Re: Need help with emacs clipboard.

[Bob Proulx]

cplum984@gmail.com wrote:
> I've switched from xemacs to emacs, and I'm trying to get
> undo/cut/copy/paste all working again.

I assume you are using emacs with a graphical interface?  Such as the
GTK or Lucid libraries?

> ...  Also, the clipboard is properly imported and exported with
> other X apps.  ...
> ... Still no import or export of the clipboards.

I see exactly the opposite behavior.  Emacs by default uses the
clipboard for cut-and-paste.  But on my system nothing else uses the
clipboard as Firefox and Chromium both use the X primary selection.
Therefore to make Emacs compatible with Firefox and Chromium I need to
configure emacs to use the primary selection (as it used to do) too.

In the Emacs NEWS (seen with C-h n) find this:

  * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
  ...
  ** Selection changes.

  The default handling of clipboard and primary selections has been
  changed to conform with modern X applications.  In short, most
  commands for killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while
  mouse commands use the primary selection.

So I am surprised that you need to configure emacs to use the
clipboard since that is now the default.

Try running emacs with:

  emacs -Q
  emacs -q

Then check the behavior again.  That will avoid running any of your
personal configuration (-q) and the local system config (-Q) and if
those work then you know some personal configuration is affecting this.

> The only way I seem to be able to import the clipboard is if I first
> paste into an xemacs buffer, and then use the xemacs Copy menu item
> (not f4, which won't work), and then switch to emacs and use the
> emacs Paste menu item (not f4 or C-v, which won't work). f4 and C-v
> work after using the Paste menu item however. For exporting the
> clipboard from emacs, I'm forced to paste into a clipboard file that
> I save and open from xemacs so I can then copy the contents to the
> clipboard.

Are you familiar with the "xclip" command?  It is a useful utility for
working with cut and paste.  Works with either the primary selection
or the clipboard.

  xclip -selection clipboard -o  # paste from clipboard
  xclip -selection primary -o    # paste from primary selection

If nothing else it will allow you to verify what is where.

> So this is getting very frustrating since I interact with emacs
> sessions using the clipboard a lot, and the above workaround just
> isn't going to cut it. There's got to be a better solution. I'm
> hoping someone here can help.

This won't help you because you want the opposite but just to post my
example this is what I do to configure emacs to be usable on the X
desktop using the primary selection.

      (setq transient-mark-mode nil)
      (setq select-active-regions nil)  ; default is nil in 23, t in 24
      (setq mouse-drag-copy-region t)   ; default is t in 23, nil in 24
      (setq x-select-enable-primary t)  ; default is nil in 23, t in 24
      (setq x-select-enable-clipboard nil) ; default is nil in 23, t in 24
      (setq x-select-enable-clipboard-manager nil) ; new in 24, default is t

Bob