'\" '\" Copyright (c) 1994 The Regents of the University of California. '\" Copyright (c) 1994-1996 Sun Microsystems, Inc. '\" '\" See the file "license.terms" for information on usage and redistribution '\" of this file, and for a DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES. '\" '\" RCS: @(#) $Id: clipboard.n,v 1.5.2.1 2004/10/28 10:19:29 dkf Exp $ '\" .so man.macros .TH clipboard n 8.4 Tk "Tk Built-In Commands" .BS '\" Note: do not modify the .SH NAME line immediately below! .SH NAME clipboard \- Manipulate Tk clipboard .SH SYNOPSIS \fBclipboard \fIoption\fR ?\fIarg arg ...\fR? .BE .SH DESCRIPTION .PP This command provides a Tcl interface to the Tk clipboard, which stores data for later retrieval using the selection mechanism (via the \fB-selection CLIPBOARD\fR option). In order to copy data into the clipboard, \fBclipboard clear\fR must be called, followed by a sequence of one or more calls to \fBclipboard append\fR. To ensure that the clipboard is updated atomically, all appends should be completed before returning to the event loop. .PP The first argument to \fBclipboard\fR determines the format of the rest of the arguments and the behavior of the command. The following forms are currently supported: .PP .TP \fBclipboard clear\fR ?\fB\-displayof\fR \fIwindow\fR? Claims ownership of the clipboard on \fIwindow\fR's display and removes any previous contents. \fIWindow\fR defaults to ``.''. Returns an empty string. .TP \fBclipboard append\fR ?\fB\-displayof\fR \fIwindow\fR? ?\fB\-format\fR \fIformat\fR? ?\fB\-type\fR \fItype\fR? ?\fB\-\|\-\fR? \fIdata\fR Appends \fIdata\fR to the clipboard on \fIwindow\fR's display in the form given by \fItype\fR with the representation given by \fIformat\fR and claims ownership of the clipboard on \fIwindow\fR's display. .RS .PP \fIType\fR specifies the form in which the selection is to be returned (the desired ``target'' for conversion, in ICCCM terminology), and should be an atom name such as STRING or FILE_NAME; see the Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual for complete details. \fIType\fR defaults to STRING. .PP The \fIformat\fR argument specifies the representation that should be used to transmit the selection to the requester (the second column of Table 2 of the ICCCM), and defaults to STRING. If \fIformat\fR is STRING, the selection is transmitted as 8-bit ASCII characters. If \fIformat\fR is ATOM, then the \fIdata\fR is divided into fields separated by white space; each field is converted to its atom value, and the 32-bit atom value is transmitted instead of the atom name. For any other \fIformat\fR, \fIdata\fR is divided into fields separated by white space and each field is converted to a 32-bit integer; an array of integers is transmitted to the selection requester. Note that strings passed to \fBclipboard append\fR are concatenated before conversion, so the caller must take care to ensure appropriate spacing across string boundaries. All items appended to the clipboard with the same \fItype\fR must have the same \fIformat\fR. .PP The \fIformat\fR argument is needed only for compatibility with clipboard requesters that don't use Tk. If the Tk toolkit is being used to retrieve the CLIPBOARD selection then the value is converted back to a string at the requesting end, so \fIformat\fR is irrelevant. .PP A \fB\-\|\-\fR argument may be specified to mark the end of options: the next argument will always be used as \fIdata\fR. This feature may be convenient if, for example, \fIdata\fR starts with a \fB\-\fR. .RE .TP \fBclipboard get\fR ?\fB\-displayof\fR \fIwindow\fR? ?\fB\-type\fR \fItype\fR? .VS 8.4 Retrieve data from the clipboard on \fIwindow\fR's display. \fIwindow\fR defaults to ".". \fIType\fR specifies the form in which the data is to be returned and should be an atom name such as STRING or FILE_NAME. \fIType\fR defaults to STRING. This command is equivalent to \fBselection get -selection CLIPBOARD\fR. .VE 8.4 .SH EXAMPLES Get the current contents of the clipboard. .CS if {[catch {\fBclipboard get\fR} contents]} { # There were no clipboard contents at all } .CE .PP Set the clipboard to contain a fixed string. .CS \fBclipboard clear\fR \fBclipboard append\fR "some fixed string" .CE .SH "SEE ALSO" selection(n) .SH KEYWORDS clear, format, clipboard, append, selection, type