Ubuntu – Command Line Clipboard Access

clipboardcommand line

I'm building a command line tool in order to make some of my tasks more efficient. I need to be able to write content to the clipboard, but for some reason it's not working for me.

I've tried installing both xclip and xsel, but both have the same behavior: they can read/write to the clipboard fine, but I cannot access it from the main Ubuntu GUI.

I've also tried it in the terminal…

echo "hello" | xclip

Then if Ctrl+Shift+V, I get my original clipboard entry, not "hello". But, if I try to grab the content from xclip, it works fine.

The main goal is get the content pastable into Firefox or whatever other GUI-based programs I'm using.

Best Answer

Well, there are a few different clipboards in X :) The one xclip copies text into by default is "selection buffer" - usually you just select some text with your mouse and then can paste it with middle mouse button. This buffer is separate from the one from which you can paste with Ctrl-Shift-V.

Try

echo "hello" | xclip -selection clipboard

also, see

man xclip

for more details about xclip

Script to copy the path of a file, opened in `gedit`

With the gedit window in front, the small script below derives the path from the (gedit) window's name, and copies it to the clipboard.

The script has two options:

Only copy the path to the file's directory, running the script with the option
```
-path
```
or
Copy the path including the file name, running the script with the option
```
-file
```

The script

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import subprocess
import sys

name = subprocess.check_output(["xdotool", "getactivewindow", "getwindowname"]).decode("utf-8").strip()
if all(["(" in name, ")" in name]):
    path = name[name.find("(")+1:name.find(")")]
    if sys.argv[1] == "-file":
        fname = name[:name.find("(")]
    elif sys.argv[1] == "-path":
        fname = ""
    command = "echo "+'"'+path+"/"+fname+'"'+" | xclip -selection clipboard"
    subprocess.Popen(["/bin/bash", "-c", command])

How to use

Install both xdotool and xclip:
```
sudo apt-get install xdotool xclip
```
Copy the script into an empty file, save it as get_path.py
Test run the script:
- open an existing gedit file
- open a terminal window, run the command:
```
sleep 5 && python3 /path/to/get_path.py -file
```
  immediately switch to the gedit window, to make the last part of tyhe command run with the gedit window in front.
- Press Ctrl+V somewhere to paste the just copied path.

If all works fine, you can make the options available in two ways:

Create two shortcut keys for both options: choose: System Settings > "Keyboard" > "Shortcuts" > "Custom Shortcuts". Click the "+" and add both commands to two different shortcuts.

Make both options available in the gedit launcher:

Copy the content below into an empty file, save it as gedit.desktop in ~/.local/share/applications

[Desktop Entry]
Name=gedit
GenericName=Text Editor
Comment=Edit text files
Exec=gedit %U
Terminal=false
Type=Application
StartupNotify=true
MimeType=text/plain;
Icon=accessories-text-editor
Categories=GNOME;GTK;Utility;TextEditor;
X-GNOME-DocPath=gedit/gedit.xml
X-GNOME-FullName=Text Editor
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Bugzilla=GNOME
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Product=gedit
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Component=general
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Version=3.10.4
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-ExtraInfoScript=/usr/share/gedit/gedit-bugreport
Actions=Window;Document;divider1;Copy current file's directory;Copy path+file name;

Keywords=Text;Editor;Plaintext;Write;
X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=gedit

[Desktop Action Window]
Name=Open a New Window
Exec=gedit --new-window
OnlyShowIn=Unity;

[Desktop Action Document]
Name=Open a New Document
Exec=gedit --new-document
OnlyShowIn=Unity;

[Desktop Action Copy current file's directory]
Name=Copy current directory
Exec=python3 /path/to/get_path.py -path
OnlyShowIn=Unity;

[Desktop Action divider1]
Name=.....................................
OnlyShowIn=Unity;

[Desktop Action Copy path+file name]
Name=Copy current directory, include file name
Exec=python3 /path/to/get_path.py -file
OnlyShowIn=Unity;

In both lines:

Exec=python3 /path/to/get_path.py -path

and

Exec=python3 /path/to/get_path.py -file

replace /path/to/get_path.py by the real path to the script.

Log out and back in to make Unity "switch" to the new, local .desktop file.

Explanation

In the gedit window name, the path is displayed between ( and ). The script simply sees the frontmost window with the help of xdotool, then reads the path between those two characters.

Notes

Since the path is read in a textual way, the script will fail if the file's name includes other () characters.

Examples

With the following window in front:

the first option will copy to the clipboard the path to the file:

~/Bureaublad

while the second option includes the file itself:

~/Bureaublad/some test file.txt

As you can see, spaces are taken care of :).

Ubuntu – Terminal – Selecting commands I’ve entered using the keyboard

There is a set of shortcuts for terminal , and they are organized around the current cursor position.

You can use CtrlK shortcut to cut the text from cursor to end of line
CtrlU cuts from current position to beginning of line.
Paste with CtrlY

These two are pretty useful in particular when you want to either copy the command or its arguments.

If you are proficient with vim text editor, you can edit the command you want in a more powerful way by evoking vim with fc command.

For using the command outside the terminal, you might want to use xclip command (not installed by default) . For instance,

$ echo "some_command" | xclip -sel clip

Once you have xclip you can add the following function to your .bashrc file

to_clipboard() {
    xclip -sel clip <<<"$@" 
}

What this does is it will copy whatever you put in front to clip board. You can use that in combination with the shortcuts above to cut test, paste it in front of the function, and it will be added to your clipboard. Small example

$ to_clipboard echo 'hello world'

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to copy the path to the currently opened file in gedit to the clipboard

Script to copy the path of a file, opened in gedit