clpbrd

Tiny cross-platform command-line utility to copy text or file contents to the system clipboard.

Features

• Copy literal text: clpbrd Hello world
• Copy a file by path: clpbrd path/to/file.txt
• Explicit file prefix with @: clpbrd @path/to/file.txt
• Works on Windows, macOS, and Unix/Linux (tries xclip, xsel, then wl-copy)

Build

Requires a C++ compiler (g++, clang, MSVC). Example:

• Linux / macOS:

g++ -std=c++11 -O2 -o clpbrd clpbrd.cpp

• Windows (MSVC):

cl /EHsc /O2 clpbrd.cpp

Usage

• Copy literal text:

clpbrd <text...>
# Example:
clpbrd Hello world

• Copy a single file (automatic if argument is an existing file):

clpbrd path/to/file.txt

• Force file interpretation using @ prefix:

clpbrd @path/to/file.txt

• If you prefer an explicit file-only invocation, you can call:

clpbrd ./file.txt

Exit codes:

• 0 — success (or nothing copied if input empty)
• 2 — invalid usage (no arguments)
• 3 — file read error
• 4 — clipboard copy failure

Platform details

• Windows: uses Win32 clipboard APIs (CF_UNICODETEXT).
• macOS: uses pbcopy.
• Linux/Unix: tries xclip, then xsel, then wl-copy (Wayland).

Notes

• If clipboard utilities (xclip/xsel/wl-copy/pbcopy) are not installed on Unix/macOS, copying will fail with an error message.
• The program reads files in binary mode and forwards contents unchanged to the clipboard.

Example

1. Copy a sentence:

clpbrd The quick brown fox

2. Copy a file by path:

clpbrd notes.txt

3. Force-file with @:

clpbrd @README.md

License

This project is licensed under the MIT license - see the LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit pull requests or open issues for bugs and feature requests.