Middle-click copy and pasting does not work when screen is cleared

• iTerm2 version: 3.0.14
• OS version: 10.12.3
• Preferences, Pointer, Middle button single click is set to Paste from Selection

This bug report is about the middle click feature that lets you copy text, using the Paste from Selection feature. For instance, in macOS' Terminal application, as well as in iTerm, you can select text in the terminal window with your mouse, and then paste it using middle click. This is a very handy feature, particular useful to users who are used to Linux like me.

However, it seems that iTerm forgets the contents of the text selection if the screen is cleared:

1. Run a command in a pager, like echo Hello world | less
2. Select with your mouse the text Hello world
3. Press q to exit less.
4. Press the middle-mouse button.

What happened: Nothing

What should have happened: The text Hello world should have been pasted. This would match macOS Terminal's behaviour.

This is most likely a configuration issue. Do you have Prefs > Pointer configured so Middle button single click has the action Paste from Clipboard? I believe it may default to Paste from Selection, which is not what you want (that is useful if copy on selection is off, but not otherwise). Also check Prefs > General > Copy to pasteboard on selection.

Note that the bad default is not present in 3.1.

On my machine, the setting Middle button single click is set to Paste from Selection. This is what I want. I don't want to enable Copy to pasteboard on selection, because I don't want to use the clipboard at all, I want the behaviour that exists in Apple's Terminal. I experience the issue described originally, regardless of whether Copy to pasteboard on selection is on or off. (I think I'm assuming correctly that the pasteboard and the clipboard are the same thing.)

I feel that Paste from Selection should match the behaviour of Apple's Terminal, and right now it is close, but not exactly the same. Apple's Terminal remembers what the selection was even after the terminal screen is cleared, for instance, after exiting from less by pressing q. iTerm does not remember, it forgets the selection, making middle-click do nothing instead of pasting the previous selection.

If you go through the steps to reproduce in the issue description, you'll see how the behaviour differs in iTerm and in Terminal.

Thanks for the explanation. I didn't realize that Terminal kept a copy of the text when it was selected. That's actually quite a bit simpler than what I'm doing. I'll revisit this in 3.2 since I'm trying to make only small changes to 3.1 right now.

changed milestone to %Review for next version