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When I use "+y to copy to the system clipboard, the selected content is copied to the + register as well as the default(") register. How can I ensure that the content is copied only to the + register without modifying the " register?

EDIT: I now understand that this is the intended behavior and any yanking will modify the default register. I still want to know whether there's a workaround for this.

I have come with a naive solution

for visual mode

vnoremap <Leader>y :<C-u>let @+=@*<CR>

and for single line in

nnoremap <Leader>yy :<C-u>let @+=getline('.') . "\n"<CR>

But we will be missing many yank features. I hope someone provides a better solution.

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1 Answer 1

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You need to define a custom operator; :help :map-operator has the details and an example. With that function, you can then also easily implement the visual mode (already shown in the example) and yy mappings (use v:count . 'yy') easily.

To avoid that the yank clobbers the default register, wrap the logic in the following that saves and restores that register:

let l:save_clipboard = &clipboard set clipboard= " Avoid clobbering the selection and clipboard registers. let l:save_reg = getreg('"') let l:save_regmode = getregtype('"') " some yank call setreg('"', l:save_reg, l:save_regmode) let &clipboard = l:save_clipboard
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