https://github.com/knu/vscode-easy-kill

Copy & Mark Things Easily in VS Code - a port of easy-kill for Emacs
https://github.com/knu/vscode-easy-kill

copy select vscode-extension

Last synced: 5 months ago
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Copy & Mark Things Easily in VS Code - a port of easy-kill for Emacs

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/knu/vscode-easy-kill
• Owner: knu
• License: mit
• Created: 2025-12-21T17:25:59.000Z (6 months ago)
• Default Branch: main
• Last Pushed: 2026-01-03T17:42:41.000Z (5 months ago)
• Last Synced: 2026-01-05T02:57:17.322Z (5 months ago)
• Topics: copy, select, vscode-extension
• Language: TypeScript
• Homepage: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=knu.easy-kill
• Size: 151 KB
• Stars: 0
• Watchers: 0
• Forks: 0
• Open Issues: 0
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md
  • Changelog: CHANGELOG.md
  • License: LICENSE

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README

          
# Easy Kill

Select & Copy Things Easily in VS Code - a port of [easy-kill](https://github.com/leoliu/easy-kill) for Emacs.

## Install

- Visual Studio Marketplace: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=knu.easy-kill.  Official Microsoft marketplace listing for VS Code.

- Open VSX: https://open-vsx.org/extension/knu/easy-kill.  Alternative registry used by VSCodium and other forks.

## Features

- **Drop-in replacement for standard copy** (Cmd+C / Ctrl+C) - works with existing selections or triggers intelligent selection when no text is selected

- **Quick copying/selecting** with intelligent selection

- **30+ selection types**: subword, word, line, sentence, paragraph, sexp, defun, function, block, string, parentheses, brackets, curlies (with/without delimiters), buffer, filename, URL, email, character search, and more

- **Interactive expansion/shrinking** of selections

- **Duplicate selections** quickly before or after the current selection

- **Vim-friendly character search** with f/t-style selection (forward/backward, to/up-to)

## Usage

### Commands

**Selection Commands:**

- **Easy Kill: Copy** (Ctrl+C / Cmd+C) - Copy text at point with intelligent selection. If text is already selected, performs standard copy.

- **Easy Kill: Select** (Alt+Shift+2) - Select text at point

**Movement Commands:**

- **Easy Kill: Forward Subword** (Alt+→ / Ctrl+Alt+→) - Move forward by subword (camelCase/snake_case aware)

- **Easy Kill: Backward Subword** (Alt+← / Ctrl+Alt+←) - Move backward by subword

- **Easy Kill: Forward Word** (Ctrl+Alt+→ / Ctrl+→) - Move forward by word

- **Easy Kill: Backward Word** (Ctrl+Alt+← / Ctrl+←) - Move backward by word

- **Easy Kill: Forward Sentence** - Move forward by sentence

- **Easy Kill: Backward Sentence** - Move backward by sentence

Note: Movement commands support selection when invoked with shift key.

**Duplicate Commands:**

- **Easy Kill: Duplicate After** - Insert a copy after the selection

- **Easy Kill: Duplicate Before** - Insert a copy before the selection

These commands duplicate the current selection, or if nothing is selected, the first matching object type from `easyKill.objectTypeOrderForDuplicate` (default: line).  The original text remains selected, entering Select mode so you can press y repeatedly to create more copies.

### Interactive Selection

After triggering a command, you can interactively adjust the selection:

- **Confirm** (Enter) - Confirm selection and exit

- **Cancel** (Escape/Ctrl+G) - Cancel and restore cursor position

- **Expand** (+/=) - Expand selection by 1

- **Shrink** (-) - Shrink selection by 1

- **Cycle** (Space) - Cycle through selection types

- **Duplicate After** (y) - Insert a copy after the selection

- **Add to Count** (1-9) - Add N to current count (e.g., pressing 4 when count is 1 expands to 5 instances; pressing 4 when count is -1 expands to 3 instances)

- **Reset** (0) - Reset to initial size (count = 1)

- **Change Type** (letter keys) - Switch to specific selection type (see Selection Types below)

All key bindings above (except Cancel) are customizable via the `easyKill.keyBindings` setting.  To customize Cancel (Escape/Ctrl+G), use VS Code's Keyboard Shortcuts settings for the `easyKill.cancel` command.

### Selection Types

Available selection types (default key bindings shown in parentheses, customizable via settings):

**Text Objects:**

- **Subword** (w) - camelCase/snake_case aware word part

- **Word** (W/s) - "word" (symbol in Emacs / WORD in Vim)

- **Line** (l) - Current line with newline

- **Sentence** (.) - Sentence ending with punctuation

- **Paragraph** (p) - Text between blank lines

**Code Structures:**

- **Sexp** (e) - S-expression or balanced expression

- **Defun** (d) - Enclosing function/method/class definition

- **Defun Name** (D) - Name of enclosing function only

- **Function** (f) - Alias for defun

- **Block** (b) - Alias for sexp

**Delimited Regions:**

- **String** (q) - String at cursor (language-aware)

- **String Universal** (Q) - String with any quote type

- **Parentheses** (() - Text including parentheses

- **Parentheses Content** ()) - Text inside parentheses

- **Brackets** ([) - Text including brackets

- **Brackets Content** (]) - Text inside brackets

- **Curlies** ({) - Text including braces

- **Curlies Content** (}) - Text inside braces

**Buffer Regions:**

- **Buffer** (a) - Entire buffer content

- **Buffer Before** (<) - From buffer start to cursor

- **Buffer After** (>) - From cursor to buffer end

**Special:**

- **Filename** (/) - File path at cursor

- **Buffer File Name** (n) - Current file's full path

- **URL** (u) - URL at cursor (auto-prefixes protocol)

- **Email** (@) - Email address at cursor

- **Backward Line Edge** (^) - From line start/indent to cursor

- **Forward Line Edge** ($) - From cursor to line end

**Character Search:**

- **To Char Forward** (f) - From cursor to character (inclusive)

- **Up To Char Forward** (t) - From cursor to before character

- **To Char Backward** (F) - From character to cursor (inclusive)

- **Up To Char Backward** (T) - From after character to cursor

## How It Works

### Copy Mode (Cmd+C / Ctrl+C)

1. If text is selected, performs standard copy

2. If no selection, triggers easy-kill (copy) mode:

   - Extension selects text starting from smallest match (word)

   - Text is immediately copied to clipboard

   - Adjust selection using quick pick menu

   - Clipboard updates as you modify selection

### Select Mode (Alt+Shift+2)

1. Trigger the command

2. Extension selects text starting from smallest match (word)

3. Adjust selection using quick pick menu

4. On confirm, text is selected in editor (not copied)

## Inspiration

This extension is a port of [easy-kill](https://github.com/leoliu/easy-kill) and [easy-kill-extras](https://github.com/knu/easy-kill-extras.el) for Emacs, bringing their intelligent selection and manipulation capabilities to VS Code.

## License

Copyright (c) 2025-2026 Akinori Musha

MIT License - see [LICENSE](LICENSE) file for details.

## Repository

https://github.com/knu/vscode-easy-kill