clipboard-sync
A simple tool to synchronize server and local clipboards
If you have a development server and you usually log in to the development server via ssh for development, then you must have encountered a bad situation where the development server and the local clipboard could not be synchronized, and this tool exists to solve this problem.
Quickstart
Here’s how I did it:
My local machine is a macOS and my development server is a Ubuntu.
MacOS (Local)
1. Install XQuartz
brew install --cask xquartz
Then restart your computer
sudo reboot
After restarting, your DISPLAY environment variable will look like the following
$ echo $DISPLAY
/private/tmp/com.apple.launchd.ptuabljj5Y/org.xquartz:0
2. Enable X11 Forwarding and RemoteForward
vim ~/.ssh/config
add configuration for your development server host (on my side, it is dev) like this:
Host dev
User yetone
ForwardX11 yes
ForwardX11Trusted yes
RemoteForward 5556 localhost:5556
3. Test X Window
Log in your deployment server (on my side, the host is dev)
ssh dev
Launch xeyes in your deployment server
xeyes
You’ll see a pop-up window on your macOS that contains a pair of eyes
4. Install clipboard-sync on the local side (macOS)
pip install clipboard-sync
5. Create a daemon service on the local side (macOS)
Install serviceman:
curl -sS https://webinstall.dev/serviceman | bash
Create service with serviceman:
env PATH="$PATH" serviceman add -n clipboard-sync clipboard-sync --remote-host=dev --remote-port=5557 --host=0.0.0.0 --port=5556
Ubuntu (Server)
1. Enable X11Forwarding for ssh server
Opend sshd configuration file:
sudo vim /etc/ssh/sshd_config
Uncomment or add the following lines:
X11Forwarding yes
X11DisplayOffset 10
X11UseLocalhost yes
Restart the sshd service:
sudo systemctl restart sshd
2. Install xclip
sudo apt-get install -y xclip
3. Install clipboard-sync
pip install clipboard-sync
4. Create a daemon service
Install serviceman:
curl -sS https://webinstall.dev/serviceman | bash
Create service with serviceman:
env PATH="$PATH" serviceman add -n clipboard-sync clipboard-sync --remote-host=localhost --remote-port=5556 --host=0.0.0.0 --port=5557 --display=$DISPLAY
Troubleshooting
1. Can’t copy/paste in (neo)vim
Set your clipboard to unname and unnameplus:
set clipboard^=unnamed,unnamedplus
