Support for an arbitrary number of internal clipboard buffers to copy/paste from

docs/changelog.rst

@@ -7,10 +7,13 @@ To update |kitty|, :doc:`follow the instructions <binary>`.
 0.14.0 [future]
 ---------------------
 
-- macOS: The default behavior of the Option key has changed, to generating
+- macOS: The default behavior of the Option key has changed. It now generates
   unicode characters rather than acting as the Alt modifier. See
   :opt:`macos_option_as_alt`.
 
+- Support for an arbitrary number of internal clipboard buffers to copy/paste
+  from, see (:ref:`cpbuf`)
+
 - macOS: Allow opening new kitty tabs/top-level windows from Finder
   (:pull:`1350`)
 

docs/index.rst

@@ -36,6 +36,8 @@ kitty - the fast, featureful, GPU based terminal emulator
       separate window using arbitrary programs of your choice. This is useful for
       browsing the history comfortably in a pager or editor.
 
+    * Has :ref:`multiple copy/paste buffers <cpbuf>`, like vim.
+
 
 .. figure:: screenshots/screenshot.png
     :alt: Screenshot, showing three programs in the 'Tall' layout
@@ -394,6 +396,23 @@ If you wish to store very large amounts of scrollback to view using the piping o
 :sc:`show_scrollback` features, you can use the :opt:`scrollback_pager_history_size`
 option.
 
+.. _cpbuf:
+
+Multiple copy/paste buffers
+-----------------------------
+
+In addition to being able to copy/paste from the system clipboard, in |kitty| you
+can also setup an arbitrary number of copy paste buffers. To do so, simply add
+something like the following to your :file:`kitty.conf`::
+
+   map f1 copy_to_buffer a
+   map f2 paste_from_buffer a
+
+This will allow you to press :kbd:`F1` to copy the current selection to an
+internal buffer named ``a`` and :kbd:`F2` to paste from that buffer. The buffer
+names are arbitrary strings, so you can define as many such buffers as you
+need.
+
 Frequently Asked Questions
 ---------------------------------
 

kitty/boss.py

@@ -106,6 +106,7 @@ class Boss:
 
     def __init__(self, os_window_id, opts, args, cached_values, new_os_window_trigger):
         set_draw_minimal_borders(opts)
+        self.clipboard_buffers = {}
         self.update_check_process = None
         self.window_id_map = WeakValueDictionary()
         self.startup_colors = {k: opts[k] for k in opts if isinstance(opts[k], Color)}
@@ -814,6 +815,28 @@ class Boss:
                 if self.opts.copy_on_select:
                     set_clipboard_string(text)
 
+    def copy_to_buffer(self, buffer_name):
+        w = self.active_window
+        if w is not None and not w.destroyed:
+            text = w.text_for_selection()
+            if text:
+                if buffer_name == 'clipboard':
+                    set_clipboard_string(text)
+                elif buffer_name == 'primary':
+                    set_primary_selection(text)
+                else:
+                    self.clipboard_buffers[buffer_name] = text
+
+    def paste_from_buffer(self, buffer_name):
+        if buffer_name == 'clipboard':
+            text = get_clipboard_string()
+        elif buffer_name == 'primary':
+            text = get_primary_selection()
+        else:
+            text = self.clipboard_buffers.get(buffer_name)
+        if text:
+            self.paste_to_active_window(text)
+
     def goto_tab(self, tab_num):
         tm = self.active_tab_manager
         if tm is not None:

kitty/config.py

@@ -140,6 +140,16 @@ def clear_terminal(func, rest):
     return func, args
 
 
+@func_with_args('copy_to_buffer')
+def copy_to_buffer(func, rest):
+    return func, [rest]
+
+
+@func_with_args('paste_from_buffer')
+def paste_from_buffer(func, rest):
+    return func, [rest]
+
+
 @func_with_args('neighboring_window')
 def neighboring_window(func, rest):
     rest = rest.lower()