[gentoo-user] An annoyance in GPM, and a fix for it

[gentoo-user] An annoyance in GPM, and a fix for it

[Alan Mackenzie]

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Hello, Gentoo.

In the GPM mouse utility in a tty, one can use a double click to select
a word (and by holding the button down and moving the mouse, select a
sequence of words).

Similarly, with a triple click, one can select a line, or a sequence of
lines.  This is all very fine, but GPM adds a CR after each line in the
sequnce, INCLUDING THE LAST ONE.  This makes it less useful for, say,
copying a shell script command from and editor onto a command line.
Because typically, you'd want to edit the command before executing it,
but with GPM's mechanism, the CR on the end immediately executes it, not
giving you a chance to edit it.

A solution to this problem is not to append the CR to the last line in a
sequence of lines selected by GPM.  This means patching the kernel.  To
apply the patch, first get the attached patch into the kernel's
directory, and do something like:

    # patch -p1 < 6.1.8-TRIPLE.20231004.diff

, then rebuild the kernel.  Install this kernel into your boot manager,
and voilà - the problem is solved.  :-)

The usual disclaimer applies.

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).


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diff --git a/drivers/tty/vt/selection.c b/drivers/tty/vt/selection.c
index 6ef22f01cc51..e2a07b8759ed 100644
--- a/drivers/tty/vt/selection.c
+++ b/drivers/tty/vt/selection.c
@@ -217,7 +217,8 @@ static int vc_selection_store_chars(struct vc_data *vc, bool unicode)
 			   unless non-space at end of line. */
 			if (obp != bp) {
 				bp = obp;
-				*bp++ = '\r';
+				if ((i + 2) < vc_sel.end) /* Don't add \r to the last line. */
+					*bp++ = '\r';
 			}
 			obp = bp;
 		}

[gentoo-user] Re: An annoyance in GPM, and a fix for it

[Nikos Chantziaras]

On 04/10/2023 21:11, Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> Similarly, with a triple click, one can select a line, or a sequence of
> lines.  This is all very fine, but GPM adds a CR after each line in the
> sequnce, INCLUDING THE LAST ONE.  This makes it less useful for, say,
> copying a shell script command from and editor onto a command line.
> Because typically, you'd want to edit the command before executing it,

Hm. Bash by default will ignore a newline when pasting something. I 
think it's relatively new feature (like a year or two.) It's called 
"bracketed paste." It should be enabled by default. If not, it can 
enabled with:

   set enable-bracketed-paste on