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I am using NeoVim with Tmux on an Ubuntu on Windows setup. I have bound neovim's clipboard to the system clipboard by using : set clipboard+=unnamedplus and further configuration inside tmux.

So far, everything works just fine, except for a detail that bothers me.

As of now, when I delete a character in insert mode with DEL, it works just fine. However, when I do that in normal mode, the character is deleted but also copied to the clipboard.

Why is there this difference ? Is there a way to disable this behaviour ?

NOTE: I've also tried this on a Xubuntu machine running the same tmux config and vim.gtk, and I have the same issue

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One quick fix I can think of is remapping the del key so it will use _ register. so if you just add nnoremap <Del> "_x into your $MYVIMRC init.nvim for neovim or ~/.vimrc for standard vim it should just do what you ask

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  • while this solution keeps my registry alone, it also moves my cursor 1 character to the right. Is there a way to avoid this and keep the current position ? – Aserre Nov 29 '17 at 0:25
  • @Aserre can you please describe what do you mean it moves cursor to the right ? – nikoss Nov 29 '17 at 0:42
  • Because for me it seems its just replacing the deleted character would you like to move the cursor left afterwards ? @Aserre – nikoss Nov 29 '17 at 0:46
  • it moves the cursor to the right at the moment, i.e. if you have DEMOTEXT and the cursor is under D, pressing DEL will show EMOTEXT, but cursor will be under M instead of E (which is the insert mode behaviour : cursor doesn't move, only text does) – Aserre Nov 29 '17 at 0:52
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    Well, adding the <Left> does the trick for me. Thanks ! – Aserre Nov 29 '17 at 1:06
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This is because <del> is equivalent to x, or dl, which not only delete, but also yank to the unnamed register by default. From :h <del>

["x]<Del>   or                  *<Del>* *x* *dl*
["x]x           Delete [count] characters under and after the cursor
            [into register x] (not |linewise|).  Does the same as
            "dl".
            The <Del> key does not take a [count].  Instead, it
            deletes the last character of the count.
            See |:fixdel| if the <Del> key does not do what you
            want.  See |'whichwrap'| for deleting a line break
            (join lines).  {Vi does not support <Del>}

The fix is really simple. Just add

nnoremap <del> "_x

to your .vimrc file. This will make it delete into the black-hole register (like /dev/null on linux) and leave your other registers the same.

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  • while this solution keeps my registry alone, it also moves my cursor 1 character to the right. Is there a way to avoid this and keep the current position ? – Aserre Nov 29 '17 at 0:25

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