WHAT IS XCLIP?

xclip is a command line utility that is designed to run on any system with an X11 implementation. It provides an interface to X selections ("the clipboard") from the command line. It can read data from standard in or a file and place it in an X selection for pasting into other X applications. xclip can also print an X selection to standard out, which can then be redirected to a file or another program.

USING XCLIP

Here are some ideas for things you can do with xclip:

Copy your uptime into the selection for pasting:
uptime | xclip

Copy your password file for pasting:
xclip /etc/passwd

Save some text you have Edit | Copied in a web browser:
xclip -o -sel clip > webpage.txt

Open a URL selected in an email client
mozilla `xclip -o`

Copy XA_PRIMARY to XA_CLIPBOARD
xclip -o | xclip -sel clip

In command mode in vim, select some lines of text, then press shift-:
for an ex prompt, and use this command to copy the selected lines of
text to the primary X selection:
!xclip -f

USING XCLIP FOR MOVING FILES

The programs xclip-copyfile, xclip-pastefile, and xclip-cutfile can be used for copying and moving files between different directories and even machines, assuming that you have a working X11 connection. Here are some examples:

Copying a file to a remote host

[maggie.lkpg.cendio.se ~]$ echo "A file created on ${HOSTNAME}" > file1 [maggie.lkpg.cendio.se ~]$ xclip-copyfile file1 [sofie.homeip.net ~/doc]$ xclip-pastefile file1 [sofie.homeip.net ~/doc]$ cat file1 A file created on maggie.lkpg.cendio.se

Copying an entire tree structure

[sofie.homeip.net ~]$ xclip-copyfile doc [maggie.lkpg.cendio.se ~/tmp]$ xclip-pastefile doc/ doc/letter-mom-april.txt doc/file1 doc/letter-dad-march.txt

Copying files with preserved path information

[maggie.lkpg.cendio.se ~]$ xclip-copyfile -p /etc/sysconfig/grub tar: Removing leading `/' from member names [sofie.homeip.net ~/tmp]$ xclip-pastefile etc/sysconfig/grub [sofie.homeip.net ~/tmp]$ ls etc/sysconfig/grub etc/sysconfig/grub

Moving files

[sofie.homeip.net ~]$ ls letter-brother-may.txt letter-brother-may.txt [sofie.homeip.net ~]$ xclip-cutfile letter-brother-may.txt [sofie.homeip.net ~]$ ls letter-brother-may.txt ls: cannot access letter-brother-may.txt: No such file or directory [sofie.homeip.net ~]$ cd doc [sofie.homeip.net ~/doc]$ xclip-pastefile letter-brother-may.txt

FEATURES

Reads data piped to standard in or files given as arguments
Prints contents of selection to standard out
Accesses the XA_PRIMARY, XA_SECONDARY or XA_CLIPBOARD selection
Accesses the cut-buffers
Supports the INCR mechanism for large transfers
Connects to the X display in $DISPLAY, or specified with -display host:0
Waits for selection requests in the background

SELECTIONS

For a good overview of what selections are about, have a look at https://specifications.freedesktop.org/clipboards-spec/clipboards-latest.txt. Short version:

XA_PRIMARY contains the last text you highlighted
Middle click pastes XA_PRIMARY
XA_CLIPBOARD contains text explicitly copied with Edit | Copy, Ctrl-C etc.
Edit | Paste pastes XA_CLIPBOARD
xclip uses XA_PRIMARY unless you specify otherwise with -selection

CAN I HELP?

Glad you asked! At this stage, I'm pretty happy with the features and implementation, so if you have anything at all that should be done, I want to hear about it. Doesn't matter how small, compiler warnings, segfaults, spelling mistakes, whatever, I want to get it sorted out. xclip is not a big project, I'd like to get all these things sorted out and then declare it "complete".