Emacs: Copy/Paste and kill-ring
Undo, Cut, Copy, Paste
undo
【Ctrl+_】- Undo
kill-region
【Ctrl+w】- Cut
kill-ring-save
【Alt+w】- Copy
yank
【Ctrl+y】- Paste
In emacs:
- Cut is called “kill”, as in {kill word, kill region}.
- Paste is called “yank”.
- A history of copied text is called “kill ring”, stored in the variable kill-ring.
Standard Copy/Paste Keys: cua-mode
If you prefer standard keys such as
Ctrl+c
for
copy,
Ctrl+x
for cut
Ctrl+v
for paste, then turn on cua-mode
.
put this in your Emacs Init File:
;; use standard keys for undo cut copy paste (cua-mode 1)
Paste from Kill Ring History
Emacs's clipboard (called kill-ring) maintains a history of copy/cut content.
View kill-ring Content

To view copy/cut history: Pull the GUI menu [Edit ▸ Paste from kill Menu].
Here's a command that list kill-ring content in a buffer: Emacs: Show kill-ring
Paste from kill-ring History
yank
【Ctrl+y】yank-pop
【Alt+y】 to insert previous copied content.- Press Alt+y again to get earlier copied content. (repeat this step to get earlier)