xclip check if "selection" is empty

Question

As an FYI this is on Linux.

I want to have one of the options in a script to be to pull the selected text. So I start my script

#!/bin/bash

xclip -o > ~/bin/temp.txt

However, if I don't have anything selected this throws the error

./test
Error: target STRING not available

Can I check whether something is selected and skip this command if there isn't?

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 18 '16 at 01:06

1

I don't know anything about xclip, but how about something like:

myclip=$(xclip -o) if [ -n "$myclip" ]; then echo $myclip > ~/bin/temp.txt fi

If $myclip is unset or has zero length (=""), nothing will be written to temp.txt.

answered Sep 18 '16 at 01:06

meatspace

1

It must be an xclip error. This still produces the error. – user1543042 Sep 18 '16 at 01:11
if you issue `myclip=$(xclip -o) && echo $myclip`, what is the result? – meatspace Sep 18 '16 at 01:17
1

It pastes whatever is in any of my clipboards. If it's empty (ie I copy a blank) it has the error. If I have something, it pastes that. – user1543042 Sep 18 '16 at 01:34

1 Answers1