bash readline integration with clipboards: M-k = kill, M-y = yank, M-u = backwards kill

readline_clipboard.sh

## derived from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/994563/integrate-readlines-kill-ring-and-the-x11-clipboard

## You need to choose which clipboard to integrate with, OS X or X11:

shell_copy() {
  pbcopy # OS X
  # or ssh user@remote_mac pbcopy
  # or xclip
}
shell_yank() {
  pbpaste
  # or ssh user@remote_mac pbpaste
  # or xclip -o
}
# in the above you could also copy and yank to gnu screen's paste buffer or even remote shared clipboards.
# Just pipe to wherever you want!


## then wire up readline 
_xdiscard() {
    echo -n "${READLINE_LINE:0:$READLINE_POINT}" | shell_copy
    READLINE_LINE="${READLINE_LINE:$READLINE_POINT}"
    READLINE_POINT=0
}
_xkill() {
    echo -n "${READLINE_LINE:$READLINE_POINT}" | shell_copy
    READLINE_LINE="${READLINE_LINE:0:$READLINE_POINT}"
}
_xyank() {
    CLIP=$(shell_yank)
    COUNT=$(echo -n "$CLIP" | wc -c)
    READLINE_LINE="${READLINE_LINE:0:$READLINE_POINT}${CLIP}${READLINE_LINE:$READLINE_POINT}"
    READLINE_POINT=$(($READLINE_POINT + $COUNT))
}
bind -m emacs -x '"\eu": _xdiscard' # backwards kill from point
bind -m emacs -x '"\ek": _xkill'
bind -m emacs -x '"\ey": _xyank'

Hi Tavis,

I'm regularly ssh-ing between mac and linux machines, and I want to use these commands over ssh. How shell_copy and shell_yank would look like? Does the implementation depend on OS of the machine that I am: ssh-ing to or ssh-ing from? Or both?

Credit would seem to be due to ephemient and Wei Hu, no?

@Boruch-Baum - the Stack overflow Q&A was always linked in the top of the Gist.