Since Linux and Mac OS X are *Nix based systems, many commands would work on both platforms. However, some commands may not available on both platforms, for example pbcopy and pbpaste. These commands are exclusively available only on Mac OS X platform. The Pbcopy command will copy the standard input into clipboard. You can then paste the clipboard contents using Pbpaste command wherever you want. Of course, there could be some Linux alternatives to the above commands, for example Xclip. The Xclip utility is similar to Pbcopy. But, the distro-hoppers who switched to Linux from Mac OS would miss this command-pair and still prefer to use them. No worries! This brief tutorial describes how to use Pbcopy and Pbpaste commands on Linux.

Install Xclip and Xsel in Linux

Like I already said, Pbcopy and Pbpaste commands are not available in Linux. However, we can replicate the functionality of pbcopy and pbpaste commands using Xclip and/or Xsel commands via shell aliasing. Both Xclip and Xsel packages available in the default repositories of most Linux distributions. Please note that you need not to install both utilities. Just install any one of the above utilities.

To install them on Arch Linux and its derivatives, run:

$ sudo pacman xclip xsel

On Fedora:

$ sudo dnf xclip xsel

On Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint:

$ sudo apt install xclip xsel

Once installed, you need create aliases for pbcopy and pbpaste commands. To do so, edit your ~/.bashrc file:

$ vi ~/.bashrc

If you want to use xclip, paste the following lines:

alias pbcopy='xclip -selection clipboard'
alias pbpaste='xclip -selection clipboard -o'

If you want to use xsel, paste the following lines in your ~/.bashrc file.

alias pbcopy='xsel --clipboard --input'
alias pbpaste='xsel --clipboard --output'

Save and close the file.

Next, run the following command to update the changes in ~/.bashrc file.

$ source ~/.bashrc

The ZSH users paste the above lines in ~/.zshrc file and update the changes using command:

$ source ~/.zshrc

Use Pbcopy And Pbpaste Commands On Linux

Let us see some examples.

The pbcopy command will copy the text from stdin into clipboard buffer. For example, have a look at the following example.

$ echo "Welcome To OSTechNix!" | pbcopy

The above command will copy the text "Welcome To OSTechNix" into clipboard. You can access this content later and paste them anywhere you want using Pbpaste command like below.

$ echo `pbpaste`
Welcome To OSTechNix!

pbcopy and pbpaste commands in action

Here are some other use cases.

I have a file named file.txt with the following contents.

$ cat file.txt 
Welcome To OSTechNix!

You can directly copy the contents of a file into a clipboard as shown below.

$ pbcopy < file.txt

Now, the contents of the file is available in the clipboard as long as you updated it with another file's contents.

To retrieve the contents from clipboard, simply type:

$ pbpaste 
Welcome To OSTechNix!

You can also send the output of any Linux command to clip board using pipeline character. Have a look at the following example.

$ ps aux | pbcopy

Now, type "pbpaste" command at any time to display the output of "ps aux" command from the clipboard.

$ pbpaste

pbpaste command in action

There is much more you can do with Pbcopy and Pbpaste commands. I hope you now got a basic idea about these commands.

Related read:

• Access Clipboard Contents Using Xclip and Xsel In Linux
• Copy File Contents Into Clipboard Without Displaying Them In Linux