Copy Shell Output via the Command Line
Oftentimes I'll want to copy the output of a shell command execution but can't get the whole output because it's larger than the terminal's buffer length, so I'll need to write to file for easy viewing, or I'll simply be annoyed that I have to click-hold-drag to copy the output. Shouldn't there be an easier way? There is: pbcopy and clip. Using pbcopy within the shell, the output of an execution can automatically be added to the copy queue (or clipboard):
# Copy the source of davidwalsh.name to the clipboard on Mac
curl davidwalsh.name | pbcopy
# Copy the source of davidwalsh.name to the clipboard on Windows
curl davidwalsh.name | clip
Piping pbcopy at the end of the command makes this magic possible. So what do I look forward to using this for? My colleague Luke showed me how he gets the commit hash from the master branch without needing to go to GitHub to get it:
alias ghash='git rev-parse HEAD && git rev-parse HEAD | pbcopy'
I look forward to using pbcopy more -- an excellent utility to allow me to avoid lame cursor click-hold-drag to get the output I want!
![Being a Dev Dad]()
I get asked loads of questions every day but I'm always surprised that they're rarely questions about code or even tech -- many of the questions I get are more about non-dev stuff like what my office is like, what software I use, and oftentimes...
![Designing for Simplicity]()
Before we get started, it's worth me spending a brief moment introducing myself to you. My name is Mark (or @integralist if Twitter happens to be your communication tool of choice) and I currently work for BBC News in London England as a principal engineer/tech...
![Create a Sexy Persistent Header with Opacity Using MooTools or jQuery]()
I've been working with the Magento eCommerce solution a lot lately and I've taken a liking to a technique they use with the top bar within their administrative control panel. When the user scrolls below a specified threshold, the top bar becomes attached to the...
![Upload Photos to Flickr with PHP]()
I have a bit of an obsession with uploading photos to different services thanks to Instagram. Instagram's iPhone app allows me to take photos and quickly filter them; once photo tinkering is complete, I can upload the photo to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and...
It may be silly to notice that this isn’t for Windows…
Might be worth adding instructions using
xcopyon Linux, andclipon WindowsI am on Linux and I use http://www.vergenet.net/~conrad/software/xsel/
Use it like this:
curl davidwalsh.name | xsel –clipboard –input
You can also alias is so you can use pbcopy
To do that add alias pbcopy=’xsel –clipboard –input’ to your ~/:bashrc
windows would be curl davidwalsh.name | clip
assuming you had curl for windows installed ;)