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Comments on How do I send console output to the clipboard?

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How do I send console output to the clipboard?

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Suppose I have a command that prints to the standard output, like:

$ echo hi
hi

How can I send this to the clipboard instead, as if I selected the output and did Ctrl+C?

terminal clipboard
posted 5 months ago
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matthewsnyder‭
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Worked for alx‭

On X, echo hi | xsel -ib seems to work. I can then paste with Ctrl+V. Sometimes I have to repeat it a few times for it to "stick".

posted 5 months ago
5mo ago
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matthewsnyder‭
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2 comment threads

echo(1) appends a newline (5 comments)
xsel(1) seems simpler than xclip(1) (2 comments)
echo(1) appends a newline
alx‭ wrote 5 months ago
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echo(1) appends a newline. You probably prefer printf(1), which only prints the test you wrote.

nogjam‭ wrote 5 months ago · edited 5 months ago
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echo -n also omits the newline.

matthewsnyder‭ wrote 5 months ago · edited 5 months ago
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Echo here is just an example of some command that has output, which anyone can understand. I'm certain most users would not be using the method here to send the output of echo to the clipboard. Instead, they would be replacing the echo with something else. For that reason, I don't think the newlines are important here.

Skipping 1 deleted comment.

alx‭ wrote 5 months ago · edited 5 months ago
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nogjam‭ Re: -n: except if you're on an XSI-compliant echo(1posix), which treats -n as a string to be printed. That's why (among other reasons) printf(1) is preferred over echo(1) in scripts.

Re: just an example: But this example may confuse readers about what happens with a trailing newline. They may think that it's stripped by xsel, but it's not.

alx‭ wrote 5 months ago
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Quoting POSIX documentation for echo(1posix):

     New applications are encouraged to use printf instead of echo.