In addition to working with plain text, the xclip command line tool has some less-known commands: xclip-copyfile, xclip-cutfile, and xclip-pastefile. These commands provide a bridge between terminal-based operations and clipboard functionality involving files.
What Do These Commands Do?
xclip-copyfilecopies one or more files, along with their metadata, to the clipboard, which mimics the “Copy” operation in a graphical file manager.xclip-cutfileoperates likexclip-copyfile, but also removes the original files after copying them to the clipboard, simulating the “Cut” operation.xclip-pastefileretrieves the contents of the clipboard and writes them into one or more new files, equivalent to the “Paste” command in a file manager.
Potential Use Cases
A unique advantage of these commands might be when you want to copy files to paste them into another application, like a web browser or a specific GUI application that accepts file paste operations. This could be a use case where these xclip file commands might come handy.
Personal Observations
Despite the possible use mentioned above, I find that the usefulness of these commands might be limited. Traditional commands like cp, mv, and rm are what any terminal-centric person will really use.
In the end, whether or not these commands are useful to you will largely depend on your specific needs, workflow, and the systems you’re working with.