Ubuntu – How to copy many files to clipboard from the command line

clipboardcommand line

Suppose you have different files in a directory: one.txt, two.jpg, three.pdf, four.jpg etc. You want to copy them all to clipboard from the command line. Something like copyclipboard *. How do you do it?

Based on this answer, which solves for a particular case, but has the filetype hardcoded in the script. I wonder if there is a more general solution.

Best Answer

Is this to speed up some workflow you have or for some script?

What I usually do is that when I enter the folder with the files I want to copy I run nautilus . to get the file browser. The workflow problem I see with copying straight from terminal is that you still need to browse to the folder where you want to paste the files later on.

Please comment if I'm missing something here.

Copying files from a source- into a target directory, adding the containg folder's name to the file

The script below will copy files recursively from a source directory into a flat directory, adding the name of the (direct) superior directory to the file's name. The directory's name will be inserted before possible extension on the file, exacvtly like your example.

The script

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import os
import sys
import shutil

for root, dirs, files in os.walk(sys.argv[1]):
    for f in files:
        # split off the superior directory's name
        dirname = root.split("/")[-1]
        # define file+path, possible extension position
        src = os.path.join(root, f); spl = f.rfind(".")
        # defining new filename
        newname = f[:spl]+"_"+dirname + f[spl:] if spl != -1 else f+"_"+dirname
        # copy the file into the new directory
        shutil.copyfile(src, os.path.join(sys.argv[2], newname))

How to use

Copy the script intyo an empty file, save it as copyandrename.py

Run it with the source- and target directories as arguments:

python3 /path/to/copyandrename.py <source_directory> <target_directory>

My test command was e.g.

python3 '/home/jacob/Bureaublad/pscript_4.py' '/home/jacob/Bureaublad/testmap' '/home/jacob/Bureaublad/target'

As always, please test on a sample first!

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Copy files from a directory to a sub-directory (excluding the sub-directory itself)

Ubuntu – How to copy files from multiple directories, adding the parent folder’s name to the filename

Copying files from a source- into a target directory, adding the containg folder's name to the file

The script

How to use

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