substitute for xclip?

substitute for xclip?

[Ulli Horlacher]

With Linux I am using xclip to read the X11 clipboard.
Is there a cygwin equivalent to read the Windows clipboard?

My use case is:
The user copies file names to the clipboard and then starts a program
which processes these files.


-- 
Ullrich Horlacher              Server und Virtualisierung
Rechenzentrum TIK         
Universitaet Stuttgart         E-Mail: horlacher@tik.uni-stuttgart.de
Allmandring 30a                Tel:    ++49-711-68565868
70569 Stuttgart (Germany)      WWW:    http://www.tik.uni-stuttgart.de/
REF:<20221019065805.GA17124@tik.uni-stuttgart.de>

Re: substitute for xclip?

[Sam Edge]

Hi there.

In the absence of a Cygwin-native utility, how about?

x="$(powershell -command Get-Clipboard)"

You can pipe to the Windows 'clip' utility to go the other way or use
'powershell -command Set-Clipboard'.

But I agree, a Cygwin utility would be nice, unless there already is one?

--
Sam Edge

On 19/10/2022 07:58, Ulli Horlacher wrote:
> With Linux I am using xclip to read the X11 clipboard.
> Is there a cygwin equivalent to read the Windows clipboard?
>
> My use case is:
> The user copies file names to the clipboard and then starts a program
> which processes these files.
>
>

Re: substitute for xclip?

[Sam Edge]

H again.

Or you can use:-

#!/bin/bash
shopt -s lastpipe
powershell -command Get-Clipboard | mapfile array_variable

for multiline.

--
Sam Edge

On 19/10/2022 08:44, Sam Edge wrote:
> Hi there.
>
> In the absence of a Cygwin-native utility, how about?
>
> x="$(powershell -command Get-Clipboard)"
>
> You can pipe to the Windows 'clip' utility to go the other way or use
> 'powershell -command Set-Clipboard'.
>
> But I agree, a Cygwin utility would be nice, unless there already is one?
>
> --
> Sam Edge
>
> On 19/10/2022 07:58, Ulli Horlacher wrote:
>> With Linux I am using xclip to read the X11 clipboard.
>> Is there a cygwin equivalent to read the Windows clipboard?
>>
>> My use case is:
>> The user copies file names to the clipboard and then starts a program
>> which processes these files.
>>
>>
>

Re: substitute for xclip?

[Backwoods BC]

On Tue, Oct 18, 2022 at 11:59 PM Ulli Horlacher
<framstag@rus.uni-stuttgart.de> wrote:
>
> With Linux I am using xclip to read the X11 clipboard.
> Is there a cygwin equivalent to read the Windows clipboard?

There are 2 ways to access the clipboard:
1. The commands 'getclip' and 'putclip'
2. Redirection to/from /dev/clipboard

Re: substitute for xclip?

[Sam Edge]

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On 19/10/2022 10:01, Backwoods BC wrote:
 > On Tue, Oct 18, 2022 at 11:59 PM Ulli Horlacher
 > <framstag@rus.uni-stuttgart.de> wrote:
 >>
 >> With Linux I am using xclip to read the X11 clipboard.
 >> Is there a cygwin equivalent to read the Windows clipboard?
 >
 > There are 2 ways to access the clipboard:
 > 1. The commands 'getclip' and 'putclip'
 > 2. Redirection to/from /dev/clipboard
 >

Eek. I knew that. I use them all the time.

Apologies for the bad steer ... and for top-posting!

-- 
Sam Edge

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Re: substitute for xclip?

[Ulli Horlacher]

On Wed 2022-10-19 (02:01), Backwoods BC wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 18, 2022 at 11:59 PM Ulli Horlacher
> <framstag@rus.uni-stuttgart.de> wrote:
> 
> >
> > With Linux I am using xclip to read the X11 clipboard.
> > Is there a cygwin equivalent to read the Windows clipboard?
> 
> There are 2 ways to access the clipboard:
> 1. The commands 'getclip' and 'putclip'

W10dev:~: getclip
bash: getclip: command not found

I found getclip in package cygutils-extra.



> 2. Redirection to/from /dev/clipboard

https://fex.rus.uni-stuttgart.de/fop/jFZ6T7wI/X-20221019141237.png

I have selected [copy] in the file browser, but /dev/clipboard is empty.
Also getclip gives me no output.


-- 
Ullrich Horlacher              Server und Virtualisierung
Rechenzentrum TIK         
Universitaet Stuttgart         E-Mail: horlacher@tik.uni-stuttgart.de
Allmandring 30a                Tel:    ++49-711-68565868
70569 Stuttgart (Germany)      WWW:    http://www.tik.uni-stuttgart.de/
REF:<CAKwdsS-QwFxpB0pG+3QCvjipHuB-e09sdGFJH01AG3YaVL7CeA@mail.gmail.com>

Re: substitute for xclip?

[Oliver Schoede]

Hi!

On Wed, 19 Oct 2022 14:58:42 +0200
Ulli Horlacher <framstag@rus.uni-stuttgart.de> wrote:
>
>https://fex.rus.uni-stuttgart.de/fop/jFZ6T7wI/X-20221019141237.png
>
>I have selected [copy] in the file browser, but /dev/clipboard is
>empty. Also getclip gives me no output.
>


It looks to me like you copied the file, not the file name?

Re: substitute for xclip?

[Thomas Wolff]

Am 19.10.2022 um 11:01 schrieb Backwoods BC:
> On Tue, Oct 18, 2022 at 11:59 PM Ulli Horlacher
> <framstag@rus.uni-stuttgart.de> wrote:
>> With Linux I am using xclip to read the X11 clipboard.
>> Is there a cygwin equivalent to read the Windows clipboard?
> There are 2 ways to access the clipboard:
> 1. The commands 'getclip' and 'putclip'
> 2. Redirection to/from /dev/clipboard
>
There is also xsel and xclip; both need a running X server.
Note that *clip, xsel and xclip do not adapt character encoding, should 
you wish to transfer text between terminals of different 
encoding/locale. /dev/clipboard applies transparent character encoding 
conversion (as does the powershell trick).

Re: substitute for xclip?

[Sam Edge]

On 19/10/2022 23:52, Oliver Schoede wrote:
> Hi!
>
> On Wed, 19 Oct 2022 14:58:42 +0200
> Ulli Horlacher <framstag@rus.uni-stuttgart.de> wrote:
>> https://fex.rus.uni-stuttgart.de/fop/jFZ6T7wI/X-20221019141237.png
>>
>> I have selected [copy] in the file browser, but /dev/clipboard is
>> empty. Also getclip gives me no output.
>>
>
> It looks to me like you copied the file, not the file name?
>
To clarify the above, Windows has a non-text clipboard data type when
'copying' a file in the File Explorer which encodes additional
information other than its path. This is to allow the equivalent 'paste'
function in Explorer and other file-accepting GUI applications to work
more intelligently. Unfortunately, Cygwin's /dev/clipboard and
get/putclip only process text formats.

I imagine your X file manager is simply copying a textual representation
of the file path to the clipboard when you choose 'copy' which of course
can be extracted by scripts etc. It appears that Windows Explorer
doesn't also place a textual representation onto the clipboard (the
Windows clipboard allows multiple representations to exist
simultaneously) which is what would be required for Cygwin to use it at
present.

--
Sam Edge

Re: substitute for xclip?

[Backwoods BC]

On Thu, Oct 20, 2022 at 12:27 AM Sam Edge <sam.edge.cygwin@gmx.com> wrote:
> On 19/10/2022 23:52, Oliver Schoede wrote:
> > Hi!
> >
> > On Wed, 19 Oct 2022 14:58:42 +0200
> > Ulli Horlacher <framstag@rus.uni-stuttgart.de> wrote:
> >> https://fex.rus.uni-stuttgart.de/fop/jFZ6T7wI/X-20221019141237.png
> >>
> >> I have selected [copy] in the file browser, but /dev/clipboard is
> >> empty. Also getclip gives me no output.
> >>
> >
> > It looks to me like you copied the file, not the file name?
> >
> To clarify the above, Windows has a non-text clipboard data type when
> 'copying' a file in the File Explorer which encodes additional
> information other than its path. This is to allow the equivalent 'paste'
> function in Explorer and other file-accepting GUI applications to work
> more intelligently. Unfortunately, Cygwin's /dev/clipboard and
> get/putclip only process text formats.
>
> I imagine your X file manager is simply copying a textual representation
> of the file path to the clipboard when you choose 'copy' which of course
> can be extracted by scripts etc. It appears that Windows Explorer
> doesn't also place a textual representation onto the clipboard (the
> Windows clipboard allows multiple representations to exist
> simultaneously) which is what would be required for Cygwin to use it at
> present.
>
> --
> Sam Edge

You can force Windows Explorer to copy the path by doing
SHIFT-RightClick on the filename and selecting "Copy as path."

The next hurdle that you'll run into is that the clipboard contents
will be in Windows/DOS format (c:\folder\filename) while Cygwin will
most often expect it in *nix format (cygdrive/c/folder.filename).
'cygpath' is your friend. Sometimes (not clear exactly when) Cygwin
will accept the Windows path, but I always convert it to *nix format
to avoid unpleasant surprises later.