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Accepted
Ashu
Asked: 2018-02-21 10:16:50 +0800 CST

how do i paste something from buffer Directly to file using terminal in ubuntu?

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Recently, i'd copied some text from browser and i was too lazy too go and paste it in file by using file explorer. i was wandering if i can paste it directly to the file by just using terminal and some commands. any suggestions?

command-line paste

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    You can use cat, with a here document e.g.

    cat > somefile

    hit Enter then paste from the default buffer with a middle click or standard terminal emulator shortcut Ctrl+Shift+V, and terminate the input with Ctrl+D.

    Ex.

    $ cat > somefile
foo
bar
baz
^D

    Use >> in place of > if you want to append to somefile instead of overwrite it.

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  2. You can use xclip (sudo apt install xclip) for that:

    xclip -se c -o       # print the clipboard's content to stdout
xclip -se c -o >out  # print the clipboard's content to file named “out”
    • -se c – use the clipboard selection, leave out or change to -se p to use the default buffer instead (the default buffer holds the last thing you selected, e.g. by double-clicking a word)
    • -o – print to stdout
    • >out – redirect stdout to file named out overwriting it, change to >>out to append to the file's content

    See man xclip (How can I get help on terminal commands?) for more.

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