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XSEL(1)                DragonFly General Commands Manual               XSEL(1)


NAME

       xsel - access the X selection from command line


SYNOPSIS

       xsel (--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
               abbreviations P, p, S, s, C and c.  There are some historical
               conventions: PRIMARY is used for mouse selection, middle mouse
               button paste, and explicit cut/copy/paste menu items (Qt,
               Emacs) CLIPBOARD 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 ALSO

       X(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)

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