UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi,

I am trying to figure out how to copy the contents of a file to the clipboard, then paste into a command. i.e copy contents of file /path/filename.txt to <command> <paste text>

Hope that makes sense. Basically tryting to copy the text for use in a command without having to open the file, manually copy, etc. strictly command line.

Thanks in advanced for any help! I read the forums but didn't find anything pertaining to this.

Thanks

Unix per se doesn't have a clipboard. Some editors or GUI interfaces support this.
You connection to a unix server (like putty) may use the windows clipboard.

So -

What is your exact environment - OS, how you login/connect.

Maybye what you're thinking of is shell redirection?

Code:

command < /file/to/read.txt

Or if you want it passed as parameters

Code:

xargs command < /file/to/read.txt

Thanks for the info guys. To be more specific, I'm trying to copy the contents of a text file into a UNIX terminal command on Mac OSX. Thanks!

If you really mean copy and paste, there's a blatant "paste" option in the Edit menu. But I get the impression "paste" is the wrong word -- you don't want to dump the raw data into the terminal as if you'd typed it. You want some program or other to use the text from a file.

Please tell us what you are actually trying to do, not how you believe you should be able to do it. What file do you want fed into what command, in what manner?

Hi Thanks for the reply. i actually was abel to do what I was trying this morning by using the following: CONTENTS=$(cat "$file")

I was trying to use the text within a file,, for use as a variable, etc.

Thanks guys.

Yes..... and for what purpose were you trying to store the entire contents of a file inside a variable? There's limits to the size of a variable, so this may not be a particularly good way to do whatever you're trying to do.