Command-line copy/paste utilities for Wayland
2,433
stars
256
commits
C
primary language
Aug 6, 2026
updated
This project implements two command-line Wayland clipboard utilities, wl-copy
and wl-paste, that let you easily copy data between the clipboard and Unix
pipes, sockets, files and so on.
# Copy a simple text message:
$ wl-copy Hello world!
# Copy the list of files in ~/Downloads:
$ ls ~/Downloads | wl-copy
# Copy an image:
$ wl-copy < ~/Pictures/photo.png
# Copy the previous command:
$ wl-copy "!!"
# Paste to a file:
$ wl-paste > clipboard.txt
# Sort clipboard contents:
$ wl-paste | sort | wl-copy
# Upload clipboard contents to a pastebin on each change:
$ wl-paste --watch nc paste.example.org 5555
Please see the wl-clipboard(1) man page for more details.
wl-clipboard is likely available in your favorite Linux or BSD distro. For building from source, see BUILDING.md.
wl-clipboard is free software, available under the GNU General Public License version 3 or later.
wl-copy and wl-paste.C
83.9%
Roff
8.2%
Meson
5.6%
Shell
2.3%
Command-line copy/paste utilities for Wayland
2,433
stars
256
commits
C
primary language
Aug 6, 2026
updated
This project implements two command-line Wayland clipboard utilities, wl-copy
and wl-paste, that let you easily copy data between the clipboard and Unix
pipes, sockets, files and so on.
# Copy a simple text message:
$ wl-copy Hello world!
# Copy the list of files in ~/Downloads:
$ ls ~/Downloads | wl-copy
# Copy an image:
$ wl-copy < ~/Pictures/photo.png
# Copy the previous command:
$ wl-copy "!!"
# Paste to a file:
$ wl-paste > clipboard.txt
# Sort clipboard contents:
$ wl-paste | sort | wl-copy
# Upload clipboard contents to a pastebin on each change:
$ wl-paste --watch nc paste.example.org 5555
Please see the wl-clipboard(1) man page for more details.
wl-clipboard is likely available in your favorite Linux or BSD distro. For building from source, see BUILDING.md.
wl-clipboard is free software, available under the GNU General Public License version 3 or later.
wl-copy and wl-paste.C
83.9%
Roff
8.2%
Meson
5.6%
Shell
2.3%