XCLIPUTILS(1)               General Commands Manual              XCLIPUTILS(1)

NAME
     xclipd, xclipin, xclipout, xselin, xselout, xclipowner, xselpowner,
     xclipwatch, xselwatch – X11 clipboard management utilities

SYNOPSIS
     DISPLAY=display

     xclipd

     xclipin [target ...] [<file]
     xclipout [target ...] [>file]
     xclipowner
     xclipwatch

     xselin [target ...] [<file]
     xselout [target ...] [>file]
     xselowner
     xselwatch

DESCRIPTION
     xclipd keeps the contents of the CLIPBOARD selection into both CLIPBOARD
     and PRIMARY selections (which are usually pasted with Ctrl-V and the
     middle mouse button, respectively).  It allows the user to close a window
     without losing the copied data.  It does not daemonize itself; therefore,
     it should be run in the background.

     xclipin and xselin read data from standard input and make it available on
     the CLIPBOARD and PRIMARY selections respectively, in the given targets.
     If no target argument is provided, they make selection available as
     common string targets (UTF8_STRING, STRING, etc).  If the standard input
     is empty, the selection is cleaned.

     xclipout and xselout write to the standard output the content of the
     CLIPBOARD and PRIMARY selections respectively, in the first target
     supported by the selection owner.  If no target argument is provided,
     they request selection in the UTF8_STRING target, if available (or the
     STRING target, otherwise).

     xclipowner and xselowner show information about the current owner of the
     CLIPBOARD and PRIMARY selections respectively, if any, as a single line
     of tab-separated values:
     •  The first value is the timestamp of the ownership.
     •  The second value is the ID of the window which owns the selection.
     •  The remaining values, if any, are the supported targets.

     xclipwatch and xselwatch watch the CLIPBOARD and PRIMARY selections
     respectively, and print information about their owner as tab-separated
     values (see above) whenever ownership changes, one line per each
     ownership change.  However, if the owner is the clipboard manager, it is
     ignored and no information is displayed for it.

DIAGNOSTICS
     If the requested selection is not owned, xclipout, xselout, xclipowner,
     and xselowner return a non-zero exit status.

     If the requested selection can not be converted to any target, then
     xclipout and xselout write a diagnostic message to the standard error and
     return a non-zero exit status.

     Before the xclipin and xselin utilities exit, they fork a background
     process to communicate with requestors.  But if an error occurs before
     the inter-process communication initiates, they exit non-zero and do not
     fork the background process.

     For all utilities, it is an error if the DISPLAY environment variable is
     not set to a valid display.

EXAMPLES
     Read an JPEG file into the clipboard:
           $ xclipin image/jpeg </path/to/file.jpg

     Same as before, but use file(1) to guess the mimetype of the file:
           $ xclipin "$(file -ib /path/to/file.jpg)" </path/to/file.jpg

     Clean the clipboard:
           $ xclipin </dev/null

     Read a string to be pasted on middle mouse button:
           $ echo "Paste me!" | xselin

     Read a string output from a command into the primary selection, removing
     all leading and trailing space around it:
           $ cmd | awk 'NF{$1=$1;print}' | xselin

     Save STRING data from the clipboard into primary selection.  (NOTE: the
     xclipd clipboard manager already does this for any target when run in the
     background):
           $ xclipout | xselin

     Write a JPEG image from the clipboard into a file:
           $ xclipout image/jpeg >/path/to/file.jpg

     List targets for the current clipboard selection (including meta-targets,
     like MULTIPLE and TIMESTAMP):
           $ xclipowner | cut -f3-

     Get the current owner of the primary selection:
           $ xselowner | cut -f2

SEE ALSO
     X(7)

UNIX                            March 27, 2025                            UNIX