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Fix copyOnSelect right-click overwriting clipboard with stale selection#19943

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carlos-zamora merged 2 commits intomicrosoft:mainfrom
sagarbhure-msft:fix/copyOnSelect-right-click
Mar 19, 2026
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Fix copyOnSelect right-click overwriting clipboard with stale selection#19943
carlos-zamora merged 2 commits intomicrosoft:mainfrom
sagarbhure-msft:fix/copyOnSelect-right-click

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@sagarbhure-msft sagarbhure-msft commented Mar 5, 2026 •
edited by carlos-zamora
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Summary of the Pull Request

Fix copyOnSelect right-click paste overwriting the clipboard with a stale selection instead of pasting the current clipboard contents.

Detailed Description of the Pull Request / Additional comments

When copyOnSelect is enabled, the selected text is already copied to the clipboard on left mouse button release in PointerReleased. The selection is intentionally left visible as a visual reference (the _selectionNeedsToBeCopied flag is set to false to track that the copy already happened).

However, the right-click handler in PointerPressed unconditionally called CopySelectionToClipboard() before pasting, ignoring both the copyOnSelect setting and the _selectionNeedsToBeCopied flag. This caused any still-visible selection to be re-copied to the clipboard, overwriting whatever the user may have copied from another application (or another terminal tab) in the meantime.

This change splits the right-click behavior based on the copyOnSelect setting:

  • copyOnSelect: true — Skip the redundant copy, clear the selection, and paste directly. The text was already copied on mouse-up.
  • copyOnSelect: false — Preserve existing behavior: copy the selection (if any), clear it, and paste only if there was no selection to copy.

Validation Steps Performed

  1. Set "copyOnSelect": true in settings.json.
  2. Selected text in a terminal pane - verified it was copied to clipboard on mouse-up.
  3. Switched to Notepad, copied different text ("NEW TEXT").
  4. Switched back to Terminal (selection still visible), right-clicked — verified "NEW TEXT" was pasted, not the old selection.
  5. Verified right-click with no active selection still pastes clipboard contents.
  6. Verified right-click immediately after selecting (no app switch) pastes the just-selected text.
  7. Set "copyOnSelect": false — verified right-click still copies selection first, then pastes only when no selection exists (original behavior unchanged).
  8. Verified tab-switching with an active selection does not cause stale clipboard overwrites on right-click.

PR Checklist

Closes #14464 (dupe of #19942)

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sagarbhure-msft commented Mar 10, 2026

@microsoft-github-policy-service agree

lhecker
lhecker reviewed Mar 10, 2026
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zadjii-msft commented Mar 11, 2026

Reviewers may want to x-ref this much much older PR of mine:
#14635

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Thanks for the x-ref Mike!

Yeah, the same problem from #14635 happens. Blocking over that.

Bug:

  1. ensure copy on select is enabled
  2. enter mark mode
  3. make a selection with mark mode
  4. right-click to copy/paste

expected: selection is copied and pasted immediately

NOTE: similar thing happens when you make a mouse selection, then modify it using quick-edit keys (i.e. shift+right). The selected text is not copied and pasted immediately.

from #14635 (review)

@microsoft-github-policy-service microsoft-github-policy-service bot added the Needs-Author-Feedback The original author of the issue/PR needs to come back and respond to something label Mar 11, 2026
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carlos-zamora commented Mar 11, 2026

Root cause from a chat with GH Copilot:

The root cause: _selectionNeedsToBeCopied is only set to true in SetEndSelectionPoint() (mouse drag path, line 699). Mark mode selections go through TryMarkModeKeybinding →
UpdateSelection() → _updateSelectionUI(), which never sets that flag. So for mark mode, the right-click copy was the only opportunity to copy the selection.

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sagarbhure-msft commented Mar 12, 2026

Thanks for the x-ref Mike!

Yeah, the same problem from #14635 happens. Blocking over that.

Bug:

  1. ensure copy on select is enabled
  2. enter mark mode
  3. make a selection with mark mode
  4. right-click to copy/paste

expected: selection is copied and pasted immediately
NOTE: similar thing happens when you make a mouse selection, then modify it using quick-edit keys (i.e. shift+right). The selected text is not copied and pasted immediately.

from #14635 (review)

ack, looking into this...

@microsoft-github-policy-service microsoft-github-policy-service bot added Needs-Attention The core contributors need to come back around and look at this ASAP. and removed Needs-Author-Feedback The original author of the issue/PR needs to come back and respond to something labels Mar 12, 2026
@csdivad csdivad mentioned this pull request Mar 17, 2026
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Address review: fix mark-mode copyOnSelect and shorten logic
7e901c8 
Fixes the mark-mode and quick-edit (shift+arrow) bug identified in
PR microsoft#14635's review: _selectionNeedsToBeCopied was only set in
SetEndSelectionPoint() (mouse drag), so keyboard-driven selections
were incorrectly treated as already-copied on right-click.

Fix: subscribe to ControlCore::UpdateSelectionMarkers in the
ControlInteractivity constructor so the flag is set for ALL
selection types (mouse, mark mode, quick-edit, select-all).

The right-click handler now uses the same gating logic from PR microsoft#14635
(_selectionNeedsToBeCopied || !copyOnSelect) to decide whether to
copy, and always pastes in copyOnSelect mode.

Also collapses the if/else into a compact conditional per lhecker's
review suggestion.

Closes microsoft#14464
Fixes microsoft#19942
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sagarbhure-msft commented Mar 18, 2026

Pushed a follow-up commit addressing all review feedback:

  • @lhecker : collapsed the if/else into a compact conditional as suggested.
  • @carlos-zamora : fixed the mark-mode and quick-edit (shift+arrow) bug from Don't copy before pasting in copyOnSelect mode #14635. Root cause was _selectionNeedsToBeCopied only being set in SetEndSelectionPoint() (mouse drag path). Fix: ControlInteractivity now subscribes to UpdateSelectionMarkers so the flag is set for all selection types. The right-click handler uses _selectionNeedsToBeCopied || !copyOnSelect to gate the copy, so mark-mode selections are correctly copied and pasted on right-click

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Pacha Perfection Gif

Thank you for doing this! I'll be sure to mark it up for servicing too so that we can get this on all channels in the next update.

@carlos-zamora carlos-zamora merged commit ad7b34e into microsoft:main Mar 19, 2026
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@github-project-automation github-project-automation bot moved this to To Cherry Pick in 1.24 Servicing Pipeline Mar 19, 2026
@github-project-automation github-project-automation bot moved this to To Cherry Pick in 1.25 Servicing Pipeline Mar 19, 2026
@microsoft-github-policy-service microsoft-github-policy-service bot added Issue-Bug It either shouldn't be doing this or needs an investigation. Area-TerminalControl Issues pertaining to the terminal control (input, selection, keybindings, mouse interaction, etc.) Priority-1 A description (P1) Product-Terminal The new Windows Terminal. labels Mar 19, 2026
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Area-TerminalControl Issues pertaining to the terminal control (input, selection, keybindings, mouse interaction, etc.) Issue-Bug It either shouldn't be doing this or needs an investigation. Needs-Attention The core contributors need to come back around and look at this ASAP. Priority-1 A description (P1) Product-Terminal The new Windows Terminal.

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Automatically copy selection to clipboard is no longer working correctly with tmux

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