1

I've used the command prompt, cygwin, mobaxterm in Windows. Although they do support copy-paste, the operation is usually not that straightforward. The selection of the text in the command prompt is weird, and copy-paste the text requires multiple clicks or key combination.

Yet, in mac os, for example, you can easily copy-paste in the terminal using the usual practice Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V. I wonder why things cannot be similarly easy for Windows command-line tools. Is this caused by some technical or implementation concerns?

phuclv
  • 30,396
  • 15
  • 136
  • 260
Ida
  • 121

1 Answers1

1

Ctrl+key is used to send signals to console programs, for example Ctrl+C will terminate the running app. Therefore generally it can't be used for shortcuts. That's why Linux terminals often use Ctrl+Shift+key instead.

To copy/paste quickly, in previous versions of Windows there's a "quick edit mode", which is not enabled by default. In this mode you select the text and press Enter to copy, no need to enter mark mode like before. Then right click on the console to paste, just like what a middle click on Linux does. Still a bit cumbersome but anyway a lot faster than doing without it

Since Windows 10 MS has introduced some big console improvements. Now you can use Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V for copying/pasting in Windows 10 terminal when there's some text being selected, otherwise a signal will be sent to the program like before.

phuclv
  • 30,396
  • 15
  • 136
  • 260