NAME
       clipboard - Manipulate Tk clipboard

SYNOPSIS
       clipboard option ?arg arg ...?


DESCRIPTION
       This command provides a Tcl interface to the Tk clipboard, which stores
       data for later retrieval using the selection mechanism (via the -selec-
       tion  CLIPBOARD  option).   In  order  to copy data into the clipboard,
       clipboard clear must be called, followed by a sequence of one  or  more
       calls  to  clipboard  append.   To ensure that the clipboard is updated
       atomically, all appends should be completed  before  returning  to  the
       event loop.

       The  first  argument  to clipboard determines the format of the rest of
       the arguments and the behavior of the command.  The following forms are
       currently supported:


       clipboard clear ?-displayof window?
              Claims  ownership  of  the  clipboard  on  window's  display and
              removes  any  previous  contents.   Window  defaults  to  ``.''.
              Returns an empty string.

       clipboard append ?-displayof window? ?-format format? ?-type type? ?--?
       data
              Appends  data  to  the clipboard on window's display in the form
              given by type with the representation given by format and claims
              ownership of the clipboard on window's display.

              Type specifies the form in which the selection is to be returned
              (the desired ``target'' for conversion, in  ICCCM  terminology),
              and  should be an atom name such as STRING or FILE_NAME; see the
              Inter-Client  Communication  Conventions  Manual  for   complete
              details.  Type defaults to STRING.

              The  format argument specifies the representation that should be
              used to transmit the selection to the requester (the second col-
              umn of Table 2 of the ICCCM), and defaults to STRING.  If format
              is STRING, the selection is transmitted as 8-bit  ASCII  charac-
              ters.   If  format is ATOM, then the data is divided into fields
              separated by white space; each field is converted  to  its  atom
              value,  and  the 32-bit atom value is transmitted instead of the
              atom name.  For any other format,  data is divided  into  fields
              separated by white space and each field is converted to a 32-bit
              integer; an array of integers is transmitted  to  the  selection
              requester.   Note  that  strings  passed to clipboard append are
              concatenated before conversion, so the caller must take care  to
              ensure  appropriate spacing across string boundaries.  All items
              appended to the clipboard with the same type must have the  same
              format.

              The  format argument is needed only for compatibility with clip-
              board requesters that don't use Tk.  If the Tk toolkit is  being
              used  to retrieve the CLIPBOARD selection then the value is con-
              verted back to a string at the  requesting  end,  so  format  is
              irrelevant.

              A  -- argument may be specified to mark the end of options:  the
              next argument will always be used as data.  This feature may  be
              convenient if, for example, data starts with a -.

       clipboard get ?-displayof window? ?-type type?
              Retrieve  data  from  the clipboard on window's display.  window
              defaults to ".".  Type specifies the form in which the  data  is
              to  be  returned  and  should  be an atom name such as STRING or
              FILE_NAME.  Type defaults to STRING.  This command is equivalent
              to selection get -selection CLIPBOARD.

EXAMPLES
       Get the current contents of the clipboard.
              if {[catch {clipboard get} contents]} {
                  # There were no clipboard contents at all
              }

       Set the clipboard to contain a fixed string.
              clipboard clear
              clipboard append "some fixed string"


SEE ALSO
       selection(n)


KEYWORDS
