Take a selfie, archive it, and copy it to the clipboard -- all from the terminal! (bash + os x)

impbcopy.m

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Copied from http://www.alecjacobson.com/weblog/?p=3816
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#import <Cocoa/Cocoa.h>
#import <unistd.h>
BOOL copy_to_clipboard(NSString *path)
{
  // http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2681630/how-to-read-png-image-to-nsimage
  NSImage * image;
  if([path isEqualToString:@"-"])
  {
    // http://caiustheory.com/read-standard-input-using-objective-c 
    NSFileHandle *input = [NSFileHandle fileHandleWithStandardInput];
    image = [[NSImage alloc] initWithData:[input readDataToEndOfFile]];
  }else
  { 
    image =  [[NSImage alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:path];
  }
  // http://stackoverflow.com/a/18124824/148668
  BOOL copied = false;
  if (image != nil)
  {
    NSPasteboard *pasteboard = [NSPasteboard generalPasteboard];
    [pasteboard clearContents];
    NSArray *copiedObjects = [NSArray arrayWithObject:image];
    copied = [pasteboard writeObjects:copiedObjects];
    [pasteboard release];
  }
  [image release];
  return copied;
}

int main(int argc, char * const argv[])
{
  NSAutoreleasePool *pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
  if(argc<2)
  {
    printf("Usage:\n\n"
      "Copy file to clipboard:\n    ./impbcopy path/to/file\n\n"
      "Copy stdin to clipboard:\n    cat /path/to/file | ./impbcopy -");
    return EXIT_FAILURE;
  }
  NSString *path= [NSString stringWithUTF8String:argv[1]];
  BOOL success = copy_to_clipboard(path);
  [pool release];
  return (success?EXIT_SUCCESS:EXIT_FAILURE);
}

setup.md

Terminal Selfies

Sometimes you need to take a quick selfie while you're working, and get it on the clipboard (er, pasteboard). With a single command, you can take a selfie and:

• paste it into Slack to annoy your coworkers
• send it to your significant other via iMessage
• or just simply record your expressions of horror while computering.

Setting It Up

Use homebrew to install imagesnap, which will allow you to quickly snap an image using your built-in camera:

brew install imagesnap

Next you'll need to build a tool that allows you to copy images to the clipboard from the command line (the pbcopy command doesn't support this). Luckily, Alec Jacobson has written such a tool, and it's super easy to build. I've mirrored the code for you here; simply download the file impbcopy.m below, and run the following to compile it:

gcc -Wall -g -O3 -ObjC -framework Foundation -framework AppKit -o impbcopy impbcopy.m

You'll need to move the resulting impbcopy binary to somewhere within your PATH. I'll let you figure that out.

Final step is adding a quick function to your .bash_profile to take the photo, archive it (optionally), and copy it to the clipboard.

# directory in which to amass collection of selfies
export SELFIE_ARCHIVE_PATH="$HOME/selfies"

# function to actually take a selfie
selfie(){
  mkdir -p $SELFIE_ARCHIVE_PATH
  local filepath="$SELFIE_ARCHIVE_PATH/$(date +%y%m%d%H%M%S).png"
  imagesnap $filepath -w 1.0 # the -w flag gives the camera time to warm up
  impbcopy $filepath
}

Usage

Once you've reloaded your .bash_profile, simply run

selfie

and you'll have a selfie waiting for you on the clipboard, and archived for later use!