xclip in Ubuntu

Introduction

To save time when working with files and when processing command output you can install xclip and redirect the output straight to the clipboard.

This saves you from wasting time on selecting text and copying and pasting it.

Installation

sudo apt install xclip

Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following NEW packages will be installed: xclip 0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 41 not upgraded. Need to get 18.4 kB of archives. After this operation, 60.4 kB of additional disk space will be used. Get:1 http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/universe amd64 xclip amd64 0.13-1 [18.4 kB] Fetched 18.4 kB in 0s (162 kB/s) Selecting previously unselected package xclip. (Reading database ... 441022 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../xclip_0.13-1_amd64.deb ... Unpacking xclip (0.13-1) ... Setting up xclip (0.13-1) ... Processing triggers for man-db (2.9.1-1) ...

A file to the clipboard

Using the example of the SSH certificate for GitLab

xclip -sel clip < ~/.ssh/gitlab_com_rsa.pub

Command output to the clipboard

The syntax is as follows

COMMAND | xclip

For example

ls | xclip

You can paste the result by pressing the middle mouse button.

Article author: Andrei Olegovich