How to copy a selection to the OS X clipboard

For MacVim and Windows Gvim, simply add the following to your ~/.vimrc:

set clipboard=unnamed

Now all operations such as yy, D, and P work with the clipboard. No need to prefix them with "* or "+.

If the clipboard is enabled, you can copy a selected region to the clipboard by hitting "*y

To see if it is enabled, run vim --version and look for +clipboard or -clipboard. For example, it's not enabled by default on my 10.5.6 box:

% which vim
/usr/bin/vim
% vim --version
VIM - Vi IMproved 7.2 (2008 Aug 9, compiled Nov 11 2008 17:20:43)
Included patches: 1-22
Compiled by _www@b77.apple.com
Normal version without GUI.  Features included (+) or not (-):
...
-clientserver -clipboard +cmdline_compl +cmdline_hist +cmdline_info +comments
...

If it had been compiled with +clipboard, I'd be able to use the "* register to access the system clipboard.

I downloaded the 7.2 source and compiled it (easy as tar xjf vim-7.2.tar.bz && cd vim72 && ./configure && make && sudo make install), and the clipboard was enabled:

% which vim
/usr/local/bin/vim
% vim --version
VIM - Vi IMproved 7.2 (2008 Aug 9, compiled Mar 24 2009 17:31:52)
Compiled by rampion@Myrrhy.local
Normal version with GTK2 GUI.  Features included (+) or not (-):
...
+clientserver +clipboard +cmdline_compl +cmdline_hist +cmdline_info +comments
...

However, even after compiling, I couldn't copy to the clipboard when running vim in Terminal.app, only in X11.app.

Depending on which version of Vim I use, I'm able to use the + register to access the clipboard.

"Mac OS X clipboard sharing" may have some ideas that work for you as well.

double-quote asterisk ("*) before any yank command will yank the results into the copy buffer. That works for Windows and Linux too.

If you are using MacPorts you can upgrade your VIM to include clipboard support via:

port install vim +x +x11

Now you use the "+ register to yank your text directly to your Mac clipboard. Works like a charm.

You can use MacVim when you're on a Mac to easily access the clipboard using the standard OS keys.

It's also fully backward compatible with normal Vim, so I don't even have to have a separate .vimrc.

command-C? This at least works for the vim launched from within Terminal.app for text selected with mouse.

Fakeclip implements the + and * buffers if they aren't natively supported.

What worked for me in my .vimrc

set clipboard=unnamed
if has("unnamedplus") " X11 support
    set clipboard+=unnamedplus
endif

For Mac - Holding option key followed by ctrl V while selecting the text did the trick.

Shift cmd c – set copy mode Drag mouse, select text, cmd c to copy selected text Cmd v to paste

Best way to to use mapping.

For example:

nnoremap C "+y
vnoremap C "+y
nnoremap cC ^"+y$

This will map capital C to yank into the clipboard, without changing anything. Works with any vim.

For Ubuntu users, the package you want to retrieve for using the clipboard is vim-full. The other packages (vim-tiny, vim) do not include the clipboard feature.