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I am having a weird issue with MacVim running in a terminal and having clipboard access. At first, I could access the system clipboard using both the * and + registers fine. However, Vim by default doesn't handle mouse events, so I found the below combination of settings to make Vim handle them:

set term=xterm
set ttymouse=xterm2
set mouse=a

But as soon as I set term=xterm, Vim stops accessing the system clipboard and I can't restore the default behavior by simply restoring the default term value (xterm-256color). The only way to restore access to clipboard is by restarting Vim. I recompiled the latest MacVim from the git repo and still have this same issue.

If I don't set both term and ttymouse to the above values, mouse handling doesn't work right. E.g., if I leave the default term value, then mouse clicks end up inserting escape sequences. I am looking for two possible solutions: - A different term value which for which both clipboard access and mouse work well - Enable a flag and recompile MacVim

Does anyone know of a solution?

PS: I use iTerm2, but verified that the same issue occurs even on the default terminal.

haridsv
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  • Take that as an opportunity to stop using the mouse. Or to use iTerm.app instead or Terminal.app. – romainl Apr 10 '14 at 13:23
  • I do use iTerm2 (but verified that the problem exists on the built in terminal as well), and I almost never use mouse, once I am with in Vim (trust me, I have been using Vi from the dumb terminals time, before Vim even existed and spoiled everyone with its features :) – haridsv Apr 10 '14 at 16:56
  • I just started trying to explain the reason I depend on mouse, but it is kind of hard, so let me just say that I do use mouse sometimes for things like scrolling and screen selections using Alt+Drag (bypassing the default behavior). With the default mouse behavior in Vim, any use of Alt+Drag instantly causes Vim to freeze and the only way to get out safely is to send a HUP. If I add the settings that I mentioned, mouse can be used safely, but I lose clipboard access. – haridsv Apr 10 '14 at 17:13
  • When you use alt+click in iTerm2, and a mouse-aware app isn't running within (e.g. Vim with mouse enabled), I believe iTerm2 sends out the combination of terminal cursor key codes it thinks will get you to the place where you alt+clicked. Only when you run a mouse-aware app in iTerm2 does it switch the use of alt to bypass that app's mouse-handling behavior. I'm not sure what alt+dragging does; but I'm guessing there is an iTerm2 bug here which you might raise with its author. – echristopherson Apr 10 '14 at 22:50
  • Yes, the Vim freezing issue is specific to the iTerms2, since I can't reproduce it in the built-in Terminal. You are right that I can see a bunch of escape sequences sent out when I accidentally press Alt+click on the local shell (non-mouse aware), and I have just treated as a nuisance, since it doesn't cause it to freeze. On the other hand, Vim freezing behavior appears to be a Vim bug. It seems to enter into a non-interruptible state where it waits forever for some keys or key sequence. Making Vim mouse-aware is a good workaround, if I can get the clipboard access to work. – haridsv Apr 11 '14 at 03:46

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