NAME

aclip - command line interface to Arcan clipboards

SYNOPSIS

aclip [OPTIONS]

DESCRIPTION

This tool is used to send input to- and/or monitor- an arcan connection point that accepts clipboards as a primary connection, which is an indicator of a clipboard manager. It is up to the running set of scripts that controls the connection point to determine if this is permitted or not, but the 'safe default' is rejecting such connections. See 'Limitations' below.

OPTIONS

-i, --in: Read valid UTF-8 input from standard input and forward to the clipboard.
-I, --in-data datastr: Forward the contents of the datastr argument to the clipboard.
-o, --out: Enable output mode, sending incoming clipboard entries (by default) to stdout.
-e --exec execstr: For each new clipboard entry, run (popen) execstr in a subshell, where the entry contents will be available on stdin.
-p, --separator sepstr: (in -o mode) Append sepstr argument after each incoming clipboard entry.
-l, --loop count: (in -o mode) Set a limit of new entries that should be received from the clipboard. If count is set to '0', the program will loop indefinitely.
-s, --silent: Close stdout and fork into background (so best use with -e or -i/-I, not just -o)
-d, --display connpath: By default, the ARCAN_CONNPATH environment is used in order to find an arcan instance to connect to. This argument overrides the environment with the connpath argument.
-h, --help: Show a brief summary of commands and usage.

EXAMPLES

This examples places 'hi there' on the clipboard.

echo -n 'hi there' | aclip -p durden -i

Keep the X selection buffer synched to the latest received clipboard entry.

aclip -o -l 0 -s -e xclip

Terminate after three completed clipboard entries. each new entry, spawn the "tee" command that appends to a log with the custom '||' string to separate between elements.

aclip -l 0 -o -p || -e tee -a >> log

LIMITATIONS

The appl that arcan is running must expose a connection point, and explicitly allow clipboard and/or clipboard-paste primary segments to connect. This is usually not added by default due to the security implications it might have.

Additional constraints may also have been placed on this connection point. One common constraint is to only allow one active monitor or input connection. Other constraints may be read- or write- only access or ignoring write- operations that is longer than a certain cutoff value.

Consult the documentation for the appl you are using to get more information on what applies to your particular scenario.

All inputs and outputs need to be valid UTF-8 or they will likely be silently filtered. The tool is still young and few of the clipboard features offered by Arcan are exposed yet, this means that right now, only adding text to a clipboard, and monitoring the clipboard for entries actually work. Managing binary blobs, audio and video streams will be added in the near future.

ENVIRONMENT

ARCAN_CONNPATH: Name of the connection point to use when connecting to arcan.
ARCAN_CONNKEY: Key to use for authenticating againgst the connection path.

COPYRIGHT

AUTHOR

Bjorn Stahl <contact at arcan-fe dot com>