The problem: copying text from a remote SSH session is surprisingly annoying.

1. Mouse selection breaks in tmux split panes or when line numbers are enabled.
2. X11 forwarding (ssh -X) is slow and insecure.

The solution: OSC 52.

OSC 52 is an ANSI escape sequence that tells the terminal emulator to write data to the local system clipboard. It works entirely over the existing SSH text stream.

The Magic Command

Try this in your terminal (if supported):

printf "\033]52;c;$(printf "Hello World" | base64)\a"

This base64 encodes the text "Hello World" and wraps it in the OSC 52 sequence.

How it works

The sequence \033]52;c;... breaks down as follows:

• \033]: The OSC (Operating System Command) escape character.
• 52: The code for clipboard operations.
• c: Selects the system clipboard (p would select the primary selection).
• base64: The payload must be base64 encoded to handle special characters (like newlines).
• \a: The BEL character, which terminates the sequence.

Tmux

To make OSC 52 work inside Tmux, add these lines to your ~/.tmux.conf:

set -g set-clipboard on
set-window-option -g allow-passthrough on

• set-clipboard on: Tells tmux to send escape sequences to the terminal.
• allow-passthrough on: Ensures escape sequences are passed through to the outer terminal emulator.

Vim / Neovim

The easiest way to set this up is using the vim-oscyank plugin.

In your vimrc / init.vim:

" Copy to system clipboard with <leader>c
vnoremap <leader>c :OSCYank<CR>

Supported Terminals

• iTerm2
• Alacritty
• Kitty
• Windows Terminal
• WezTerm
• Chrome OS Terminal

Note: GNOME Terminal requires a patch or a plugin.