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Concept
Control-C
Summary
Control-C is a common computer command. It is generated by pressing the key while holding down the key on most computer keyboards.
In graphical user interface environments that use the control key to control the active program, control+C is often used to copy highlighted text to the clipboard.
In many command-line interface environments, control+C is used to abort the current task and regain user control. It is a special sequence that causes the operating system to send a signal to the active program. Usually the signal causes it to end, but the program may "catch" it and do something else, typically returning control to the user.
Larry Tesler created the concept of cut, copy, paste, and undo for human-computer interaction while working at Xerox PARC to control text editing. During the development of the Macintosh it was decided that the cut, paste, copy and undo would be used frequently and assigned them to the ⌘-Z (Undo), ⌘-X (Cut), ⌘-C (Copy), and ⌘-V (Paste). The four letters are all located together at the left end of the bottom row of the standard QWERTY keyboard. IBM and early versions of windows used a different set of keys as part of IBM Common User Access. Later Windows adopted the shortcuts using Control instead of the Command key, as usual keyboard of IBM PC has no Command key. macOS has been using ⌘-C (Copy) for long time.
Control+C was part of various Digital Equipment operating systems, including TOPS-10 and TOPS-20. Its popularity as an abort command was adopted by other systems including Unix. Later systems that copied it include CP/M, DOS and Windows. In POSIX systems, the sequence causes the active program to receive SIGINT, the interruption signal. If the program does not specify how to handle this condition, the program is terminated. Typically a program that does handle a SIGINT will still terminate itself, or at least terminate the task running inside it.
This system is usually preserved even in graphical terminal emulators. If control-C is used for copy in the graphical environment, an ambiguity arises.
Official source
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