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THIS IS MY PERSONAL FORK OF CLIPMENU

clipmenu is a simple clipboard manager using fzf and xsel.

Installation

clipmenud uses clipnotify, which is provided with this repo as a submodule. You will also need fzf and xsel installed.

clone the repo with submodules:

git clone --recurse-submodules git@github.com:xero/clipmenu.git
cd clipmenu

build clipnotify, then the clipmenu bins:

cd clipnotify
make &amp;&amp; make install
cd ..
make install

finally re{load,start} the systemd unit:

systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user restart clipmenud.service

Usage

clipmenud

Start clipmenud, then run clipmenu to select something to put on the clipboard. For systemd users, a user service called clipmenud is packaged as part of the project.

For those using a systemd unit and not using a desktop environment which does it automatically, you must import $DISPLAY so that clipmenud knows which X server to use. For example, in your ~/.xinitrc do this prior to launching clipmenud:

systemctl --user import-environment DISPLAY

if you're in a headless environment you need to create a "fake" xorg server for xsel to communicate with. i suggest using xvfb. put something like this in your shell init (e.g. ~/.zlogin or ~/.bash_login):

if ! pgrep -x &quot;Xvfb&quot; &gt;/dev/null; then
    export DISPLAY=:0
    Xvfb :0 -screen 0 1x1x8 &amp;
    systemctl --user import-environment DISPLAY
    systemctl --user restart clipmenud.service
fi

clipmenu

this fork of clipmenu uses fzf exclusivly. you can use it's environment vars to setup the fzf style to your liking. i personally have the following set in my env:

export FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS=$FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS' --color=fg:#c1c1c1,bg:#2b2b2b,hl:#5f8787 --color=fg+:#ffffff,bg+:#1c1c1c,hl+:#3ea3a3 --color=info:#87875f,prompt:#87875f,pointer:#8787af --color=marker:#8787af,spinner:#8787af,header:#5f8787 --color=gutter:#2b2b2b,border:#222222 --padding=1 --prompt=❯ --marker=❯ --pointer=❯ --reverse'

For a full list of environment variables that clipmenud can take, please see clipmenud --help.

Features

The behavior of clipmenud can be customized through environment variables. Despite being only <300 lines, clipmenu has many useful features, including:

Customising the maximum number of clips stored (default 1000)
Disabling clip collection temporarily with clipctl disable, reenabling with clipctl enable
Not storing clipboard changes from certain applications, like password managers
Taking direct ownership of the clipboard
...and much more.

Check clipmenud --help to view all possible environment variables and what they do. If you manage clipmenud with systemd, you can override the defaults by using systemctl --user edit clipmenud to generate an override file.

Supported launchers

this fork is designed to only work with CM_LAUNCHER set to fzf (default)

How does it work?

clipmenud is less than 300 lines, and clipmenu is less than 100, so hopefully it should be fairly self-explanatory. However, at the most basic level:

clipmenud

clipmenud uses clipnotify to wait for new clipboard events.
If clipmenud detects changes to the clipboard contents, it writes them out to the cache directory and an index using a hash as the filename.

clipmenu

clipmenu reads the index to find all available clips.
fzf is executed to allow the user to select a clip.
After selection, the clip is put onto the PRIMARY and CLIPBOARD X selections. or stdout using the CM_OUTPUT_CLIP=1 environment var.

example

checkout my dotfiles repo to see it in action.