Master Linux Terminal Copy‑Paste: Keyboard Shortcuts, Mouse, and Context Menu

Copy‑Paste in Linux Terminal

Keyboard shortcuts

Most Ubuntu‑based and many other distributions use Ctrl+Shift+C to copy the selected text and Ctrl+Shift+V to paste it inside the terminal. The same shortcuts work when copying from an external source (e.g., a web page) and pasting into the terminal, and text copied from the terminal can be pasted into graphical editors with the usual Ctrl+V .

Context‑menu (right‑click)

Select the desired text, right‑click the terminal window, and choose Copy . To insert the text, right‑click again and choose Paste .

Mouse middle‑click

After highlighting the text, press the mouse middle button (usually the scroll wheel) to paste it at the cursor position. This method depends on the terminal emulator and may not work on every distribution.

Terminal‑specific key bindings

The exact copy‑paste shortcuts vary between terminal emulators. If Ctrl+Shift+C/V does not work, try alternatives such as Alt+C/V or Ctrl+Alt+C/V . Most emulators also allow you to reconfigure the bindings in their preferences dialog. Installing a different emulator (e.g., guake or terminator) can provide other default shortcuts.

PuTTY uses a different scheme: selecting text automatically copies it, and a right‑click pastes the copied text.

Why Ctrl+C is not a copy shortcut

In a Linux terminal Ctrl+C is reserved for sending the SIGINT signal to the foreground process, which interrupts and stops the running command. Overriding this behavior would break a fundamental control mechanism, so copy‑paste uses other key combinations.

Flow‑control keys ( Ctrl+S / Ctrl+Q )

Pressing Ctrl+S activates XON/XOFF flow control and freezes the terminal output. To resume, press Ctrl+Q . These shortcuts are unrelated to copy‑paste but are useful to know when the terminal appears unresponsive.