[Feature request] Add copy mode #3488
Replies: 13 comments 18 replies
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I would rather prefer to have Vim mode like in Alacrity https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/blob/master/docs/features.md. |
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Yea, obviously if there were even more functionality this would be nice. |
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I've found that piping stuff into editors is substantially less powerful than having it built-in, as editors don't handle Very Long files very well. |
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+1 , this mode good to have when need copy or moving around on terminal rather than use mouse. and yes vim mode alacritty its excellent Or iterms copy mode. Its must have when on tmux doing copy on another buffer window and paste it on another window. Its become really akward if from mouse to keyboard and then keyboard again. ( atleast on my experience ) |
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I think Alacritty's Vim mode could be better. It would be amazing if Ghostty could somehow include a Vim mode to navigate the scrollback that has linenumbers. |
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Can someone explain what exactly is copy mode? |
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https://iterm2.com/documentation-copymode.html Basically, you can select and copy text from the terminal output. Really good when you are on tmux. Or you have spent a lot of time at the terminal. Other than that, I think you dont need it. |
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Personally I use it all the time to copy outputs of last commands, or selecting error, or other |
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WezTerm's "quick select mode" is covered by this older feature request (the title is based on the analogous feature in kitty): |
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you're getting 👎 responses because adding "+1" comments without any additional input as to what needs to be included in the feature is generally frowned upon. Just add your vote at the top. |
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My solution is to use tmux inside Ghostty, which provides vim-like copy-paste functionality through |
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tmux |
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I do that too. But the problem for me is that I work with both my local macbook and a remote Linux machine. I rather launch Tmux after I sshed into my Linux machine. |
By the way, to avoid such issues, I use CTRL + A as the prefix for tmux on my local MacBook, and it works well when the remote Linux machine uses the default prefix CTRL + B in tmux. This way, it becomes convenient to manage tmux opened on the remote machine through the local tmux session |
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As per the workaround by @00-kat , I tried using the But it keeps opening the scrollback in TextEdit (default MacOS text editor). Are you creating custom/dummy "automated" applications that do the above? |
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In this end, this is what I went with: https://github.com/qvacua/vimr Basically a macOS GUI for Neovim. (or vim if you use Macvim) if you don't wanna install a new app for this, You could check this: https://dialedinconfig.com/open-text-file-from-finder-in-neovim-or-vim/ |
Solutions from some other people on the Ghostty Discord server for macOS:
I don't use macOS so I've never tried nor can vouch for any of these solutions. These are just ones I've seen floating around. A reproduction1 of the conversations linked above for those who cannot or do not wish to join the Ghostty Discord server: Swift scriptNote: there is quite a bit of text here, scroll to the bottom of this collapsed section for the actual Swift script that someone wrote up. How can I change the the default config editor on macOS?【2025-01-02 04:17 UTC】 noe 💜: When pressing Command+Comma ("Settings...") my configuration file is opened in TextEdit. This is not ideal. Is there a way to force it to open in a different editor when opened with Command+Comma? The file itself has no file extension so macOS itself cannot easily associate an application with it (to my understanding). 【2025-01-02 04:27 UTC】 notjason: i haven't gotten quite as far as adding a shell fn or alias, but i'm close! Now to figure out why it's behaving this way. It runs The man page (https://www.unix.com/man-page/osx/1/open/, unofficial source) case the import AppKit
guard CommandLine.argc > 1,
case let action = CommandLine.arguments[1],
(action == "get" && CommandLine.argc == 2) || (action == "set" && CommandLine.argc == 3)
else {
print("Usage: \(CommandLine.arguments[0]) get | set <path>")
exit(1)
}
switch action {
case "get":
guard let url = NSWorkspace.shared.urlForApplication(toOpen: .plainText) else {
print("No default application for plain text files, or was not found.")
exit(0)
}
let bundle = Bundle(url: url)
print(
"The default application for plain text files is \(bundle?.bundleIdentifier ?? url.path).")
exit(0)
case "set":
let path = CommandLine.arguments[2]
NSWorkspace.shared.setDefaultApplication(at: URL(filePath: path), toOpen: .plainText) {
err in
if let actualErr = err {
print(actualErr)
exit(1)
}
let bundle = Bundle(path: path)
print(
"The default application for plain text files is now \(bundle?.bundleIdentifier ?? path)."
)
}
default:
print("Unknown action: \(action)")
exit(1)
}【2025-01-02 06:29 UTC】 Greg: Well thats one way to do it lol. CommandChange program super+, opens on MacOS【2024-12-31 16:24 UTC】 joeriddles: Is it possible to change the program that $ defaults write com.apple.LaunchServices/com.apple.launchservices.secure \
LSHandlers -array-add \
'{LSHandlerContentType=public.plain-text;LSHandlerRoleAll=com.microsoft.VSCode;}'
$ defaults write com.apple.LaunchServices/com.apple.launchservices.secure \
LSHandlers -array-add \
'{LSHandlerContentType=public.data;LSHandlerRoleAll=com.microsoft.VSCode;}'【2024-12-31 16:36 UTC】 joeriddles: Appears I have the right content type: $ mdls -name kMDItemContentType .config/ghostty/config
kMDItemContentType = "public.data"【2024-12-31 16:45 UTC】 joeriddles: Restarted my computer and now it works! Application【2024-12-28 05:38 UTC】DarkHorse: On macOS, to change default app that is used to edit the ghostty config file (Cmd+,): And for Linux (I've tested all of these):
Please note that this won't work with TUI editors without editing the desktop file, see #3585 (or more specifically, #2435 (comment)). Footnotes
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Found this because of a comment on my feature request at #7672. This discussion doesn't exactly cover this, but posting here since it is adjacent. Would love if we had something like tmux-fingers (see that discussion for an explanation)! It wouldn't be a subfunction of copy mode, since that would kind of defeat the purpose, but there would likely be good overlap in the implementation. |
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I haven't used tmux-fingers, but what you described sounds more like this feature request: #2394 (inspired by kitty's "hints" feature) |
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That does indeed seem to be the right place for this |
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I don't think that there needs to be any special mechanisms for pasting the copied selection (other than the normal interaction with the keyboard). |
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Are you using AI to generate these prompts because there are conflicting statements in your proposal
then right after
Also search currently does not work in ghostty in any mode so it definetly wont work in copy mode. Search is more than a big enough feature itself they should be entirely separate. I also dont see why the normal search keybind (ctrl + f) also wouldn't work even if other copy modes don't support that
This will have familiarity but it doesn't match any other toggle action in ghostty where the same keybind is used to enter / exit a state like
Your keybinds for starting selection also dont match tmux behavior. Although im not sure how any other copy mode works. In tmux you press a bind to start the selection then normal cursor movements continue that selection I dont need to keep pressing a extend selection key. Just as a warning / heads up if you do start on this. If you go guns blazing out of the gates and implement everything suggested above in one PR it will be rejected without any review (especially since this is not a fully accepted proposal yet although the amount of people who want it is pretty large so there would be no reason to reject it outright). Think of the perspective of the maintainers small changes are better in every way as its easier to review and verify that the behavior is good, it will build your trust of contributions. Getting a basic state where you enter a mode where you can navigate the scrollback with keys is enough for the first PR then follow ups can add selection handling, then alternate keybinds etc, then sometime in the future when search is added hooking up search (if this landed first) Just as a note since I do believe your prompts have been AI generated. Ghostty has a clear policy on disclosing AI usage in contributions even just consulting it to learn about the codebase. https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/blob/main/HACKING.md#ai-and-agents |
Tmux behavior would correspond to vim mode I think. |
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I have a WIP branch of this working but the UX doesn't feel very "ghostty" or platform-native to me so I'm deleting my comments above, which in hindsight feel too prescriptive and too heavily influenced by the copy mode features I'm used to using in alacritty + tmux. |
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Add a copy mode, like in wezterm, which allows to navigate the scrollback buffer with keyboard
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