Copying to clipboard in vi

Question

So I've looked through this question: how to copy codes in vi to clipboard and found that it is possible but requires the -xterm_clipboard to be +xterm_clipboard. Apparently the only way to resolve that issue is to find a different version of vim to use, which I am hoping to avoid. Are there any other ways to accomplish copying to the clipboard without switching to something different?

If it's relevant, I'm running Ubuntu dual-booted with windows.

I apologize if this is a stupid question, I'm still rather new to command line programming, and there's a lot of stuff to learn.

Answer 1

$ sudo apt-get install vim-gnome

will replace your current Vim with one that's built with clipboard support without changing anything to your configuration files or the features you are getting used to.

Answer 2

Select what you would like to copy to the clipboard. In the gif below I used ggVG to select the entire text of the file.

Now the text you want is selected. To get this into the special * register that Vim uses for the system clipboard you would type "*y.

If you combine those commands (ggVG"*y) it should yank the text of the entire file into the system clipboard (the * register). The (rather bad quality) gif below shows this command in Vim copying to the system clipboard and pasting into TextEdit.

Going the other way is also possible using the * register.

Copy something that you want. Load Vim and type "*p. This accesses the * register and puts (pastes) it using p. Here's a gif where I copy someting to the clipboard and then use "*p in Vim to paste it.