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Asked: 2010-10-20 20:55:47 +0800 CST

Can I specify what characters set the double-click selection boundary in GNOME Terminal?

  • 772

When I double-click to select text in GNOME Terminal, the selection stops at spaces but continues over hyphens:

spaces

hyphens

Some of my filenames contain uncommon characters such as the heavy teardrop-spoked asterisk and are not selectable by double-clicking:

unusual characters

Is there a way to make double-click selection continue over these characters as well?

gnome-terminal unicode

5 Answers

  1. [Adding an answer since the accepted one no longer works.]

    Script

    I put this together into a script to set the word separators:

    https://github.com/ab/ubuntu-wart-removal/blob/master/gnome-terminal-word-separators.sh

    Background

    GNOME Terminal has flip flopped several times on this subject.

    This configuration feature was removed in gnome-terminal 3.14 (included in Ubuntu 15.04 Vivid)

    Then in gnome-terminal 3.16 (included in Ubuntu 15.10 Wily), the option was reintroduced under the hood, but with no UI. In addition, colon : was changed to be treated as a word separator.

    Editing with dconf

    Per these instructions, you can configure the set using dconf: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-terminal/+bug/1401207/comments/8

    I like to use -#%&+,./:=?@_~ as the set of non-word-separators.

    Note that the use of colons there is /crazy/. Yes, there is :/: in there.

    1) edit -> profile preferences -> the General tab on your profile has its Profile ID, e.g. b1dcc9dd-5262-4d8d-a863-c897e6d979b9

    2) check you've got the syntax right with:

    $ dconf list /org/gnome/terminal/legacy/profiles:/:b1dcc9dd-5262-4d8d-a863-c897e6d979b9/ foreground-color visible-name palette use-system-font ...

    If it returns nothing, you've got it wrong; try again.

    3) dconf write /org/gnome/terminal/legacy/profiles:/:b1dcc9dd-5262-4d8d-a863-c897e6d979b9/word-char-exceptions '@ms "-#%&+,./:=?@_~"'

    Specifically, this has ":" in, which makes it select URLs like I expect. (http://example.com doesn't select "//example.com").

    • 20
  2. Best Answer

    In "Edit > Profile Preferences > General", add the character to the "Select-by-word characters" box.

    • 11

  3. Other answers do not work today ... this works on ubuntu 18.04 ... first identify your UUID gnome terminal profile id ... issue this in terminal

    profile=$(gsettings get org.gnome.Terminal.ProfilesList default)

echo $profile  #  for me it gives b1dcc9dd-5262-4d8d-a863-c897e6d97969

    now make change : 

    dconf write /org/gnome/terminal/legacy/profiles:/:b1dcc9dd-5262-4d8d-a863-c897e6d97969/word-char-exceptions '@ms "-,.;?%&#_+@~·$/"'

    until ubuntu 18.04 gets fixed the following read command silently fails whereas it worked fine on ubuntu 16.04

    dconf  read  /org/gnome/terminal/legacy/profiles:/:b1dcc9dd-5262-4d8d-a863-c897e6d979b9/word-char-exceptions
    • 1

  4. A very useful default feature implemented in other terminals is the progressive selection of extended sections of a line on the screen. e.g., given

    /home/username/dir1_r.2-3/dsr.filenr_34.ctr 23456677 dftrprpr

    double-clicking on, say, filenr in dsr.filenr_34.ctr would progress from filenr to:

                                  filenr_34
                          dsr.filenr_34.ctr
                       -3/dsr.filenr_34.ctr
                      2-3/dsr.filenr_34.ctr
                    r.2-3/dsr.filenr_34.ctr
               dir1_r.2-3/dsr.filenr_34.ctr
      username/dir1_r.2-3/dsr.filenr_34.ctr
 home/username/dir1_r.2-3/dsr.filenr_34.ctr
 home/username/dir1_r.2-3/dsr.filenr_34.ctr 23456677
 home/username/dir1_r.2-3/dsr.filenr_34.ctr 23456677 dftrprpr
/home/username/dir1_r.2-3/dsr.filenr_34.ctr 23456677 dftrprpr

    Surrounding symmetries may be solved by adding pairs until next-level delimiter.

    And of course the user should be given the option of changing defaults.

    • 0

  5. Extending @alberge answer, you can execute the following python3 script to change all your profiles to do this:

    #!/usr/bin/python3

import subprocess

command = ["dconf", "list", "/org/gnome/terminal/legacy/profiles:/"]
result = subprocess.run(command, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE, universal_newlines=True)

profiles = result.stdout.split('\n')

for profileString in profiles:
    if profileString.startswith(":"):
        changeCmdPart = "/org/gnome/terminal/legacy/profiles:/" + profileString + "word-char-exceptions"
        changeCmd = ["dconf", "write", changeCmdPart, '@ms "-#%&+,./:=?@_~"']
        subprocess.run(changeCmd)

print("done!")

    Or you can just execute:

    curl -s http://scripts.programster.org/scripts/5?output=raw | python3
    • 0