Fix: Tmux Yank Not Working

I had the same problem—Tmux yanking suddenly stopped working for me. I didn’t change anything, yet it just broke.

At first, I ignored it, thinking it was a temporary issue. But when it didn’t fix itself, I searched online and found that others were facing the same problem. I came across this discussion in the tmux-yank GitHub repository:

🔗 Tmux Yank Issue #172

After trying different solutions from the discussion, I finally got it working!

🔧 Solution

1️⃣ Install xclip and xsel

Tmux needs xclip (and possibly xsel) to properly integrate with the system clipboard. Install them using your package manager:

• Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S xclip xsel

• Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt install xclip xsel

• Fedora:

sudo dnf install xclip xsel

2️⃣ Update Your Tmux Config

Edit your Tmux configuration file:

• ~/.tmux.conf or
• ~/.config/tmux/tmux.conf (depending on your setup)

Add the following lines:

# Enable clipboard
set -g set-clipboard on
set -g @override_copy_command 'xclip -i -sel p -f | xclip -i -sel c'
set -g @yank_selection 'clipboard'
set-option -sa terminal-features ',*:clipboard'

3️⃣ Reload Tmux Configuration

After saving the file, reload Tmux:

tmux source-file ~/.tmux.conf

Now, try yanking text again. It worked for me, and many others—hopefully, it works for you too!

💡 Credit: Huge thanks to the contributors in the GitHub issue who helped find this fix!