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 -selection 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 return-
       ing 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  dis-
              play  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  clip-
              board on window's display.

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

              The format argument  specifies  the  representation
              that  should  be  used to transmit the selection to
              the requester (the second column of Table 2 of  the
              ICCCM),  and  defaults  to  STRING.   If  format is
              STRING, the selection is transmitted as 8-bit ASCII
              characters.   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 inte-
              gers 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 clip-
              board with the same type must have the same format.

              The format argument is needed only for  compatibil-
              ity  with  clipboard  requesters that don't use Tk.
              If the Tk toolkit is being  used  to  retrieve  the
              CLIPBOARD  selection  then  the  value is converted
              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 exam-
              ple, data starts with a -.

       clipboard get ?-displayof window? ?-type?
              Retrieve data from the clipboard on  window's  dis-
              play.   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.


SEE ALSO
       selection


KEYWORDS
