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https://github.com/nikvdp/pbproxy


https://github.com/nikvdp/pbproxy

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# pbproxy - send your clipboard anywhere you can ssh to



**TL;DR:** `pbcopy` and `pbpaste` from any (mac or linux) machine you can ssh to



This is a simple tool to make it easy to interact with clipboards on remote

machines. The "ui" mimics macOS's `pbcopy` and `pbpaste` commands using the

original `pbcopy` and `pbpaste` on macOS, and wrapping `xsel` on Linux boxes.

On linux boxes where xsel is not available (eg headless servers that don't have

X) it falls back to storing clipboard contents in a temp file



In other words, you can `pbcopy` and `pbpaste` from any remote machines you

have ssh access to. The special sauce is that you can put a server name from

your ssh config on the end of a pbcopy or pbpaste command so you can do stuff

like run `echo hello | pbcopy server2` on server1, after which doing `pbpaste`

from server2 would print 'hello'. You can also do this in the other direction

with pbpaste, eg from server2 you can run `pbpaste server1` and it'll print out

the contents of server1's clipboard.



## Prereqs:



For best results:



- make sure you have `pbproxy` installed at `~/.pbproxy` on all machines you'll

be copying/pasting to/from.

- **make sure you have key-based ssh authentication set up** (otherwise you'll

  have to enter your password each time you copy or paste)



## Usage:



- Print the contents of another machine's clipboard to your local machine's stdout:

  ```

  pbpaste 

  ```

- Insert data into another machine's clipboard:



  ```

  echo hello there | pbcopy 

  ```



  You can also use this to send the contents of your current machine's

  clipboard to another machine:



  ```

  pbpaste | pbcopy 

  ```



- Print the contents of your local clipboard to stdout: `pbpaste`

- Insert data into your local clipboard: `echo some data | pbcopy`



**NOTE**: This tool works the same way regardless of whether it's running on a

macOS or a linux machine. On macs it wraps the native pbcopy and pbaste commands,

and on linux it uses `xsel` or a temp file



## Installation



- Clone this repo to your local machine

- Add the folder you cloned it to to your `PATH` through your

  `~/.bashrc`/`~/.zshrc` files (**NOTE**: on macOS, make sure it comes BEFORE

  `/usr/bin` on your PATH, otherwise the native `pbcopy` and `pbpaste` will

  take precedence)

- restart your shell (or on zsh do `hash -r`) and try it out.



For the lazy (read: efficient), copy/pasting this quick and dirty shell snippet should get the job done:



```bash

git clone https://github.com/nikvdp/pbproxy ~/.pbproxy

ps | grep $$ | grep -q zsh && echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.pbproxy:$PATH"' | tee -a ~/.zshrc

ps | grep $$ | grep -q bash && echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.pbproxy:$PATH"' | tee -a ~/.bashrc

export PATH="$HOME/.pbproxy:$PATH"

hash -r

```



## Alternatives



If you know of any other tools in this space feel free to open a PR to include them here!



- [marcopaganini/clipsync](https://github.com/marcopaganini/clipsync) - conceptually similar, but runs as a background daemon. Unlike pbproxy, this means it can sync automatically in realtime over the cloud, whereas pbproxy only connects to other clipboards on demand. Linux only for now though.