*BSD pure terminal mouse copy & paste software

[dchmelik]

A *BSD was my first other OS in college (1990s) and I'm trying to switch back to using them more. One feature that now seems missing is being able to copy & paste text with the mouse on pure (non-X, not X Window System nor other GUI) terminals. GNU/Linux has the gpm package that allows that, just by selecting text, later pressing your main mouse button (on any terminal) which pastes it back in. I found it very useful but for example on FreeBSD, the mouse seems useless... or can you do the same as with gpm? (on any classic *BSD) I'd also like to get rid of the GUI-style cursor and just change it back to a block.

[Trihex]

Originally Posted by dchmelik

One feature that now seems missing is being able to copy & paste text with the mouse on pure terminals. GNU/Linux has the gpm package that allows that, just by selecting text, later pressing your main mouse button (on any terminal) which pastes it back in. I found it very useful but for example on FreeBSD, the mouse seems useless... or can you do the same as with gpm? (on any classic *BSD) I'd also like to get rid of the GUI-style cursor and just change it back to a block.

Hi,

I copy and paste text from urxvt by highlighting the text and pasting with the middle button. I can copy a URL and paste it in the terminal to use youtube_dl, from one terminal to another, from a text editor into the terminal or the terminal into a text editor. What you're copying from needs to have focus I believe.

I have the block style cursor with FreeBSD in both urxvt and the login terminal.

[jggimi]

OpenBSD has wsmoused(8).

[IdOp]

NetBSD also has wsmoused, but note that the configuration is not identical to that on OpenBSD.

It has been a while since I played with wsmoused (on NetBSD), but last I recall it only worked on text consoles, not the graphics-based framebuffer or drmkms ones. This made it nearly useless.

[dchmelik]

I don't know what urxvt is so updated topic; thanks previous two posters. What about pure (non-X) FreeBSD terminals (where it's only terminals... no text-editors outside terminals)?
        I have a story. In early 1990s, I used computers which would only boot to console/command-line/terminal/shell. That's what '(pure) (non-X) terminal' means; doesn't mean X Window System virtual terminals. Even 'terminal' does not mean 'X terminal (xterm)' any more than 'automobile' means 'hauler lorry/truck'. To this day, I boot to console, and prefer; I only startx when I need X software. I need to copy & paste in FreeBSD without having ever having started X nor any graphical user interface (GUI) (such as Wayland).

[Head_on_a_Stick]

How about tmux?

No idea if this would work in FreeBSD's TTY:

tmux set -g mouse on

But if it doesn't you can always use copy mode.