How do I copy a file to the clipboard with the terminal?

Question

I'm aware of how to copy the contents of file:

xsel -b < myfile.txt

But this is not what I want.

I would like something like this:

./file2clip.sh myfile.txt

Which would copy myfile.txt to the clipboard so then I could ctrl + v (paste) or right click and paste the file anywhere (on the desktop, in the file explorer, etc.).

How can I copy a file/files to the clipboard so that I can paste it with ctrl + v anywhere in the gui?

Windows equivalent: (powershell)

Set-Clipboard -Path myfile.txt

Macos equivalent: (applescript)

#!/usr/bin/osascript
on run args
    set the clipboard to POSIX file (first item of args)
end

./file2clip.applescript myfile.txt

I don't understand what's wrong with `xsel -b < myfile.txt`? — Arkadiusz Drabczyk, May 22 '21 at 13:14
@ArkadiuszDrabczyk, Again, I do **not** want to copy the content of `myfile.txt`. Why? Because then I cannot paste it in the gui with `ctrl` + `v`. I would like to paste the copied file, with `ctrl` + `v` or right click paste in the gui. — lordcommander, May 22 '21 at 13:19
So are you asking how to copy the file's *name* using xsel? if so, you can use any method that streams the name to standard output ex. `printf '%s' myfile.txt | xsel -b` or (in shells that provide here string redirection) `xsel -b <<< myfile.txt` — steeldriver, May 22 '21 at 13:33
@steeldriver, No, All I want to do is `./file2clip.sh myfile.txt` and then be able to **paste** the file anywhere in the gui with `ctrl` + `v` or right click and paste, **Simulating the process of using `ctrl` + `c` while the file is selected**. In your way, I use `xsel -b <<< myfile.txt` but then I **can't** paste the file in the gui with `ctrl` + `v`. — lordcommander, May 22 '21 at 13:40
@lordcommander: ok, I think I got it. And I don't know how do that - it looks like a filemanager-specific operation and I don't use file managers. — Arkadiusz Drabczyk, May 22 '21 at 13:49
It depends on what you call the *gui* and the file manager being used. No silver bullet there. Which gui/filemanager do you want this to work for? — Eduardo Trápani, May 22 '21 at 15:12
@Eduardo Trápani, I'm hoping for it to work for everything. But if I had to choose, probably nautilus or thunar — lordcommander, May 22 '21 at 15:36
How is this question different from https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/597981/how-do-i-copy-a-file-to-the-clipboard-in-the-terminal? If it is no different, then please don't repost questions even if they get no answer. — Quasímodo, May 22 '21 at 16:42

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 29 '23 at 12:42

One way of doing it follows as:

Install xclip, such as:
```
sudo apt-get install xclip
```
Pipe the output into xclip to be copied into the clipboard:
```
cat file | xclip
```
Paste the text you just copied into a X application:
```
xclip -o
```

To paste somewhere else other than an X application, such as a text area of a web page in a browser window, use:

cat file | xclip -selection clipboard

Consider creating an alias:

alias "c=xclip"
alias "v=xclip -o"

To see how useful this is, imagine I want to open my current path in a new terminal window (there may be other ways of doing it like Ctrl+T on some systems, but this is just for illustration purposes):

Terminal 1:
```
pwd | c
```
Terminal 2:
```
cd 'v'
```

Notice the `...` around v. This executes v as a command first and then substitutes it in-place for cd to use.

Only copy the content to the X clipboard

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 23 '21 at 18:57

0

Just tested xsel and it works. Have you tried shift+ins? That works for me.

$ xsel -b <<< bla
# or
$ xsel -b <<< "bla bla"
# for string with spaces

answered May 23 '21 at 18:57

tansy

669
4
6

I'm not trying to copy a string to the clipboard, please read my question again – lordcommander May 23 '21 at 18:59
Either you want file name or file content. Tertium non datur. – tansy May 23 '21 at 19:59
Neither, the file itself. – lordcommander May 24 '21 at 06:51

How do I copy a file to the clipboard with the terminal?

2 Answers2