[![Tests](https://img.shields.io/travis/cdown/clipmenu/develop.svg)](https://travis-ci.org/cdown/clipmenu)

clipmenu is a simple clipboard manager using [dmenu][] (or [rofi][] with
`CM_LAUNCHER=rofi`) and [xsel][].

# Demo

![Demo](https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/660663/24079784/6f76da94-0c88-11e7-8251-40b1f02ebf3c.gif)

# Usage

Start `clipmenud`, then run `clipmenu` to select something to put on the
clipboard.

A systemd user service for starting clipmenud is included at
[init/clipmenud.service](https://github.com/cdown/clipmenu/blob/develop/init/clipmenud.service).
You can then start clipmenud like this:

    systemctl --user start clipmenud

All args passed to clipmenu are transparently dispatched to dmenu. That is, if
you usually call dmenu with args to set colours and other properties, you can
invoke clipmenu in exactly the same way to get the same effect, like so:

    clipmenu -i -fn Terminus:size=8 -nb '#002b36' -nf '#839496' -sb '#073642' -sf '#93a1a1'

If you prefer to collect clips on demand rather than running clipmenud as a
daemon, you can bind a key to the following command for one-off collection:

    CM_ONESHOT=1 clipmenud

For a full list of environment variables that clipmenud can take, please see
`clipmenud --help`.

# Installation

Several distributions, including Arch and Nix, provide clipmenu as an official
package called `clipmenu`.

If your distribution doesn't provide a package, you can run the scripts
standalone (or better yet, package them!).

# How does it work?

clipmenud is less than 200 lines, and clipmenu is less than 100, so hopefully
it should be fairly self-explanatory. However, at the most basic level:

## clipmenud

1. `clipmenud` uses [clipnotify](https://github.com/cdown/clipnotify) to wait
   for new clipboard events.
2. If `clipmenud` detects changes to the clipboard contents, it writes them out
   to the cache directory and an index using a hash as the filename.

## clipmenu

1. `clipmenu` reads the index to find all available clips.
2. `dmenu` is executed to allow the user to select a clip.
3. After selection, the clip is put onto the PRIMARY and CLIPBOARD X
   selections.

[dmenu]: http://tools.suckless.org/dmenu/
[rofi]: https://github.com/DaveDavenport/Rofi
[xsel]: http://www.vergenet.net/~conrad/software/xsel/