How do I get +clipboard support in Fedora 20?

Question

It seems to me that neither "+p nor "*p works for me. How can I know if my Vim is installed and set up properly to make them available? And if it's not set up, what can I do to set it up?

I'm running Fedora 20 with Mate 18.1. I've installed the vim-enhanced and vim-x11 packages.

And my Vim version:

$ vim --version
VIM - Vi IMproved 7.4 (2013 Aug 10, compiled Oct 13 2014 08:56:57)
Included patches: 1-207, 209-475
Modified by <[email protected]>
Compiled by <[email protected]>
Huge version without GUI.  Features included (+) or not (-):
+acl             +farsi           +mouse_netterm   +syntax
+arabic          +file_in_path    +mouse_sgr       +tag_binary
+autocmd         +find_in_path    -mouse_sysmouse  +tag_old_static
-balloon_eval    +float           +mouse_urxvt     -tag_any_white
-browse          +folding         +mouse_xterm     -tcl
++builtin_terms  -footer          +multi_byte      +terminfo
+byte_offset     +fork()          +multi_lang      +termresponse
+cindent         +gettext         -mzscheme        +textobjects
-clientserver    -hangul_input    +netbeans_intg   +title
-clipboard       +iconv           +path_extra      -toolbar
+cmdline_compl   +insert_expand   +perl            +user_commands
+cmdline_hist    +jumplist        +persistent_undo +vertsplit
+cmdline_info    +keymap          +postscript      +virtualedit
+comments        +langmap         +printer         +visual
+conceal         +libcall         +profile         +visualextra
+cryptv          +linebreak       +python/dyn      +viminfo
+cscope          +lispindent      -python3         +vreplace
+cursorbind      +listcmds        +quickfix        +wildignore
+cursorshape     +localmap        +reltime         +wildmenu
+dialog_con      +lua/dyn         +rightleft       +windows
+diff            +menu            +ruby/dyn        +writebackup
+digraphs        +mksession       +scrollbind      -X11
-dnd             +modify_fname    +signs           -xfontset
-ebcdic          +mouse           +smartindent     -xim
+emacs_tags      -mouseshape      -sniff           -xsmp
+eval            +mouse_dec       +startuptime     -xterm_clipboard
+ex_extra        +mouse_gpm       +statusline      -xterm_save
+extra_search    -mouse_jsbterm   -sun_workshop    -xpm
   system vimrc file: "/etc/vimrc"
     user vimrc file: "$HOME/.vimrc"
 2nd user vimrc file: "~/.vim/vimrc"
      user exrc file: "$HOME/.exrc"
  fall-back for $VIM: "/etc"
 f-b for $VIMRUNTIME: "/usr/share/vim/vim74"
Compilation: gcc -c -I. -Iproto -DHAVE_CONFIG_H     -O2 -g -pipe -Wall -fexceptions -fstack-protector-strong --param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -grecord-gcc-switches  -m64 -mtune=generic -D_GNU_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -U_FORTIFY_SOURCE -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=1      
Linking: gcc   -L. -Wl,-z,relro -fstack-protector -rdynamic -Wl,-export-dynamic -Wl,--enable-new-dtags  -Wl,-z,relro  -L/usr/local/lib -Wl,--as-needed -o vim        -lm -lnsl  -lselinux  -lncurses -lacl -lattr -lgpm -ldl   -Wl,--enable-new-dtags  -fstack-protector  -L/usr/lib64/perl5/CORE -lperl -lresolv -lnsl -ldl -lm -lcrypt -lutil -lpthread -lc       

Answer 1

So, installing vim-enhanced and vim-X11 is enough, but is not at the same time. To enable the system funtcions like +clipboard, you moreover need to use the vimx executable rather than vim or vi (even though they are probably identical, the name changes the behaviour).

One way how to do that permanently is by adding aliases in your .bashrc file:

alias vi='vimx'
alias vim='vimx'

The complete list of features that get enabled this way is: +balloon_eval, +browse, +clientserver, +clipboard, +dnd, +mouseshape, +toolbar, +X11, +xim, +xsmp_interact, +xterm_clipboard, +xpm.

However, some of them are probably irrelevant for the terminal version of vimx and only do something for GVim.

_{Information on how to use the +clipboard feature is in How can I copy text to the system clipboard from Vim?}