VI Editor : Yank the entire file to clipboard (specific to OS X)

Question

Is there any way to copy all lines from a file to clipboard in VI editor. I have tried *yG, +yG, \"+yG and :%y+ from prev

Answer 1

The default Vim shipped with Mac OS X, /usr/bin/vi[m], isn't compiled with clipboard support.

You have three options:

1. use pbcopy from the command line, without using Vim

   $ cat filename | pbcopy
   

2. use pbcopy from Vim

   :%w !pbcopy
   

3. get your own Vim with clipboard support

   You can do that through MacPorts or Homebrew, by downloading MacVim or by building from the source.

Also the correct way to use a specific register with y is "{register}y.

See $ man pbcopy in your terminal and :help clipboard and :help ! in Vim.