Controlling the clipboard via Zenity and Xclip

Cut & Paste

Goran Mladenovic

Not every window manager provides a program for managing a clipboard. With Zenity and a script, you can comfortably control Xclip from anywhere.

Gnome, Unity, and KDE all have their own clipboard managing applications; they provide extensive features and are well integrated into the desktop. However, they are not necessarily easily integrated into other window managers. Those who do not use a top of the line desktop might be left without a clipboard manager. Another problem is that these programs usually create a history of the clipboard in which the older entries are continuously pushed back and eventually disappear from the list.

The Right Tools

Typically, to adapt an application as quickly as possible, all you need are the right tools, some creativity, and a little bit of imagination. This also holds true for the implementation of a tailor-made clipboard management app. I'll show how you can set up sleek dialogs for the script of the clipboard using Xclip [1] with Zenity [2].

Both Zenity and Xclip can be installed quickly using your package manager of choice. Both pieces of software can be installed via Apt or Yum using the command sudo apt-get install zenity xclip on DEB-based systems (e.g., Ubuntu) or yum install zenity xclip on a RPM-based computer.

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