Copy and paste text in midnight commander (MC) via putty in Linux

To copy: (hold) Shift + Select with mouse (copies to clipboard)

To paste in windows: Ctrl+V

To paste in another file in PuTTY/MC: Shift + Ins

Other hotkeys here.

Midnight Commander tutorial here.


I would do it like this:

  1. switch to block selection mode by pressing F3
  2. select a block
  3. switch off block selection mode with F3
  4. press Ctrl+F which will open Save block dialog
  5. press Enter to save it to the default location
  6. open the other file in the editor, and navigate to the target location
  7. press Shift+F5 to open Insert file dialog
  8. press Enter to paste from the default file location (which is same as the one in Save block dialog)

NOTE: There are other environment related methods, that could be more conventional nowadays, but the above one does not depend on any desktop environment related clipboard, (terminal emulator features, putty, Xorg, etc.). This is a pure mcedit feature which works everywhere.


IF you're using putty in either Xorg or Windows (i.e terminal within a gui) , it's possible to use the "conventional" right-click copy/paste behavior while in mc. Hold the shift key while you mark/copy.