# Restoring selections after accidental clear **URL:** \ **Category:** Help\ **Created:** [November 15, 2020, 3:04am UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/restoring-selections-after-accidental-clear/1366 "2020-11-15T03:04:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![EpocSquadron](https://discuss.kakoune.com/user_avatar/discuss.kakoune.com/epocsquadron/32/78_2.png) [@EpocSquadron](https://discuss.kakoune.com/u/EpocSquadron)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2020, 3:04am UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/restoring-selections-after-accidental-clear/1366/1 "2020-11-15T03:04:55Z")
Often times I find myself performing a complex series of editing commands including sub selections. However, I often fumble a key and accidentally clear all of my carefully constructed selections. I know about ctrl o and saving selections with z, but the former doesn’t seem to always have the last selection state and the latter requires saving selections ahead of time (which I have done on occasion). Am i missing a convenient way to go back one step in selections? How do you all deal with this situation? ---
**Author:** ![alexherbo2](https://discuss.kakoune.com/user_avatar/discuss.kakoune.com/alexherbo2/32/1140_2.png) [@alexherbo2](https://discuss.kakoune.com/u/alexherbo2)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2020, 4:55am UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/restoring-selections-after-accidental-clear/1366/2 "2020-11-15T04:55:37Z")
There is currently no native solution. You can use registers and hooks to restore the penultimate selection state. ```auto # Save selections to the [b]ackup register. hook -group backup-selections global NormalIdle .* %{ set-register b %reg{z} execute-keys -draft '"zZ' } # Add a mapping to easily reach the command. map -docstring 'Restore selections from the [b]ackup register' global user z '"bz' ``` See also the discussion [#898](https://github.com/mawww/kakoune/issues/898) to undo selection change. ---
**Author:** ![almr](https://discuss.kakoune.com/user_avatar/discuss.kakoune.com/almr/32/934_2.png) [@almr](https://discuss.kakoune.com/u/almr)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2021, 3:47am UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/restoring-selections-after-accidental-clear/1366/3 "2021-06-13T03:47:23Z")
The `,z` map above really makes the difference between usable and unusable — at least for me as a `kak` newbie. However I wonder - how often does the `NormalIdle` hook run: CPU cost? - how does it work: how come the hook doesn’t run immediately after selection changes, overwriting the backup? Further, without getting into generalized selection-undo, can I back up the selection periodically? I’d like to write a hook to save to some variable / setting every 15 seconds (perhaps with 2-3 levels of backup), but only if the selection is either multiple-region or multi-line. That would be good enough. Less than 15 seconds of “selection work”, or work that is trivial, are not worth backing up. But as it stands, `,z` breaks if you move the cursor twice. ---
**Author:** ![alexherbo2](https://discuss.kakoune.com/user_avatar/discuss.kakoune.com/alexherbo2/32/1140_2.png) [@alexherbo2](https://discuss.kakoune.com/u/alexherbo2)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2021, 8:34am UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/restoring-selections-after-accidental-clear/1366/4 "2021-06-13T08:34:43Z")
Normal idle runs once when you do nothing, and there is no sh call in the command, so it is wise. ---
**Author:** ![alexherbo2](https://discuss.kakoune.com/user_avatar/discuss.kakoune.com/alexherbo2/32/1140_2.png) [@alexherbo2](https://discuss.kakoune.com/u/alexherbo2)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2021, 8:41am UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/restoring-selections-after-accidental-clear/1366/5 "2021-06-13T08:41:04Z")
Try to execute `` in the hook, and then use `` for restoring. ---
**Author:** ![GavinSmith0123](https://discuss.kakoune.com/user_avatar/discuss.kakoune.com/gavinsmith0123/32/1112_2.png) [@GavinSmith0123](https://discuss.kakoune.com/u/GavinSmith0123)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 10:18pm UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/restoring-selections-after-accidental-clear/1366/6 "2022-08-16T22:18:59Z")
I found this works for cursor motion with the keyboard but not if I accidentally moved the cursor by clicking with the mouse on the terminal window. Is there a workaround for this? I don’t want to disable the mouse completely as I do use it in Kakoune. I expect it is breaking because the NormalIdle hook runs twice after a mouse click. I’m currently trying the following to go back two selections: ```auto # Save selections to the backup registers. hook -group backup-selections global NormalIdle .* %{ set-register c %reg{b} set-register b %reg{z} execute-keys -draft '"zZ' } # Add a mapping to easily reach the command. map -docstring 'Restore selections from the backup register' global user z ': undo-selections' define-command undo-selections -docstring "Restore selections" %{ execute-keys '"cz' set-register b %reg{c} } ``` ---
**Author:** ![krobelus](https://discuss.kakoune.com/user_avatar/discuss.kakoune.com/krobelus/32/616_2.png) [@krobelus](https://discuss.kakoune.com/u/krobelus)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2022, 8:10pm UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/restoring-selections-after-accidental-clear/1366/7 "2022-08-17T20:10:30Z")
> but not if I accidentally moved the cursor by clicking with the mouse on the terminal window. Is there a workaround for this? You can try my undo-selection-change branch which adds native selection-undo. See [Undo selection change · Issue #898 · mawww/kakoune · GitHub](https://github.com/mawww/kakoune/issues/898#issuecomment-1207351554) I’m pretty happy with it, will submit a PR soon. ---
**Author:** ![krobelus](https://discuss.kakoune.com/user_avatar/discuss.kakoune.com/krobelus/32/616_2.png) [@krobelus](https://discuss.kakoune.com/u/krobelus)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2022, 7:14am UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/restoring-selections-after-accidental-clear/1366/8 "2022-09-10T07:14:57Z")
[PR is up](https://github.com/mawww/kakoune/pull/4725), I’ve been using it for a bit, it seems stable