From: dfinnie <dfinnie@...>
Date: 2008-01-03T06:09:58+09:00
Subject: Clipboard command line utility

I've been doing a lot of Python for Google's Highly Open Participation
contest lately but finally found the time to make a utility I thought
of a few weeks ago.  Basically, it allows you to pipe to and from the
clipboard on the command line.  Example:

daniel@daniel-desktop:~$ echo 'ruby' | clipboard
daniel@daniel-desktop:~$ clipboard
ruby
daniel@daniel-desktop:~$

You can also access it with the normal Control-C/Control-V shortcuts.

So, it's a great concept, but not such a good implementation.  First,
I doctored the output above.  ruby-gnome2 seems to be outputting error
messages that I can't get rid of, even after a Google search.  This is
the real output:

daniel@daniel-desktop:~$ echo 'ruby' | clipboard
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/glib2.rb: line 55
   GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **:g_boxed_type_register_static: assertion
`g_type_from_name (name) == 0' failed
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/glib2.rb: line 55
   GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **:g_param_spec_boxed: assertion
`G_TYPE_IS_BOXED (boxed_type)' failed
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/glib2.rb: line 55
   GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **:g_object_class_install_property: assertion
`G_IS_PARAM_SPEC (pspec)' failed
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/glib2.rb: line 55
   GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **:g_param_spec_boxed: assertion
`G_TYPE_IS_BOXED (boxed_type)' failed
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/glib2.rb: line 55
   GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **:g_object_class_install_property: assertion
`G_IS_PARAM_SPEC (pspec)' failed
daniel@daniel-desktop:~$ clipboard
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/glib2.rb: line 55
   GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **:g_boxed_type_register_static: assertion
`g_type_from_name (name) == 0' failed
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/glib2.rb: line 55
   GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **:g_param_spec_boxed: assertion
`G_TYPE_IS_BOXED (boxed_type)' failed
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/glib2.rb: line 55
   GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **:g_object_class_install_property: assertion
`G_IS_PARAM_SPEC (pspec)' failed
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/glib2.rb: line 55
   GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **:g_param_spec_boxed: assertion
`G_TYPE_IS_BOXED (boxed_type)' failed
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/glib2.rb: line 55
   GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **:g_object_class_install_property: assertion
`G_IS_PARAM_SPEC (pspec)' failed
ruby
daniel@daniel-desktop:~$

I have tried doing something like this with stderr, stdout, and defout
with no luck:
require 'stringio'

old_stderr = $stderr
$stderr = StringIO.new

require 'gtk2'

$stderr = old_stderr

Any suggestions?

I have posted the full source code to http://ruby.pastebin.com/f5ef5f028

I would also like a better way to capture STDIN without blocking if
there is no text on STDIN.

Thanks,
Dan Finnie
dan@danfinnie.com