Copy and cut commands don't work on pwsh on WSL2 Ubuntu

[fsackur]

Environment

PS version: 7.1.0
PSReadline version: 2.1.0
os: Linux L7P30N13 4.19.128-microsoft-standard #1 SMP Tue Jun 23 12:58:10 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
PS file version: 7.1.0.0
HostName: ConsoleHost
BufferWidth: 138
BufferHeight: 70

I am using Windows Terminal.

Steps to reproduce

• Install WSL 2
• Install Ubuntu
• Install pwsh in WSL
• Set up these handlers for windows-style Ctrl-C / Ctrl-X:
  Set-PSReadlineKeyHandler -Chord Ctrl+c -Function CopyOrCancelLine
Set-PSReadlineKeyHandler -Chord Ctrl+x -Function Cut

Expected behavior

Select text. Ctrl-C or Ctrl-X should place that text on the system clipboard. It should be possible to paste that text in the same WSL terminal or anywhere in the Windows system.

Actual behavior

Text is not placed on the clipboard. Paste, even in the same console, is still pasting the previous clipboard contents.

[fsackur]

I believe this is caused here: https://github.com/PowerShell/PSReadLine/blob/v2.1.0/PSReadLine/Clipboard.cs#L72-L82

On my WSL Ubuntu, the following returns true:
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.RuntimeInformation]::IsOSPlatform([System.Runtime.InteropServices.OSPlatform]::Linux)

I have no xclip binary that I can find with which xclip.

clip.exe does work.

I wonder if this is sufficient to disambiguate?
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.RuntimeInformation]::OSDescription
Linux 4.19.128-microsoft-standard #1 SMP Tue Jun 23 12:58:10 UTC 2020

[fsackur]

I offer this as a workaround:

Set-PSReadLineKeyHandler -Chord Ctrl+c -ScriptBlock {
    [int]$SelStart = 0
    [int]$SelLength = 0
    [Microsoft.PowerShell.PSConsoleReadLine]::GetSelectionState([ref]$SelStart, [ref]$SelLength)

    if ($SelStart -eq -1 -and $SelLength -eq -1)
    {
        return [Microsoft.PowerShell.PSConsoleReadLine]::CancelLine()
    }

    [string]$Buffer = ''
    [int]$Cursor = 0
    [Microsoft.PowerShell.PSConsoleReadLine]::GetBufferState([ref]$Buffer, [ref]$Cursor)

    $Buffer.SubString($SelStart, $SelLength) | clip.exe
}

Set-PSReadLineKeyHandler -Chord Ctrl+x -ScriptBlock {
    [int]$SelStart = 0
    [int]$SelLength = 0
    [Microsoft.PowerShell.PSConsoleReadLine]::GetSelectionState([ref]$SelStart, [ref]$SelLength)

    if ($SelStart -eq -1 -and $SelLength -eq -1)
    {
        return
    }

    [string]$Buffer = ''
    [int]$Cursor = 0
    [Microsoft.PowerShell.PSConsoleReadLine]::GetBufferState([ref]$Buffer, [ref]$Cursor)

    $Buffer.SubString($SelStart, $SelLength) | clip.exe

    [Microsoft.PowerShell.PSConsoleReadLine]::Cut()
}

I don't have a way to avoid the trailing newline chars.

[fsackur]

This may be a better workaround.

Create /usr/local/bin/xclip with the following contents (and grant sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/xclip):

#!/bin/sh

# https://github.com/PowerShell/PSReadLine/issues/1993
# this is not an xclip replacement! It does just enough to let PSReadline work on WSL.

if [ "$3" = "-out" ]; then
    # paste
    if command -v pwsh.exe >/dev/null 2>&1; then
        pwsh="pwsh.exe"
    elif command -v powershell.exe >/dev/null 2>&1; then
        pwsh="powershell.exe"
    else
        exit 1
    fi
    pwsh="$pwsh -NoProfile -NoLogo -NonInteractive"

    $pwsh -command Get-Clipboard | sed 's/\r$//' | head -c -1
    exit 0

else
    # cut or copy
    tee <&0 | clip.exe
    exit 0
fi

For reasons I don't understand, it doesn't suffer from the annoying trailing newline that clip.exe normally appends.

[lewis-yeung]

This is still broken in v2.3.0-beta0.

[fsackur]

I now use predominantly linux.

I found the Copy and CopyOrCancel functions broken out-of-the-box on Fedora 39 and Ubuntu 22.10, 23.04 and 23.10. If I have broken them myself, I can't see how.

This is still the top search hit I get trying to fix copy-paste. In case it helps anyone else, this seems to work for Fedora in i3 and sway. I no longer use the workaround I pasted above, this is a complete solution. I cannot get xclip to work without hanging; use wl-clipboard or xsel.

if ($IsWindows)
{
    Set-PSReadlineKeyHandler -Chord Ctrl+Spacebar -Function MenuComplete
    Set-PSReadlineKeyHandler -Chord Ctrl+c -Function CopyOrCancelLine
    Set-PSReadlineKeyHandler -Chord Ctrl+x -Function Cut
    Set-PSReadlineKeyHandler -Chord Ctrl+v -Function Paste
}
else
{
    if ($env:XDG_SESSION_TYPE -eq 'wayland' -and (Get-Command wl-copy -ErrorAction Ignore))
    {
        $CopyTool = 'wl-copy'
        $CopyToolArgs = '-n'
    }
    elseif (Get-Command xsel -ErrorAction Ignore)
    {
        # xclip has weird pipe handling and hangs in pwsh, so use xsel instead
        $CopyTool = 'xsel'
        $CopyToolArgs = '-i --clipboard'
    }
    else
    {
        Write-Warning "xsel not found; falling back to xclip. This may hang on copy."
        $CopyTool = 'xclip'
        $CopyToolArgs = '-i -selection clipboard'
    }

    $CopyCmd = {
        $StartInfo = [Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo]::new()
        $StartInfo.UseShellExecute = $false
        $StartInfo.RedirectStandardInput = $true
        $StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = $true
        $StartInfo.RedirectStandardError = $true
        $StartInfo.FileName = $CopyTool
        $StartInfo.Arguments = $CopyToolArgs
        $Process = [Diagnostics.Process]::Start($StartInfo)
        $Process.StandardInput.Write("$input")
        $Process.StandardInput.Close()
        $Process.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd() | Write-Debug
        $Process.WaitForExit(250)
    }.GetNewClosure()

    # replacement for CopyOrCancelLine and Cut
    $Copy = {
        [string]$Buffer = ''
        [int]$Cursor = 0
        [Microsoft.PowerShell.PSConsoleReadLine]::GetBufferState([ref]$Buffer, [ref]$Cursor)

        [int]$SelStart = 0
        [int]$SelLength = 0
        [Microsoft.PowerShell.PSConsoleReadLine]::GetSelectionState([ref]$SelStart, [ref]$SelLength)

        if ($SelStart -eq -1 -and $SelLength -eq -1)
        {
            # Nothing selected; clear the buffer, but add to history in case it was a mistake
            [Microsoft.PowerShell.PSConsoleReadLine]::Delete(0, $Buffer.Length)
            [Microsoft.PowerShell.PSConsoleReadLine]::AddToHistory($Buffer)
            return
        }

        $Buffer.SubString($SelStart, $SelLength) | & $CopyCmd

        if ($Cut)
        {
            [Microsoft.PowerShell.PSConsoleReadLine]::Delete($SelStart, $SelLength)
        }
    }

    $Cut = $false
    Set-PSReadLineKeyHandler -Chord Ctrl+c -Description "Copy selection, or cancel line" -ScriptBlock $Copy.GetNewClosure()
    $Cut = $true
    Set-PSReadLineKeyHandler -Chord Ctrl+x -Description "Cut selection" -ScriptBlock $Copy.GetNewClosure()

    Set-PSReadlineKeyHandler -Chord Ctrl+v -Function Paste

    Remove-Variable CopyCmd, CopyTool, CopyToolArgs, Copy, Cut -Scope Global
}