wl-paste

Paste data from Wayland clipboard

TLDR

Paste the contents of the clipboard

$ wl-paste

Paste from the primary clipboard (highlighted text)

$ wl-paste --primary

Write clipboard contents to a file

$ wl-paste > [path/to/file]

Paste without trailing newline

$ wl-paste --no-newline

List available MIME types in clipboard

$ wl-paste --list-types

Paste clipboard as a specific MIME type (e.g., image)

$ wl-paste --type image/png > [path/to/image.png]

Pipe clipboard contents to a command

$ wl-paste | [command]

Run a command each time the clipboard changes

$ wl-paste --watch [command]

wl-paste retrieves data from the Wayland clipboard and writes it to stdout. It can request specific MIME types for clipboard data, supporting both text and binary content like images.The primary selection (text selected with mouse) can be accessed with --primary, enabling middle-click paste functionality. The watch mode allows monitoring clipboard changes.

PARAMETERS

-p, --primary

Use the primary selection instead of clipboard

-n, --no-newline

Do not append newline character

-t, --type mime-type

Request specific MIME type

-l, --list-types

List available MIME types

-s, --seat seat

Pick the seat to work with

-w, --watch command [args...]

Run command each time clipboard changes

-v, --version

Display version information

-h, --help

Display help message

INSTALL

sudo apt install wl-clipboard

sudo dnf install wl-clipboard

sudo pacman -S wl-clipboard

sudo apk add wl-clipboard

sudo zypper install wl-clipboard

brew install wl-clipboard

nix profile install nixpkgs#wl-clipboard

CAVEATS

Only works under Wayland; use xclip or xsel for X11. MIME type availability depends on what the copying application provides. Some applications may not populate the primary selection.

HISTORY

Part of wl-clipboard, written by Sergey Bugaev for Wayland-native clipboard access. Provides the paste counterpart to wl-copy, implementing the Wayland data-device protocol for clipboard reading.