A command-line clipboard copy and paste utility?

Question

In Windows I used command-line clipboard copy-and-paste utilities...

pclip.exe and gclip.exe

These were UnixUtils ports for Windows (but they only handled plain text). There were a couple of other native Windows utilities which could write/extract any format.

I've looked for something similar in Synaptic Package Manager, but I can't find anything.

Is there something there, that I've missed? ... or maybe this is available in Bash scripting?

The type of utility I'd like will be able to read/write via std-in/std-out or file-in/file-out, and handle Unicode, Rich Text Format, picture, etc. clipboard formats...

NB: I'm not after a clipboard manager.

See related question from unix.SE: http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/30093/copy-image-from-command-line-to-clipboard — landroni, Apr 02 '14 at 07:49
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/749544/pipe-to-from-clipboard — Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com, Jul 25 '15 at 11:06
vim[enter]"+P :3 (run vim* and then from " register - i.e. system clipboard - paste text). Then you have (one of) the best text editor(s) at your finger tips, so you can :w filename. Also, I always run vim* in tmux which means that if I need to copy a little text over to the terminal, I just select (with v or V for line selection) and then "+y (which yanks or copies to clipboard), then I make a new tmux pane and can ++v to paste. Additionally, I will occaisionally use xsel -b > filename if I need to write clipboard to a file. Cheers ^u^ — dylnmc, Jun 02 '16 at 20:47
How about a when a complete non-GUI Ubuntu is being used through ssh from macOS Terminal app or analogue? — Ricardo, Dec 18 '20 at 20:47

score 148 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 06 '20 at 06:51

148

xsel

I am using xsel Install xsel, but I am only using it with plain text and unicode text.

xsel can copy and paste to three different "clipboards".

By default, it uses the X Window System primary selection, which is basically whatever is currently in selection. The X Window System also has a secondary selection (which isn't used much), and a clipboard selection. You're probably looking for the clipboard selection, since that's what the desktop environment (e.g. Gnome, KDE, XFCE) uses for its clipboard. To use that with xsel:

xsel --clipboard < new-clipboard-contents.txt
xsel --clipboard > current-clipboard-contents.txt

edited Apr 06 '20 at 06:51

Pablo Bianchi

15,657

answered Nov 07 '10 at 13:56

Adi Roiban

2,892

1

Adi... xsel seems(?) to be only text based (as you mentioned), so I'll look for a more comprehensive utility... However, it has been very interesting for me to read its info documentation... I knew that middle-clicking the mouse (in the Terminal) would paste the currently selected text into the command-line, but I didn't realize that this feature applies to most X apps... The most-recent text selection can be pasted via a middle-click (but some apps seem to override it).. Two clipboards!.. Very handy.. .I must read more about the 3rd X-selection buffer. – Peter.O Nov 07 '10 at 15:14
xsel does work with Unicode text. You can read more about X clipboards on the freedesktop wiki pages: http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/ClipboardsWiki . – Adi Roiban Nov 07 '10 at 16:27
I've got to get my head around this new info.. 3 clipboards! PRIMARY, SECONDARY, CLIPBOARD... This is very different to what I'm used to in windows... The 3rd one "CLIPBOARD" seems to be the same as a Windows / Mac clipboard... but it is ridiculously late here.. I'll get back to this tomorrow... (Inersting, but too much to read now..) – Peter.O Nov 07 '10 at 16:54
Thanks... xsel does the job (for text)... Something might turn up for other formats. – Peter.O Nov 09 '10 at 20:17
Useful alias is alias xsel='xsel --clipboard'. – countunique Jun 22 '15 at 21:02
9

xsel -b is short for xsel --clipboard. – Andrei Duma Sep 28 '15 at 14:26
Sir you deserve the Nix medal of honor... – Daniel Toebe Nov 18 '15 at 16:54
Your link reveals Ubuntu 13 as the last available version. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Mar 17 '17 at 22:00
Worked like a charm! cat "hello" | xsel --clipboard – Alexar Nov 22 '17 at 00:32

score 114 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 06 '20 at 07:05

114

xclip

Install xclip may be one of your choices.

cat samples.sh | xclip -sel clip

you can also setting it in the .bashrc file using alias.

alias clipboard='xclip -sel clip'

The key to paste binary data to a file with xclip is to tell what Media Types you have on clipboard. For PNG you can:

xclip -selection clipboard -t image/png -o > "`date '+%Y-%m-%d_%T'`.png"

So now on ~/Dropbox/.mybashrc ;) you can add an alias (clipboard2photo) to easily paste to image file (maybe someday we'll have it on Nautilus).

edited Apr 06 '20 at 07:05

Pablo Bianchi

15,657

answered Nov 07 '10 at 14:13

kit.yang

2,142

This looks good, but I just haven't had a chance to look into it, yet... I will do that ASAP... – Peter.O Nov 08 '10 at 07:03
xclip also only handles text selections. – Steve Beattie Nov 08 '10 at 22:04
Thanks... xclip works fine for text (it is very similar to xsel) ... and as for the "other" formats, I've come to realize that the Linux clipboard system is quite different to Windows, and I've got a bit more reading to do first... – Peter.O Nov 09 '10 at 20:29
2

Also, the command can be as short as xclip -se c – Jeromy Anglim Oct 05 '11 at 01:05
1

I don't understand why this is not in the man page – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy Apr 24 '15 at 06:37
1

I get this when trying to paste images to file Error: target image/png not available – Emilio Nicolás Jul 21 '16 at 12:08
Didn't work for me. But xsel worked. Running Ubuntu 17.04 GNOME. – Alexar Nov 22 '17 at 00:33
Can't copy image to clipboard when having a Qt environment like KDE or LXQT with xclip. – noraj Jan 07 '19 at 13:19
Looks like the first link points to a page that states that it has moved to github. Link it points to is https://github.com/astrand/xclip – bgoodr Jul 24 '19 at 23:29
@xerostomus answer is also helpful for understanding how to show what mime types are in the clipboard: https://askubuntu.com/a/814412/340383 – bgoodr Jul 25 '19 at 00:21
Here is the Nautilus issue upstream – Pablo Bianchi Apr 06 '20 at 07:06

score 12 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

12

Parcellite

I've used parcellite for many years as a clipboard manager. It runs in the Notification Area and offers many options for managing both Primary Selection and standard freedesktop.org Clipboard.

Tray Icon

It's been my answer to managing clipboard items.

Preferences

edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

Community

1

answered Nov 07 '10 at 14:50

Marco Ceppi

48,101

This looks like a good panel-app.. The "Actions" is handy... but unfortunately its not the type of tool I am looking for.. I've re-worded my question to include some more specific info... Maybe the exact thing I'm after is an obscure Python script, or the like... There were a couple of very good native Windows-only utilities available, so I'd think an equivalent would be floating around somewhere in the Ubuntu/Linux world... – Peter.O Nov 07 '10 at 16:18
FYI, Parcellite has a cool feature - history of copied text. To activate auto-paste from history dialog, you should also install xdotool – Noam Manos Jan 25 '18 at 14:01

score 12 · Answer 4 · edited Sep 05 '13 at 18:35

12

I recently came across the tools xclip-copyfile, xclip-cutfile, and xclip-pastefile (package xclip). These tools allow you to copy/cut/paste entire files via the command line.

You can see their man page here.

edited Sep 05 '13 at 18:35

daveloyall

115
5

answered Jun 26 '13 at 11:52

slm

3,035

score 9 · Answer 5 · edited Jun 10 '20 at 09:19

9

clipit

clipit is a clipboard manager for GTK+ that allows piping text from the command line:

ls | clipit

edited Jun 10 '20 at 09:19

Pablo Bianchi

15,657

answered Sep 01 '13 at 12:14

eMBee

99
1
2

I am using ClipIt for other reasons and didn't know it's capable of getting data from terminal. Thanks a lot for that info. – Juraj.Lorinc Dec 23 '17 at 13:33
(clipit:53904): Gtk-WARNING **: 10:07:38.771: cannot open display: – Gajendra D Ambi Apr 21 '21 at 14:08

landroni · Answer 6 · 2014-04-05T18:07:26.463

You can use CopyQ for this. From the website:

Clipboard manager with advanced features

CopyQ is clipboard manager with searchable and editable history.

Supports Linux and Windows.

Experimental support for OS X 10.9+.

Store text, HTML, images and any other custom format.

Advanced command-line interface and scripting.

To copy a text file:

copyq action "cat /tmp/file.txt" "" && copyq select 0

To copy an image (you need to indicate the MIME type):

copyq write image/png - < file.png && copyq select 0

To copy a data file (you need to indicate the MIME type):

copyq write application/pdf - < file.pdf && copyq select 0

Check their wiki for more documentation and usage examples.

You can install it either via the ppa:noobslab/indicators PPA or by manually downloading prepackaged .deb files of latest stable from the project's Downloads section.

The ppa isn't up to date, at least for Ubuntu 16.04, it's better to download it from CopyQ's releases GitHub site directly. — Nicolai Grossherr, Jan 01 '17 at 15:32

score 4 · Answer 7 · answered Jul 29 '16 at 13:50

4

If you just want to copy some text to the clipboard:

echo -n "some-text" | xclip -selection clipboard

answered Jul 29 '16 at 13:50

Eyal Levin

591
7
13

score 2 · Answer 8 · edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

2

Pastie

A new clipboard manager with Indicator Applet support was recently released (though not in the archive yet). In addition to tracking text clipboard history it will also capture and persist data clipboard entries as well (Files, Folders, etc) which may be useful if you manipulate files a lot via a GUI/Clipboard environment.

alt text

You can add the following PPA: ppa:hel-sheep/pastie

edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

Community

1

answered Nov 07 '10 at 15:00

Marco Ceppi

48,101

Thanks for the suggestion Marco, but I don't have any need for a clipboard manager. Occasionally I'll paste some temporary text into a text file , but I actually find that a "history manager" slows things down (but that's just me).. I'm really after a command-line tool which can selectively extract/store a specific format from/to the clipboad.. I am assuming the Ubuntu clipboard is similar to the Windows one (I'd be stunned if it was significantly different, because users' requirements are the same on any platform)... I'm sure someone will find your suggestion useful. – Peter.O Nov 07 '10 at 15:45

score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Aug 20 '16 at 03:40

For RTF format I use this procedure: I copy text into clipboard in the application. If I am unsure whether it is rtf or what, I use this command to verify:

xclip -selection clipboard -o -t TARGETS

When it prints out something like this:

TARGETS

text/rtf

text/richtext

So I cannot resist to exclaim quite aloud: "Gee, that is genious! God bless linux!" After that shot prayer, just obvious thing follows:

xclip  -selection clipboard -o -t text/rtf > mypreciousRTFcontent.rtf

Then I process it all in libreoffice and send to all my friends as a spam.

:-)

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Apr 05 '14 at 18:52

How about GPaste daemon settings, a clipboard management daemon applet with DBus interface:

GPaste is a clipboard management suite for GNOME written in Vala
GPaste settings look has been updated to better fit with recent GNOME
Daemon now fully evenmential (no more polling, less power consuption)
GPasteClipboard now has a “owner-change” signal similar to GtkClipboard’s one
New setting to set the maximum amount of memory used by data in history
FIFO mode has been dropped (lacking design)
Code cleanup and modernisation
g_paste_history_add is now transfer full
g_paste_keybinder_add_keybinding is now transfer full

Installation:

To install it in Ubuntu 13.10, 13.04, 12.10 or 12.04, use the commands below:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/gnome3
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gnome-shell-extensions-gpaste

Or install gpaste through synaptic package manager (and also gnome-shell-extensions-gpaste if you use Gnome-Shell).

Another option is the installation through software-center.

enter image description here

score 1 · Answer 11 · answered May 19 '15 at 21:40

1

I'm trying to develop a better solution that isn't a clipboard manager, found at https://github.com/baitisj/copypasta . It doesn't handle RTF and HTML correctly quite yet, and large images pose problems, but feel free to fork and submit patches.

answered May 19 '15 at 21:40

baitisj

111
3

score -1 · Answer 12 · edited Jan 11 '17 at 18:34

-1

Yes, there is. Try tmux which is more advanced than screen. To install tmux, type this in the terminal:

sudo apt-get install tmux

Also try gpm. The commands gpm and tmux might be a good combination...

edited Jan 11 '17 at 18:34

Peter Mortensen

884

answered Nov 07 '10 at 13:57

karthick87

81,947

2

Screen is a multiple-terminal emulator not a clipboard manager. – Marco Ceppi Nov 07 '10 at 14:25
It seems that screen and tmux only work at the terminal level (I can't find any reference to "clipboard" in either of their info documentation)... What I'm looking for is a system-wide clipboard copy and paste utility... I probably should not have used terminal as a tag... The type of utility I want will be able to read/write via std-in/std-out or file-in/file-out, and handle Unicode/Rich-text/Picture/etc clipboard formats... – Peter.O Nov 07 '10 at 14:30
I've just found a reference on stackoverflow... gpm is for a non-X terminal "clipboard", and GNU screen has its own "clipboard" also... I see now why you mentioned them... This is great info, and it has led me into a deeper understanding of what goes on behind the scenes... I'll stick to the basic Xterm "selections system" (clipboad) for now.. The Linux "clipboard" seems to be so different to Windows, that what I was looking for may be done in a very different way here.. +1 :) – Peter.O Nov 09 '10 at 19:54

A command-line clipboard copy and paste utility?

12 Answers12

xsel

xclip

Parcellite

clipit

Pastie

Linked

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