XCLIP(1)XCLIP(1)NAMExclip - command line interface to X selections (clipboard)
SYNOPSISxclip [OPTION] [FILE]...
DESCRIPTION
Reads from standard in, or from one or more files, and makes the data
available as an X selection for pasting into X applications. Prints
current X selection to standard out.
-i, -in
read text into X selection from standard input or files
(default)
-o, -out
print the selection to standard out (generally for piping to a
file or program)
-f, -filter
when xclip is invoked in the in mode with output level set to
silent (the defaults), the filter option will cause xclip to
print the text piped to standard in back to standard out unmodi‐
fied
-l, -loops
number of X selection requests (pastes into X applications) to
wait for before exiting, with a value of 0 (default) causing
xclip to wait for an unlimited number of requests until another
application (possibly another invocation of xclip) takes owner‐
ship of the selection
-t, -target
specify a particular data format using the given target atom.
With -o the special target atom name "TARGETS" can be used to
get a list of valid target atoms for this selection. For more
information about target atoms refer to ICCCM section 2.6.2
-d, -display
X display to use (e.g. "localhost:0"), xclip defaults to the
value in $DISPLAY if this option is omitted
-h, -help
show quick summary of options
-selection
specify which X selection to use, options are "primary" to use
XA_PRIMARY (default), "secondary" for XA_SECONDARY or "clip‐
board" for XA_CLIPBOARD
-version
show version information
-silent
fork into the background to wait for requests, no informational
output, errors only (default)
-quiet show informational messages on the terminal and run in the fore‐
ground
-verbose
provide a running commentary of what xclip is doing
-noutf8
operate in legacy (i.e. non UTF-8) mode for backwards compati‐
bility (Use this option only when really necessary, as the old
behavior was broken)
xclip reads text from standard in or files and makes it available to
other X applications for pasting as an X selection (traditionally with
the middle mouse button). It reads from all files specified, or from
standard in if no files are specified. xclip can also print the con‐
tents of a selection to standard out with the -o option.
xclip was designed to allow tighter integration of X applications and
command line programs. The default action is to silently wait in the
background for X selection requests (pastes) until another X applica‐
tion places data in the clipboard, at which point xclip exits silently.
You can use the -verbose option to see if and when xclip actually
receives selection requests from other X applications.
Options can be abbreviated as long as they remain unambiguous. For
example, it is possible to use -d or -disp instead of -display. How‐
ever, -v couldn't be used because it is ambiguous (it could be short
for -verbose or -version), so it would be interpreted as a filename.
Note that only the first character of the selection specified with the
-selection option is important. This means that "p", "sec" and "clip"
would have the same effect as using "primary", "secondary" or "clip‐
board" respectively.
EXAMPLES
I hate man pages without examples!
uptime | xclip
Put your uptime in the X selection. Then middle click in an X applica‐
tion to paste.
xclip-loops 10 -verbose /etc/motd
Exit after /etc/motd (message of the day) has been pasted 10 times.
Show how many selection requests (pastes) have been processed.
xclip-o > helloworld.c
Put the contents of the selection into a file.
xclip-t text/html index.html
Middle click in an X application supporting HTML to paste the contents
of the given file as HTML.
ENVIRONMENT
DISPLAY
X display to use if none is specified with the -display option.
REPORTING BUGS
Please report any bugs, problems, queries, experiences, etc. directly
to the author.
AUTHORS
Kim Saunders <kims@debian.org> Peter Åstrand <astrand@lysator.liu.se>
XCLIP(1)
