My Glipper copy/paste idiocy (Solved)

[chiefengineer]

I use command line about 80% of my computer life. I don't suspect things are
corrupted...seems like I have had these issues for about a decade.

My complete embarrassment is asking, but I have grown old and feel no shame anymore.
Does any one have these issues BUT me:

1)About 30% of the time I cntrl-C something on the clipboard then try to paste it
via cntrl-V or shift-insert, something "else" appears...like some old clipboard content.

2)When I go to the clipboard manager the "bolded" content I had hoped for is not bolded...in fact
something else IS (down the list), and that's what I got.

3)I suspect something is amiss between copying things out of the "X Universe" and back and forth
between Geany and browsers...it is like I have lost my mind and need to check the clipboard every single
time I do something as an interim step before pasting.

4)Occasionally, I inexplicably get something having to do with permissions pasted, like "root: x x".
I just wonder if something like Clipman exists for Fatdog? I never have had an issue with Clipman.

5)I am also curious if anyone has been capable of expanding the memory for Glipper...like to a few hundred
entries...I seem unable...there must be a prefs file lurking somewhere.

6)Is this because I use the default RXVT-Unicode terminal and things just don't translate? What terminal
cures my disease?

[step]

Does any one have these issues BUT me:

1)About 30% of the time I cntrl-C something on the clipboard then try to paste it
via cntrl-V or shift-insert, something "else" appears...like some old clipboard content.

Occasionally, I have similar issues. In my case they are due to my dragging the mouse and at the same time pressing the primary button without realizing that I'm being sloppy and that this move is copying text parts under the mouse. A similar thing can happen to me when my palms inadvertently affect the touchpad while I'm typing something.

2)When I go to the clipboard manager the "bolded" content I had hoped for is not bolded...in fact
something else IS (down the list), and that's what I got.

You probably know that X11 has more than one clipboard, and that glipper-lite can manage two separate clipboards in a single history list. The two clipboards are affected differently, one with C-c / C-v, the other one with S-select / S-insert. If glipper-lite shows a bold entry, that entry can be pasted with C-v. In a urxvt terminal you can only paste with S-insert. In GUI apps I tend to use C-c / C-v exclusively, and S-sel / S-ins in terminals. The top entry can be pasted with S-ins in a terminal. The bold entry can be pasted with C-V in a GUI app. You can move an entry to the top by clicking it then reopening the menu (C-A-c by default). The entry will be at the top and bolded, therefore it can be pasted with S-ins (terminal) and C-v (GUI).

3)I suspect something is amiss between copying things out of the "X Universe" and back and forth
between Geany and browsers...it is like I have lost my mind and need to check the clipboard every single
time I do something as an interim step before pasting.

Generally I only use C-c / C-v in GUI apps. I may have to check glipper-lite's history before pasting if I'm unsure whether I selected text from the terminal for copying to the GUI app. In that case I click the entry to make it bold, reopen glipper-lite's menu and paste with C-v.

4)Occasionally, I inexplicably get something having to do with permissions pasted, like "root: x x".
I just wonder if something like Clipman exists for Fatdog? I never have had an issue with Clipman.

No clipman for Fatdog. I think clipman is for Wayland.

5)I am also curious if anyone has been capable of expanding the memory for Glipper...like to a few hundred
entries...I seem unable...there must be a prefs file lurking somewhere.

Right-click glipper-lite's icon in the panel and select "preferences".
That aside, this configuration helps me to curb the number of non-interesting entries is glipper-lite's history:

Code: Select all

# Prevent text entry widget select-on-focus, which overwrites X selection clipboard.
gtk-entry-select-on-focus = 0

Add that entry to /root/.gtkrc.mine and restart X. Have you noticed that in many GUI applications some things get selected by default? With the configuration above they won't, therefore they will not be added to glipper-lite's history.

6)Is this because I use the default RXVT-Unicode terminal and things just don't translate? What terminal
cures my disease?

I tried to explain the differences between the two clipboard systems that X11 provides, and glipper-lite exposes. Urxvt can't use the C-v / C-c clipboard - only the "other one". There's lxterminal in Fatdog's repository but I don't know if lxterminal provides C-v / C-c support.

[chiefengineer]

Thanks...that was pretty comprehensive. I can see the issue is I have one foot
in each world and trying to make things unified without discerning. I don't know
what Wayland is, but when I use Clipman the interface often asks me if I want
to "paste selection" vs. "paste clipboard" which may keep things clear which world
I came from an may be going into. I just used LXTerminal and it really does have
File/Edit/Tab drop downs that DO get on the clipboard...and handle both shift-insert and
ctrl-V into Geany (where I do 99% of my work). So maybe that is the solution...I
can have three browsers open and copy/paste between ad infinitum but the terminal gets me into an
unproductive world. It would seem I can also rt.click/paste into LXTerminal(!). Thanks.

[chiefengineer]

"Urxvt can't use the C-v / C-c clipboard - only the "other one". There's lxterminal in Fatdog's repository but I don't know if lxterminal provides C-v / C-c support."

As a footnote to this conclusion it dawned on me this is precisely what I have been doing that "half fails":
I AM in fact able to C-c clipboard in URXVT...it DOES put it on the clipboard in the following form "hello^"
NOT in bold, but on the top line above the "divider". I then click on THAT to bold it and put it into something
like the last sentence.

That step is "anti-productive" (having to visit the clipboard in the middle of a copy/paste). But perhaps that was
never the intended purpose of the clipboard. So the difference I was looking for resides in the preferences button
in Clipman: "synch clipboards" (or something to the effect). Whatever I copy is thusly
ready to paste wherever/however into whatever I choose with no surprises from the past arriving instead. If
that button is off then I get what Glipper does by default. Since there is no button like that in Glipper I now
use LXTerminal where highlighting things in it can either show up "C-c clipboard" un-bolded at the top, or BOLDED
at the top if I right-click/copy or edit/copy.

So all is happy in the command-line world of Glipper, despite not being able to synch clipboards...all the explaining
is greatly appreciated.

[step]

@chiefengineer, yes! very good understanding, and your realization that the two clipboards aren't synced automatically, and that one needs to run a suitable app with that specific feature, if that's what one needs. On a final note, the two clipboards exist before and outside the applications, clipman, glipper, whatever.

[chiefengineer]

@chiefengineer, yes! very good understanding, and your realization that the two clipboards aren't synced automatically, and that one needs to run a suitable app with that specific feature, if that's what one needs. On a final note, the two clipboards exist before and outside the applications, clipman, glipper, whatever.

Thanks again. I do not mean to abuse the good nature of this forum so as to get basic lessons in clipboard functionality, but "help" in "preferences" says it is not compiled in so I have to ask: while installing LXTerminal I linked its ".desktop.shortcut"
beneath the Trash icon, requiring me to drag/drop Trash a couple of millimeters. This appeared on my otherwise blank clipboard (not in bold): "/usr/local/apps/Trash ". I'm just looking for a place to read about this because I thought this behavior could prove useful to me, except it gets applied inconsistently: I drag/dropped the file /usr/share/glipper-lite/glipper-properties.ui and got nothing on the clipboard, so I ended up typing it into this sentence. When I opened its "properties", "root, root" appeared on the clipboard apparently from its open window (as noted above... being "highlighted by default"(?)). BTW, I changed the 99 in that file and so far it seems to help. I found this file: https://github.com/01micko/glipper-lite ... lipper.xml which may be the help for Glipper-lite(?), but it does not approach what we have been discussing here in any in-depth detail.

[step]

@chiefengineer, you're describing something that ROX-Filer does. Every time your mouse selects some files in a rox window, rox also copies the file names to the clipboard. Then glipper - as usual - displays clipboard contents. The net effect is that you see file names popping up in glipper's history. Rox isn't inconsistent at all. It does what I described very consistently. Try the following experiment. After each numbered step below, you will press Ctrl+Alt+C to display glipper's history. After studying the top lines in your history, you will press Escape to close glipper's history, and will go to the next numbered step below.

1. Open a new rox window.
2. Hold down Ctrl and click a file icon ONCE. This action selects the icon.
3. Click an empty space in the white area between icons to deselect the icon. Make sure the icon you selected in 1 is indeed deselected.
4. Hold down Ctrl and click another file icon ONCE.
5. Repeat 3.
6. Click an empty space between icons making sure you haven't selected an icon and HOLD DOWN your mouse button; drag mouse to capture a couple of icons with the thin rectangular lasso. Release mouse button. This action selects multiple icons.
7. Repeat 3.
8. Click an icon WITHOUT releasing the mouse button; drag the icon just a bit - you will NOT drop it anywhere - just drag it a bit as to initiate a dragging action, then release your mouse button. This action is equivalent to the drag-drop steps you described in your message. Dragging is enough to make rox do its thing with the clipboard.

The end. If my description above was accurate enough, you should have observed glipper's history as it was being affected by our friendly and courteous rox.

[chiefengineer]

8. Click an icon WITHOUT releasing the mouse button; drag the icon just a bit - you will NOT drop it anywhere - just drag it a bit as to initiate a dragging action, then release your mouse button. This action is equivalent to the drag-drop steps you described in your message. Dragging is enough to make rox do its thing with the clipboard.

Very instructive. Worked like a charm.
Could only get #8 to put path on clipboard dragging Desktop icons themselves
(which is NOT a window, I guess). File-path-clipboard-entries from icon drag/drops
even in the opened "~/Desktop" folder fail for me.
If icon is selected separately first, THEN
re-grabbed and fake drag/dropped, path appears (for me, anyway).
I hope this is clear...I am a mathematician and I'm afraid things often
get lost in translation.

I installed this 2007 file: "glipper89.pup" after uninstalling
Glipper-Lite. Appears nearly identical, except it separates the clipboards
by font-coloring one blue. Unambiguous...probably would have
never started this thread had that not disappeared over the decades.

Being a crotchety old-guy I am a bit stuck with Ctrl-C/Shft-Insert.
Without savefiles Glipper-Lite unexpectedly re-incarnates
after leaving via Slapt-Get-Uninstall, so it has taken awhile playing
with versions of Parcellite to get one version working seamlessly
with just those two commands (as well as its very robust features such as
unifying clipboards). This thread has helped me greatly...for instance:
it has taught me how unsophisticated
Clipman truly is: I got it humming with Thunar and xfce-4.12.sfs then never
bothered with it again.

I want to be completely clear: I am suggesting nothing, having limited knowledge outside my
field of expertise. I am humbly attempting to preserve the little time I have left
by not opening-selecting-clicking LXTerminal/Glipper menus...which I do
a shockingly large amount of.

[step]

Could only get #8 to put path on clipboard dragging Desktop icons themselves
(which is NOT a window, I guess).

It is special in a way: it's rox's pinboard, a window that covers the "root" window and can change its background (wallpaper). Rox draws and manages icons on its pinboard.

Could only get #8 to put path on clipboard dragging Desktop icons themselves...
File-path-clipboard-entries from icon drag/drops
even in the opened "~/Desktop" folder fail for me.
If icon is selected separately first, THEN
re-grabbed and fake drag/dropped, path appears (for me, anyway).
I hope this is clear...I am a mathematician and I'm afraid things often
get lost in translation.

I understood your description just fine. I stand corrected. Today I can only replicate #8 per your description.

I want to be completely clear: I am suggesting nothing

OK, not to worry.