Why doesn't copying to clipboard in Cygwin work here?

Question

This works:

curl -Ls -o /dev/null -w %{url_effective} $URL | xargs printf "%s" > /dev/clipboard

whereas this doesn't:

curl -Ls -o /dev/null -w %{url_effective} $URL > /dev/clipboard

Why is that?

maybe as the curl output is seen as multiple items ? try ` > filename` and looks at its content. — matzeri, Commented May 18, 2021 at 10:02
> filename did work; although I don't understand why the output is seen as multiple items (it's a URL). Thanks. Could you add this as an answer? — markvgti, Commented May 18, 2021 at 10:15
If I capture the output using > filename, then cat filename > /dev/clipboard does work as expected... — markvgti, Commented May 18, 2021 at 10:17
My guess: curl -Ls -o /dev/null -w %{url_effective} $URL exit with something else than success. Try curl -Ls -o /dev/null -w %{url_effective} $URL || echo -e "\nFAIL'. Anyway it shouldn't prevent clipboard update. Seems that curl is messing with fd. — Zilog80, Commented May 18, 2021 at 10:29
@Zilog80 curl does print out both: the final URL and "FAIL" — markvgti, Commented May 18, 2021 at 10:38

matzeri · Accepted Answer · 2021-05-18 10:31:10Z

1

two possible solutions

curl -Ls -o /dev/null -w %{url_effective} $URL > filename
cat filename > /dev/clipboard

and

curl -Ls -o /dev/null -w %{url_effective} $URL | putclip

putclip is in

$ cygcheck -f /usr/bin/putclip
cygutils-extra-1.4.16-2

answered May 18, 2021 at 10:31

matzeri

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