---
name: "urxvt-confirm-paste"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "rxvt-unicode"
version: "9.31-11"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/urxvt-confirm-paste"
---

# urxvt-confirm-paste(1)

ask for confirmation before pasting control characters

## NAME

confirm-paste - ask for confirmation before pasting control characters

## DESCRIPTION

Displays a confirmation dialog when a paste containing control characters is detected. The user can choose `"y"` to either paste a sanitized variant where all control characters are removed, `"p"` to paste the string unmodified or `"n"` to drop the paste request completely.

This is mostly meant as a defense-in-depth mechanism to protect against the common web browser bug of you selecting some text but the browser pasting a completely different text, which has some attack potential.

It can also be useful to prevent you from accidentally pasting large amounts of text.

### DETAILS

If a string containing unicode control characters (specifically U+0000 .. U+001F currrently) is pasted into the terminal, this extension will ask whether it should be pasted. Strings without control characters get pasted without prompt.

When a sanitized version is pasted (choice `"y"`), then contiguous sequences of those control characters will be replaced by a single spaces.

The exact detection and sanitization algorithm is subject to change in future versions.