fish-cliprun

A Fish shell plugin that executes commands or displays files while simultaneously copying output to your Wayland clipboard.

Overview

cliprun bridges the gap between terminal output and clipboard operations. Execute any command, view its output in your terminal, and have it automatically copied to your clipboard—all in one seamless operation.

Perfect for developers who frequently copy command output, configuration snippets, or file contents for documentation, sharing, or pasting into other applications.

Key Features

• Dual Output: Displays command output in the terminal while copying to clipboard
• Smart File Handling: Automatically cats non-executable files
• Clean Output: Stderr is filtered out by default for cleaner clipboard content
• Safety First: Prevents accidental directory operations with graceful error messages
• Zero Configuration: Works immediately after installation with sensible defaults

Requirements

• Fish shell 3.0+
• One of the following clipboard tools:
  • wl-clipboard (for Wayland) - provides wl-copy
  • xclip (for X11)
  • xsel (for X11)

Installing Dependencies

Arch Linux:

# For Wayland
sudo pacman -S wl-clipboard

# For X11
sudo pacman -S xclip
# or
sudo pacman -S xsel

Debian/Ubuntu:

# For Wayland
sudo apt install wl-clipboard

# For X11
sudo apt install xclip
# or
sudo apt install xsel

Fedora:

# For Wayland
sudo dnf install wl-clipboard

# For X11
sudo dnf install xclip
# or
sudo dnf install xsel

Installation

Using Fisher

fisher install avih7531/fish-cliprun

Fisher will automatically install the function and shell completions.

Manual Installation

Clone this repository and copy files to your Fish config directory:

git clone https://github.com/avih7531/fish-cliprun.git
cd fish-cliprun
cp functions/cliprun.fish ~/.config/fish/functions/
cp completions/cliprun.fish ~/.config/fish/completions/

Usage

Getting Help

cliprun --help
# or
cliprun -h
# Displays usage information and examples

Options

Include stderr (-e or --stderr):

By default, stderr is filtered out for cleaner clipboard content. Use this flag to include error output:

cliprun -e gcc program.c
# Includes compilation errors in the output

cliprun --stderr make test
# Shows test errors and warnings

Quiet mode (-q or --quiet):

Copy to clipboard without displaying output in the terminal:

cliprun -q date
# Copies date to clipboard silently

cliprun --quiet curl https://example.com
# Fetches and copies without showing output

Basic Command Execution

cliprun ls -la
# Lists directory contents, displays output, and copies to clipboard

cliprun ip addr
# Shows network interfaces and copies output

cliprun date
# Displays and copies current date/time

File Operations

cliprun config.yaml
# Displays file contents and copies to clipboard

cliprun ~/.bashrc
# Cats your bashrc and copies it

Piping Input

echo "hello world" | cliprun
# Pipes stdin to clipboard

curl https://api.github.com/zen | cliprun
# Fetches GitHub zen quote and copies it

cat file.txt | grep error | cliprun
# Filter and copy results

Practical Examples

# Copy your public SSH key
cliprun cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

# Copy git log for sharing
cliprun git log --oneline -10

# Copy system information
cliprun uname -a

# Copy the contents of a script
cliprun setup.sh

Behavior Reference

Input	Action	Clipboard
cliprun --help	Shows help	Nothing
cliprun (no args)	Error message	Nothing
echo "x" | cliprun	Pipes stdin	Stdin content
cliprun ls -la	Executes command	Command stdout
cliprun file.txt	Cats the file	File contents
cliprun ./script.sh	Executes script	Script output
cliprun directory/	Error (graceful)	Nothing

How It Works

1. Flag Parsing: Processes options like --stderr before execution
2. Stdin Detection: If input is piped, processes it directly
3. Directory Check: If given a single directory argument, returns an error
4. File Detection: If given a single non-executable file, cats it
5. Command Execution: Otherwise, treats arguments as a command to execute
6. Output Pipeline: All stdout (and optionally stderr) is piped through tee to display locally and to the clipboard tool

Limitations

• Clipboard Tool Required: Needs wl-clipboard (Wayland) or xclip/xsel (X11) installed
• Stderr Filtered: Error output is suppressed by default (by design)
• Single Shot: Commands execute once; no interactive mode

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to open issues or submit pull requests on GitHub.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Author

Created by avih7531