How do I copy from the read-eval-print-loop to the clipboard in vim?

Question

So I know about Copy all the lines to clipboard, but this only applies for stuff in the editor.

What about copying stuff from the vim command line?

Answer 1

Pressing q: in normal mode or <c-f> while entering a command brings up the command-line window, with is filled with your command history. This is just another window, so from there you can use the "*y operator as described in the linked question.

Answer 2

I have this line in the "Sharing is caring" section of my vimrc:

command! CMD let @+ = ':' . @:

It simply puts the last command executed in the command-line into the clipboard register, ready for pasting elsewhere.

Explanation:

• The last command is always saved in the ": register, it is one the few read-only registers.

• The "+ register represents your system's clipboard, it is possible to read from and write to it.

• The syntax for working with the content of a register is:

  :let my_variable = @a    " put the content of register "a in my_variable
  :let @a = my_variable    " put the content of my_variable in register "a
  

• So we can put the content of one register into another (not read-only) one:

  :let @a = @b
  

• In VimScript, string concatenation is done with a .:

  :let foo = "foo"
  :let bar = "bar"
  :echo foo . bar
  foobar
  

• Because registers are strings we can do all kinds of operations on them before putting their value in some variable or register:

  :let @a = "foo"
  :let @b = @a . "bar"
  :echo @b
  foobar
  

• In my command, I prepend the ": register with a colon for clarity:

  :let @+ = ':' . @: