Is there functionality in Unix that allows for the following:
echo "Some Text" | copy-to-clipboard
8 Answers
There are a couple tools capable of writing to the clipboard; I use xsel. It takes flags to write to the primary X selection (-p), secondary selection (-s), or clipboard (-b). Passing it -i will tell it to read from stdin, so you want:
$ echo "Some Text" | xsel -i -b
answered Nov 9, 2010 at 18:47
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5Another one is xclip; it accepts from stdin by default. I only use it because it's the first such tool that I learned of. Nov 9, 2010 at 19:04
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I think
-iis not required in this case:man xsel1.2.0 says:and the selection is set from standard input if standard input is not a terminal (tty)Jul 24, 2015 at 15:14 -
1xsel didn't work for me (I don't know why), but xclip (per other answers) did.– markrianJan 17, 2017 at 15:28
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@MichaelMrozek There is neither a
xselnor axclipon RedHat/CentOS7. Do you know of another tool available on CentOS7 ?– SebMaJul 19, 2022 at 12:11
Using xclip, as @Nicolas suggested, if you want to later paste the contents of the clipboard, such as using Ctrl+V, you can use it this way:
$ echo "Some Text" | xclip -selection clipboard
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4Not trying to revive an old question, but if you're lazy then
echo "Some Text" | xclip -sel cworks too. Jan 28, 2019 at 20:39
you can use xsel
xsel < file
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12The question is: Which clipboard? Linux X server has 3 (generally, only 2 are used)... xsel uses the PRIMARY clipboard by default.. The PRIMARY clipboard kicks in automatically every time you simply select soemthing. You paste if by pressing the center mouse button.. The Ctrl+C / Crtr+V type clipboard is called the CLIPBOARD clipboard :).. so if you want to use the Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V clipboard with 'xsel', the command is:
xsel -ib <file-long-or-short("Look ma, no cat!" :) ... or if you like<file-long-or-short xsel -ib.. -i is default. -b is for the Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V type of clipBoard– Peter.OApr 5, 2011 at 11:42 -
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works for me on gnome-terminal in ubuntu 10.04 using the xsel in the repo (paste with middle button)– jamespoApr 5, 2011 at 15:42
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On Mac OS X there are the lovely pbcopy and pbpaste commands which are very helpful :)
xclip is a good way to go as answered by @Nicolas Raoul but when piping anything containing a newline to the clipboard, such as pwd, the newline is also copied. In some situations it may be desired, but mostly one doesn't want the newline.
The solution is either:
echo -n $(pwd) | xclip -selection clipboard
(the -n removes the newline from the echoed argument)
or:
printf %s $(pwd) | xclip -selection clipboard
The "" around $(pwd) may be required but it works with and without on ubuntu with bash.
The simplest is probably xclip:
$ echo "Some Text" | xclip
Then paste using your mouse's middle button.
Like xsel, it is usually not installed by default, so you might need to install it (sudo apt-get install xclip on Debian/Ubuntu).
answered Aug 8, 2013 at 6:29
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2
xcliprequires the-selection clipboardoption. The default selection per its man page is something else. Oct 9, 2014 at 20:03
In Wayland, this can be done with wl-clipboard:
$ echo "hello" | wl-copy
Similarly, the clipboard can be returned as follows:
$ wl-paste
hello
Cygwin (and hence also MSYS2 and Git Bash) has the /dev/clipboard device for accessing the Windows clipboard, so input/output can simply be redirected there.
stdin.<longTextFile straightToClipboard. It's the same ascat longTextFile straightToClipboard, but doesn't require runningcat. Just an observation. Feel free to ignore it. See The Useless Use of Cat Award for some background and examples if you're interested.