Starting selections with adjust_selection

[00-kat]

Currently, adjust_selection does nothing if no selection exists. This is problematic as it means that it is not possible to create a selection without using the mouse. It would be brilliant if it were possible to create selections in the scrollback with adjust_selection`.

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Originally #3142; see that for more discussion.

See also: #6916, for selecting text in the command-line, as opposed to the scrollback.

[00-kat]

So to start off the conversation, there are two things which would need to be addressed:

1. Should adjust_selection be renamed were this to happen?
2. Where should the selection start from?

I can see two potential candidates for the latter:

1. At the current mouse position — this of course means that you still need a mouse to start a selection.
2. At the current cursor position — this is likely what most people want, but so far everyone I've asked who expressed this desire¹ actually wanted Selecting text in the command-line, à la Warp #6916, and I am hence unsure if this is the correct solution.

Footnotes

1. That is, out of everyone I asked, people who wanted to start selections from the cursor position also wanted the selection to be confined to the command-line. In general I didn't inquire too much about people who wanted this feature, so this statistic is likely inaccurate. ↩

[00-kat]

Are you sure that's not #6916? And I also don't see how that wouldn't be covered by #3708 or #3488.

[keplerHaloxx]

I'm not exactly sure. I don't want vim bindings (I don't even know them 🙂‍↔️), all I need is to be able to have the ability to use Shift + Arrows to select text that I've typed in the terminal.
This is an example of what I want.

Screen.Recording.2025-04-19.at.11.25.33.pm.mov

[00-kat]

That looks like #6916 to me.

[keplerHaloxx]

Is that thread a solution or are you linking it because my question is a duplicate?

[00-kat]

The latter; I'm trying to see if there are any use-cases for this thread's feature request and I think your request is covered by #6916 rather than this thread.

[Calder-Ty]

The way I imagine it is much like tmux, where when i'm going though the scroll back buffer (by being put in a certain mode) I'm able to move the cursor around and then trigger the beginning of a selection).

[rhodes-b]

copy mode is a entirely separate discussion
#3488

[Calder-Ty]

Interesting. I will watch that discussion with anticipation