# copy-rectangle(3)

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## NAME

copy-rectangle - Copy a rectangular region of text
yank-rectangle-overwrite - Insert a column of text with overwrite

## SYNOPSIS

copy-rectangle
yank-rectangle-overwrite

## DESCRIPTION

copy-rectangle copies a rectangle (or column) of text defined between the cursor and the set-mark position. The text between the mark column and the cursor column is copied from every line between the mark line and the cursor line inclusive and copied to the kill buffer. The copied text may then be extracted from the kill buffer using yank(2), yank-rectangle(2) or yank-rectangle-overwrite.

The mark position may be ahead or behind the current cursor position. If the rectangle column boundary divides a tab character which spans multiple columns, the tab character is replaced with the equivalent number of spaces. Similarly if the boundary divides an unprintable character which is displayed using multiple characters (e.g. '`^A`' for character 0x01) then spaces are inserted before the character to move it to the right of the boundary.

yank-rectangle-overwrite replaces a column of text with the current kill buffer, overwriting existing text with the contents of the kill buffer. The kill buffer should contain a rectangle region acquired with copy-rectangle or kill-rectangle(2). The current cursor position identifies the top left of the column to be written, the width of the column to be replaced is determined by the width of the kill buffer text being inserted.

Where an overwrite is not required then use yank-rectangle(2).

## SEE ALSO

copy-region(2), kill-rectangle(2), kill-region(2), reyank(2), set-mark(2), string-rectangle(3), undo(2), yank(2), yank-rectangle(2).

(c) Copyright JASSPA 2009
Last Modified: 2009/08/29
Generated On: 2009/10/12

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