't want to do this, but here is a unix utils way to do it for posterity. If you learn these little unix utilities they can be quite powerful.

ls $( dirname $( grep error error.log | head -1 | cut -d " " -f 5- ) )

note: syntax from memory

Answer 5

You may send output directly to the concerned xterm using xterm device no. Here is the command.

xyz$ls /home/ankit/documents/etc/x/y/z > /dev/pts/0 

(or watever is the device name, You can get it using command 'w' for opened xterm)

Try it & hope this may solve your problem.