Clipboard copy script for files.

clipcp

#!/bin/bash

# Display some help text
usage() {
    echo "clipcp - Copy the contents of a text file to the clipboard";
    echo "Usage: clipcp FILE";
}

# 'Cat' the file and pipe it into the xsel program which throws whatever
# it gets onto the clipboard.
copy_file_to_clipboard() {
    cat $1 | xsel --clipboard --input;
}

# Quick convenience function to echo things to STDERR.  The magic part is
# the 1>&2 part which redirects STDOUT to STDERR
echoerr() {
    echo "$1" 1>&2;
}

# Loop through all of the options that given to the program when it's
# called (like -h).  Get really angry if any option is given that isn't
# -h and exit with error.  If it _is_ -h, display the help text and then
# exit normally without getting angry.
while getopts ":h" opt; do
    case $opt in
        h)
            usage
            exit 0
            ;;
        \?)
            echoerr "fcopy: Option '-$OPTARG' not recognized, quitting."
            exit 1
            ;;
    esac
done

# Basically, get rid of all of the options that were parsed by the while
# loop.  This should only leave us with the file we want to copy assuming
# that there weren't two files tacked on to the end.
shift $(( OPTIND - 1 ))

# Improve legibility by taking the first remaining (and hopefully only)
# remaining option and place it into $INPUT_FILE
INPUT_FILE=$1

# If no file was give (basically, clipcp was called by itself), display
# the help text.
if [ -z $INPUT_FILE ]
then
    usage 
# Check to see if $INPUT_FILE actually exists.  If it does, copy it to
# the clipboard using the copy_file_to_clipboard function above.
elif [ -e $INPUT_FILE ]
then
    copy_file_to_clipboard $INPUT_FILE
# If we've progressed to this point, it's usually because the file does
# not exist.  Get angry and return the contents of $INPUT_FILE to the
# user via the echoerr function and exit abnormally.
else
    echoerr "fcopy: cannot stat '$INPUT_FILE': No such file."
    exit 1
fi