clip_magic.py

"""
Add copy to clipboard from IPython!
To install, just copy it to your profile/startup directory, typically:

    ~/.ipython/profile_default/startup/

Example usage:

    %clip hello world
    # will store "hello world"
    a = [1, 2, 3]
    %clip a
    # will store "[1, 2, 3]"

You can also use it with cell magic

    In [1]: %%clip
       ...: Even multi
       ...: lines
       ...: work!
       ...:

If you don't have a variable named 'clip' you can rely on automagic:

    clip hey man
    a = [1, 2, 3]
    clip a

This is a fork of https://gist.github.com/nova77/clip_magic.py
which enables support for windows (using Tkinter) and adds linux
support for xclip (in additional to xsel) if available.

"""

import sys

if sys.platform == 'darwin':
    from AppKit import NSPasteboard, NSArray
else:
    from subprocess import Popen, PIPE

try:
    from Tkinter import Tk  # optional crossplatform fallback
except ImportError:
    Tk = None

from IPython.core.magic import register_line_cell_magic


def _tkinter_clip(arg):
    if not Tk:
        return False
    r = Tk()
    r.withdraw()
    r.clipboard_clear()
    r.clipboard_append(arg)
    r.destroy()
    return True


def _xsel_clip(arg):
    try:
        p = Popen(['xsel', '-pi'], stdin=PIPE)
        p.communicate(input=arg)
    except OSError:
        return False
    return True


def _xclip_clip(arg):
    try:
        p = Popen(['xclip'], stdin=PIPE)
        p.communicate(input=arg)
    except OSError:
        return False
    return True


def _osx_clip(arg):
    pb = NSPasteboard.generalPasteboard()
    pb.clearContents()
    a = NSArray.arrayWithObject_(arg)
    pb.writeObjects_(a)


def _copy_to_clipboard(arg):
    arg = str(globals().get(arg) or arg)

    if sys.platform == 'darwin':
        _osx_clip(arg)
    elif sys.platform.startswith('linux'):
        if not (_xsel_clip(arg) or _tkinter_clip(arg) or _xclip_clip(arg)):
            raise Exception('clip_magic: Linux requires either python '
                            'Tkinter or xsel/xclip to be installed')
    elif sys.platform.startswith('win32'):
        if not _tkinter_clip(arg):
            raise Exception('clip_magic: Windows requires python Tkinter')
    else:
        raise Exception("clip magic does not support platform %s", sys.platform)

    print 'Copied to clipboard!'


@register_line_cell_magic
def clip(line, cell=None):
    if line and cell:
        cell = '\n'.join((line, cell))

    _copy_to_clipboard(cell or line)

# We delete it to avoid name conflicts for automagic to work
del clip

is it still working for you? couldnt get it to work in an ubuntu 14.04, ipython 4.1.1 and with only xclip available.