Copy HTML to clipboard with PyGObject

Question

I'd like to copy HTML (and a plain text equivalent) to the clipboard in a Linux GUI environment. Cross-platform is ideal, although Linux is my immediate target. I'd also like to use something that works in Python 3.x as well as 2.x.

According to PyGObject docs, a Gtk.Clipboard object set_with_data() method should be suitable. But when I try to use it, there is no set_with_data member of the class.

>>> from gi.repository import Gtk, Gdk
>>> clipboard = Gtk.Clipboard.get(Gdk.SELECTION_CLIPBOARD)
>>> clipboard.set_with_data
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
AttributeError: 'Clipboard' object has no attribute 'set_with_data'

How can I copy HTML plus plaintext to the clipboard using PyGObject?

(I might consider using PyGTK, however according to this answer it is deprecated and not supported in Python 3.x.)

Answer 1

I could not make this work from Python, but I found the following workaround using xclip:

import subprocess

s = "TEXT TO <b>COPY</b>!"
cmd = ["xclip", "-sel", "clip", "-t", "text/html", "-f"]
subprocess.check_output(cmd, input=s, text=True)

Answer 2

It looks like set_with_data() isn't exposed through introspection probably due to the function taking two C callbacks (not supported by introspection or bindings). See:
https://developer.gnome.org/gtk3/stable/gtk3-Clipboards.html#gtk-clipboard-set-with-data

This is a bug already logged with GTK+:
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=656312

Some potential workarounds:

• Limit your program to text only using clipboard.set_text() (breaks your requirement)
• Write a C Python extension or even use introspection on your own shim library which gives a closure version of set_with_data(). It might also be possible to use something like ctypes, but probably painful.
• Use PyGTK (which as you mentioned is no longer maintained) or another toolkit like PySide/Qt, wxPython, etc...