XSEL(1)XSEL(1)NAMExsel - access the X selection from command line
SYNOPSISxsel (--paste | --copy [string] | --merge [string]) [-display display]
[-selection selection]
DESCRIPTION
This program is used to access the X selection (PRIMARY, SECONDARY,
CLIBOARD) from command line.
ACTIONS-p or --paste
Paste the current X selection to (if any) standard output and
exit.
-c or --copy
Read the input from the standard input to offer is as the X
selection. Note that the X selection model has no concept of
selection buffer on the server. Rather, the client that holds
the current selection makes it available to the other clients
and has to wait until someone requests it. Hence, xsel forks
and serves the selection requests until someone else claims the
selection. The copied string can also be given on command line
rather than through standard input: --copy "string to copy".
-m or --merge
Same as --copy, but merge the input to the current selection
instead of overwriting it.
OPTIONS-display display
This option specifies the server to use; see X(7x).
-s selection or --selection selection
This option specifies which X selection to use: PRIMARY
(default), SECONDARY or CLIPBOARD. You can also use abbrevia‐
tions P, p, S, s, C and c. There are some historical conven‐
tions: PRIMARY is used for mouse selection, middle mouse button
paste, and explicit cut/copy/paste menu items (Qt, Emacs) CLIP‐
BOARD is USED for the Windows-style cut/copy/paste menu items;
use PRIMARY for the currently-selected text, even if it isn't
explicitly copied, and for middle-mouse-click (Netscape,
Mozilla, XEmacs, some GTK+ apps) Generally, SECONDARY is not
used.
EXAMPLES
ls | xsel--copy
Copy ls output to X selection.
xsel--copy Hello
Copy the string "Hello" to X selection.
xsel--merge Hello
Merge the string "Hello" to the current X selection.
xsel--selection CLIPBOARD --copy Hello
Copy the string "Hello" to X SECONDARY selection.
xsel--paste | wc
Count words in the current X selection.
BUGS
Xsel sometimes opens a small window that is not always visible. With my
configuration, it never shows up, so I'm not eager enough to figure out
how to get rid of it.
SEE ALSOX(7x), xcutsel(1)AUTHOR
Ralph Swick (DEC/Project Athena) wrote xcutsel, xsel is based on it.
Ville Herva <Ville.Herva@iki.fi> wrote xsel.
0.04 XSEL(1)
