Emacs: Copy Buffer or Selection 📜

Copy All or Text Selection

put this in your Emacs Init File:

(defun xah-copy-all-or-region ()
  "Copy buffer or selection content to `kill-ring'.
Respects `narrow-to-region'.

URL `http://xahlee.info/emacs/emacs/emacs_copy_cut_all_or_region.html'
Created: 2015-08-22
Version: 2015-08-22"
  (interactive)
  (if (region-active-p)
      (progn
        (kill-new (buffer-substring (region-beginning) (region-end)))
        (message "Text selection copied."))
    (progn
      (kill-new (buffer-string))
      (message "Buffer content copied."))))

This command saves you a step of doing selecting whole buffer first.

You should define a key for it. 〔see Emacs Keys: Define Key〕

Cut All or Text Selection

put this in your Emacs Init File:

(defun xah-cut-all-or-region ()
  "Cut buffer or selection content to `kill-ring'.
Respects `narrow-to-region'.

URL `http://xahlee.info/emacs/emacs/emacs_copy_cut_all_or_region.html'
Created: 2015-08-22
Version: 2025-08-06"
  (interactive)
  (if (region-active-p)
      (progn
        (kill-new (buffer-substring (region-beginning) (region-end)))
        (delete-region (region-beginning) (region-end)))
    (progn
      (kill-new (buffer-string))
      (delete-region (point-min) (point-max))
      (message "buffer text cut"))))