Autocutsel is a handy tool that acts like a simple buffer for any application to store text. It’s super useful for keeping your clipboard organized!
X servers have two main ways to copy text between applications. The first method, which is kind of outdated now, is called the cutbuffer. The second method is known as the selection and it works a bit differently.
You can actually have multiple selections on one server at the same time. When you use an application, it doesn’t just copy data into a selection; instead, it “owns” that selection. If another app wants to grab that text, it needs to ask the owner for permission.
Modern desktop apps like GNOME and KDE use two types of selections: PRIMARY and CLIPBOARD. The PRIMARY selection comes into play when you highlight some text with your mouse, and you usually paste it by clicking the middle button. On the other hand, CLIPBOARD is used when you copy text through menus—like Edit/Copy—and you can paste it using Edit/Paste.
If you're using Windows VNC clients, they keep the Windows clipboard synced with the cutbuffer but not with the selections. Since most recent applications don’t really use cutbuffers anymore, this means that the server's CLIPBOARD isn’t synced up with Windows’ clipboard either.
This is where Autocutsel steps in! It tracks any changes happening in both the server's cutbuffer and CLIPBOARD selection. So whenever there’s an update in CLIPBOARD, it automatically updates the cutbuffer too. And vice versa! This way, everything stays synchronized all the time.
This synchronization means that if you copy something in Windows, both cutbuffer and CLIPBOARD will be updated right away. Similarly, if you copy text on your server using either option, Windows’ clipboard gets updated as well!
If you're looking to install Autocutsel from CVS, just run:
./autogen.sh
./configure
make
make install
autocutsel
If configure doesn’t work because it's missing X or Xaw libraries, you'll need to install those development packages first.
By default, Autocutsel syncs with CLIPBOARD selection. But if you want to switch things up and use PRIMARY instead (especially if your apps are using Motif or another toolkit), just run:
autocutsel -selection PRIMARY
Go to the Softpas website, press the 'Downloads' button, and pick the app you want to download and install—easy and fast!
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