Seeking Assistance with Linux Clipboard

[ryukshinigami]

I'm currently working on a project involving the exploration of Linux's clipboard functionality and the 'cp' and 'mv' commands. However, I'm encountering challenges in locating the actual scripts or source codes (not the executable binaries in /bin or /usr/bin) for these commands. Additionally, I'm keen on understanding the inner workings and architecture of Linux's clipboard (Ctrl + S and Ctrl + V) and the mechanics behind Ctrl + Shift + C and Ctrl + Shift + V in the terminal.

The primary focus of my project is on the copy-and-paste flow within Linux operating systems. I'm reaching out to this community in the hopes that someone can guide me toward the actual scripts (preferably in C, C++, or any language) and provide insights into the architecture of Linux's clipboard manager. Any assistance in this regard would be greatly appreciated.

 

[GatorsFan]

Have you looked on github you can usually download the source code and then you can pick the app apart if you want

the below is for C++

Build software better, together

GitHub is where people build software. More than 100 million people use GitHub to discover, fork, and contribute to over 420 million projects.

github.com

 

[JasKinasis]

I'm currently working on a project involving the exploration of Linux's clipboard functionality and the 'cp' and 'mv' commands. However, I'm encountering challenges in locating the actual scripts or source codes (not the executable binaries in /bin or /usr/bin) for these commands. Additionally, I'm keen on understanding the inner workings and architecture of Linux's clipboard (Ctrl + S and Ctrl + V) and the mechanics behind Ctrl + Shift + C and Ctrl + Shift + V in the terminal.

The primary focus of my project is on the copy-and-paste flow within Linux operating systems. I'm reaching out to this community in the hopes that someone can guide me toward the actual scripts (preferably in C, C++, or any language) and provide insights into the architecture of Linux's clipboard manager. Any assistance in this regard would be greatly appreciated.

The implementation of the copy/paste clipboard in the terminal would probably either be in the terminal emulator you’re using, or the shell.

If it’s in the shell, you’d probably need to look at the source code for Bash (or zsh, or dash etc).
If it’s in the terminal emulator, then you’d need to look at the source code for whatever terminal emulator you’re using (Gnome terminal, Konsole, terminator etc.)
It may even be as low level as the Linux kernel. Without taking some time to look myself, I don’t know for sure.

So you’ll need to track down the source code for those programs and look there.
A simple web search should yield appropriate links to repositories containing the source code.

Alternatively, if you’re using a Debian based distribution, you can download the source-code for any available packages using apt-get.

But to do that, you must enable all of the src repositories in /etc/apt/sources.list.

/etc/apt/sources.list typically contains commented out lines that start with deb-src.
Those are the source repositories. So to enable the source repositories, edit /etc/apt/sources.list as root (using sudo and your favourite terminal based text editor) to uncomment those lines and activate all of the source repositories.
Don’t forget to save the file after editing.
Then update your package lists:

sudo apt update

Now you can use sudo apt-get source {name of package} to get the source code for an installed package.
E.g. bash

sudo apt-get source bash

And if you want to build the package from source, you can also install all of the build dependencies using apt’s build-deps functionality:

sudo apt-get -y build-dep {name of package}

e.g. to get the build dependencies for Bash:

sudo apt-get -y build-dep bash

And that will download the build dependencies for Bash.

 

[ryukshinigami]

Have you looked on github you can usually download the source code and then you can pick the app apart if you want

the below is for C++

Build software better, together

GitHub is where people build software. More than 100 million people use GitHub to discover, fork, and contribute to over 420 million projects.

github.com

Thank you. it was helpful.

 

[ryukshinigami]

The implementation of the copy/paste clipboard in the terminal would probably either be in the terminal emulator you’re using, or the shell.

If it’s in the shell, you’d probably need to look at the source code for Bash (or zsh, or dash etc).
If it’s in the terminal emulator, then you’d need to look at the source code for whatever terminal emulator you’re using (Gnome terminal, Konsole, terminator etc.)
It may even be as low level as the Linux kernel. Without taking some time to look myself, I don’t know for sure.

So you’ll need to track down the source code for those programs and look there.
A simple web search should yield appropriate links to repositories containing the source code.

Alternatively, if you’re using a Debian based distribution, you can download the source-code for any available packages using apt-get.

But to do that, you must enable all of the src repositories in /etc/apt/sources.list.

/etc/apt/sources.list typically contains commented out lines that start with deb-src.
Those are the source repositories. So to enable the source repositories, edit /etc/apt/sources.list as root (using sudo and your favourite terminal based text editor) to uncomment those lines and activate all of the source repositories.
Don’t forget to save the file after editing.
Then update your package lists:

sudo apt update

Now you can use sudo apt-get source {name of package} to get the source code for an installed package.
E.g. bash

sudo apt-get source bash

And if you want to build the package from source, you can also install all of the build dependencies using apt’s build-deps functionality:

sudo apt-get -y build-dep {name of package}

e.g. to get the build dependencies for Bash:

sudo apt-get -y build-dep bash

And that will download the build dependencies for Bash.

I had a hard time downloading the source code because, for some reason, the system threw out errors even if my deb-src was not commented on, but it ended up working and was very helpful. thank you.