
Ask HN: Why does copy and paste sometimes just not work? - Solstinox
It’s the 21st century. We can enhance old photos, CSI style, but copy and paste still isn’t perfectly reliable.<p>It happens so infrequently and yet so often that I feel like I’m going insane. That <i></i>I<i></i> have done something wrong.<p>Is this just me? Does copy and paste sometimes not work for you? Why does this happen?
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uberman
I also infrequently, yet frustratingly often find that copy and paste between
semi-remote windows just seem to stop working for a while.

As a specific example, I can be on my main system with a hardline connection
to remote desktop a meter away from me and also on the main system have a
window ssh-ed into a locally hosted docker image.

I sometimes, but not always find that copy from the remote desktop and paste
to the ssh terminal just does not work with symtoms suggesting there are
multiple buffers and paste is using the wrong one. I know the copy puts the
correct value in the buffer as the "fix" I use is to paste into an editor
running on my local system, then recopy the value and paste into the ssh
terminal.

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JPLeRouzic
I am on Linux (Debian derivative) and this happens to me too often.

In order for copy/paste to work, applications have to share information and
metadata.

On Windows/Win32 this is (was?) done by COM and related technologies.

On Linux it is D-Bus.

I think there are other interprocess mechanisms.

I suppose that if an application have different assumptions than another,
about what a request through the interprocess bus does mean, copy/pasting does
not work.

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rzzzwilson
Can you give an example of where copy/paste hasn't worked for you?

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ideals
What browser, os, device, etc are you using?

