Getting the value of the clipboard

Is there a command to output the current value of the clipboard?

Example (this command doesn’t exists, it’s just an example of what I’m looking for:

cat clipboard
> Hello world!

Also, if the clipboard is stored somewhere, where is it located?

Answers:

Thank you for visiting the Q&A section on Magenaut. Please note that all the answers may not help you solve the issue immediately. So please treat them as advisements. If you found the post helpful (or not), leave a comment & I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Method 1

You can use xclip or xsel to do this.

xclip -o
xsel -o

Bear in mind that there are multiple X clipboards (well, “selections”, including the major two, PRIMARY (typically used when you select text) and CLIPBOARD (typically used when you explicitly request a copy)). You may need to select which clipboard you are referring to:

# XA_PRIMARY
xclip -o -selection primary
xsel -op

# XA_CLIPBOARD
xclip -o -selection clipboard
xsel -ob

# XA_SECONDARY (you probably don't want this)
xclip -o -selection secondary
xsel -os

For the macOS clipboard, use pbcopy.


All methods was sourced from stackoverflow.com or stackexchange.com, is licensed under cc by-sa 2.5, cc by-sa 3.0 and cc by-sa 4.0

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x