selection

NAME

       selection  -  the  cut and paste utility for Linux virtual
       consoles

SYNTAX

       selection [-a accel] [-b baud-rate] [-c l|m|r] [-d  delta]
       [-m  mouse-device]  [-p l|m|r] [-s sample-rate] [-t mouse-
       type] [-r slack]

DESCRIPTION

       selection is  a  utility  that  allows  characters  to  be
       selected  from the current Linux virtual console using the
       mouse and pasted into the current  console.  selection  is
       normally invoked at boot time from /etc/rc.local, and runs
       as a background process.

OPTIONS

       -aaccel
              movements of more than delta pixels are  multiplied
              by accel (default 2)

       -bbaud-rate
              set the baud rate of the mouse (default 1200 baud)

       -cl|m|r
              set the copy button to be the left, middle or right
              button (default left)

       -ddelta
              movements of more than delta pixels are  multiplied
              by accel (default 25)

       -mmouse-device
              specify the mouse device (default /dev/mouse)

       -pl|m|r
              set  the  paste  button  to  be the left, middle or
              right button (default right)

       -ssample-rate
              set the sample rate of the mouse (default 100)

       -tmouse-type
              specify the mouse type  (Microsoft  =  `ms',  Mouse
              Systems  Corp = `msc', MM Series = `mm', Logitech =
              `logi', BusMouse = `bm', MSC 3-bytes = `sun',  PS/2
              = `ps2'; default = ms)

       -wslack
              turn on wrap-around, specifying the amount of slack
              before the pointer reappears at the other  side  of
              the screen (default off)

OPERATION

       To  invoke  the selection mechanism, press and release the
       copy button (the meaning of the  buttons  may  be  set  at
       startup  as  above). A highlighted block will start moving
       around the screen, correlated with  the  movement  of  the
       mouse.

       Move  the  block  to the first character of the selection,
       then press and hold down the copy button.

       Drag out the selection; the selected text  will  be  high-
       lighted.  Then  release  the copy button. You can take the
       end of the selection to before the start of the  selection
       if necessary.

       Double-clicking  the  copy  button  while  the highlighted
       block is on the screen selects text  by  word  boundaries;
       treble-clicking  selects by entire lines. If the button is
       held down after double- or treble-clicking, multiple words
       or  lines  may  be  selected.  A word consists of a set of
       alphanumeric characters and underscores.

       If a trailing space after the contents of a line is  high-
       lighted, and if there is no other text on the remainder of
       the line, the rest of the line will be selected  automati-
       cally.  If  a  number  of  lines are selected, highlighted
       trailing spaces on each line  will  be  removed  from  the
       selection buffer.

       Pressing  the  paste  button in any virtual console pastes
       the selected text into the read queue  of  the  associated
       tty.

       Any  output  on  the virtual console holding the selection
       will clear the highlighted selection from the  screen,  to
       maintain  integrity  of the display, although the contents
       of the paste buffer will be unaffected.

       The selection mechanism is  disabled  if  the  controlling
       virtual  console  is  placed in graphics mode, for example
       when running X11, and is  re-enabled  when  text  mode  is
       resumed. (But see BUGS section below.)

FILES

       /dev/mouse - default mouse device
       /dev/console - current VC device

DIAGNOSTICS

       selection complains if any of the devices it requires can-
       not be located.

BUGS

       The size of the paste buffer  is  set  at  2048  bytes  by
       default.  This may be changed at compile time; consult the
       installation notes.

       The selection mechanism doesn't work very well with graph-
       ics characters, or indeed with any characters where a map-
       ping between the typed character and the displayed charac-
       ter  is  performed  by  the  console driver. The selection
       mechanism pastes into the input buffer the character codes
       as  they are displayed on the screen, not those originally
       typed in by the user.

       Because of the way that the kernel bus mouse drivers work,
       allowing only one process to have the mouse device open at
       once, selection cannot co-exist with  X11  using  ATI  XL,
       Logitech  and Microsoft bus mice or with a PS/2 mouse. The
       X server will not start while selection is running.   This
       problem is not present with serial mice.

AUTHOR

       Andrew Haylett <ajh@gec-mrc.co.uk>

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

       Lefty patches originally suggested by:
           Sotiris C. Vassilopoulos <scv2f@edu.Virginia.acc.honi4>
       Logitech patches from:
           Jim Winstead Jr <jwinstea@jarthur.Claremont.EDU>
       Command line options based on those from:
           Peter Macdonald <pmacdona@sanjuan>
       Patches for bus mouse from:
           Erik Troan <ewtroan@eos.ncsu.edu>
           Christoph Niemann <niemann@rubdv15.etdv.ruhr-uni-bochum.de>
           Koen Gadeyne <kmg@barco.be>
       Patches for PS/2 mouse from:
           Hans D. Fink
       Patches for Sun mouse from:
           Michael Haardt <michael@gandalf.moria>
       Run-time configurable mouse buttons suggested by:
           Charlie Brady <charlieb@au.oz.tpl.tplrd>
       Setsid patches by:
           Rick Sladkey <jrs@world.std.com>

       Apologies to any contributors whose names I have omitted.