Code blocks and Copy to Clipboard questions

[ciaranevans]

Hi folks 👋

Not issues as such, I'm just not sure where best to ask these kind of questions!

• For a code block (```) - is there a way to specify content not to copy within the block? I.E virtual env names at the start of a terminal output ((venv) $ <the command>) - I only want to copy `the command`

• For a code block (```) - is there a way to completely disable Copy to Clipboard? - For outputs of commands like `--help`, it doesn't seem useful to be able to copy this

Many thanks! Apologies if this isn't the place!

[facelessuser]

Are you using a specific theme? I don't think the default MkDocs theme offers "copy to clipboard" functionality.

[facelessuser]

Yeah, that is a Material specific feature. I also use Material. And as for your question, there is no way to exclude certain content. It is a simple copy the code block feature.

[ciaranevans]

So given I cannot exclude certain content - is there a way to disable the copy as a whole for a block?

[facelessuser]

Maybe, I don't recall. This is really a question for the Material theme, but maybe @squidfunk can answer it here?

[squidfunk]

No, and yes/no.

1. In order to omit certain characters from the start, middle or end, we would need to add custom handling logic for each language. From the top of my head, I can't imagine this working in any reliable cross-language way.

2. Ability to Remove Clipboard for Code Snippets squidfunk/mkdocs-material#2418 (comment)

[ciaranevans]

@squidfunk thanks for the clarification!

[oprypin]

Relying on syntax highlighting by Pygments, you can make the prompts not selectable by adding custom CSS as such:

.highlight .gp { /* Generic.Prompt */
  user-select: none;
}

You can see this in action at
https://mkdocstrings.github.io/crystal/

And apparently that also affects the "copy to clipboard" button, at least in Firefox for me.

Similar might be possible with highlightjs.

[squidfunk]

That is super clever! Haven’t thought of this approach. We should add this to Material for MkDocs. If somebody wants to go head, PR appreciated!

[oprypin]

@squidfunk I think forcing this setting would be an incompatible change, and generally it can have unforeseen effects, as multiple highlighting languages are affected. But would be a great addition to documentation.

[squidfunk]

I agree. However, if the Highlight extension would annotate code blocks with their language, we could scope it to shell-like languages, like this:

.bash.highlight .gp {
  user-select: none;
}

BTW, I just tested and it doesn't work on iOS, but I guess it's a "nice to have" anyways.

[ciaranevans]

@oprypin sorry to raise this from the dead.

I just added the CSS block you linked and it works a charm, hooray! Edit On chrome anyway

Cheekily, could I ask you to elaborate more on your original comment?

Relying on syntax highlighting by Pygments, you can make the prompts not selectable by adding custom CSS as such:

Where in their documentation/examples you may have, is this an obvious thing to do?

It still appears to be magic to me 😅