Linux console equivalent to gui copy/paste file/directory scenario

Question

How to simply recreate copy/paste functionality like in gui environments?

My typical scenario for copying file/directory in Linux console is:

cp source_path target_path

Sometimes paths are relative, sometimes absolute, but I need to provide them both. It works, but there are situations where I would like to recreate scenario from gui which is:

1. go to source directory
2. copy file/directory
3. go to target directory
4. paste file/directory

I imagine something like

cd source_directory_path
copy_to_stash source_name
cd target_directory_path
paste_from_stash [optional_new_target_name]

I know that there is a xclip app, but a documentation says that it copies content of a file, not a file handle. Also, I can use $OLDPWD variable and expand it when I copy file, but this is not a solution without some cumbersome.

Is there some simple, general, keyboard only, not awkward to use equivalent? I don't want to use additional managers like ranger, midnight commander, only cli.

Answer 1

You should be able to do this with some basic functions, and the shell's $PWD variable to get the absolute path, to save a name you specify & later copy it wherever you happen to be. Here's two for bash (dash/sh might just require using test or [ instead of [[):

#!/bin/bash
# source me with one of:
# source [file]
# . [file]

# Initialize
sa_file=

sa(){
# Fuction to save a file in the current PWD
if [[ -e "$PWD/$1" ]]; then
    sa_file=$PWD/$1
    echo "Saved for later: $sa_file"
else
    echo "Error: file $PWD/$1 does not exist"
fi
}


pa(){
# Paste if file exists, to $1 if exists
if [[ -e "$sa_file" ]]; then
    if [[ $1 ]]; then
        cp -v "$sa_file" "$1"
    else
        cp -v "$sa_file" .
    fi
else
    echo "Error: file $sa_file does not exist, could not copy"
fi
}

I used the names sa for save, and pa for paste [since less typing = better right?] but naming them anything would work, like copy_to_stash.

Answer 2

You could use xclip to copy and paste the paths to files.

cd source_directory_path
realpath some_file | xclip  # Copy the path to a file
cd target_directory_path
cp "$(xclip -o)" .          # Copy ("paste") the file to the current directory