Copiepate

Copiepate is a small utility to remotely set the content of a clipboard.

I created this tool as I frequently use a remote tmux+vim setup and I often need to copy a vim register to my local desktop.

Usage

On your local desktop start the daemon in server mode and forward the port 2323 using ssh:

```bash

Start copiepate server and listen on 127.0.0.1:2323:

copiepate --server

In another shell, forward the server port to a remote machine:

ssh remote-machine -N -R 2323:localhost:2323 ```

On the remote machine, copiepate sends the content of stdin to the local machine clipboard: ```bash

Set the clipboard content of the local machine:

echo -n "New clipboard content" | copiepate ```

Setup and Installation

Using Rust Cargo: ```bash

On GNU+Linux you'll need xorg-dev libraries.

On other OSes (MacOS and Windows) this step is unecessary.

Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt install xorg-dev libxcb-shape0-dev libxcb-xfixes0-dev

Install copiepate (both server and client) using cargo:

cargo install copiepate

IMPORTANT: generate a unique secret key that will be shared

between on the client and the server using openssl:

openssl rand -base64 32

Create a configuration file (both server and client) with a scret:

mkdir -p ~/.config/copiepate cat << EOF > ~/.config/copiepate/config.toml secret = "" EOF ```

Vim integration

You can use copiepate to send the content of a vim register over the network: vim " Using Plug as plugin manager: Plug 'dimtion/copiepate', { 'rtp': 'vim' }

This plugin creates the following default bindings: ```vim " Send the default register noremap y :CopiePateReg

" In visual mode, send current selection vnoremap y :CopiePate ```

Configuration file

Copiepate supports having a configuration file to persist configuration. Every setting can either be stored in the config file or by a command line argument. Any setting set in the configuration file will be overriden by parameters passed to the command line.

See full list of settings running copiepate --help.

```toml

Copiepate XDG configuration file:

~/.config/copiepate/config.toml

Bind to a specific address

Optional, default = 127.0.0.1

address = "192.168.0.2"

Bind to a non default port

Optional, default = 2323

port = "2325"

Set a secret in base64 format

secret = "/f7NyvhS4k90gnstzXVPk/SpRl/Ex4EX9tyHRA2rT0w="

[Server only]

Specify a shell command to invoke whenever a paste event is received.

Optional, default = ""

#

Some examples:

Show notification in MacOS:

exec = "xargs -I % -0 -n 1 osascript -e \"display notification \\"%\\" with title \\"Copiepate\\"\""

#

Show notification on GNU+Linux:

exec = "xargs -I % -0 -n 1 notify-send \"%\""

#

Log copy events to disk:

exec = "cat >> copiepate_events.log"

#

Ring terminal bell:

exec = "echo -en \"\007\""

[Client only]

Use copiepate as a passthrough. This allows to split an stdin between the send event and stdout.

Optional, default = false

#

Usage example:

$ inputprocess | copiepate --tee > removecopyofinput_process.txt

tee = true ```

Note on security

In its default configuration, copiepate listens only on the localhost address, meaning that the port is not exposed to the local network.

WARNING: copiepate use encryption to ensure that attackers can't send paste event or evedrop what messages are in transit over the network. However copiepate was not audited. I recommend to only listen on a localhost port and only forward the port using a secure protocol such as SSH, and not expose copiepate server to a local network or the internet.