Many developers switching from Windows to Linux miss the rectangular text selection feature available in cmd.exe. While most Linux terminal emulators only support line-based selection, there are solutions to achieve similar functionality.

Some terminal emulators natively support rectangular text selection:

• Konsole (KDE's terminal): Press Ctrl+Alt while selecting
• Terminator: Enable through Preferences > Profiles > General > Selection
• Alacritty: Supports block selection with proper configuration

For terminals without native support, consider these workarounds:

Using Screen or Tmux

Both screen and tmux offer copy mode with rectangular selection:

# In tmux:
Ctrl+b [  # Enter copy mode
Ctrl+Space  # Start selection
Alt+w  # Rectangle toggle
Enter  # Copy selection

Script-Based Solution

This Python script simulates block selection by processing terminal output:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import sys
from collections import defaultdict

def block_select(text, start_row, start_col, end_row, end_col):
    lines = text.split('\n')
    result = []
    for i in range(start_row, end_row + 1):
        if i < len(lines):
            line = lines[i]
            selected = line[start_col:end_col + 1]
            result.append(selected)
    return '\n'.join(result)

# Example usage
if __name__ == "__main__":
    sample_text = """Line 1: abcdefg
Line 2: hijklmn
Line 3: opqrstu"""
    print(block_select(sample_text, 0, 5, 2, 7))

For better selection experience:

• Enable mouse support in your shell (add set mouse=a to ~/.vimrc for Vim users)
• Consider using middle-click paste instead of Ctrl+Shift+V
• Adjust scrollback buffer size to maintain selection context

Even without block selection, these can improve efficiency:

• Ctrl+Shift+C/V: Copy/paste in most terminals
• Shift+Insert: Alternative paste method
• Ctrl+u/k: Cut to beginning/end of line

Many developers switching from Windows to Linux miss the rectangular (block) text selection feature available in cmd.exe. While most Linux terminal emulators only support line-based selection, there are workarounds to achieve similar functionality.

Some terminal emulators do support rectangular selection:

• Konsole: KDE's terminal supports block selection with Ctrl+Alt+MouseDrag
• Terminator: Allows rectangular selection via right-click context menu
• MATE Terminal: Includes block selection in its edit menu

For terminals without native support, consider these solutions:

Using tmux

The terminal multiplexer tmux offers copy mode with rectangular selection:

# Start tmux
tmux

# Enter copy mode
Ctrl+b [

# Start block selection
Alt+Space

# Move cursor to define rectangle
Arrow keys

# Copy selection
Enter

# Paste
Ctrl+b ]

Vim/Neovim Terminal Mode

When using terminal mode in Vim, you can leverage Vim's visual block mode:

# In Vim's terminal mode
Ctrl+w N

# Enter visual block mode
Ctrl+v

# Select rectangle
hjkl movement

# Yank selection
y

# Paste in insert mode
p

For advanced users, here's a Python script that can extract rectangular text from terminal output:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import sys
import re

def extract_block(text, start_line, start_col, end_line, end_col):
    lines = text.split('\n')
    result = []
    for i in range(start_line-1, end_line):
        if i < len(lines):
            line = lines[i]
            segment = line[start_col-1:end_col]
            result.append(segment)
    return '\n'.join(result)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    if len(sys.argv) != 5:
        print("Usage: block_select.py start_line start_col end_line end_col")
        sys.exit(1)
    
    coords = list(map(int, sys.argv[1:5]))
    text = sys.stdin.read()
    print(extract_block(text, *coords))

Usage: cat file.txt | python3 block_select.py 3 5 10 20

For keyboard-centric workflows, consider these CLI tools:

• grep -o for pattern-based extraction
• cut -c for column-based selection
• awk with field manipulation

While Linux terminals traditionally favor line-based selection, modern terminal emulators and tools provide multiple ways to achieve rectangular text selection. The best approach depends on your specific workflow and terminal preferences.