copy-on-select broken on macOS

[mikemadden42]

Does anyone else notice that copy-on-select is broken on macOS? I have it set here, but it doesn't seem to work. I have to use command + c to copy text.

$ cat ~/.config/ghostty/config
theme = GruvboxDark
font-size = 16
copy-on-select = true

$ ghostty --version
Ghostty 1.1.2

Version
  - version: 1.1.2
  - channel: stable
Build Config
  - Zig version: 0.13.0
  - build mode : builtin.OptimizeMode.ReleaseFast
  - app runtime: apprt.Runtime.none
  - font engine: font.main.Backend.coretext
  - renderer   : renderer.Metal
  - libxev     : main.Backend.kqueue

$ sw_vers
ProductName:            macOS
ProductVersion:         15.3.1
BuildVersion:           24D70

[edrozenberg]

Good Q, there was a change to this, try:
copy-on-select = clipboard

Works for me on Mac, you should see your selection on the Mac clipboard. Note that the highlighted text will remain selected and the selection will not blink, unlike the way copy-on-select works on Linux in some scenarios.

As described:
Kat — 2/4/25, 1:46 AM

copy-on-select has been updated recently, you want to set it to clipboard now

Ref:
https://discord.com/channels/1005603569187160125/1336270196490371102/1336271713083723819

Config info:
https://ghostty.org/docs/config/reference#copy-on-select

[mikemadden42]

Thanks for the suggestion. This setting does work for me on macOS. Should this setting also work on Linux? Setting it to true still seems to work on Linux.

copy-on-select = clipboard

[edrozenberg]

With my Ghostty 1.1.1-main+66442cd4 build on Slackware Linux I'm having to set clipboard there as well, true is not working. Perhaps you're using an older Ghostty version.

Random but related, clipboards on Linux/X can be weird -
https://www.jwz.org/doc/x-cut-and-paste.html

[00-kat]

Setting it to true still seems to work on Linux.

Do you have any software installed which unifies the primary selection and the clipboard? The default of true copies to the primary selection (the thing which you can middle-click to paste from), while clipboard copies to the actual clipboard (so you would paste with ctrl+v).

[bauchdj]

I feel like the docs should be updated:

https://ghostty.org/docs/config/reference#copy-on-select