Clipboard and Primary Selections are Not Separated

[evil-meow-monster]

When using the xsel command without clipcatd, the following behavior is observed:

Without clipcatd

The following steps demonstrate the behavior:

1. Clear all selections:

xsel --clipboard --clear; xsel --primary --clear; xsel --secondary --clear

2. Place content into the clipboard selection:

echo "I should be in the CLIPBOARD selection" | xsel --input --clipboard

3. Print all selections:

printf '%s\n' "CLIPBOARD:"
xsel --clipboard --output
printf '\n%s\n' "PRIMARY:"
xsel --primary --output
printf '\n%s\n' "SECONDARY:"
xsel --secondary --output

The output of these steps is as follows:

CLIPBOARD:
I should be in the CLIPBOARD selection

PRIMARY:

SECONDARY:

With clipcatd

Repeating the same three steps with clipcatd yields different results.

Unexpected Output:

CLIPBOARD:
I should be in the CLIPBOARD selection

PRIMARY:
I should be in the CLIPBOARD selection

SECONDARY:

This behavior is not unique to xsel. Other commands, such as clipcat-menu insert, exhibit similar issues. For example:

• clipcat-menu insert --kinds clipboard or clipcat-menu insert claims¹ to only insert into the clipboard selection, but in reality, it inserts into both the clipboard and primary selections.

First issue ends here.

additional SECONDARY selection issue

The secondary selection appears to be malfunctioning. While xsel can insert content into the SECONDARY selection:

$ xsel --secondary --clear
$ echo Clipcat awesome! | xsel --input --secondary
$ xsel --output --secondary
Clipcat awesome!

Using clipcat-menu insert --kinds secondary does not insert into the SECONDARY selection:

$ xsel --secondary --clear
$ clipcat-menu insert --kinds secondary
$ xsel --output --secondary
$

This suggests that the secondary selection may be malfunctioning.

$ clipcatd --version
clipcatd 0.18.0
branch:
commit_hash:
build_time:2024-05-26 17:40:59 +00:00
build_env:rustc 1.78.0 (9b00956e5 2024-04-29) (Arch Linux rust 1:1.78.0-1),

OS: Archlinux with 6.9.3 Linux kernel

Footnotes

1. clipcat-menu insert --help ↩

[eli-osherovich]

It seems that the issue of inserting to both clipboard and primary only manifests itself when the config enable_secondary is set to true. Once disbled,

echo "I should be in the CLIPBOARD selection" | xsel --input --clipboard

will only update clipboard

With that said, I would really appreciate an option to sync different buffers (like parcellite)