tty-clipboard

A clipboard for those who use consoles/ssh/tmux

Dependencies

The project requires the following dependencies:

• mbedTLS (libmbedtls-dev / mbedtls-devel)
• protobuf-c (libprotobuf-c-dev / protobuf-c-devel)
• Meson build system
• Ninja build tool

Installing Dependencies

Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install libmbedtls-dev libprotobuf-c-dev meson ninja-build

Fedora/RHEL/CentOS:

sudo dnf install mbedtls-devel protobuf-c-devel meson ninja-build

Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S mbedtls protobuf-c meson ninja

openSUSE:

sudo zypper install mbedtls-devel protobuf-c-devel meson ninja

macOS (via Homebrew):

brew install mbedtls protobuf-c meson ninja

Building

Standard Build (Dynamic Linking)

meson setup builddir
ninja -C builddir

Static Build

To build fully static binaries with all dependencies statically linked:

meson setup builddir -Dstatic=true
ninja -C builddir

Additional dependencies required for static builds:

When system static libraries are not available, the build system will automatically fetch and build mbedTLS and libprotobuf-c from source. This requires:

• cmake - for building mbedTLS subproject
• autoconf, automake, libtool - for building libprotobuf-c subproject
• git - for fetching subprojects

Installing build tools:

Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install cmake autoconf automake libtool git

Fedora/RHEL/CentOS:

sudo dnf install cmake autoconf automake libtool git

Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S cmake autoconf automake libtool git

openSUSE:

sudo zypper install cmake autoconf automake libtool git

macOS (via Homebrew):

brew install cmake autoconf automake libtool git

Note: Static builds are useful for creating portable binaries that can run on systems without the required runtime libraries installed.

Installation

Automated Setup (Recommended)

For easy setup of both the local client and remote server:

# Dynamic build (requires compatible mbedTLS/protobuf-c on both hosts)
meson setup .build
ninja -C .build
./scripts/setup.sh <remote-hostname>

# OR: Static build (portable, works across different distributions)
meson setup .build -Dstatic=true --force-fallback-for=mbedtls,libprotobuf-c
ninja -C .build
./scripts/setup.sh <remote-hostname>

This script will:

1. Generate TLS certificates if they don't exist
2. Install the client binary to ~/.local/bin/ locally
3. Copy certificates and binaries to the remote host
4. Set up a systemd user service on the remote host
5. Configure SSH with LocalForward and ControlMaster

Example:

./scripts/setup.sh myserver.example.com
./scripts/setup.sh user@server.com ./builddir

Note: Dynamic builds assume both local and remote systems have compatible runtime libraries. For maximum portability across different distributions or versions, use the static build (-Dstatic=true).

Make sure ~/.local/bin is in your PATH.

Manual Installation

sudo ninja -C builddir install

For manual setup, you'll need to:

1. Generate certificates using ./scripts/create-certs.sh
2. Copy certificates to remote host
3. Set up SSH port forwarding in ~/.ssh/config

See USAGE.md for detailed manual setup instructions.