Can't copy certain gvim text, eg :version or error messages

Generally, my copy/paste works just fine in vim.

However, when I type :version, my mouse pointer becomes a symbol like:

While I can select text, I can't copy it to the clipboard.

Exactly the same behaviour with error output.

How do I disable this "feature"?

Solution 1:

In that message output mode, copying with the mouse indeed isn't possible. Only a few paging commands are available there. So, that "feature" doesn't exist yet.

There are several ways to obtain the output. The most generic is via :redir, e.g. into the unnamed register:

:redir @"
:version
:redir END
:put

For a single (last) error message, you can also directly access this via v:errmsg:

:put =v:errmsg

In the terminal, you could also disable Vim's mouse integration via :set mouse=, and then use the terminal's mouse drag to copy the (visible) text.

Solution 2:

If you set the 'clipboard' option to autoselect Vim will automatically attempt to become the owner of the system's copy buffer. This will let you copy text in the situations you describe.