Link copied with "Copy Link Address" cannot be pasted with Shift-Insert

[Dan Watkins]

Steps to Reproduce
------------------

1) Open a new terminal
2) Run a command that will output a URL (e.g. `echo http://www.example.com`)
3) Right-click on the URL and select "Copy Link Address"
4) Press Shift-Insert.

Expected Behaviour
------------------

The copied link should be pasted where my cursor is.

Actual Behaviour
----------------

Nothing is pasted (or, sometimes, something I copied a while ago is; I haven't worked out a pattern to the source of the pasting).

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.10
Package: gnome-terminal 3.24.2-0ubuntu4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.13.0-16.19-generic 4.13.4
Uname: Linux 4.13.0-16-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.7-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: GNOME
Date: Mon Oct 23 10:52:24 2017
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-09-04 (1145 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140722.2)
SourcePackage: gnome-terminal
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to artful on 2016-12-05 (321 days ago)

[Dan Watkins (oddbloke)]

I've also seen this with "Copy E-mail Address".

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to artful on 2016-12-05 (321 days ago) -> really?!

[Dan Watkins (oddbloke)]

Shift-Insert does paste what I've copied in Google Chrome (from upstream) and in gedit.

(I'm a real hipster, xnox.)

[Egmont Koblinger (egmont-gmail)]

Linux desktop has two copy-paste buffers, the Primary (aka. Selection) [usually selected with the mouse and inserted with middle clicking or Shift+Insert] and the Clipboard [usually Ctrl+C Ctrl+V, but also "Copy", "Paste" and similar menu entries].

It sucks big time that Linux desktop couldn't overcome this in the past few decades and unify to have only one.

But in the mean time you shouldn't mix the two methods and expect to work. It might work here and there, but don't expect it to work everywhere. It's not gnome-terminal to blame, but the entire Linux desktop world.

Use either of them, but only of the two methods at a time.

gnome-terminal's "Copy Link Address" right-click menu item copies to the Clipboard, while Shift+Insert pastes Primary.

[Egmont Koblinger (egmont-gmail)]

Missing word:

Use either of them, but only one of the two methods at a time.

[Dan Watkins (oddbloke)]

On Mon, Oct 23, 2017 at 08:09:04PM -0000, Egmont Koblinger wrote:
> Linux desktop has two copy-paste buffers, the Primary (aka. Selection)
> [usually selected with the mouse and inserted with middle clicking or
> Shift+Insert] and the Clipboard [usually Ctrl+C Ctrl+V, but also "Copy",
> "Paste" and similar menu entries].
>
> It sucks big time that Linux desktop couldn't overcome this in the past
> few decades and unify to have only one.
>
> But in the mean time you shouldn't mix the two methods and expect to
> work. It might work here and there, but don't expect it to work
> everywhere. It's not gnome-terminal to blame, but the entire Linux
> desktop world.
>
> Use either of them, but only of the two methods at a time.
>
> gnome-terminal's "Copy Link Address" right-click menu item copies to the
> Clipboard, while Shift+Insert pastes Primary.

Shift-Insert pastes the link pulled from the "Copy Link Address" in to
both Google Chrome (as installed from upstream) and in to gedit (another
GNOME application). gnome-terminal is inconsistent in this regard.

Furthermore, until I upgraded to artful and started using GNOME
Shell/Wayland, it _did_ work. So gnome-terminal (on Ubuntu) has also
regressed.

[Egmont Koblinger (egmont-gmail)]

I can't recall gnome-terminal changing anything hereabouts.

I'd still say that if you mix the two copy-pasting methods, it's pretty much a coincidence if it works in some cases. I'm sure it still doesn't work everywhere (if it worked everywhere, there would probably be only a single copy-paste buffer and we'd all be much happier). And as long as it's (unfortunately) not indended to work, and doesn't work at plenty of places, having even one more place where it doesn't work is IMO unfortunately not a bug.

The bug (a truly serious, much higher level design bug which Linux/Unix desktop developers couldn't fix for decades now) is the existence of two separate copy-paste buffers.

[Dan Watkins (oddbloke)]

This continues to be a real pain in day-to-day. Can we please fix this gnome-terminal regression?