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Q&A

How do I send console output to the clipboard?

+3
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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?

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3 answers

+5
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Use xclip(1).

For example:

$ printf '%s' foo | xclip;

And now Shift+Insert to paste.

There's a primary selection, a secondary selection, and a clipboard selection, and you can chose between those, which will change the combination of keys for pasting (this also depends on the application where you're pasting). You can also paste with xclip -o back to the terminal.

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+4
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On Wayland, the wl-clipboard utility wl-copy is the program you want:

echo hi | wl-copy
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+3
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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".

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2 comment threads

echo(1) appends a newline (5 comments)
xsel(1) seems simpler than xclip(1) (2 comments)

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