How to copy and paste between cygwin's vi/emacs and windows clipboard?

Question

I tried to paste what I copied in windows clipboard into cygwin's vi or emacs, and it doesn't seem to work with yy (vi) or M-w (emacs).

Is there a way to do it? I learned that /etc/clipboard has the clipboard data from windows, but I don't know how to get this info in vi or emacs.

Answer 1

At least for vim, the clipboard is the "* register.

So, to yank the current line, go "*yy, to paste in the contents of the clipboard, go "*p, so on and so forth.

Answer 2

To paste from the clipboard using vi in Cygwin:

Press SHIFT-INSERT in insert mode

(this means the insert key by the Delete/Home/End keys)

To copy to the clipboard using vi in Cygwin:

When you select text with your mouse, it automatically gets copied to the clipboard.

You can paste from the clipboard by pressing the middle mouse button.

Also, in some environments where "*yy doesn't work, you can try "+yy.

Unfortunately this does NOT work in Cygwin.