Most Unix-like systems have a command that will let you pipe/redirect output to the local clipboard/pasteboard, and retrieve from same. On OS X , these commands are pbcopy, pbpaste Is there a way to replicate this functionality while SSHed into another server? That is, I'm using Computer A. I open a terminal window I SSH to Computer B I run a command on Computer B The output of Computer B is redirected or automatically copied to Computer A's clipboard. And yes, I know I could just (shudder) use my mouse to select the text from the command, but I've gotten so used to the workflow of pipping output directly to the clipboard that I want the same for my remote sessions. Code is useful, but general approaches are appreciated as well.

Reputation: 166066

How to send data to local clipboard from a remote SSH session

Most Unix-like systems have a command that will let you pipe/redirect output to the local clipboard/pasteboard, and retrieve from same. On OS X, these commands are

pbcopy, pbpaste

Is there a way to replicate this functionality while SSHed into another server? That is,

I'm using Computer A.
I open a terminal window
I SSH to Computer B
I run a command on Computer B
The output of Computer B is redirected or automatically copied to Computer A's clipboard.

And yes, I know I could just (shudder) use my mouse to select the text from the command, but I've gotten so used to the workflow of pipping output directly to the clipboard that I want the same for my remote sessions.

Code is useful, but general approaches are appreciated as well.

Upvotes: 242

Answers (17)

Sai

Reputation: 1

If you're using Windows Terminal and working in an SSH session, you can easily copy the entire content of a file to your clipboard without extra tools.

Add the following function to your .bashrc or .bash_aliases:

clip() { clear; printf "%s" "$(cat "$1")"; read; }

clear: Clears the terminal for a clean view.

printf "%s" "$(cat "$1")": Displays the file content without adding a new line at the end.

read: Keeps the terminal from returning to the prompt immediately, so you can select everything.

To use, source your file

source ~/.bash_rc
# OR
source ~/.bash_aliases

Press Ctrl + Shift + A to select all the content in the terminal.

Press Ctrl + C to copy the selected content to your clipboard.

Press Enter to come back to the prompt.

Paste it into any editor on your local machine with Ctrl + V.

This method ensures you can copy file content from a remote server without needing extra software or clipboard integration.

Upvotes: 0

Walf

Reputation: 9308

Similar to Sridhar's answer but uses a local forward. This is because remote forwards leave a port bound and open on the remote machine, which I think is bad practice. To me, their client & server is also backwards, it's more logical for the remote to serve the content, and the local to request it.

Forward the port in your SSH session, either permanently in config, or on-the-fly:
Enter
~
Shift + C
-L127.0.0.4:7777:127.0.0.8:7777
Enter
Redirect or pipe the content to copy to netcat on the remote, e.g.:
```
nc -l 127.0.0.8 7777 < some-file.ext
```
or you can write to it from an editor, e.g. in Vim:
```
:w !nc -l 127.0.0.8 7777
```
The "server" is now waiting for an incoming connection.
Fetch the content (with an empty request body) from your local machine and pipe it to a local clipboard command like xclip or pbcopy:
```
nc -N 127.0.0.4 7777 < /dev/null | xclip -sel c
```
or just redirect output to a file. -N option closes the connection.

The .4 & .8 addresses are not special and can be changed. They help differentiate where each is used.

Upvotes: 0

Sridhar Sarnobat

Reputation: 25236

Reverse tunnel port on ssh server

All the existing solutions either need:

X11 on the client (if you have it, xclip on the server works great) or
the client and server to be in the same network (which is not the case if you're at work trying to access your home computer).

Here's another way to do it, though you'll need to modify how you ssh into your computer.

I've started using this and it's nowhere near as intimidating as it looks so give it a try.

Client (ssh session startup)

ssh [email protected] -R 2000:localhost:2000

(hint: make this a keybinding so you don't have to type it)

Client (another tab)

nc -l 2000 | pbcopy

Note: if you don't have pbcopy then just tee it to a file.

Server (inside SSH session)

cat some_useful_content.txt | nc localhost 2000

Other notes

Actually even if you're in the middle of an ssh session there's a way to start a tunnel but i don’t want to scare people away from what really isn’t as bad as it looks. But I'll add the details later if I see any interest

Upvotes: 34

Craig Hicks

Reputation: 2528

This answer develops both upon the chosen answer by adding more security.

That answer discussed the general form,

<command that makes output> | \
    ssh <user A>@<host A> <command that maps stdin to clipboard>

Where security may be lacking is in the ssh permissions allowing <user B> on host B> to ssh into host A and execute any command.

Of course B to A access may already be gated by an ssh key, and it may even have a password. But another layer of security can restrict the scope of allowable commands that B can execute on A, e.g. so that rm -rf / cannot be called. (This is especially important when the ssh key doesn't have a password.)

Fortunately, ssh has a built-in feature called command restriction or forced command. See ssh.com, or this Server Fault question.

The solution below shows the general form solution along with ssh command restriction enforced.

Example solution with command restriction added

This security enhanced solution follows the general form - the call from the ssh session on host-B is simply:

cat <file> | ssh <user-A>@<host A> to_clipboard

The rest of this shows the setup to get that to work.

Setup of ssh command restriction

Suppose the user account on B is user-B, and B has an ssh key id-clip, that has been created in the usual way (ssh-keygen).

Then in user-A's ssh directory there is a file

/home/user-A/.ssh/authorized_keys

that recognizes the key id-clip and allows ssh connection.

Usually the contents of each line authorized_keys is exactly the public key being authorized, e.g., the contents of id-clip.pub.

However, to enforce command restriction that public key content is prepended (on the same line) by the command to be executed. In our case:

command="/home/user-A/.ssh/allowed-commands.sh id-clip",no-agent-forwarding,no-port-forwarding,no-user-rc,no-x11-forwarding,no-pty <content of file id-clip.pub>

The designated command "/home/user-A/.ssh/allowed-commands.sh id-clip", and only that designated command, is executed whenever key id-clip is used initiate an ssh connection to host-A - no matter what command is written the ssh command line.

The command indicates a script file allowed-commands.sh, and the contents of that that script file is

#/bin/bash
#
# You can have only one forced command in ~/.ssh/authorized_keys. Use this
# wrapper to allow several commands.

Id=${1}

case "$SSH_ORIGINAL_COMMAND" in
    "to-clipboard")
          notify-send "ssh to-clipboard, from ${Id}"
        cat | xsel --display :0 -i -b
          ;;
    *)
        echo "Access denied"
        exit 1
        ;;
esac

The original call to ssh on machine B was

... | ssh <user-A>@<host A> to_clipboard

The string to-clipboard is passed to allowed-commands.sh by the environment variable SSH_ORIGINAL_COMMAND. Addition, we have passed the name of the key, id-clip, from the line in authorized_keyswhich is only accessed by id-clip.

The line

          notify-send "ssh to-clipboard, from ${Id}"

is just a popup messagebox to let you know the clipboard is being written - that's probably a good security feature too. (notify-send works on Ubuntu 18.04, and maybe not others).

In the line

cat | xsel --display :0 -i -b

The parameter --display :0 is necessary, because the process doesn't have its own X display with a clipboard, so it must be specified explicitly. This value :0 happens to work on Ubuntu 18.04 with the Wayland window server. On other setups it might not work. For a standard X server this answer might help.

`host-A` `/etc/ssh/sshd_config` parameters

Finally a few parameters in /etc/ssh/sshd_config on host A that should be set to ensure permission to connect, and permission to use an ssh-key only without a password:

PubkeyAuthentication yes
PasswordAuthentication no
ChallengeResponseAuthentication no
AllowUsers user-A

To make the sshd server reread the configuration

sudo systemctl restart sshd.service

sudo service sshd.service restart

Conclusion

It's some effort to set it up, but other functions besides to-clipboard can be constructed in parallel with the same framework.

Upvotes: 4

maxbellec

Reputation: 17491

It is not a one-liner, but it doesn't require any extra SSH connection.

install netcat if necessary
use termbin: cat ~/some_file.txt | nc termbin.com 9999. This will copy the output to the termbin website and prints the URL to your output.
visit that URL from your computer, and you get your output

Of course, do not use it for sensitive content.

Upvotes: 4

Krzysztof Księżyk

Reputation: 1389

This is my solution based on an SSH reverse tunnel, netcat, and xclip.

First create a script (for example, clipboard-daemon.sh) on your workstation:

#!/bin/bash
HOST=127.0.0.1
PORT=3333

NUM=`netstat -tlpn 2>/dev/null | grep -c " ${HOST}:${PORT} "`
if [ $NUM -gt 0 ]; then
    exit
fi

while [ true ]; do
    nc -l ${HOST} ${PORT} | xclip -selection clipboard
done

And start it in the background.

./clipboard-daemon.sh &

It will start nc piping output to xclip and respawning the process after receiving a portion of data.

Then start the SSH connection to the remote host:

ssh user@host -R127.0.0.1:3333:127.0.0.1:3333

While logged in on the remote box, try this:

echo "this is test" >/dev/tcp/127.0.0.1/3333

Then try to paste on your workstation.

You can of course write a wrapper script that starts clipboard-daemon.sh first and then the SSH session. This is how it works for me.

Upvotes: 9

Taylor Hawkes

Reputation: 651

rhileighalmgren's solution is good, but pbcopy will annoyingly copy the last "\n" character. I use head to strip out the last character to prevent this:

#!/bin/bash
head -c -1 |  ssh desktop pbcopy

My full solution is here: http://taylor.woodstitch.com/linux/copy-local-clipboard-remote-ssh-server/

Upvotes: 3

Dominykas Mostauskis

Reputation: 8125

My favorite way is ssh [remote-machine] "cat log.txt" | xclip -selection c. This is most useful when you don't want to (or can't) ssh from remote to local.

On Cygwin, ssh [remote-machine] "cat log.txt" > /dev/clipboard.

A helpful comment from nbren12:

It is almost always possible to setup a reverse ssh connection using SSH port forwarding. Just add RemoteForward 127.0.0.1:2222 127.0.0.1:22 to the server's entry in your local .ssh/config, and then execute ssh -p 2222 127.0.0.1 on the remote machine, which will then redirect the connection to the local machine. – nbren12

Upvotes: 175

TrinitronX

Reputation: 5213

I found a great solution that doesn't require a reverse SSH connection!

You can use xclip on the remote host, along with SSH X11 forwarding and XQuartz on the OS X system.

To set this up:

Install XQuartz (I did this with soloist + pivotal_workstation::xquartz recipe, but you don't have to)
Run XQuartz.app
Open XQuartz Preferences (+,)
Make sure "Enable Syncing" and "Update Pasteboard when CLIPBOARD changes" are checked
ssh -X remote-host "echo 'hello from remote-host' | xclip -selection clipboard"

Upvotes: 34

rhileighalmgren

Reputation: 1206

I'm resurrecting this thread because I've been looking for the same kind of solution, and I've found one that works for me. It's a minor modification to a suggestion from OSXDaily.

In my case, I use Terminal on my local OS X machine to connect to a Linux server via SSH. Like the OP, I wanted to be able to transfer small bits of text from terminal to my local clipboard, using only the keyboard.

The essence of the solution:

commandThatMakesOutput | ssh desktop pbcopy

When run in an SSH session to a remote computer, this command takes the output of commandThatMakesOutput (e.g., ls, pwd) and pipes the output to the clipboard of the local computer (the name or IP of "desktop"). In other words, it uses nested SSH: you're connected to the remote computer via one SSH session, you execute the command there, and the remote computer connects to your desktop via a different SSH session and puts the text to your clipboard.

It requires your desktop to be configured as an SSH server (which I leave to you and Google). It's much easier if you've set up ssh keys to facilitate fast ssh usage, preferably using a per-session passphrase, or whatever your security needs require.

Other examples:

ls  | ssh desktopIpAddress pbcopy
pwd | ssh desktopIpAddress pbcopy

For convenience, I've created a Bash file to shorten the text required after the pipe:

#!/bin/bash
ssh desktop pbcopy

In my case, I'm using a specially-named key.

I saved it with the file name cb (my mnemonic (ClipBoard). Put the script somewhere in your path, make it executable and voilà:

ls | cb

Upvotes: 107

Br.Bill

Reputation: 691

If you use iTerm2 on the Mac, there is an easier way. This functionality is built into iTerm2's Shell Integration capabilities via the it2copy command:

Usage: it2copy
          Copies to clipboard from standard input
       it2copy filename
          Copies to clipboard from file

To make it work,

choose iTerm2-->Install Shell Integration menu item while logged into the remote host (so that it runs curl -L https://iterm2.com/shell_integration/install_shell_integration_and_utilities.sh | bash), to install it to your own account.
Follow the instructions to refresh your environment (e.g. source ~/.iterm2_shell_integration.zsh).

Once that is done, you'll have access to ~/.iterm2/it2copy, as well as a bunch of other aliased commands that provide cool functionality.

The other solutions here are good workarounds but this one is so painless in comparison.

Upvotes: 14

xicod

Reputation: 111

Allow me to add a solution that if I'm not mistaken was not suggested before.

It does not require the client to be exposed to the internet (no reverse connections), nor does it use any xlibs on the server and is implemented completely using ssh's own capabilities (no 3rd party bins)

It involves:

Opening a connection to the remote host, then creating a fifo file on it and waiting on that fifo in parallel (same actual TCP connection for everything).
Anything you echo to that fifo file ends up in your local clipboard.
When the session is done, remove the fifo file on the server and cleanly terminate the connections together.

The solution utilizes ssh's ControlMaster functionality to use just one TCP connection for everything so it will even support hosts that require a password to login and prompt you for it just once.

Edit: as requested, the code itself:

Paste the following into your bashrc and use sshx host to connect.

On the remote machine echo SOMETHING > ~/clip and hopefully, SOMETHING will end up in the local host's clipboard.

You will need the xclip utility on your local host.

_dt_term_socket_ssh() {
    ssh -oControlPath=$1 -O exit DUMMY_HOST
}
function sshx {
    local t=$(mktemp -u --tmpdir ssh.sock.XXXXXXXXXX)
    local f="~/clip"
    ssh -f -oControlMaster=yes -oControlPath=$t $@ tail\ -f\ /dev/null || return 1
    ssh -S$t DUMMY_HOST "bash -c 'if ! [ -p $f ]; then mkfifo $f; fi'" \
        || { _dt_term_socket_ssh $t; return 1; }
    (
    set -e
    set -o pipefail
    while [ 1 ]; do
        ssh -S$t -tt DUMMY_HOST "cat $f" 2>/dev/null | xclip -selection clipboard
    done &
    )
    ssh -S$t DUMMY_HOST \
        || { _dt_term_socket_ssh $t; return 1; }
    ssh -S$t DUMMY_HOST "rm $f"
    _dt_term_socket_ssh $t
}

More detailed explanation is on my website:

https://xicod.com/2021/02/09/clipboard-over-ssh.html

Upvotes: 8

Sina Madani

Reputation: 1324

If you're working over e.g. a pod in a Kubernetes cluster and not direct SSH, so that there is no way for your to do a file transfer, you could use cat and then save the terminal output as text. For example in macOS you can do Shell -> Export as text.

Upvotes: 1

TheMadsen

Reputation: 303

For anyone googling their way to this: The best solution in this day and age seem to be lemonade

Various solutions is also mentioned in the neovim help text for clipboard-tool

Upvotes: 2

unxed

Reputation: 351

Far Manager Linux port supports synchronizing clipboard between local and remote host. You just open local far2l, do "ssh somehost" inside, run remote far2l in that ssh session and get remote far2l working with your local clipboard.

It supports Linux, *BSD and OS X; I made a special putty build to utilize this functionality from windows also.

Upvotes: 2

tw0000

Reputation: 495

The simplest solution of all, if you're on OS X using Terminal and you've been ssh'ing around in a remote server and wish to grab the results of a text file or a log or a csv, simply:

1) Cmd-K to clear the output of the terminal

2) cat <filename> to display the contents of the file

3) Cmd-S to save the Terminal Output

You'll have the manually remove the first line and last line of the file, but this method is a bit simpler than relying on other packages to be installed, "reverse tunnels" and trying to have a static IP, etc.

Upvotes: 5

ephemient

Reputation: 204718

There are various tools to access X11 selections, including xclip and XSel. Note that X11 traditionally has multiple selections, and most programs have some understanding of both the clipboard and primary selection (which are not the same). Emacs can work with the secondary selection too, but that's rare, and nobody really knows what to do with cut buffers...

$ xclip -help
Usage: xclip [OPTION] [FILE]...
Access an X server selection for reading or writing.

  -i, -in          read text into X selection from standard input or files
                   (default)
  -o, -out         prints the selection to standard out (generally for
                   piping to a file or program)
  -l, -loops       number of selection requests to wait for before exiting
  -d, -display     X display to connect to (eg localhost:0")
  -h, -help        usage information
      -selection   selection to access ("primary", "secondary", "clipboard" or "buffer-cut")
      -noutf8      don't treat text as utf-8, use old unicode
      -version     version information
      -silent      errors only, run in background (default)
      -quiet       run in foreground, show what's happening
      -verbose     running commentary

Report bugs to <[email protected]>

$ xsel -help
Usage: xsel [options]
Manipulate the X selection.

By default the current selection is output and not modified if both
standard input and standard output are terminals (ttys).  Otherwise,
the current selection is output if standard output is not a terminal
(tty), and the selection is set from standard input if standard input
is not a terminal (tty). If any input or output options are given then
the program behaves only in the requested mode.

If both input and output is required then the previous selection is
output before being replaced by the contents of standard input.

Input options
  -a, --append          Append standard input to the selection
  -f, --follow          Append to selection as standard input grows
  -i, --input           Read standard input into the selection

Output options
  -o, --output          Write the selection to standard output

Action options
  -c, --clear           Clear the selection
  -d, --delete          Request that the selection be cleared and that
                        the application owning it delete its contents

Selection options
  -p, --primary         Operate on the PRIMARY selection (default)
  -s, --secondary       Operate on the SECONDARY selection
  -b, --clipboard       Operate on the CLIPBOARD selection

  -k, --keep            Do not modify the selections, but make the PRIMARY
                        and SECONDARY selections persist even after the
                        programs they were selected in exit.
  -x, --exchange        Exchange the PRIMARY and SECONDARY selections

X options
  --display displayname
                        Specify the connection to the X server
  -t ms, --selectionTimeout ms
                        Specify the timeout in milliseconds within which the
                        selection must be retrieved. A value of 0 (zero)
                        specifies no timeout (default)

Miscellaneous options
  -l, --logfile         Specify file to log errors to when detached.
  -n, --nodetach        Do not detach from the controlling terminal. Without
                        this option, xsel will fork to become a background
                        process in input, exchange and keep modes.

  -h, --help            Display this help and exit
  -v, --verbose         Print informative messages
  --version             Output version information and exit

Please report bugs to <[email protected]>.

In short, you should try xclip -i/xclip -o or xclip -i -sel clip/xclip -o -sel clip or xsel -i/xsel -o or xsel -i -b/xsel -o -b, depending on what you want.