(A version of this article also appears as App::ClipboardUtils::Manual::HowTo::ClipaddCookbook on CPAN.)

Introduction

clipadd, a CLI included in the App::ClipboardUtils distribution, lets you add items to the desktop clipboard. It is clipboard-manager-agnostic, supporting backends like xclip and Klipper. It also has some convenient features which will be demonstrated in this document.

Adding multiple entries from a text file

% clipadd --split-by '\n---\n' < FILENAME

For example, after adding FAQ entries from this text file:

Question 1
Answer 1
---
Question 2
Answer 2
---
Question 3
Answer 3

then you can setup keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl-Alt-Up and Ctrl-Alt-Down in Klipper to quickly access those FAQ entries to provide quick answers in chats.

Adding ouput from command-line, one line at a time

% clipadd -c COMMAND
% clipadd -c COMMAND -t ; # to see the output on stdout as well

This is convenient because it lets you feed input to a command interactively and immediately get the output as clipboard content.

For example, using with safer:

% clipadd -c safer -t
Foo Bar, Inc.
foo-bar-inc
_

I can paste company names and get a slug name to use in file manager to create directory, etc.

Adding text fragments from a text file as clipboard contents

% clipadd --fragments < FILENAME

This is a variation of the previous recipe. Using fragments allows you to only add certain entries and in custom order. Example content of text file:

FAQS
====

Question 1
# BEGIN clipadd id=2
Answer 1
# END clipadd id=2

Question 2
# BEGIN clipadd id=1
Answer 2
# END clipadd id=1

Question 3
# BEGIN clipadd id=3
Answer 3
# END clipadd id=3

Question 4
Answer 4

See Also

clipadd (a.k.a. add-clipboard-content, a.k.a. ca).