These settings ensure that the clipboard will be set to unnamed if just +clipboard is setup and to unnamed,unnamedplus if you have +xterm_clipboard. Set clipboard=unnamed ' copy to the system clipboardĪdding unnamedplus to the clipboard settings uses both the * and + registers for each yank. You have to setup vim's clipboard correctly. I've chosen to open XQuartz by default every time I log in and hide it.

If xterm does not run before you launch vim, the clipboards will not be synced and you will have to restart vim to fix it. If you run vim with +clientserver for the first time before XQuartz/X11 has opened it will ignore this setting when it opens X11. This setting is the default for X11 but some people change it so xterm doesn't start every time they start X11. It doesn't even have to be open, it just has to have run this session. X11 does not seem to want to share its clipboard with the OS X pasteboard until xterm has been run at least once. # Run xterm by default (without this vim's clipboard doesn't work)ĭefaults write 11 app_to_run -string '/opt/X11/bin/xterm'ĭefaults write 11 login_shell -string '/usr/local/bin/zsh' I eventually decided on these settings: # Clipboard syncingĭefaults write 11 sync_clipboard_to_pasteboard -boolean trueĭefaults write 11 sync_pasteboard -boolean trueĭefaults write 11 sync_pasteboard_to_clipboard -boolean trueĭefaults write 11 sync_pasteboard_to_primary -boolean trueĭefaults write 11 sync_primary_on_select -boolean false Setting the pasteboard syncing options in X11 is a must. While neither of these seem to mess with any clipboard settings directly, removing them seemed to matter. First and foremost I had a symlinked ~/.Xdefaults and ~/.Xmodmap that are just excess from using the same dotfiles on Linux distributions. I discovered the issues here that seemed to lead to this not working. It also looks like this may have been an issue for a while. I believe it's covered here in an open bug report on the xquartz tracker.

There is also a gui for that in the newer versions. I found a similar question here which gives you the settings you need to setup clipboard sync with X11. Is there a way I can have both of these features work with a single vim install?Īfter some more searching I believe this is an issue on OS X with the system pasteboard not being correctly synced with the X11 server. Running set clipboard? returns unnamed yet now the integration with the system clipboard does not work at all, even when prefixing commands with '+ or '*.

This compiles vim with +clientserver and +clipboard. Homebrew also has flags for installing -with-client-server if you use this it compiles vim with. This install works perfectly with the system clipboard using this in my vimrc: if has('clipboard') The default homebrew install compiles vim with these flags./configure On OS X I have vim working just fine from homebrew.

How to install xquartz with homebrew