pbgopy

pbgopy

pbgopy acts like pbcopy/pbpaste but for multiple devices. It lets you share data across devices like you copy and paste.

Installation

Binary releases are available through here.

macOS

brew install nakabonne/pbgopy/pbgopy

RHEL/CentOS

rpm -ivh https://github.com/nakabonne/pbgopy/releases/download/v0.4.0/pbgopy_0.4.0_linux_amd64.rpm

Debian/Ubuntu

wget https://github.com/nakabonne/pbgopy/releases/download/v0.4.0/pbgopy_0.4.0_linux_amd64.deb
apt install ./pbgopy_0.4.0_linux_amd64.deb

Arch Linux

AUR package is available: pbgopy

yay pbgopy

Nix

nix-shell -p nixpkgs.pbgopy

Go

go install github.com/nakabonne/pbgopy@latest

Docker

docker run --rm nakabonne/pbgopy pbgopy help

Usage

First up, you start the pbgopy server which works as a shared clipboard for devices. It listens on port 9090 by default. You must allow access to this port for each device you want to share data with.

pbgopy serve

Populate the address of the host where the above process is running into the PBGOPY_SERVER environment variable. Then put the data entered in STDIN into the server with:

export PBGOPY_SERVER=http://host.xz:9090
pbgopy copy <foo.png

Paste it on another device with:

export PBGOPY_SERVER=http://host.xz:9090
pbgopy paste >foo.png

History of copies

To keep previous copies, start the server with a larger history limit:

pbgopy serve --history-limit 20

Each successful copy creates a new history entry and paste still returns the latest entry by default. You can list entries without printing full clipboard contents, paste a specific entry, or delete history:

$ pbgopy history
ID                                AGE  TYPE                       SIZE   LATEST  PREVIEW
fcd0bc9afd9586c4544c377024d4e3b1  4s   text/plain; charset=utf-8  6B     *       "world"
f9db4d7b8befb5d8b86b39e58b695126  9m   image/jpeg                 1.6MB          JPEG image 3144x4192

$ pbgopy paste --id f9db4d7b8befb5d8b86b39e58b695126 >foo.jpg

The default history limit is 1, which preserves the existing latest-only behavior. Give --history-limit 0 for unlimited in-memory history.

End-to-end encryption

pbgopy comes with a built-in ability to encrypt/decrypt with a variety of keys.

With symmetric-key:

You can derive the key from password with the -p flag, which is provided so that you can encrypt/decrypt without previous setting.

pbgopy copy -p your-password <plaintext.txt

pbgopy paste -p your-password

Be aware that this way cannot prevent a dictionary attack.

For more safety, it is highly recommended to use a 32-bytes symmetric key generated by other methods. The -k flag or the PBGOPY_SYMMETRIC_KEY_FILE environment variable is available to indicate the path to key file.

pbgopy copy -k /path/to/pbgopy.key <plaintext.txt

With public/private key-pair:

pbgopy can also encrypt using hybrid cryptosystem. If you have already exchanged public keys between devices you want to share data with, this is the way to go.

pbgopy copy --public-key-file /path/to/public.key <plaintext.txt

pbgopy paste --private-key-file /path/to/private.key <plaintext.txt

Note that you can only use an RSA key in PEM or DER format.

Via GPG

You manage your keyring in GPG? The --gpg-user-id (-u) flag is for you! Suppose you want to encrypt with a public key whose user id is alice:

pbgopy copy -u alice <plaintext.txt

Then you decrypt it with the private key by specifying the user id on another device:

pbgopy paste -u alice

There are a couple of ways to specify a user ID. Visit here to see the entire list.

TTL

If you don't want more data to be cached on the server than necessary, use the --ttl flag to set TTL for the cache. TTL applies to each history entry, and expired entries are not listed or pasteable. Give 0s for disabling it. Default is 24h.

pbgopy serve --ttl 10m

Authentication

HTTP Basic Authentication is available with -a flag.

pbgopy serve -a user:pass

pbgopy copy -a user:pass <foo.png

pbgopy paste -a user:pass >foo.png

From clipboard on your OS

You can put the data stored at the clipboard on your OS into pbgopy server.

pbgopy copy -c

Command-line options

Copy

pbgopy copy -h
Copy from stdin

Usage:
  pbgopy copy [flags]

Examples:
  export PBGOPY_SERVER=http://host.xz:9090
  echo hello | pbgopy copy

Flags:
  -a, --basic-auth string           Basic authentication, username:password
  -c, --from-clipboard              Put the data stored at local clipboard into pbgopy server
      --gpg-path string             Path to gpg executable (default "gpg")
  -u, --gpg-user-id string          GPG user id associated with public-key to be used for encryption
  -h, --help                        help for copy
      --max-size string             Max data size with unit (default "500mb")
  -p, --password string             Password to derive the symmetric-key to be used for encryption
  -K, --public-key-file string      Path to an RSA public-key file to be used for encryption; Must be in PEM or DER format
  -k, --symmetric-key-file string   Path to symmetric-key file to be used for encryption
      --timeout duration            Time limit for requests (default 5s)

Paste

pbgopy paste -h
Paste to stdout

Usage:
  pbgopy paste [flags]

Examples:
  export PBGOPY_SERVER=http://host.xz:9090
  pbgopy paste >hello.txt
  pbgopy paste --id <entry-id> >hello.txt

Flags:
  -a, --basic-auth string                  Basic authentication, username:password
      --gpg-path string                    Path to gpg executable (default "gpg")
  -u, --gpg-user-id string                 GPG user id associated with private-key to be used for decryption
  -h, --help                               help for paste
      --id string                          History entry id to paste
      --max-size string                    Max data size with unit (default "500mb")
  -p, --password string                    Password to derive the symmetric-key to be used for decryption
  -K, --private-key-file string            Path to an RSA private-key file to be used for decryption; Must be in PEM or DER format
      --private-key-password-file string   Path to password file to decrypt the encrypted private key
  -k, --symmetric-key-file string          Path to symmetric-key file to be used for decryption
      --timeout duration                   Time limit for requests (default 5s)

History

pbgopy history -h
List clipboard history

Usage:
  pbgopy history [flags]
  pbgopy history [command]

Available Commands:
  clear       Delete all history entries
  delete      Delete a history entry

Examples:
  export PBGOPY_SERVER=http://host.xz:9090
  pbgopy history
  pbgopy history --json
  pbgopy history delete <entry-id>
  pbgopy history clear

Flags:
  -a, --basic-auth string   Basic authentication, username:password
  -h, --help                help for history
      --json                Output history metadata as JSON
      --timeout duration    Time limit for requests (default 5s)

Serve

pbgopy serve -h
Start the server that acts like a clipboard

Usage:
  pbgopy serve [flags]

Examples:
pbgopy serve --port=9090 --ttl=10m --history-limit=20

Flags:
  -a, --basic-auth string     Basic authentication, username:password
  -h, --help                  help for serve
      --history-limit int     Number of clipboard entries to retain. Give 0 for unlimited history (default 1)
  -p, --port int              The port the server listens on (default 9090)
      --ttl duration          The time that the contents is stored. Give 0s for disabling TTL (default 24h0m0s)

Inspired By

• nwtgck/piping-server
• bradwood/glsnip