[Use local clipboard over SSH] Forward local clipboard over SSH using socat #linux #clipboard #ssh #socat #networking

socopy-daemon.service

[Unit]
Description=Daemon for copying to (a remote) clipboard over a TCP socket
After=graphical-session.target
StartLimitBurst=5

[Service]
; %h gets expanded to the current user's home dir
; See https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.unit.html#Specifiers
ExecStart=%h/.local/bin/socopy-daemon
Type=simple
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5s

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

socopy-daemon.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Simple daemon which listens for TCP connections and
# redirects messages to the local system clipboard.
#
# This works perfectly fine to forward the local
# system clipboard to remote SSH sessions.
#
# Simon Schürg

set -e
set -o pipefail

if ! [ -x "$(command -v socat)" ]; then
  echo 'Error: socat is not installed.' >&2
  exit 1
fi

if ! [ -x "$(command -v xsel)" ]; then
  echo 'Error: xsel is not installed.' >&2
  exit 1
fi

# let this script crash if xsel is not working
xsel > /dev/null

socat -v TCP-LISTEN:5556,fork,bind=localhost EXEC:"xsel --clipboard --input"

sopaste-daemon.service

[Unit]
Description=Daemon for pasting from (a remote) clipboard over a TCP socket
After=graphical-session.target
StartLimitBurst=5

[Service]
; %h gets expanded to the current user's home dir
; See https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.unit.html#Specifiers
ExecStart=%h/.local/bin/sopaste-daemon
Type=simple
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5s

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

sopaste-daemon.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Simple daemon which listens for TCP connections and
# redirects messages to the local system clipboard.
#
# This works perfectly fine to forward the local
# system clipboard to remote SSH sessions.
#
# Simon Schürg

set -e
set -o pipefail

if ! [ -x "$(command -v socat)" ]; then
  echo 'Error: socat is not installed.' >&2
  exit 1
fi

if ! [ -x "$(command -v xsel)" ]; then
  echo 'Error: xsel is not installed.' >&2
  exit 1
fi

# let this script crash if xsel is not working
xsel > /dev/null

socat -v TCP-LISTEN:5557,fork,bind=localhost EXEC:"xsel --clipboard"

ssh-config

Host example.com
  # Forwarding for socopy/sopaste (soclip)
  RemoteForward 5556 localhost:5556
  RemoteForward 5557 localhost:5557