How to copy text from Emacs to another application on Linux

Question

When I cut (kill) text in Emacs 22.1.1 (in its own window on X, in KDE, on Kubuntu), I can\'t paste (yank) it in any other application.

Answer 1

I use the following, based on the other answers here, to make C-x C-w and C-x C-y be copy and paste on both Mac and Linux (if someone knows the version for Windows feel free to add it). Note that on Linux you will have to install xsel and xclip with your package manager.

;; Commands to interact with the clipboard

(defun osx-copy (beg end)
  (interactive "r")
  (call-process-region beg end  "pbcopy"))

(defun osx-paste ()
  (interactive)
  (if (region-active-p) (delete-region (region-beginning) (region-end)) nil)
  (call-process "pbpaste" nil t nil))

(defun linux-copy (beg end)
  (interactive "r")
  (call-process-region beg end  "xclip" nil nil nil "-selection" "c"))

(defun linux-paste ()
  (interactive)
  (if (region-active-p) (delete-region (region-beginning) (region-end)) nil)
  (call-process "xsel" nil t nil "-b"))

(cond
 ((string-equal system-type "darwin") ; Mac OS X
  (define-key global-map (kbd "C-x C-w") 'osx-copy)
  (define-key global-map (kbd "C-x C-y") 'osx-paste))
 ((string-equal system-type "gnu/linux") ; linux
  (define-key global-map (kbd "C-x C-w") 'linux-copy)
  (define-key global-map (kbd "C-x C-y") 'linux-paste)))