Command Line to Clipboard

Update 10-10-2011: A slightly more thorough cp2clip has been written here – very nicely done Nathan.

It’s really something to be learning Linux. The more I learn about Linux the more I learn it’s about manipulating letters and numbers. Well, this is more programming than anything but Linux is alot about that. Bash I’m discovering is great. I’m just getting into it and now have made things a good deal easier by learning how to copy and paste text to/from the xorg server clipboard from the terminal. Here’s a couple commands that can do it and a couple bash scripts that make it easier.

Xsel and xclip are command line programs that can redirect the contents of the xorg server clipboard. The xorg server has two clipboards: the common right-click ‘Copy’ or ‘Edit > Copy’ command, and one for the middle mouse click. For those that don’t know of it yet, the middle-click clipboard allows quick copy and pasting without having to enter a menu or using Ctrl + v. Anytime you select text on the xorg server there is a serperate register that records this text, then clicking the mouse button three (usually clicking down the scroll wheel) will paste the text. The xorg server defines the the middle-click clipboard as ‘primary’ and the right-click clipboard as ‘secondary’.

xclip

Xclip I prefer to xsel because I have found that xsel can have problems pasting to java apps.

You can use xclip in a variety of ways. For example it can be piped to:

echo "hi" | xclip -selection clipboard

This will copy to the standard clipboard. For abbreviation, you can use ‘c’ instead of ‘clipboard’. You can specify ‘primary’ or ‘p’ here too to copy to the third mouse button, but isn’t necessary as this is the default for xclip.

echo "hello" | xclip

To direct a file to xclip you use the ‘-in’ or ‘-out’ options:

xclip -in -selection c <filename>
xclip -out -selection c <filename>

Which will respectively put a file into the clipboard, and write to a file from the clipboard contents.

To make the process quicker, I’ve created a couple scripts to automate the tasks called ‘cp2clip’ and ‘clippaste’ and can be used like a standard command:

cp2clip <filename>
clippaste <filename>

cp2clip

#!/bin/bash
# cp2clip - copy to the clipboard the contents of a file

# Program name from it's filename
prog=${0##*/}

# Text color variables
bldblu='\e[1;34m'         # blue
bldred='\e[1;31m'         # red
bldwht='\e[1;37m'         # white
txtbld=$(tput bold)       # bold
txtund=$(tput sgr 0 1)    # underline
txtrst='\e[0m'            # text reset
info=${bldwht}*${txtrst}
pass=${bldblu}*${txtrst}
warn=${bldred}!${txtrst}

filename=$@

# Display usage if full argument isn't given
if [[ -z $filename ]]; then
    echo " $prog <filename> - copy a file to the clipboard"
    exit
fi

# Check that file exists
if [[ ! -f $filename ]]; then
  echo -e "$warn File ${txtund}$filename${txtrst} doesn't exist"
  exit
fi

# Check user is not root (root doesn't have access to user xorg server)
if [[ $(whoami) == root ]]; then
  echo -e "$warn Must be regular user to copy a file to the clipboard"
  exit
fi

# Copy file to clipboard, give feedback
xclip -in -selection c < "$filename"
echo -e "$pass ${txtund}"${filename##*/}"${txtrst} copied to clipboard"

clippaste

#!/bin/bash
# clippaste - Paste contents of clipboard to file in terminal.

# Program name from it's filename
prog=${0##*/}

# Text color variables
bldblu='\e[1;34m'         # blue
bldred='\e[1;31m'         # red
bldwht='\e[1;37m'         # white
txtbld=$(tput bold)       # bold
txtund=$(tput sgr 0 1)    # underline
txtrst='\e[0m'            # text reset
info=${bldwht}*${txtrst}
pass=${bldblu}*${txtrst}
warn=${bldred}!${txtrst}

filename=$@
pasteinfo="clipboard contents"

# usage if argument isn't given
if [[ -z $filename ]]; then
  echo "clippaste <filename> - paste contents of context-menu clipboard to file"
  exit
fi

# check if file exists, prompt to append or override, else create new
if [[ -f $filename ]]; then
  echo -en "$warn File ${txtund}$filename${txtrst} already exists - (${txtbld}e${txtrst})xit, (${txtbld}a${txtrst})ppend, (${txtbld}o${txtrst})verwrite: "
  read edit
  case "$edit" in
    [aA] )  xclip -out -selection clipboard >> $filename
            echo -e "$pass File ${txtund}$filename${txtrst} appended with clipboard contents"
            ;;
    [oO] )  xclip -out -selection clipboard > $filename
            echo -e "$pass File ${txtund}$filename${txtrst} overwrote with clipboard contents"
            ;;
    * )     exit
    esac; else
    xclip -out -selection clipboard >> $filename
    echo -e "$pass File ${txtund}"$filename"${txtrst} created with clipboard contents"
fi

xsel

To copy to the context-menu clipboard:

xsel --clipboard < /etc/fstab

To copy a text to the middle mouse button clipboard:

xsel < /etc/fstab

Xsel can be piped too:

echo "a-bit-of-text" | xsel -b
cat /etc/make.conf | xsel -b

To output directly to the terminal:

xsel --clipboard

And to redirect and append to a file:

xsel --clipboard > Baada-Boom.txt
xsel --clipboard >> ~/.Baada-Boom

cp2clip (xsel)

#!/bin/bash
# cp2clip - copy to the clipboard the contents of a file

# Program name from it's filename
prog=${0##*/}

# Text color variables
bldblu='\e[1;34m'         # blue
bldred='\e[1;31m'         # red
bldwht='\e[1;37m'         # white
txtbld=$(tput bold)       # bold
txtund=$(tput sgr 0 1)    # underline
txtrst='\e[0m'            # text reset
info=${bldwht}*${txtrst}
pass=${bldblu}*${txtrst}
warn=${bldred}!${txtrst}

filename=$@

# Display usage if full argument isn't given
if [[ -z $filename ]]; then
    echo " $prog <filename> - copy a file to the clipboard"
    exit
fi

# Check that file exists
if [[ ! -f $filename ]]; then
  echo -e "$warn File ${txtund}$filename${txtrst} doesn't exist"
  exit
fi

# Check user is not root (root doesn't have access to user xorg server)
if [[ $(whoami) == root ]]; then
  echo -e "$warn Must be regular user to copy a file to the clipboard"
  exit
fi

# Copy file to clipboard, give feedback
xsel --clipboard < "$filename"
echo -e "$pass ${txtund}"${filename##*/}"${txtrst} copied to clipboard"

clippaste (xsel)

#!/bin/bash
# clippaste - Paste contents of clipboard to file in terminal.
# use 'xclip -out -selection primary' for middle click clipboard

# Program name from it's filename
prog=${0##*/}

# Text color variables
bldblu='\e[1;34m'         # blue
bldred='\e[1;31m'         # red
bldwht='\e[1;37m'         # white
txtbld=$(tput bold)       # bold
txtund=$(tput sgr 0 1)    # underline
txtrst='\e[0m'            # text reset
info=${bldwht}*${txtrst}
pass=${bldblu}*${txtrst}
warn=${bldred}!${txtrst}

filename=$@
pasteinfo="clipboard contents"

# usage if argument isn't given
if [[ -z $filename ]]; then
  echo "clippaste <filename> - paste contents of context-menu clipboard to file"
  exit
fi

# check if file exists, prompt to append or override, else create new
if [[ -f $filename ]]; then
  echo -en "$warn File ${txtund}$filename${txtrst} already exists - (${txtbld}e${txtrst})xit, (${txtbld}a${txtrst})ppend, (${txtbld}o${txtrst})verwrite: "
  read edit
  case "$edit" in
    [aA] )  xsel --clipboard >> $filename
            echo -e "$pass File ${txtund}$filename${txtrst} appended with clipboard contents"
            ;;
    [oO] )  xsel --clipboard > $filename
            echo -e "$pass File ${txtund}$filename${txtrst} overwrote with clipboard contents"
            ;;
    * )     exit
    esac; else
    xsel --clipboard >> $filename
    echo -e "$pass File ${txtund}"$filename"${txtrst} created with clipboard contents"
fi